This Is the Age of Collaborations and Joint Ventures – Ravindra Dhariya President, Vanarai
In this issue, we have with us, the president of Vanarai, Mr. Ravindra Dhariya. Vanarai, an NGO, was started by Mr. Mohan Dhariya and now, it is taken care of by his son, Mr. Ravindra Dhariya. This organization has been working on various environmental issues for the last thirty-five years. Its network is spread across India. It has planted trees on 730 hectares of land. It has planted more than 5 lakh trees on barren land. It has formed a federation by the name, CNRI, where, NGOs across India work with them. Mr. Ravindra Dhariya is also Vice President of ‘Yuvak Birdari’ where Mr. Abhishek Bachchan is the President. We can understand the range of his work from this. An interview with Mr. Ravindra Dhariya by Mr. Shekhar Mudada of My NGO Federation:
Please explain to us the journey of ‘Vanarai’.
‘Vanarai’ was established between the 1970s and 80s. My father Mr. Mohan Dhariya was a minister then. He used to visit the United Nations and many countries for his work. In those days, the issue of climate change was being discussed at the UN. He used to ponder over what the effect of climate change would be on India. When he decided to quit active politics, he thought of doing something for society. Thirty-five years ago, he committed himself to address the issue of climate change. ‘Vanarai’ officially came into existence on July 10, 1986. There was rampant tree felling in India at that time. So, he started to plant trees. But it was not sufficient to plant trees only. People were cutting trees on a huge scale. He was searching for the reasons for the tree felling. He found that cooking gas was not available for many and they did not have the means to cook food. So, they were using wood as fuel to cook food. To resolve this issue, my father decided to erect gobar gas plants and make smokeless stoves for these people. Then he organized meetings with the Vice Chancellors of Agricultural Universities in Maharashtra. He learnt that one of the most troubling issues was water scarcity. He started working on ‘Block the water, drain the water (Pani Adva, Pani Jirva). He started working on soil conservation too. He also thought of many initiatives like goat farming, milk collection centers, etc. so that the farmers get an additional income. He started many cooperative societies. He was concerned about women’s empowerment also. This is how Vanarai started working on various initiatives to deal with various challenges.
We sarcastically say that money does not grow on trees. But Vanarai says, ‘Yes! Money grows on the trees.’ How?
The United Nations has formed selfdevelopment goals. The conferences on the environment talk about carbon neutrality. This is all about saving the environment and ecology. We started thinking about improving the economy along with ecology and how to generate employment through CSR Connect THIS IS THE AGE OF COLLABORATIONS AND JOINT VENTURES Ravindra Dhariya President, Vanarai BY TEJAS GUJARATHI Febuary 2023 12 this in the rural area. We have an opportunity to set an example before the world if we can associate Environment, Ecology and Employment through our efforts. We talk about carbon credit.
As Dhariya Saheb started working on climate change 35 years ago, we can start working on carbon credit by taking small steps. While doing this, we can involve the village panchayats in this cause. There are around 3 Lakh 25 thousand village panchayats in India. The average income of these village panchayats is low. If we plant fruit-bearing trees and grow timber or bamboo on the land owned by the village Panchayats, people will get employment and the Gram Panchayats will be able to generate more income for themselves by selling the produce in the market. After 5 or 6 years of planting trees or bamboo, the village panchayats start generating money. If one tree generates 2000 rupees and we have 2000 such trees, we can generate 40 lakh rupees in a year. Not only that, the village panchayats will keep on getting the income for the next 70 to 80 years. That is why I say, Money does grow on trees.
In which states of India is Vanarai active and how do you plan and manage the operations?
Vanarai started its work from the Pune district in Maharashtra. Currently, we are working in 19 districts of Maharashtra. Now, we are working in 400 to 425 villages in Maharashtra. These villages are situated in tribal areas as well as affluent areas. While planning and managing the work, we see if the villages and villagers are ready to transform their lives. May it be any project like building the bunds, planting trees, improvement in farming, building toilets, and toilets for the girl students in schools and colleges, we are ready if the villagers come forward. Vanarai has built toilets for girls with restrooms, sanitary pad vending machines and incinerators in 32 schools in the last 5 years. This has helped reduce the percentage of dropout girl students from 60- 65 to 10.
Even the Presidents and Prime Ministers make sure that they attend the programs organized by Vanarai. We would like to know, what kind of programs are organized by Vanarai.
I do remember that Mr. Devegauda attended our program for the first time when he was the Prime Minister. Mr. Chandrashekhar was like a family member to us. Mr. Indrakumar Gujral had come once. They all had come to understand the work done by Vanarai and how it can be replicated in other parts of the country. So, these distinguished people (Presidents and Prime ministers) attended our programs to study how we are making things happen. When my father told Hon. Pratibha Tai Patil about reverse migration, she came to Gavadewadi when she was the President of India.
Vanarai has been publishing monthly and yearly magazines to give information about its work. How and where can we get these magazines?
Vanarai has been publishing a monthly magazine for the last thirty years and we publish a special issue annually. There are no advertisements in the magazines and every issue discusses a particular issue in detail. It discusses the causes, effects and remedies for that issue. We try to educate people through our magazine
What prospective plans do you have for Vanarai? What message would you like to pass on to other NGOs?
Along with the routine work, Vanarai now would like to focus on the issues like carbon credit, carbon neutral policy, and the effects of green gases. We are thinking to educate the farmers about marketing their produce. Vanarai wants to do many things for the people. But we cannot do all the things alone. Now, this is the age of collaborations and joint ventures. I would like to tell the NGOs working in rural and urban areas if they want to do something different, they should come to us so that we can do it jointly. My office is open 24 X 7 for people. They can approach us through My NGO Federation of Mr. Shekhar Mudada also
