Cauvery Calling: How One Vision and the Inspiration of Many Make a Massive Impact

Responsibility Par Excellence: The Beginnings of a Massive Movement

In the 1990s, a silent revolution of self-realization was unfolding in India’s southernmost state, Tamil Nadu. The powerfully transformative Isha Yoga programs, designed by Sadhguru, were being offered in every district, and in almost every town of the state. A large number of villages were also touched and transformed. Around the same time, Tamil Nadu – which has a 12,000-year-old agricultural history and one of the most fertile lands on the planet – was reeling under severe water and agricultural distress. At the heart of this impending disaster was a much deeper problem – rapidly deteriorating soil.

In 1998, some environmental agencies predicted that by 2025, 60% of Tamil Nadu would become a desert. Sadhguru never gives in to predictions, saying that predictions don’t take into account what’s beating in the human heart. But when he drove around the state to assess the situation himself, his observations and experience revealed something that was even more worrisome than what the UN agencies had projected. Not only had small rivers dried up and homes were built on their riverbeds, there was not even enough moisture in the soil for palm trees, which generally thrive in arid climate, to survive.

This led Sadhguru to start a movement to revitalize the state’s severely depleting soil, water, and agriculture. At that time, the average green cover of Tamil Nadu was 16.5%, whereas the national aspiration was 33%. Sadhguru gathered a small group of volunteers, and explained that the only way to reverse this impending disaster was by increasing vegetation on land. According to Sadhguru’s estimate, 114 million trees across the state could reasonably reverse the situation. In the initial years, Sadhguru set about “planting trees in people’s minds” – the most difficult of terrains! Leading people through experiential processes where they were able to perceive how intimately our lives and our life-breath are connected to trees, Sadhguru opened their hearts to the vital need for restoration.

At that time, even those working closely with Sadhguru had not imagined that a tree planting drive in one state of India would grow to become one of the largest ecological movements on the planet in less than two decades.

Six years later, in 2004, Sadhguru officially launched Project GreenHands. In many ways, it was the pilot and the proof-of-concept for the massive work that is underway today as part of Cauvery Calling.

Rally for Rivers: World’s Largest Ecological Movement

In 2017, Sadhguru led the month-long Rally for Rivers through 16 Indian states governed by parties across the political spectrum, garnering the support of 162 million people in a month’s time. When he arrived in New Delhi, Sadhguru presented to the Prime Minister a 761-page report – Revitalization of Rivers in India: Draft Policy Recommendation. Within a few months, the Union Government issued a policy advisory to all 29 state governments and union territories about the policies relating to river revitalization. Since then, several state governments, including those of Odisha, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand, began actively implementing this policy.

Within two years, Sadhguru embarked on an on-ground demonstration for river revitalization through tree-based agriculture, and launched Cauvery Calling – the world’s largest farmer-driven ecological movement.

This time, Sadhguru rode on a motorcycle for two weeks across the Cauvery basin to raise awareness for the revitalization of this lifeline for southern India. The movement received support from organizations and individuals around the world. “Cauvery Calling could also be a large-scale project that helps improve the living conditions of the most vulnerable populations, while rehabilitating the land that sustains all of us,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

In the last three years, Cauvery Calling volunteers have been working incessantly in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to help farmers adopt tree-based agriculture, and eventually bring one-third of the Cauvery basin under tree cover.

So far, Cauvery Calling has moved over 125,000 farmers to tree-based agriculture, and facilitated the planting of 62 million saplings. This has led to improvement in soil quality and nutritional value of the produce. Moreover, the farmers’ income has surged significantly.

“For the past 15 years, guided by Isha, I’ve been planting trees on my farm. Now it has transformed into a tree-based revenue yielding farm. When I tested my soil before, the carbon content was 0.5. Now the carbon content has increased to 1.30,” shares Senthil Kumar, a farmer from Tamil Nadu.

In many ways, this is just the beginning. The ambition of Cauvery Calling is to enable 5.2 million farmers to plant 2.42 billion trees in a span of 12 years. This will not only revitalize Cauvery but also restore the soil health, and enhance farmers’ income in the Cauvery basin by 300% to 800%. Above all, it will set an example for the entire tropical world where economy and ecology will work hand in hand, not against each other, which is the bedrock on which the Cauvery Calling movement is built.

An Inspiring Example of How Every Contribution Counts

Vivek Viswanathan, an electrical engineer by profession and an artist by passion, joined the seven-month Sadhanapada program at Isha Yoga Center in 2020–21. He continued staying at the Yoga Center as a long-term volunteer, and soon got an opportunity to volunteer for Cauvery Calling. In addition to the activities that were assigned to him, he also took to drawing – something that he loved doing since his childhood days.

Wherever he went as part of his activity, he began drawing sketches of people he met. “For each drawing, I requested one sapling as a donation. It started as a fun activity, but on the very first day, I got 100 saplings, and that excited me a lot. I then started really pushing myself.” Within a few days, he drew over 500 sketches, raising donations for over 2000 saplings.

Inspired by the initial success, Vivek started posting his sketches on his social media pages, which were hugely appreciated by his friends, and even people he had never seen or met. Since then, there has been no turning back. He continues to work for Cauvery Calling in dual roles – as a full-time account manager, and a part-time artist!

“Since I joined the Cauvery Calling team, my life has become more intense and more focused. I started doing all my activities as sadhana. I’m deeply grateful to Sadhguru for giving me the opportunity to work for the revival of Mother Cauvery. I thank all the donors, and people who appreciated my work,” he adds.