Nexus of Good: Nature’s Classroom

Babulal Gandhi has presented a remarkable legacy in sustainable farming, agroforestry, climate change actions, and global warming. The 97-year-old farmer has spent more than 50 years of his life to transform his ancestral land in Vinchurni—8 kms from Phaltan, Satara. Once a dry, rocky grassland spread over 118 acres, is now a thriving forest. This land, named Maganlal Gandhi Smriti Van, is home to four water lakes, fruit orchards, grasslands, medicinal plants and rich wildlife. The temperature here is also a couple of degrees cooler because of the dense tree canopies

Babulal Gandhi’s journey began in the early 1950s when he took part in Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement that encouraged landowners to donate a portion of their land to the landless. Inspired, he took this work further towards land enrichment. He travelled across India, studying agroforestry and sustainable farming practices.

To practice what he had learnt, he came back to his land and started working extensively on water conservation and nature restoration. Collaborating with local engineers, Gandhi built lakes covering over 22 acres to store water and recharge groundwater. He also created 5 km of zero-contour water trenches to capture every drop of rain. The water work not just helped the farm, it increased the water table for the entire community. The water bodies attracted birds and bees, which helped propagate plants across the farm. Over time, the community adopted kurad-bandi—a no-axe policy—to protect the ecosystem, recognising the importance of every plant and root in preventing soil erosion.

Today, the farm is home to rabbits, wolves, hyenas, over 200 peacocks, and various migratory birds. Cattle on the farm contribute manure and biogas, helping the farm operate sustainably.

Sustainability is a core principle in Gandhi’s farming practices. Hunting is banned and mulching with leaves and cut weeds is regularly practiced to retain soil moisture during dry periods. Fruit-bearing trees like chickoo, papaya, mango, and guava, alongside bamboo and pumpkins, generate income for the farm. The farm’s sustainability is supported by value-added products like chickoo powder and a newly established jaggery-making unit.

One of Gandhi’s most cherished initiatives is his annual watermelon harvest. In the 1990s when his first watermelon crop produced a surplus, he invited children from the village schools to a fruit feast. This event became a tradition, wherein children enjoyed hundreds of thousands of watermelons each year, actually help to de-seed the fruit and collect the seeds of the best fruits. Leftover rinds are fed to cattle, and the seeds are replanted. Sale of good seeds helped continue this feast cycle for over 10 years. And the children grew up with beautiful memories of this Nature feasts, awaiting the invite every year. They loved to visit the farm and offer help in all kinds of farm works.

This association with children, showing their excitement to be in nature, enjoying the fruits and willingness to work in farms to sow the seeds back for next year harvest, took shape into learning camps. The farm has a learning campsite for 70+ students, where schools, colleges, ecology enthusiasts, and bird watchers, stay to get hands-on learning, experience and training on grassland economy, sustainable agriculture and nature restoration. Some schools from Pune have been sending students regularly since 20+ years. The learning camp at this farm is a part of the curriculum for the 5th to 7th grade students.

The urban students forget their mobiles and boredom to enjoy every moment at these learning camps. There is no hesitation to work with cow dung, make manure, soak in mud or soil, clean the cow sheds. They conquer their fears of climbing trees, plucking prickly fruits or vegetables, or cattle crops, walking in the dark or bushes, even ready to face some animals. They learn to play local games, enjoy bird watching trails and folk songs and stories from the locals. They experience true tranquillity in nature and compassion of living in harmony with all species.

Children also interact with some experts in the village to know how they can contribute to a toxin free world by learning and adopting responsible waste management skills, make and use bio enzyme based home and personal cleaners, grow some food on their balconies or in any small space, thus giving them lessons of life to be followed in their urban life too.

Purposeful education is central to Babulal ji’s vision. He believes that connecting the youth to Nature is the simplest solution to:

1. Global warming and climate change.

2. Raising compassionate citizens.

3. Food security and sustainability.

The farm and the learning camps are now actively managed by Gandhi's niece, Madhavi, along with her 4 siblings who are skilled in farm management, animal care, food processing and training

Gandhi’s life journey from the perspective of young learners from camps is documented in a film by Aproop Productions. This documentary was made with the support of Aksharnandan school, Pune and a Zilla parishad school from Warugad. The 30-minute film shows how to engage the young generation, making them experience the importance of pure air, water and food as the basic life necessities and what can we do to conserve the natural resources and take up some climate change actions.

Nature restoration learning camps are the need of the hour. It should be imbibed in the educational curriculum for a safe, green planet and healthy living species.

Maganlal Gandhi Smriti Van deservedly won the Nexus of Good Annual Award, 2024, for the initiative with enormous potential for replication in the true spirit of Nexus of Good through public-private partnership.

Views expressed are personal