SRISTI ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS

In our early days, back in 2013, the land at Sristi was dry and infertile. Over time, efforts of rain water harvesting, and permaculture improved the soil’s fertility, resulting in successful cultivation of numerous fruits and vegetables. Our members and volunteers are involved in developing several eco-friendly projects.

Pretty much everyone at Sristi is occupied in the cultivation of a variety of vegetables and fruits on our farm. Cultivation of organic food is a part of the school student’s curriculum as well as the member’s training program. Our methods are organic, so we ensure we grow healthy vegetables & fruits.

We have built an in-house Dairy Farm, the milk from which is used for internal consumption by our community members. We plan to expand the animal husbandry unit to initiate dairy sale in the future.

We have constructed a semi-open shed to accommodate over 200 farm chickens, that will provide eggs for our community members.

The village hosts a little nursery on the farm that proudly hosts saplings of baby tomatoes, chillies, aubergine, turmeric and a few herbs. Our nursery also functions as a Seed bank from time to time.

Two acres of our land is dedicated to grow a massive amount of fruit trees for our community. A fruit platter adds diversity, the required nutrition and some colours to the daily meal. Additionally, tree planting has the potential to curb environmental degradation, reverse the loss of soil fertility and add to the bio-diversity. This project is currently on-going.

Inspired by Subhash Palekar’s 5-layer farming model, we are replicating the architecture of a forest on our land, where the trees form a canopy to protect other trees. The Agro forest will host bananas, papayas, jack-fruits, mangoes and other smaller plants such as onions.

At Sristi, we are creating an inclusive community of change -makers for sustainable environmental action.

1) Solar Energy 

With a total of 16 KW capacity, we use solar power for all our needs. Solar not only powers all our outlets, but it also powers our water motor too. Though we are using electricity from the Tamilnadu Electricity Board when the days are cloudy, our plan is to go completely off-grid and save as much energy as possible when we have a good sun to use it all round the year.

2) Rainwater Harvesting System

We have a 50000 liters water tank to store rainwater and use it for our daily needs. All the water we use in school is taken from this very tank, helping us use our resources in a responsible way.

We have been blessed with so much water that three to four times every year our tank overflows.

We are also planning to build another 50000 liters water tank near our new kitchen to store more rainwater and use the same for all our kitchen needs.

3) Bio-Gas

We use cow dung collected from our dairy farm to store in a big tank, where it gets converted into methane, which is being used as gas for our cooking needs. It covers 30 to 40% of our gas needs and we are trying hard to use only this for 100% of our consumption. We are taking baby steps towards that dream. Whatever that remains is called slurry and this slurry is used as a fertilizer on our farm. This way we don’t waste anything.

4) Bio-Septic Tank

When the normal septic tank is cleaned, all the waste is taken away and dumped somewhere away from the city which in turn causes landfill and damages the environment.

To avoid this, we have built a bio septic tank which is being used in our new kitchen.

Using a mixture of cow dung, buffalo dung, and horse dung which contains a lot of anaerobic bacteria, we are trying to separate all the solid waste from water. It is a 3 step process, in the final step, we’ll get only water which again is pumped to the trees nearby thus helping us not waste anything including what is considered to be a waste.

5)  Using second-hand cloths

To make a pair of jeans, 10000 liters of water is consumed. At Sristi Village, we are against this very idea of the irresponsible use of resources. So all our community members only use second-hand clothes, gifted by our sponsors, thus doing our bit in saving the environment from irreversible damage.

We are also using only cloth diapers for children, which can be washed and reused. In the same manner, the women of Sristi are using reusable cloth sanitary pads only.

6) Eco-friendly buildings

We used lime, brick, and mud to build all our buildings. We only used recycled wood and stones taken from old demolished temples, making our buildings eco-friendly in every which way.

We used something called the ‘Rat Trap Method’ for our construction. In this method, you give space between brick to brick, helping us use lesser bricks and also keeping us comfortable throughout the year no matter the weather outside.

We also used filler slab for our roof, saving us a lot of cement and concrete.

7) No food wastes

We don’t waste any food. Even the little food we have to throw away is being consumed by the animals on our farm, keeping all of our community, including animals healthy.

8) Little things

One of our staff members uses only ink pens to avoid throwing away and buying new pens every time. One other went paperless, avoiding the use of paper for any documentation.

These kinds of little changes help us be part of mother nature, respect it, and love it with all we have.