The Isha Foundation And Its Social Work

A tremendous amount of work has been put in by the Foundation so far. These are just some of the praise-worthy initiatives that I know of are ...

Rural Health Clinics

- Operating mobile health clinics reaching over 2.2 million rural people
- Rural health clinics treating on an average 60+ patients each day
- Health awareness campaigns conducted through the state

To know more about this project, go through https://isha.sadhguru.org/social-outreach/rural-rejuvenation/

Disaster Support

- Disaster relief measures for Cuddalore Tsunami region, Chennai floods, Kerala floods, etc.

To know more about this project, go through https://isha.sadhguru.org/social-outreach/rural-rejuvenation/

For Rural people

- Livelihood generation programs for rural people
- Isha Gramotsavam to restore dying village arts & sports in Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh

- Free yoga classes in rural areas
- Free housing in the villages surrounding Isha Yoga Center in Coimbatore, etc. 

To know more about this project, go through https://isha.sadhguru.org/social-outreach/rural-rejuvenation/

For Tribal people

- Providing many tribals skill based job training and job opportunities in various domains
- Providing free medical support to surrounding tribal villages
- Providing free education to many tribal children
- Construction of houses and toilets in the tribal villages

To know more, check: bit.ly/IshaTribals

For Environment

- More than 3 million saplings distributed, planted and tracked 
- More than 35 nurseries across Tamilnadu and Pondicherry

To know more about this work, go through https://www.ishaoutreach.org/en/project-greenhands

For India's Rivers

- The Rally For Rivers awareness campaign in 2017 was a huge success with 16.2 crore people supporting it across India
- RFR policy document has already been shared to the state Governments as an official recommendation by NITI Aayog
- The project proposed to rejuvenate Waghari river in Maharashtra has received the state cabinet nod on 5-March-2019 and work started on it
- Cauvery Calling is the action phase of RFR to revive Cauvery river through AgroForestry model by enrolling farmers in Cauvery river basin

To know more about this project, go through: cauverycalling.org

For Farmers

- Dozens of Free Organic farming training sessions for farmers in Tamilnadu
- Thousands of schools engaged in tree plantation and nurturing

A recent news in media: https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/bangladesh/english/the+covai+post-epaper-covaipos/best+fpo+in+tamil+nadu+achieves+record+turnover+of+rs+7+91+crore-newsid-97887862

"Farmers Producers Organisation (FPO) registered as Vellingiri Uzhavan producer Company Ltd (VUPCL) has achieved a record turnover of Rs 7.91 crore during the last financial year, increase of almost 100 per cent compared to previous year. 

The FPO was formed in 2013, guided by Isha Foundation, following the loss being incurred by coconut farmers in the village surrounding Thondamuthur area, as the buyers were giving prices based on the size of the coconuts, which were very low comared to market, VUPCL Head, Kumar told reporters at Isha Yoga Centre today. The company was started with 400 members and now has 1,603 members."

This in itself seems to be a phenomenal achievement to bring struggling farmers of Tamilnadu out of their troubles.

For Education

- 8000+ students provided scholarship education in rural Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh
- Training 1000s of teachers in Government schools for providing better education

To know more about this project, go through https://www.ishaoutreach.org/en/isha-vidhya

Indian media does not publish much of such positive information but will publish immediately any allegation, however fake it may be.

I hope people who are sincerely interested in finding the truth about the Isha Foundation will search and find it on their own.

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Isha Project Green Hands - Scheming or Scintillating?

As in my earlier post regarding the contribution of Isha Foundation to farming community, this post will also start with information available in public domain, with my comments interspersed.

About Project Green Hands (PGH)

Isha's Project Green Hands was launched with a vision to sensitize people towards environment protection and to inspire people to plant trees, develop a culture of care towards the environment and help them realize their inevitable dependency on nature.

Initially, the project was started with an aim to increase the green cover of Tamil Nadu by 10% by planting 114 million saplings in order to reverse desertification, reduce soil erosion, restore self-sufficiency, recreate sustainability and survives climate change.

Current status

The  project  has  till  date  enabled planting of more  than  3 crore tree saplings. PGH claims a plant survival rate of over 60%, which means about 2 crore surviving tree saplings.

My opinion on PGH planting drives

Even if the world average of such planting drives is just 20% and PGH meets that, it is still a mind-boggling 60 Lakh surviving tree saplings. That is a huge step forward in terms of enabling afforestation in Tamilnadu.

Some social activists were claiming that Isha has not compensated enough for the lands they have constructed their buildings in. I hope any sane person can see the statistics for themselves and know that it is more than compensated for. This is a definite plus of PGH’s work so far!

Recognitions for Isha's Project Green Hands

Some of the recognitions for Isha’s work in the field of environment are (information in public domain):

In  2010 -  PGH was awarded India’s highest environmental award; the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar (for the year 2008) instituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, in recognition of PGH’s positive ecological impact

·      On April 5th 2012, PGH was awarded the “Environmental Award – 2010” by the Department of Environment, Government of Tamil Nadu.

·      Accredited “Special Consultative Status” by UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2007.

·      On 30th September 2010, PGH was awarded the “Sport for the Environment” award at the Beyond Sports summit in Chicago. Beyond Sports is a global organization that promotes and funds the use of sport to create positive social change across the world.

·      In 2016, PGH was the Winner of India Today’s 2016 Safaigiri Award under the category - Best Community Mobilizer for increasing the green cover of the country.

·      On 13th July, 2013 PGH was awarded by the LASSIB Society, Honorary Award for delivering outstanding outcomes in the area of Nurturing Natural Resources.

·      PGH set a Guinness World Record on 17th October, 2006 for planting maximum number of saplings in a single day. 8, 52,587 saplings were planted in 6,284 locations across 27 districts in Tamil Nadu

Isha PGH’s work in and around their yoga center

The TN Forest department has acknowledged Isha’s invovlement in preserving the ecology of the Velliangiri mountains by planting saplings, cleaning the mountains regularly to preserve the pristine mountains.

·     In 2004, Isha volunteers planted 77,151 saplings as part of the ‘Velliangiri Hills Conservation Project’ in association with the Tamil Nadu Forest Department to conserve the ecology of the mountains.

·     Every year after the Mahashivratri celebrations, the Sanyasins and volunteers of Isha Foundation trek the Velliangiri Hills as part of Kar Seva to clean the hills of litter and garbage in order to maintain its pristine glory.

·      PGH Volunteers have planted and grown over 300 trees along the roadside from irutupallam to Isha Yoga Center.

·      PGH volunteers have been conducting various awareness sessions regarding our environment both to the local tribals and also to various other people.

My final take on PGH

·      Such plantation drives are very very essential to not just the ecological preservation, but for mankind itself.

·      A lot of us are so ignorant that we think trees planted are going to be standing up forver. A recent cyclone in Chennai uprooted over 1 lakh trees in a couple of days. Not many know that world over, there are about 15 million trees being cut every day.

·      There are some friends of mine who do not think twice before ridiculing such plantation efforts. When I tried educating them about why such drives are needed constantly, with facts, they suddenly became very interested in participating. Some of them have taken the support of Project Green Hands team as well. As updated in one of my earlier posts, I happened to check their sapling distribution effort in Chennai Lit Fest.

·      Is PGH really a scam? I strongly disagree. The reason is simple. They have pictures of the various plantation drives done, they show accountability in terms of audit records for trees planted. They also collaborate with corporates like Sony, Cognizant, L&T, etc. Now, these institutions do their background checks thoroughly and keep a clear record of what happens to their donation money. Obviously accountability comes in clean and loud here.

·      Above all, PGH being a Guinness World Record holder, one should know that the GWR is not given to just about anybody. The Guinness team does a very thorough check before they award their certificates. So, it would be silly to downplay such an effort and not wonder at what drives these volunteers to maintain such stupendous performance.

Other references:


http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/an-experiment-in-progress/article3508250.ece

http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/environmental-services/2010083060569.htm

http://sustainabilitynext.in/sustainability-leader/isha-foundation-plants-15-million-native-trees/

http://www.theweekendleader.com/Nature/392/green-mission.html

http://exnoranews.blogspot.in/2012/09/isha-green-hands-wonderful-initiative.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_GreenHands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zstP4wuSnos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxsV1bRUZvk

https://www.facebook.com/notes/isha-foundation/project-greenhands-milestones/395414021268/

http://chennaialai.blogspot.in/p/green-hands.html

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Allegations about Isha - Part 4 - Is tree planting a farce?

Part 3 of the series is here: http://kazhugupaarvai.blogspot.in/2017/02/allegations-about-isha-part-3-is-isha.html

[Disclaimer: I am not associated with Isha Foundation. All the information below is available in public domain. Will add more references and images soon.]

I have been tracking the allegations against Isha Foundation in the recent times to find what the truth is. However, there is a spike in the negative comments recently! What are all these allegations about Isha starting afresh? Some of these are not even new! Just saw some posts today from popular magazines. This is why I started this blog, to dig out the truths and post them. Read my earlier posts to know more...


Project Green Hands

- Those who have planted and taken care of trees will only know the truth of how hard it is to do at a massive scale.

- Isha volunteers claim to have given their life to do all this. Tamilnadu has been the only area in South Asia where green cover is actually increasing.

- You and I are not planting trees that much. Then who is doing this?

- Projects like Green Hands and other NGOs with some major corporates like L&T, Sony, etc. have been pioneering this effort

- When Isha volunteers saw the amount of destruction happening in deforestation, they simply went and planted thousands of trees on the Velliangiri hills. Do not believe me. Take some tree experts and with permission of forest department, check the age of trees in the hills behind Isha Foundation. 80% of them will be under 20 years of age. [This has been tested already by independent groups.]

- Questions are being raised on the claim of how many trees Green Hands project has done. There are several corporates who are working with this team. Do you think they are not tracking all the trees that are planted?

- If you have any area in the city and are interested in making it green, please do contact the Green Hands team. I spoke to them in the Chennai Lit Fest after the Vardah cyclone where they distributed saplings.

Edit 1:

Had interactions with some people from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh in July 2017. They have been actively working with Isha Foundation in tree plantation activities in their respective states. These people vouch for the professionalism and clean focus of the Project Green Hands team in executing the plantation activities! Guess one more lie spread about Isha Foundation goes for a clean six!

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