Today it is the most spoken about subject. Now Siruthuli has taken up the initiative 'Grow the Farmer' . The farmer is the backbone of our ancient economy. Our Managing Trustee Vanitha Mohan has been at the forefront of all our initiatives. Her commitment and easy accessibility have made it possible for many to work along with Team Siruthuli.
Siruthuli is one of the pioneering volunteering organisations from Coimbatore and Tamilnadu and this week it celebrated it's 18th year anniversary. We thought it would be a good time to look back at how this longstanding organization which has motivated many other volunteers to contribute to nature came to be.
The Seed
18 years ago, Swami Dayananda Saraswathi was very keen to revive the water bodies in the Coimbatore region. He had called for a meeting of like-minded people about 18 years ago. Vanitha Mohan, Ravi Sam and myself attended the discussion at Hotel Residency. I still remember our discussions at the lobby prior to this meetings. We put all our points together on a piece of paper and joined everyone else. The seed had been sown by Swamiji and it began to grow in the mind of Vanitha Mohan of Pricol. She used to call me over the phone once in a while and enquire about River Noyyal and the other water bodies.
In fact, Pricol had also worked on a small water body those days. Time passed by and one day I received a call from Vanitha Mohan. She invited me to join a discussion in the evening in connection with the restoration of our local water bodies. I told her that neither my age nor my financial status could be of any use. However she insisted stating that the intention and drive will make things happen. She requested me to bring my like minded friends along with me. Those were the days when the scion of Samathur , Shankar Vanavarayar and myself did a lot of work connected with our heritage. I thought that it will be good if Shankar came along and he was only too happy to join me.
The Beginning
We reached the Sankara Eye Society for the meeting and learnt that a few noble minded people had founded Siruthuli, the green organization and Dr R V Ramani welcomed all of us. Advocate N V Nagasubramaniam has been with the organization from the very beginning. They were keen to involve green ideologues for taking it forward. Shankar and myself had felt that we would come to no harm by attending and having a cup of coffee with the elders of the city.
Little did we realize that history was going being created. Well, the assembled people made ourselves into groups and our group decided to meet regularly at the Coimbatore Cosmopolitan Club. T S Mohan Sankar, Ramesh Veeraraghavan , Shankar Vanavarayar and myself began to take part in these meetings. Vanitha Mohan began to involve us in the activities of Siruthuli thereafter. We used to meet on Saturday mornings ‪between 7:30 and 8:30‬ regularly. The meetings used to be open and it was very businesslike. In fact water / refreshments were never offered to the participants. We used to have upto 30 members once in a way. Everyone was welcome and it was an open house.
The volunteers decided to hold an 'Adi Perukku' festival and a students rally in order to involve the general public. About 14000 students took part in the students rally and the Adi Perullu festival named as 'Pudhu Vellam' after the chapter with the same name in Kalki's Ponniyin Selvan was a super hit. Thousands of people attended the event which began with an interfaith prayer. People slowly began identifying themselves with Siruthuli.
Now it was time to work. Siruthuli began desilting water bodies and Krishnampathy, near the Sugarcane Breeding Institute was the first water body to be restored. We took the path of least resistance and just went ahead by desilting the tank, cleaning up the inlet and the outlet. The tank was ready really fast. Now, it had to get water and it took time. All of us were waiting for a miracle and an overnight rain at Maruthamalai brought in the water required to fill up Krishnampathy and it was full overnight. It was wow moment for all of us and we were super thrilled.
The Collector of Coimbatore Dr Muruganandam showered us with encomiums and we went from one tank to the other - Narsampathy, Selavampathy, Muthannankulam, Selva Chinthamani etc., followed. Photos were taken, videos were shot and slides with details were made. Everyone wanted to see Siruthuli do more and more. The earlier year had been a drought year and Siruvani had seen a huge drop. At last people saw some hope. The Chief Minister of Tamilnadu J Jayalalithaa met Team Siruthuli and appreciated the efforts.
Pioneering Work
Citizens from other parts of the country came to see the work of Siruthuli. I still remember the teams from Vellore and Salem. My friend Anandkumar of ANS Kumbakonam Jewellers of Salem brought his team and this team replicated our work in their district.
Siruthuli did a lot of awareness programmes - eco painting contest, eco essay contest, tree scarp book contest, summer camps, regular eco classes for school kids, eco quiz contest among other things. A number of tanks got restored - Kurichi Kulam, Ukkadam Periyakulam, Selva Chinthamani Kulam and the Chithirai Chavadi check dam was also restored. Later we built the lovely Nandankarai check dam and dedicated it to the Coimbatorean spirit. Tree planting was going on in a big way. Rain water harvesting structures were getting created all over the city. We worked on garbage managed management and also studied matters pertaining to sewage. Siruthuli did a satellite study too and gave a lot of inputs. All the work was done with the help of the Government and the media was extremely supportive. People from the world of advertisement put in their efforts. N. Krishnakumar, P. S. Kashi, Mervyn, Pradeep and S. B. Srinivasan led the tribe.
A food festival done over ten years ago is still in my mind. Celebrity Chefs Tarla Dalal, Damu, Mallika Badrinath, Paravai Muniamma and Jacob Sahay Aruni participated with full gusto along with us. The event was a mega hit. I remember Tharun Shah and myself cooking with Tarla Dalal and she published our pictures in her cookery magazine. It was big coming together of the food and hospitality sector in the interest of River Noyyal. All the educational institutions did their bit through a similar event much earlier.
Abdul Kalam and Siruthuli
Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, the visionary President of India began to associate himself with Siruthuli. We received a letter from him and were overjoyed to see his hand written corrections on the letter. Siruthuli celebrated his eightieth birthday in Coimbatore. I remember one of our meetings with him in Coimbatore. He took a sheet of paper to help us understand the flow of water on the highway. He suggested that the run off had to be saved for future use. It was a great meeting. On another occasion the Tamilnadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala was keen to get inputs for adding to the green cover of Raj Bhavan in Chennai.
We met so many great people during the seventeen year journey. Rajinder Singh the water Gandhi of India, Almitra Patel who had fought for the segregation of waste, Sundaralal Bahuguna, Anna Hazare, Actors Sivakumar, Surya and Manorama, Thimmakka, Dr.M.S.Swaminathan, Nammalwar and many others.
The old Tamil play Silappathikaram was staged with Vidyasagar Ramdas as the Coordinator in 2004 and a nice Chettinadu dinner followed. This event was organized in order to get like minded people together. The Noyyal Yatra of 2005 was a magnificent event. More than 100,000 people participated in the greatest public event of Coimbatore. Dr S V Balasubramaniam, the energetic Chairman of Siruthuli has been a rock solid support and the senior trutee Kanaklal Abhaichand has continued to display a fount of energy over the years.
Dinamalar's editorial support
Siruthuli began to learn more about Noyyal and was joined in the quest by DinaMalar. The publication, its editorial team and journalists have done much in this regard. Journalist G Raja chronicled the story of River Noyyal in DinaMalar for several weeks and the readers just loved it. I remember accompanying him with Perur K Jayaraman and other friends.
The memories of friends in service
A drizzle used to get us together and we used to drive off to the Vellingiri foothills immediately. Barathan Srinivasan, J.Sathish, M R Suchindran, Shankar Vanavarayar and myself used to enjoy the moments. We were known as the 'Five Man Army' of Siruthuli those days. It used to be a pleasure to see the silver slivers of water flowing out of the Vellingiri hills. Hundreds of trips were undertaken to the Chithirai Chavadi check dam, Siruvani and other places. We had Sunday picnics with large groups of people.
I still remember one annual day of Siruthuli when water was yet to reach Krishnampathy. A few of us including industrialist Ravi Sam waited for the water to come to Coimbatore. It was sighted and we walked with it until it entered Krishnampathy tank and then we celebrated the happening by having 'kadalai mittai'.
M Krishnan of Sri Krishna Sweets was a great support at all times. Annapoorna K Damodarasswamy Naidu would often stop his car near Krishnampathy while moving between his residence at Vedapatti and office on Mettupalayam Road. Industrialist L G Varadaraj was a pillar of support for us and he would often make personal enquiries about the work in progress. He celebrated his eightieth birthday by planting 80 trees with us. Silent support has been the strength and businessmen like Mahaveer Jain, Balchand of Mahaveers and Sri Gopal Maheshwari have been pillars of support from the word start.
Prabu Sekar, Kesavan and a few of us travelled the full course of the Noyyal and mapped it. It was an interesting experience. We could see the full Noyyal in its original condition and it strengthened our resolve further. The Apex Body Members are like the little streams which make up the river. Many good Samaritans like C R Swaminathan, R S Krishnaswamy, P P Subramaniam, Kumuda Palaniswamy, Uma K Rao, Sujani Balu, Anu Valentina, Chandrashekhar, Geetha Sridhar, Srividhya Narayanan, Tharun Shah, K Marudachalam, S J Balakrishnan, A P Suresh, V.R.Vengatesh, Sangeetha Subhash, Shanthini, Chithra Krishnaswamy , Sudha Ravishankar, Mohanasundaram, Unnamalai, Saravanan Chandrashekaran , Ramesh Babu, CGS Manion , C S K Prabhu and many more have been part of this great 'Bhageeratha Prayathnam‘ (the effort of Bhageeratha to bring Ganga to Earth).
All of us were really attached to Siruthuli and it’s work. We used to come up with innovative ideas in order to take the work forward. Resources came from so many people. These are unnamed heros. I tried to do my part by designing and manufacturing diamond ear rings based on the logo of Siruthuli. Part of the proceeds were made over to SIruthuli. It became a best seller design in town. People loved SIRUTHULI so much!
The Naaval of Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi had planted a 'Naaval' Tree during one of his visits. Siruthuli got the tree restored and now the baby saplings of this tree have begun to add to the wealth of peace in our region. People started likening Siruthuli to 'Ganga and Bhishma', 'Ponni (Cauvery) and Raja Raja Chola'.
We celebrated this by commissioning a picture by artist Maniam Selvam. A number of NGOs sprung because of the scope of work executed by Siruthuli. It became a large public movement and the same team founded the diaster relief NGO, Karam in order to build 80 houses for the fisherfolk who were affected by the terrible Tsunami.
Meeting Subhash Palekar
Prayers were offered at the Perur Padithurai and we thanked River Noyyal year on year at Chithirai Chavadi. I can never forget the Zero Budget Farming conclave at Codissia. The great Subhash Palekar gave his sage advice on ZBF (Zero Budget Farming). More than 2500 farmers attended the mega programme which went on for 4 days. It was amazing and many among them took to natural farming. Today it is the most spoken about subject. Now Siruthuli has taken up the initiative 'Grow the Farmer'. The farmer is the backbone of our ancient economy. Our Managing Trustee Vanitha Mohan has been at the forefront of all our initiatives. Her commitment and easy accessibility have made it possible for many to work along with Team Siruthuli.
The corona has come in the way of the annual celebrations of Siruthuli. I have used the moment to look back at the past. Well thanks to Siruthuli, it has been possible to celebrate the Coimbatore Day and a number of occasions connected with Coimbatore. The journey has been long and we have a long way to go. We have understood that the journey has been as important as the destination. To quote Vanitha Mohan - 'Learning has never stopped and it continues'.