Arkavathi river cascades

Dear blrsri,

The eucalyptus menace is spreading across private lands. 1) the absentee land holders plant eucalyptus and remain out of the land,2) farmers are planting eucalyptus because of labour shortage, 3) Farmers are planting eucalyptus because there is eucalyptus in the neighbouring land, 4) farmers think that there is decline in rain fall and eucalyptus is the alternative.

Allelopathic impact of eucalyptus:

Eucalyptus is having allelopathic (chemical) impact on the soil and is inhibiting or suppressing the local vegetation and biodiversity.Eucalyptus absorbs constant level of water and its leaves are not decomposed in soil.This eucalyptus trees are used in Australia to absorb moisure from the swampy lands and to inhibit the breeding of mosquitoes. Local,nature friendly pongamea,neem are suppressed by eucalyptus.

Now the government of Karnataka is formulating a biofuel policy and more land area will be brought under jatropha monoculture.Jatropha is also a specie which supresses the local biodiversity. Pongamea is found to be a ecofriendly biofuel specie and the government need to make reflections on this.

We have a list of species that can be cultivated for biofuel production and these species are not harmfull to nature.

I will show you fear in a hand full of dust
                  T.S.Eliot  in waste land

Dear Vishwanathji,
Thenk you for your compliments
Dear Rithesh,
Thanks for adding the scientific names for the tree species that i mentioned. I am conemplating on tree crops with diversity for many prime reasons.
1) To decrease the pressure on the existing aquifers,2) to meet the organic carbon requirement of soils.3) To sink atmospheric carbon 4) to meet the renewable energy requirement and 5) to decrease the hydrological impact on the soils and to increase the osmotic pressure in soils so that rain water is percolated in to the rhizosphere of trees.

AS all of you are aware there is 45% malnutrition among Indian children and we are expected to produce quality vegetables to meet the energy requirement of future Indian generation. The pulse consumption in India is on the drastic decline in proportionate with the nitrogen deficiency in soil. This tells us the story  of our impoverished farmers and impoverished soils.The farmers have forgotten to cultivate pigeon pea(red gram) and are busy only growing tomato,potato,cabbage and cauliflower. Every summer its the very same story to pump more and more water,to grow tomato and to dump it in the roads. This is a virtual loss to aquifers,to livelihoods and to the ecosystems. We are calculating only liveli hood loss but we are not looking at the environmental cost.
Pigeon pea can grow in rainfed conditions, it can absorb atmospheric amonium and convert it in to nitrogen which is required to in soils. We have forgotten that pulse crops are essential to meet the nutrient requirement of both soils,animals and humans. Farmere cultivate the same crop in the same land repeatedly and hence pathogen infestation is more. Then farmers turn towards the pesticide suppliers to get rid of the pathogens. There are SHYLAKS sitting in the shops who prescribe solvation for the farmers.
Soils in Devanahalli,Doddaballapur and Chikkaballapur are completely depleted and they abound with heavy metals such as lead and cadmium. As one of the Italian chemist had said the organo chlorine based pesticides are radio mimetic in nature; they imitate radiation. Our agriculture fields have become silent HIROSHIMAS. Farmers have developed stereotypic notions on the use of pesticides; spiders have been targetted by the farmers with the thinking that they harm the crops.In fact spiders are carnivorous and they feed on the pests which harm the crops.
Many crop friendly predators,birds,scavenging birds are on the verge of extinction; throught Arkavathi basin i came across the bat habitation only near two lakes.1) Near Kanchganala(Doddaballapur- Nandi hills road), 2) Banavadi (magadi thaluk). In fact each bat feed on nearly 250 grams of insects in its nocturnal journey.

So now its time our farmers go in for tree crops,reduce pressure on aquifers and find time to relax after a futile journey called " green revolution".

To test the hypothesis we from SVARAJ conducted a small experiment on tree crops in Alur of Kundana hobli. The land belongs to Mr.C.Nanjappa who was an industrious farmer with intense potato and grapes cultivation. The grapes failed after few years,the land was left fallow for 6 years. SVARAJ was looking for a piece of land to experiment tree crops for livelihood and to decrese the pressure on aquifers. Mr.Nanjappa agreed to our proposition but water availability was just 6000 litres per day. The bore well was almost gasping for water,after the land treatment the water quality started changing, there was regular water delivery from the bore well.
So now there are 450 drum stick trees yielding. In 2006 with the limiting factor of water we planted only 120 drum stick trees along with papaya to suppress to parthenium. In 12 months drum stick trees yielded an average of 80 pods per tree of 1 metre length, in 2008 it got increased to 300 pods per tree. Now the trees have flowered again and the farmer Mr.C.Nanjappa is expecting nearly 400 pods per tree.
Drum stick plants require water only in the growth stage, the interspace can be utilised for natural rain dependant pulse crops. In fact tomatos grow very well with drum stick trees. We have conserved and propogated a land race variety of tomato called 'cherry tomato'. Many neighbouring chemical farmers ridiculed our beloved cherry tomato. But thats going to be our only future tomato which can grow in rain fed conditions.
Along with tree crops,alley farming method and companion cropping method we can reclaim the river for all of us.
Regards
L.C.Nagaraj