Dr. Dina Nath Tewari, a crusader against poverty and a friend of the disadvantaged

Barely a few kilometres away from an ancient town and a seat of learning – Allahabad-lays a vast track of unproductive and degraded land, owned by the both the rich and poor people. Brick industry allured these people who extensively sold the top and productive soil of their land for brick making, and thus exposing the unproductive and calcareous soil to the surface. The digging and removing of top soils (for brick making) completely changed the landscape and the lifescape in the area. The results were a large  extent of degraded, undulating and economically unproductive lands accompanied by poverty, health hazards and environmental crisis. Having reached to this fatalistic situation, the poor started migrating in search of livelihood opportunities to cities as far as Mumbai and other distant places. Those, who could manage some resources, engaged themselves in some farming activities e.g. banana cultivation in patches, but the hot air and smoke from the mushrooming brick kilns added to their misery by further heating the already hot winds known as ‘loo’ in summer months and desiccating the banana crop through soaring temperature at about 50^oC during noon. Banana being the only economic green vegetation on a vast barren track in summer also attracted hoards of “blue cow”, which destroyed the surviving plantations in the area.

Hailing himself from the rural background of Allahabad, Dr. Dina Nath Tewari, as early as in his initial formative years, was deeply pained by this misery and started pondering about doing something to reduce the pain and suffering of his district mates, relatives and friends. After becoming a Forester, he started financially assisting some of the distressed ones on a case to case basis, but was not able to bring any significant impact on their lives.

The misery of people and poverty-stricken scenes continued haunting him and left a permanent imprint on Dr. Tewari’s mind, longing for ways and means to help and assist the disadvantaged in that area. As he analyzed the global economic and social scenario, the needs of the communities in despair and the opportunities offered  by their environments, he was firmly convinced that the Allahabad situation was not an isolated case, but a global happening. It was much more complex than what he postulated earlier and therefore, it needed to be looked in a much broader context and approach.

Repeatedly being reminded by this and after a very careful thinking and several rounds of consultation with his peers, Dr. Tewari decided that in order to have any significant impact in such situations, a special program have to be launched and institutionalized which are pro- disadvantaged and pro-environment, and guided by the holistic  and inclusive growth model, encompassing economic, social, educational, gender equality, sanitation and health, including environmental aspects of their life.  Immediately thereafter, he established an NGO, i.e. Utthan: Centre for Sustainable Development and Poverty Alleviation, headquartered at Allahabad, and having the following mission.

"Utthan’s mission is to create opportunities for sustainable economic, social and ecological development by adopting and promoting schemes/programmes that are pro- disadvantaged community and pro- environment."

His conviction on sustainability being not only an option, but an imperative made the basis for Utthan’s working towards:

• Enhancing the ecological, economic and social development of disadvantaged communities and their empowerment.

·      Managing and transforming natural resources into assets for economic and environmental sustainability.

·      ‘Greening’ for ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation and mitigation & adaptation of climate change.

·      Aiding human development for adopting ways of economic growth and lifestyle that promote harmonious co-existence of human beings with nature.

·      Research and innovations support for development.

His commitment to checking the degradation of natural resources and poverty alleviation led the centre in its approached to tackle the complexities of the sufferings in the communities and step by step guide the centre to:

• Take a holistic approach of development, encompassing economic, social, education, gender, sanitation and health and environment.
• Adopt and promote programmes that contribute to economic growth, social development and environmental protection.

·        Focus on disadvantaged areas having poorest people who suffer from severely scarce and polluted water, in-sufficient fodder and fuel, land degradation, including desertification, droughts & floods and unclean air.

·        Organize and operate at community level and facilitate the design and implementation of natural resource management, human resource development and empowerment of weaker sections of the society.

• Develop technology for increasing production, value addition and employment generation to check distress migration in search of jobs and reducing discontent and frustration in the society.
• Give preference to poor women and resource-less populations for their economic development and social empowerment.
• Favour political, economic and social systems that promote peace, human welfare and environmental security.
• Promote faster and more inclusive growth for bridging divides: including the excluded.

As Dr. Tewari realized early enough that the support to such communities has to be a holistic manner with an aim towards the inclusive growth, otherwise no dent can be made in the life of disadvantaged communities, he took the driver’s seat for the following and has been able to make a significant influence on the life of these communities. Some of these efforts include :

• Demonstration and promotion of agroforestry models in different ecosystems to help produce more food and high value forest products, leading to the eradication of poverty and re-accumulation of carbon below ground in the soil.
• Promotion of herbal medicines: demonstrating sustainable cultivation, harvesting and utilization of herbal drugs. Sharing the knowledge by publishing the books and supplying the planting material on request to several countries of the world.
• Development of technology for cultivation of Jatropha curcas in degraded lands and biodiesel production (a green fuel) for income and energy security in rural areas. Published a book "Jatropha & Biodiesel" for sharing knowledge and supplied quality germplasm to Nepal, Bhutan, Srilanka, Tanzania and Kenya.
• Motivation of farmers for Jatropha plantations over an area of one million ha. and biodiesel production and consumption.
• Demonstrating watershed management, rainwater harvesting and ground water recharge for augmenting water availability for enhancing land productivity.
• Reclamation of degraded land through watershed development: Reclaimed 85,000 ha. of surface soil mined area, benefiting 90,000 poor families economically and many families in Allahabad city due to improvement of environment. Produced and globally circulated a video film for popularizing bamboo growing and utilization in such areas to improve the habitat, income and surrounding environment.
• Loss of forest contributes more to global emissions than the transport sector. Implemented a Joint Forest Management scheme for curbing deforestation as a highly cost-effective way to reduce emissions over an area of 62,500 ha. and for ensured livelihood security to 85,000 tribal families through greening and deriving economic gains by marketing of forest produce.
• Providing literacy and adult education. So far about one million people have benefited through this programme.
• Providing Health and Sanitation:

§         Distributed health card to each individual in 96 villages of Kaurihar block totalling 0.34 million, and arranged for their curative health, nutrition and sanitation.

§         With the help of 85 fields level NGOs, organized 15,500 health fairs insuring 100% immunization of all infants against 6 vaccine preventable diseases and polio. In 3 years period, 0.6 million infants have been immunized.

§         Vitamin deficiencies were eliminated in 110,000 families through domesticated medicinal plants use since these are rich sources of vitamins.

·    Development of Information, Education and Communication support (IECS) for community in Ayurveda in 15 Blocks of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states. Nearly 560 traditional practitioners were imparted training and 15 medicinal plants garden were raised in these blocks for ex-situ conversation of 40 important medicinal plants species.

• Organizing Environmental Fairs during Kumbh & Ardhkumbh, two greatest Indian religious conglomerations attended by 120 million people, for creating awareness  about environmental problems  and to adopt a way of livelihood and lifestyle that promote the harmonious co-existence of man with nature.

Beginning with simple assessment of possibilities, Dr. Tewari, on Utthan’s research farm identified several plant spp., such as bamboo, popular, polonia, bel, awala and kadam among the tree species; aloevera, aswagandha, safed musli, satawar, brahmani, basil and mint among the medicinal plants; and jatropha among energy plantations as the promising species for the degraded and mined areas around Allahabad. Local farming communities preferred to go for jatropha cultivation on the field bunds and in block plantation as a pure crop and as an intercrop system with bamboo, banana and selected medicinal plants.

Dr. Tewari organized several villages to participate in this endeavour and provided them the technical support in doing so. He collected and evaluated a large number of accessions of the identified plant spp. for their suitability to local conditions and from among them selected the promising ones. Through a support from Sir Dorabji Tata Trust in 2003, his research and development team produced nurseries and planting materials and assisted local communities in growing the crops in those degraded and unproductive lands.

With a modest beginning at Utthan farm, there are now about 735 ha. of productive jatropha plantations and varying acreages of  medicinal plants in and around the vicinity of villages, such as Kataula and Jhlawa in the neighbourhood of Allahabad, influencing the livelihoods of atleast 100,000 people.  Also under his guidance, Utthan made a buy back arrangements for farm produce for further use in the expanded plantations in other states and in medicinal preparations in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Utthan is also buying back jatropha seeds for running a bio-diesel plant at its headquarters at Jhalwa. Bio-diesel produced at this plant is used for generating electricity and running of water pumps for irrigation.

Encouraged by a complete stoppage of blue cow attack in banana fields which have been fenced with jatropha hedges on the boundary, farmers got increased income from sale of banana and jatropha seeds. Farmers also grow fodder and have started fencing their legume crop fields with jatropha. This has brought a completely new dimension to their livelihoods and a buffer to the climatic aberrations in the area.

Farmers now have opportunities for regular employment in various aspects of agroforestry farming. There is a substantial decrease in the migration, and new enterprises, such as dairy have come up in the area. A survey of participating villages shows that about 60% of households have two miltch animal in their household. Kataula village  alone sales about 6000 litres of milk to the dairy perday.

A former member of the county’s Planning Commission, Dr. Tewari headed the Committee on Biofuel Development in 2002 to encourage cultivation of Jatropha curcas, a sturdy plant bearing oil-rich seeds, with wider possibilities of making biofuel if blended with diesel. Dr. Tewari has been able to back up what his committee recommended five years ago by implementing it in a big way in Chhattisgarh. The state has announce a biodiesel policy with a jatropha planting initiative in fallow land and free distribution of 500 plants to every farmer. It has also announced a minimum support price of Rs. 6.50 per kg of seeds. 

Dr. Tewari says that“they are aiming this at the poor, who spend a major portion of their income on kerosene and diesel. We want to make them self-sufficient in energy, by using jatropha oil and biodiesel for domestic purposes,irrigation and genration of electricity.” It can be termed as a piolet initiative towards rural energy security.

As the oil consumption soars and the crude oil prices reach nearly $100 a barrel, the   Government of India is aggressively exploring alternative energy sources and environment-friendly policies, for which a group of union ministers is expected to revisit jatropha- bio diesel recommendations.

Tewari’s interest in jatropha goes back to early 1980s, when he inspected a village in eastern Madhya Pradesh which was stricken by water poisoning. Tewari noticed how jatropha seeds, stuffed and burnt inside bamboo hollows, provided light in villages where no electricity existed. About 200 people of the Baiga tribal community had died and Tewari, trying to reach the inaccessible village of Chadha, turned to villagers to escort him some 12 km after sundown. “There were two torches by burning jatropha seed,” he recalls. “one in the front leading the way and one  following behind. The light lasted the entire journey.”

On his way back, he packed some seeds and passed them onto the Kanpur-based Harcourt Butler Technological Institute. But, not until he became the Director General of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, and the Chancellor of the Forest Research Institute, did Tewari begin serious efforts to collect jatropha seeds, engaging alumni students posted in different parts of the world.  At last count, he has obtained seeds from 31 countries, including several in Africa, such as Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria. His first experiment with jatropha was at Utthan, Allahabad, in 1995.

Tewari’s  jatropha promotion is not without critics. Some say fallow land cannot produce sufficient yield of seeds and is commercially unviable. Others say a multiple-crop policy would have generated more income for the rural community than depending simply on jatropha.  Tewari’s response is that wastelands have to be rehabilitated first to retain moisture and nutrients before introducing a multiple-crop system. “One of my major responsibilities is not to disturb the food security and grow something that is hardy in non-crop areas”, says Tewari. He points out that it is generating employment for about 300 workdays per hectare during the plantation stage in the first year alone and for about 40 workdays throughout the 45 years life of the plant. Villages will be able to get about 2 kg of seeds  per plant from 3^rd year onward.

Apart from improving the economy of local communities, high volumes of jatropha could address other environmental concerns, such as allowing vehicles to use more biodiesel. The residue from the crop can be used as compost and biomass for cooking, apart from having the potential for making glycerene. Tewari says, “India has 65 million ha. of wasteland and, if jatropha cultivation is introduced even in half of this area, it may one day no longer need to depend on crude oil imports” .

An affinity with the tribal communities gave him opportunities to look deeper into their difficulties and led him to write a report in the 1980s for the Government of India on “forest and tibals and lack of amenities in 5,000 forest villages. That led to the government allocating adequate funds for their socio-economic development.

Dr. Tewari spent the first decade of his life in Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati and Wardha Ashrams to escape police harassment as his freedom fighting parents, Vishnu and Purnima Bhaghwan, went in and out of prison. He then went on to write two dozen monographs on plants and trees, and some 102 books that have been translated into 10 languages.

His recent book, Jatropha and Biodiesel,  having a message from the former President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and a foreword by Tata Group Chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata, provides insights on how to engage village communities in the effort.

With three Ph.Ds, including one in biochemistry under Nobel laureate -- Erik Nilsson in Sweden, Tewari says India’s independence struggle has had a deep impact on his life’s work. “It taught us dignity of labour.”

After retirement, he and his wife have been involved with his non-profit Utthan Centre for Sustainable Development and Poverty Alleviation, to which the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust donated Rs 2.2 crore in 2003. With the Tata Trust funding, Utthan set up an oil-extracting plant. Utthan also owns a mobile van with an oil expeller installed, which tours 96 villages around Allahabad so that people can extract oil for free. In return, Utthan keeps the oil cake and the residue, which are then passed on to some four dozen institutes for research and development work, including the Central Food Technology Research Institute in Mysore and the Indian Institutes of Technology in Kanpur and Delhi. 

Tewari’s efforts are bringing a gradual and steady change in the social, economic and social conditions of the people. Local communities see and believe in this as a pathway for sustainable rural development and poverty alleviation, a life long mission of Dr. Tewari, and a larger part of Millennium Development Goal for sustainable development.