To commemorate the annual occasion of Vana Mahotsavam, the Cauvery Calling team enabled farmers across Tamil Nadu to plant a record 2.1 lakh saplings in 37 districts of the state including Coimbatore, Erode, Tirupur, Krishnagiri, Thiruvannamalai, Villupuram, Chengalpattu, Cuddalore, Dindigul, Karur, Namakkal, Trichy, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Pudukottai, Tenkasi among others. The saplings were planted in 700 acres of agricultural lands and included varieties such as teak, semmaram, sandalwood, banyan, mountain neem, yellow kadambu and rosewood.

Vana Mahotsavam is celebrated every year across India in the first week of July. It is an effort to reignite Humanity’s connection with nature and encourage citizens to plant and nurture saplings in their surroundings.

The Cauvery Calling team visited the farmlands to study soil type, water quality and availability and other ecological and economic factors before recommending appropriate species to farmers for plantation.

Cauvery Calling is an on-ground demonstration of the river revitalization model proposed by the Rally for Rivers (RfR) campaign that was launched by Sadhguru in 2017. It aims to revitalize the Cauvery River and the soil in the river basin and improve farmers’ economy along with the environment. A total of 242 crore trees will be planted in private farmlands in the Cauvery river basin over the next 12 years to achieve these objectives.

The Cauvery Calling team conducts regular plantation drives across Tamil Nadu. The drives are held to commemorate birth anniversaries and remembrance days of some of the state’s best-known agricultural scientists and environment leaders including Shri. Nammazhvar, Shri. Nel Jayaraman, and Shri. Maram Thangaswamy

A total of 2.1 crore saplings have been planted so far in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karnataka and 1.25 lakh farmers have adopted the tree-based farming model, promoted by Cauvery Calling. Nearly 70,000 farmers have reported a substantial rise in their income – between 3 and 8 times – since they adopted the tree-based farming model.