Hello! My name is Samantha Wooton.

  

 If you have reached this sight, you are most likely a friend, family member, or a valued supporter of the work that I will soon embark on. If I reached out to you for your support on this project, I have immense gratitude for your engagement with my journey to Sadhana Forest. I am choosing to travel to India in October to cultivate actions that align with my own values and cultivate changes that I wish to see in the world. I hope that you enjoy getting insight about work that I do, projects that I contribute to, and experiences that I have in India.

Sadhana Forest is a project in Tamil Nadu, India that addresses environmental devastation, water scarcity and deforestation and their adverse effects on the earth. Reforestation, water conservation and sustainability are key elements of Sadhana Forest's efforts in preventing or reducing the effects of environmental and social issues. I am interested in being involved in this collective effort to bring human use of natural resources within sustainable limits because I want to make strides toward humans using resources only at a rate in which they can be replenished. The work that I will be doing at Sadhana speaks to me because it looks at some of the root causes of environmental and social issues and actively aids in the solutions. When preparing for my trip I gathered a great deal of insight about the projects and initiatives that are being enacted at Sadhana Forest. In this post, I share with you some of the information that I have learned about them through their website and my personal contact with some of their representatives.

Sharing Knowledge
I chose to pursue helping at Sadhana Forest because of the progress that I believe that they make toward sustainable recourse management by collectively sharing knowledge and allowing others to bring sustainable practices into their life at an individual level.  They aim to empower people by sharing sustainable living practices so that individuals can be more conscious of the impact that they have on the earth and their environment. I also appreciate that Sahana Forest hosts school students, university students, foresters and many others seeking knowledge so that their volunteers can then incorporate their knowledge and experience into their own lives and share sustainable practices and awareness with their local communities.

Their Projects:
Deforestation leads to an erosion of the top layer of the soil that is high in nutrients, organic mater and micro-organisms, which takes hundreds of years to restore itself naturally. Thus, erosion affects the nutrient levels that are available to new trees. Deforestation also leads to a disruption in the local ecosystem’s water cycle, causing droughts that force local farmers to migrate, and a loss of biodiversity in the region in which it occurs. According to Sadhana Forest's website, addressing the issue of deforestation is not quite as simple as planting more trees because existing damage to the top soil might already have rendered some areas as being hostile environments for trees. Thus, Sadhana Forest's approach to reforestation includes insight into the current condition of the soil in specific locations, the trees/plants that might be native to that soil, and mechanisms to revitalize and rebuild the soil that might already be negatively affected by years of neglect and overuse. They focus on planting only indigenous trees. They put a high emphasis on survival rate and use many techniques to ensure the trees are cared for with the highest regard and ensure the best possible survival chances. They believe the survival figures are more important and not the amount planted to keep a relationship of trust with locals and keep faith in the project.

Water India
Another major project in Sadhana Forest is water conservation. They are working toward achieving as close to zero water runoff as possible through re-contouring lands, building check dams (8 built so far), bunding (over many kilometers so far), and directing remaining runoff to forested areas where absorbency is high. Wherever a natural or “created” hollow exists in the area, it is dammed off to create a holding pond or lake where the water can then percolate into the soil and refill aquifers. One of their most outstanding achievements has been the dramatic rise of the local water table at a time when water levels are falling throughout the area. Their system of trenches and earth dams store over 50,000 cubic meters of rainwater. As a result of all this work, the underground water level has risen by 6 meters (20 feet) after five years of intensive water conservation. Water in local wells is now much more accessible to the local population because of this project. Wells in four nearby villages that were dry for 15-20 years are now providing water throughout the year.

Sustainable Living:
I have a huge, and growing, interest in earthen/natural building, sustainable farming, renewable energy systems, and permaculture. As an Environmental Geography major with an emphasis in resource management, I have focused my studies on the garbage, water, agriculture and urban systems that humans have created. I have realized how much further development these systems need to go through to ensure the sustainability of the societies that we have created. I have realized my individual responsibility to continue my studies about how to systematically conserve and sustain our resources.

As part of Sadhanas efforts toward a sustainable way of living, they use a hand pump rather than a tap with running water in their kitchen to conserve water, and the water is fed into an environment where plants thrive in the water, creating a nearly zero waste system. They also choose to utilize methods of compostable toilets, which I have used before on another permaculture project with great enthusiasm and success. This method turns what is considered waste in many parts of the world into a valuable resource!! Composting toilets also conserve water: flushing toilets use about 30% of a household's domestic water use. Because they are a self-contained system, no energy is expended for transportation of waste for disposal. Sadhana Forest India is also not connected to the electrical grid. As a part of our sustainable living, they chose to only use solar and human powered energy- on cloudy days they supplement energy needs with a set of four “exercise” bicycles, which charge the batteries. Sadhana Forest is also transitioning to becoming a Zero Waste Zone. This requires rethinking the inherent life cycle of all items that they use. Zero Waste philosophy seeks to imitate the life cycle of resources in nature in which nothing is wasted: only reused in another stage in the continuum. During my stay, I believe that I will have the opportunity to be much more aware of my consumption and waste-producing patterns. Sadhana upholds the slogan of “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!” 


Thank You for seeking information about my project and the information that I have gathered about how I plan to live more sustainably and learn motivate others to help conserve our resources as a global society. Thank you for your support; I look forward to sharing my experiences in India with you!