Cyclone Ravaged Sunderbans

PAKT: Assistance for educational support to street children adopted by Niharkana

2012-01-29T01:05:00.000-08:00

PAKT: the way ahead

PAKT's Aila rehabilitation program at Chargheri area of Sunderbans came to an end in 2010 after more than 7 months relief / rehabilitation activity from Jun 2009 to Dec 2009 followed by 3-4 months of subsequent survey and feasibility assessment of further support.

PAKT has been dormant since the closure of Sunderban activity.

After discussing with members and contributors of PAKT who participated in the AILA relief & rehabilitation activities at Chargheri, it was felt that PAKT can get involved in some social rehabilitation activities in Kolkata and nearby areas.
Aim is to sustain the good work of extending assistance to those who need it most.

Niharkana

Of late PAKT has been in touch with Niharkana Rehabilitation Center, run by Mrs Kanta Chakraborty.

Niharkana Rehabilitation Center aims to rehabilitate a set of street children, mainly girl children, to self-sufficiency at adulthood. They aim to achieve this objective by providing continuous support to these children upto their adulthood on essential an developmental requirements like food, clothing, education (including support outside their schools), health and contributing to their overall development by involving them in extra curricular activities.

Current achievement of Niharkana is given in this link. [the page needs minor updation with more recent information]

The children are accommodated in an enclosure on Dum dum station and a vendor's union office (otherwise vacant at night) is allowed by relevant body to be used as there shelter for the night. The above arrangements are facilitated by Niharkana by making formal / informal requests and coordinating with the relevant authorities & bodies to provide security and partially protected environment for education & living to these children.

Preliminary visit to the area was done in Sep-Oct 2011 to carry out basic verification of Niharkana activities and the organisation was found to be genuine.
[Press coverage o Niharkana: http://niharkana.org/gallery]

PAKT's educational support to Niharkana

In early January 2012, Niharkana Rehabilitation Center got back to PAKT requesting support for the children's educational needs at the start of the academic session.

The requirement was as follows for approx 20 children currently adopted by Niharkana for long term rehabilitation support:

i) Notebooks for all kids for one academic year

ii) Admission cost for the kids

iii) A few specific books for class 8-9 (other books are provided by the schools)

iv) School bags (tailor made ones with low cost material to reduce costs)

The required amount for the activity is around Rs. 7000/-

On 26th January 2012, PAKT made a visit to Niharkana's enclosure at Platform#1 of Dumdum Railway station. The cheque for Rs 7000/- was handed over to Mrs. Kanta Chakraborty. Sandeepan Choudhury and Angshuman Hazra visited Niharkana Rehabilitation Center on behalf of PAKT.
Niharkana will subsequently provide PAKT with formal expense bills specifying the actual purchases against the heads of expense as listed above. PAKT can also carry out a subsequent verification visit to review the fulfilment of these needs.

Observations during visit

When we visited Niharkana Rehabilitation Center, the children were participating in drawing lessons under tutelage of a gentleman, the drawing teacher. Subsequently they broke the class to have breakfast. Mrs. Kanta Chakraborty was supervising the discipline as well as the needs of the children. She was joined by another lady teacher.

We had taken some pictures during the visit. Those pictures have been captioned and placed in this link.

Please let us know about your thoughts on this latest activity of PAKT.

Request from Niharkana:

During our discussions with Mrs Kanta Chakraborty, we have come to know that a majority of the expenses are pooled from her personal earnings. With external supports being limited to minimal and sporadic one time supports, rising food prices are making it very difficult for Niharkana to sustain the expenses. She requests generous people knowing about Niharkana to visit the facility and extend financial support to help make a difference to the future of these children (long term assistance is preferred, but short term aid also welcome).

Interested individuals, those who follow this blogpost as well as all others who are willing to help, are welcome to independently visit / support / assist Niharkana as the case may be.

We thought it worthwhile to pass on this request from Niharkana to members & contributors of PAKT as well as all readers of this blog.

Trip 12: Blanket Distribution at Attapur & closure of Phase-I HSI work of PAKT

2010-08-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

On 19th Dec 2009, PAKT distributed more blankets to needy villagers. The distribution was carried out in a new village named Attapur in another area of Sunderbans which was also affected by Aila. This activity was coordinated through Swanirvar. Abhijit Dutta visited the place along with PAKT's Kaustuv & Sandeepan for this distribution.
With this activity, PAKT closed the Phase-I work of relief and rehabilitation in Sunderbans for Aila affected regions. Phase-II work planned for later date (2010).

11th trip: Distribution of blankets

2010-01-21T10:16:00.000-08:00

On the 13th of December, PAKT made a visit to Chargheri for the purpose of distributing blankets to families in the 5 villages namely Chargheri, Santigachhi, Parasmani, Bidhan Colony and Lahiripur.

History:
Over the past visits to Chargheri area and especially during the brief surveys that we carried out over various visits during food distribution phase till trip#8, a large number of people had mentioned loss / extensive damage of their domestic belongings including mattresses, quilts, and blankets during the Aila fury. They had responded positively to queries from us (PAKT) on the utility of blankets being distributed to them at the onset of winter. That is how this activity took shape.

Criteria for distribution:
As suggested in an earlier post, PAKT chose to set a criteria for distribution of blankets.
Considering the recent history of activities carried out by PAKT (distribution of food followed by training for backyard farming / seed distribution), the basis of blanket distribution needed some sorting out and agreement. In the end we decided to provide a blanket for each of the families who are
(i) EITHER Card-holders from the food distribution phase (selected based on low family income),
(ii) OR non-card holding direct recipient of agricultural training for saline conditions arranged by PAKT who subsequently used seeds provided by PAKT to grow vegetables,
(iii) OR non-card holding indirect recipient of agricultural training (via other trained villagers) who subsequently used seeds provided by PAKT to grow vegetables,
(iv) OR some others who took an initiative after becoming aware of the training from word-of-mouth, collected seeds from PAKT and made an effort to grow vegetables with the seeds.

Evidently this led to significantly increased numbers. PAKT resources were stretched to provide blankets for all of these families. However assistance from well wishers of PAKT could enable us fulfil the aim of providing a blanket to each of these families.

The distribution process:
We reached the location early as communicated to the recipients through the agricultural community of 5 villages which was recently formed in the area as per insistence of PAKT. Dipankar's men helped with unloading of the stuff as usual. The blanket distribution was started after a declaration to the waiting masses on
(a) the distribution detail (one per family), and
(b) uniformity of quality of blankets being distributed.

Kaustuv and Sandeepan went a step ahead and made a demonstration of a sample blanket to avoid having people whispering their way into "his blanket is better" debates later on.

The distribution was done in 2 queues. As expected the queue for card holders, although longer, was cleared off very soon. The other queue was distributing blankets to people belonging to Cat-(ii) to Cat-(iv) of above types of people, based on lists created by the agricultural trainers Narain Bachar and Anjana Mandal over a number of their trips. It took a whole previous night's homework on these lists by Sandeepan followed by his on-site Herculean effort with the support of the local Agri-cooperative members. All of this simply to untie the mysteries in those sheets containing names of over 500 families who collected seeds from PAKT, and complete the distribution to the satisfaction of (almost) all who expected to benefit as per the criteria set by us.

This one-off effort on assembling the customised lists prepared by non-PAKT people once again highlighted the benefit of implementing the card system during the food distribution phase, particularly the trouble that it saved us over the period besides facilitating equitable distribution. Kaustuv can take due credit for prevailing on the rest of us and insisting on going ahead with an idea that seemed 'too ambitious' to the others.

More survey
This visit was also utilised by some in the group to carry out further survey of backyard garden vegetable growth in Chargheri. This area remained under-surveyed in the 10th visit when PAKT took a status report of growth of various vegetables in these 5 villages. Chargheri was one of the villages where the tidal waters kept rising and ebbing in the lands for months till the dyke was repaired.....hence the result was not expected to be exceptional. The results of some individuals like Bimal Gayen was encouraging for us and - more importantly - for the locals.

Bimal did an excellent job of raising vegetables in his garden as also his brother's garden, while also finding time to help some others to make best use of their pieces of land. In between the numerous stories of failed attempts in Chargheri, there were stories of some like Bimal who persisted even after failure and tried the trainer-taught techniques with their own innovations to conquer the circumstances.

A further round of survey on the fruitfulness of seeds distributed by PAKT was conducted at the queue for blankets. The general feedback from people of various villages supported the reports from previous week's detailed survey at all villages: many people were able to raise and harvest vegetables with most of the seeds distributed by PAKT by employing the anti-saline techniques, the same techniques that were emphasised in the training programs arranged by PAKT and conducted by trainers from Swanirvar. Some of the seeds did not produce results consistently across the areas and the lack of results was fed back to Swanirvar. They agreed to have further discussion on these failed seeds with PAKT.

Pictures:
HERE and HERE. In addition to the usual suspects, we had two new friends Arup and Apurba-da visiting with us on 11th trip. We also had a number of friends from Khelaghar making the trip for the first time to support the blanket distribution by PAKT. PAKT benefitted during the distribution as well as continued agri-survey due to their enthusiasm and their active participation.

10th Trip : Survey of Agricultural Initiative

2009-12-19T11:21:00.000-08:00

Objective of Survey

Our 10th trip on 6th December, was a bit different. Nothing to distribute, not to train but to have a first hand assessment of what is the outcome of our agricultural rehabilitation initiative started on the 5th September,2009. So, on 6th December, a small PAKT team visited the Chargheri area.

It may be recalled that 14 training sessions, both theoretical and hands on, were arranged by PAKT for different groups of villagers. PAKT roped in agricultural trainers Mr Narayan Chandra Bachar and Mrs Anjana Mandal from the organisation SWANIRVAR, for imparting the training and planned, organised and financed the training sessions and related works. In mid October, 14 different types of seeds of vegetables, Spinach (Palong), Radish (Mulo), olkapi, Carrot(gajor), beat, dhone, lanka, kumro, barbati,Ladies finger (vendi), uchhe, Brinjal (begoon) lau, lalshak, were distributed among 560 families of the five villages covered by PAKT.

Seeds were distributed in mid October, 2009 and it was time to visit and review the results. We were eager to see the outcome of the application of different techniques (explained during the training) of growing vegetables in the lands affected by saline water intrusion during the Aila. After the Aila, many people predicted that these lands would be rendered fallow at least for two years. Our survey was critical for assessing the success of the agricultural rehabilitation initiative and deciding our future course of activities in these villages, specially in the agriculture sector.

The Survey

For covering the huge area in a single day, the PAKT team broke up in two groups. One group got down at the Lahiripur Boat Ghat RW and covered Lahiripur and part of Shantigachi. The other group disembarked at the Kakmari bajar ghat and covered Bidhan colony, Parasmani, part of Shantigachi and a few houses of Chargheri. In totality, we visited and interacted with 75 families during our five hour long walk through the villages and gathered substantial doceumentation in the form of videos and pictures (that link shows pictures taken at Lahiripur-Santigachhi; click here for pictures taken by the other team that surveyed at Porosmani-BidhanColony and part of Chargheri). Both teams were accompanied and supported by the representatives of the cooperatives (see later) from respective villages.

Observations

i) Almost all the villagers who took the agricultural training & vegetable seeds from PAKT, have attempted seriously to harvest the vegetables in their own lands. We hardly came across any family who has failed to grow anything from the seeds given by PAKT.

ii) We saw varying results. Not all could apply their trainings in a very effective manner. but those who has judiciously applied has generally got good results. However, we did not observe many cases where people has utlitsed the innovative techniques, like planting in the sack.

iii) Land condition and water availability has got a major impact on the outcome :

a) In certain area the land was flushed with saline water once, while some experienced long stagnation of saline water. The latter type, particularly the low lying field, has not observed a good yield in general (barring a few cases like Nirapada Sarkar) as the salt comes up during drying up process. Relatively higher lands which were not regularly flooded by the tidal cycle have better yield.

b) In general who used the fresh water from tubewells has got good results. But there are few tubewells in the village (particularly in Lahiripur/Santigachi area) and not many people could access them.

c) Interestingly, a number of people also got good yield by using the water from their own pond near the field. This water is likely to be saline (or nonta) to low-saline (or doodh-nonta), depending on two factors
• Duration of exposure to saline water, and
• If the pond was dewatered at least once after Aila.
A little investigation reveals that not surprisingly the ponds with favourable history of both the above events have successfully supported agriculture

d) Some villagers have used the pond water mixed with tubewell water or on alternate days with tubewell water. This should be the optimal solution , because the high iron content in tubewell water can cause impedance to the growth of the vegetables and the villagers are aware of this fact!!

iv) Several families have not utilized their total agricultural land due to the lack of availability of enough “good/fresh” water. A good option may be to take the risk of using the saline water from nearby pond and give it a try, as this has proved almost a sure option for the ponds dewaterd at least once after the Aila.

v) In a large number of cases palong shak is affected by some insects The training covered these issues. So we asked the cooperative members to convene a meeting in the village and again remind the vegetable farmers all the basics to get rid of it.

vi) We came across several families in Lahiripur who are living in temporary roadside shanties but have grown vegetables on the plot of land which was once the plinth of their house. Indomitable spirit !!!

vii) On an average, we have noticed excellent results for Palongshak, Mulo, Olkapi, uchhe, Lau & Kumro.

viii) Satisfactory results (with occasional cases of failures) have been noticed for Lalshak, Beet & Vendi.

ix) In most of the cases brinjal (begoon) seeds provided by PAKT was found to be a failure. Rather saplings procured from local markets have good results. Chilli (lanka) and barbati seeds also failed to produce good returns barring a few exceptions .

Conclusion

1. The villagers have regained quite a bit of their confidence and have started believing the possibilities of farming in the saline water affected land using the specialized techniques. The vegetable harvest this winter is a major step towards restoring their agriculture based livelihood. Even some of them are interested to try out paddy cultivation. When we asked a gathering of villagers whether they feel rice cultivation will be possible next year (precisely next monsoon), we were pleasantly surprised by a unanimous positive response. They also repeatedly requested PAKT to also consider distributing suitable seeds for repeat of vegetable cultivation before the rainy season.

2. Following our earlier suggestion and with guidance from the agricultural trainers, a 20 member agricultural community has been formed with representatives from five villages. Through this community they are trying to help each other and sharing their agricultural problems. The cooperative members are trying to take lead roles & ownerships in such cases.

Plan for Blanket Distribution

Both the PAKT teams, explained in detail to a good gathering of villagers regarding the modalities of the distribution of the blankets, specially the issue of bringing some identity proof.

To have a more detailed feedback from the villagers, we asked each of them (who took seeds from PAKT) to fill up a small questionnaire. The simple queries were about training, name of the vegetable seeds that got good and bad yields and what they want to cultivate in the coming monsoon. We explained respective representative of cooperatives to help the villagers in answering it.

Update of Agricultural Rehab - towards Success

2009-11-20T18:42:00.000-08:00

Since our eighth visit, there had been no update, except a small note from Angshuman. You must be wondering that if we stopped our Help Sunderban Intiative in the five villages of Chargheri area (Chargheri, Parasmani, Lahiripur, parasmani and Bishan Colony) . The answer is NO – we are there – works were in progress but we were just waiting for some results before we inform you about the success of our initiative.

Last time we informed about our visit to Chargher on 10^th October for distribution of seed. Yes, we distribute seeds of vegetables (Begun, Lanka, lalshak, Palongshak, mulo. Gajor, beet, olkapi, uchhe,borboti, vebdi, lau, kumro) to 265 families. Next day the seeds were distributed to 150 families through our agricultural trainers. The remaining seeds were brought back by us and later again transported to Chargheri and distributed to a 145 families in the presence of our Agricultural trainers. This carrying back and forth was troublesome, but was necessary to prevent any misuse of seeds and to ensure proper preservation.

Last Saturday our Agricultural trainers were in Chargheri area for follow up training and reported that the results are encouraging. Begun and Lal shak is not so successful, some failures are also noted for barbate and seam but the overall results are encouraging They are expecting a good harvest. In all the situation is upbeat.

Another good thing is that following our suggestions and advise, the villagers have formed a cooperative (unregisted) with representatives form all five villages. They are supposed to communicate with the trainers about problems encountered during the post training farming and any related issues. We had regular contact over phone with some of these cooperative members and they seem to work well in coordination.

We suumarise our agricultural rehabilitation program:

We arranged the agricultural trainings by the trainer from an organization SWANIRVAR,who has successfully carried out similar trainings in Aila affected areas of Hingalgunge. .
Mr Naran Chandra Bachar and Mrs Anjana Mandal have imparted training for 14 days spread over their 5 trips to Chargheri. After distribution of seeds, another two days follow up review and problem solving session was held last weekend.
Direct training was provided to around 260 villagers the five villages, trainings were arranged in different places of these five villages to facilitate uniform opportunity for participation.
We encouraged the villagers to spread the training through “each one teach one” process and another 340 people get “indirect” trained by directly trained trainees. We allowed villagers who are not PAKT card holder (introduced during relief) to take part in the training program. Only requirement was the trainee should have his own land.
The training not only taught techniques of vegetable faming in this type of saline water affected land but also generated asset maps of the villages, crop calendar etx. Trainees were enlightened on general cropping practices, problems of natural disasters and rising of sea water level.
We only provided seed to the villagers who completed training. Around 600 villagers were eligible on this ground.
We procured seeds from SWANIRVAR by paying them the necessary amount. Each set of seed packet (comprising seeds of 14 different vegetables) cost us 55 Rs (including packing). We asked the villagers to give 20 Rs for each set of seed packet. This was basically to get their commitment for pursuing the agriculture and to manage the three fold increase in the number than our initial estimate. It is worthy to mention that during distribution the villagers themselves admitted it would have cost them around 80 Rs, to get this quality and quantity of seeds from market. In total 550 seed packets were distributed.
The training program so far cost us around 18,000 Rs. and the seeds around Rs. 34,000.

Update on distribution of seeds for backyard farming: Facebook style

2009-10-23T22:20:00.000-07:00

We have not been giving you updates for long. We were actually waiting for the distribution of seeds to be completed. It is going to be completed by today. It may be recalled that PAKT had provided training to farmers of the five villages (Chargheri, Santigachhi, Lahiripur, Porosmoni & Bidhan Colony) for alternative vegetable farming in their backyards. Now we are backing it up by providing seeds to these farmers at heavily discounted prices.

This is what I wrote in a friend's facebook page, and I hope pasting it in a blog for your updation does the job for the time being.

"We have distributed seeds to 600 farmer families in Sunderbans for backyard farming to help them get over the mental block that their salinated lands are no good for farming and those are (reportedly) yielding good results. This proves to them that at least their backyards are back to fertility.
Next step: we plan to help a sample of 20 farmers to grow rice in salinated water logged paddy fields. Aim is to see that all farmers in these villages see the results and get over the same block for their paddy fields. If these bear crop in a couple of months, these can help prove to us - and more importantly to them - that they have hope for next rice season."

The number of families supported is actually 575 as per counting during today's final phase of seed distribution; we found that the number of seed packets were a little lesser than estimated.
Sandeepan will soon come up with a more detailed update on the seed distribution for backyard farming.

Still a Lot is Needed

2009-10-04T20:13:00.000-07:00

Many times we repeated in our blogs that certain constructive initiatives by the administration could have made things lot easier. The basic two initatives we urged several times are:
i) Pumping out saline water from the low lying agricultural lands
ii) Disbursement of the government approved amount for the reconstruction of the destroyed houses.
The same view is echoed by a newspaper report, Aila survivors stare at winter without relief in The Telegraph.
The report is based on an area other than Chargheri, in the Sunderbans, but this is a general picture. This is exactly why we had to take up the agricultural training program in Chargheri in a more elaborate way than initially planned. Only aim is to show the villagers a ray of hope that some agriculture is possible here – they can find some livelihood.
But a lot more is to be done to bring them back to their normal agriculture based life.
Any advise, assitance and direct participation will be a big help for us.

8th trip: pics and videos

2009-09-26T00:25:00.000-07:00

Chargheri 8th Trip dated 19th-Sep-09:
[Pictures and videos in chronological order - links to videos / pics are given in red & grey]

You can find some quite interesting videos of conversations and narrations related to agriculture in the links below. It was quite enlightening for me to be part of these communications as a videographer and I hope it will be the same for people interested in agricultural methods.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKS8g0wv13k
[Video: Breakfast at Malancha, where "parathas" are torn and sold by weight. We have taken our breakfast at this shop on the way to Sonakhali for 7 of the last 8 trips.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf2DPKYIbDo
[Video: As soon as we get on the boat we see a sudden weather change. There is a heavy downpour. Fortunately it did not continue for long. The weather held up for the rest of the day and it helped us walk on the earthen paths inside Chargheri in much easier fashion than we would have done if the earth would have become slippery from rains. ]

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385291640834629090 [Stillpic: Some of the PAKT team members who made the 8th trip - Sudipto, Kaustuv, Angshuman and Saptarshi (L to R). Debajyoti da took the pic, while Sandeepan is missing from the scene]

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385291631790948386
http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385291615197655650
http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385291620322757554
http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385288255170330882
http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385288275125587282
http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385288300346880450
http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385288325038137010
http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385291606837661026
http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385288379373015362 [Stillpix: The stills in above links were taken on the boat. They show the various charts that the villagers have prepared under guidance of Trainers Narayan Bachar and Anjana Mandal from Swanirvar. The next training will have more such charts, especially the "Sampad" or land resource map, being produced for the other villages. Some charts will be common.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvbAgFuT2lw
[Video: This video shows how the locals use the slippery mud to drag their boats from the dyke walls to the river which moves far away during low tide. This is how we are often loaded on a boat and hauled near our main boat by these villagers at departure time when it gets dark.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBYfMZkaXYE
[Video: People are queuing up near the distribution spot for the final phase of food distribution by PAKT to identified families of Chargheri, Santigachhi, Bidhan Colony, Lahiripur & Poroshmoni.]

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385288437409263602
http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385291602272016818 [Stillpic: Snaps of the same distribution point]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngFClG5MAUI
[Video: A few of the villagers, such as the family in this video, have been smart and already started using traditional knowledge of alternative backyard farming methods to maximise vegetable yields. We can see both cultivation on elevated ridges as well as trellis (machan) farming being practised by this family.

However the percentage of people trying out the trellis method / sack method / ridge & trough method cultivation to grow vegetables is still woefully less. We hope the alternative agricultural training will help drive more people towards having backyards like this and thereby capitalise on what they have got.]

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385291559845733186 [Stillpic: Trellis farming at the entrance gate of that family's home]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTaxruOdv6U
[Video: This backyard was used as a practical demonstration of the various alternative farming methods that the trainers advised local farmers to take up in order to maximise the vegetable yields in coming winter season to satisfy food requirements of their own families. Mr Bachar explains the various methods to PAKT.

Most of these techniques may not be as effective in the main farmlands which too low to use draining methods and hence are still covered with salinity. Rice yield may not be possible in the main farmlands with many of these techniques. But these can be highly effective in the backyards of their homes which are naturally at more elevated lands. Most of the people have a significant plot of land attached to their now damaged homes where these techniques can produce enough yields for self-sufficency of vegetables.

Sack method is useful to people who have less backyard land. It maximises production of suitable vegetables while minimising land space on ground. The vegetable shoots growing from all faces of the sacks - top as well as sides - can be guided on to a trellis (machan) to allow the vegetables to grow on the trellis.

A set of beds was also prepared to create a nursery for growing seedlings 'offline' and then transfer to people's backyards.]

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385291583741902162 [Stillpic: Close up snap of a typical sack, showing growth of seedlings in it]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX2ZjukZVAg
[Video: Narayan Bachar, one of our trainers, explains the details of the sack method and 'philosophy' of selection of seeds for that method. The villagers are also being taught to prepare compost on their own from natural wastes, as also preparation of base material for vermicompost (compost with earthworms) which will be complete when they add necessary breed of earthworm to the base material.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmo18YjYfsE
[Video: This video shows that the trainers had planted 5 strands of 7 different varieties of rice in the salt affected farmlands. This has been done 2 weeks back at 2 separate villages - one at Chargheri (seen here) and the other at Poroshmoni. If some of the strands can grow even in that salty-water-salty-soil situation, then these varieties can be tried out in coming days with the hope that at least some fields can get a crop (They have a rice crop sowing season coming up in January 2010).

We can also see how some of the seeds of various vegetables, sown / scattered around the backyard a few weeks back, are all growing up with or without care being taken. The hay spread at the base of the seedlings not only helps loss of moisture so important to the tender plants, but also prevents salt from coming to the surface and affecting the plant (this generally is abetted by drying of moisture).]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMrgf-U4v7s
[Video: Trainers show us examples how the soil in the backyards of local farmers is extremely supportive of vegetation even at this stage.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv7b3btZAXI
[Video: PAKT & the trainers visit a few households that have developed their backyard vegetable farming as per advice provided by the trainers]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p7iR64PfWI
[Video: Sandeepan of PAKT, supported by the trainers, communicates to the trainees that each of them need to teach at least 3 other farmers in the coming weeks. They need to transmit the advanced knowledge gained on alternative methods to other farmers so that all can adopt these techniques to the fullest in their backyards over the coming winter season for self-sufficiency on vegetables.]

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385291648465382386 [Stillpic: Agricultural trainers explaining the purpose of training program to the attendees of the introductory session to 3rd agricultural training program]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aylNungbdts
[Video: Sandeepan and the trainers explain PAKT's long term objective of providing the training on alternative vegetable growth techniques to as many villagers as possible.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9HjP6dFQPY
[Video: Trainers utilise the introductory session to brief farmer families on what they stand to learn (or re-learn) from the training in next 2 days.

They touch upon the topics like how to choose suitable vegetables to be grown in saline conditions, how to beat the prevailing saline conditions, how to apply natural fertilisers like cowdung & compost in backyards, how to protect saplings from drying up of soil & salt effect by covering beds with hay, how seeds can be implanted on land unsuitable for tilling by simple scattering method (instead of sowing) and supported / protected by cowdung water. These topics will be covered in more detail in the next 2 days of training.

Mr. Bachar also briefs people how it is beneficial for everyone to use natural fertilisers like cowdung. Cowdung, when used as fertiliser, causes no harm to humans consuming the vegetables (unlike chemical fertilisers) but also doubles up as a natural pest repellant as well as anti-saline agent.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AGiqlph6BM
[Video: Trainers explain how pest repulsion can be done at no extra cost by sprinkling cowdung water and also spice grinding water ("moshla bata jol") on the seedlings.

Mr. Bachar explains using common sense and traditional methods to beat the present saline conditions. He also cites others to follow the example of those farmers who had already explored such techniques (with or without advice from trainers). These people already have vegetables growing in their backyards, and others can also see the same in their backyards if they start putting in the effort employing the right methods.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaIBkAHJowE
[Video: The statements made by the trainers are spontaneously supported by a local trainee, Alok Mondal. Alok is a farmer from Posroshmoni who received training in earlier programs by the trainers (he can be seen taking down notes in videos of 1st program).

Alok reiterates that the training helps fine tune the agricultural knowledge that the locals already have. Alok opines that after knowing the specific methods, people will be able to adapt with the present saline conditions better and use these new techniques (including producing natural fertilisers and pesticides on their own) to their own benefit. He states the essential aim of this training by PAKT - they know what to do with various crops / vegetables, and the training aims to help the locals adopt the best way to do it.

Mr. Dhiren Mandal, father of Dipankar, also reiterates that the the locals stand to cut down on expenses substantially if they can at least grow their own vegetables instead of having to buy it at extremely high prices from the market.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjSnGprHFZ8
[Video: PAKT has an informal chat with local farmers. They explain some techniques that are proving successful at their backyards. PAKT highlights the need to spread knowledge of ALL newly learnt methods (whether by self-experimentation or by training arranged by PAKT) to others in their neighbourhood.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYWpXOk1MhY
[Video: Mrs Anjana Mandal re-explains the invaluable potential of cowdung as a natural and freely available material with three-in-one utility for farmers in farm as well as in household work: fertiliser, pest / micro-organism repellant as well as protection from salinity.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvBhhkeHQa4
[Video: As the trainers explain how this particular backyard could be (and can still be) made lush with agricutural products INCLUDING rice. Here we can see that stray rice seeds that were washed out by Aila waters from the homes into these open backyards have taken root without any effort from the land owner. With some effort, this significantly large backyard could have yielded an assortment of agricultural products by now.

However the land owner was so far sceptic in taking up any agriculture work after Aila - a mental block that many other farmers have fallen victim to. They also narrate how the rich growth in each strand also prove the need to adopt some optimum scientific spacing for crops (varying from conventional techniques) have proven to give much higher crop yields per unit area.

As far as I learnt from Narayan-da, conventionally the farmers place a few rice strands every 6 inches while SRT (expands to Superior Rice Technique or something like that) advises placing a single strand and also increasing the spacing by almost 3 times. It is apparently proven by results all around that each strand produces many times more than the conventionally placed strands and overall yield per area is increased. However farmers need to be urged to adopt it for the first time. Some of them find it hard to get over the fear of getting low yield.]

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip8PixCellcam#5385288452184719490 [Stillpic: A traditional lantern dimly lights up the top deck of boat during our return journey]

8th Visit report

2009-09-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

After our second trip, we promised people of Chargheri that we will continue our relief with rice distribution till Biswakarma Puja. We could complete that commitment yesterday on our 8th trip. It was possible only because people came forward to be part of PAKT’s initiative. With support from our friends, colleagues &well wishers it we could complete distribution of around 15,500 kg of rice in last three months over 12 weeks in our 8 trips. During this trip also we carried with us 2700 kg of rice and 15 kg soyabean. This time we could not get Kachu (Arum) in the local market.

The distribution was very smooth and distribution of all rice sacks was completed by six in the evening.

We also took with us considerable amount of old clothes (in considerably good conditions) for those who will not be able to buy anything for their pujas. Many of the villagers will not like to have the old clothes for the pujas even in the distressed condition – but it was meant for those who just cannot make it.

Rehabilitation - going back to growing crop

On our way towards Charheri, we had extensive discussion with our agricultural trainers Mr Narayan Bachhar and Mrs Anjana Mandal from Swanirvar. They accompanied us for the third phase of training from 19th to 21st. The outcomes of last two trainings were discussed. In total 61 people have been trained on alternative crop production. A lot of interest has been noted among the trainees indicating they are trying hard to come back to their normal life.

With the advise of the trainers and guidance from them, the trainees have prepared a land asset map (indicating the low lying land, watrerlogged areas, flooded lands, different soil categories) of Chargheri. Also a calendar map of crops and kitchen vegetables has been prepared. This gives a nice calendar about which crop or vegetable is most appropriate for cultivation at a particular time of the year.

From the attendee list of 1st 2 trainings, we felt that villages far away from training location were less represented in 1st two trainings. We hoped that change in venue for this phase could help bring in more people from other villages. We also decided to ask attendees of other villages in introductory session and at food distribution queue to bring in more people for this training, which is really a refresher course with an emphasis on saline conditions. [From reports of our trainers on 20th September, this seems to have proved true. This time the training has been shifted to Santigachhi high school and other villages were well represented this time]

After reaching Chargheri, we visited the nursery prepared by the local people during the last two phases of training under the supervision of the trainers. Extensive use of compost manure, straw, cowdung water, raising the level of the soil in low lying areas with drainage facility, seeding in the sackful of earth – all saw the same result in the backyard gardens. Green sprouts confirmed the fact that it is possible to cultivate in the backyard plots of people. This was the one of the objectives of our rehabilitation initiative: to bring back the belief among the mass in these villages that cultivation is possible in their backyards. Just the application of the right technique and making some new additions to the existing techniques they know is all that is required to master the existing conditions in their backyards.

It is much more difficult in the farmlands inundated in brackish water. However, trial plantation of 7 varieties of paddy have been made in salty waterlogged lands of 2 different areas. This was done to find out the most suitable variety of rice that may be tried out for next year's crop during Jan'10, if that is possible in some areas.

We find that the people know of most of the techniques suggested by trainers for the backyard. Yet we could clearly see that barring few exceptions they were not adopting it across the villages. The training can help push them do what they need to do, and start doing it NOW. They can grow their own vegetables in the winter if they can succeed making their backyards lush with greenery even as the farmlands still await redressal.

The introductory training session was started in our presence. We explained to the trainees that each trainee should teach another three persons what he learns. This is the easiest way for dissipation of knowledge. To facilitate the people from the four villages other than Chargheri, it was decided that the training will be held in the Santigachhi primary school from next day. The method of training is participative. Keeping the kind of response from farmers in mind, some further training in early October will help get more people into farming mode before the middle of October when some of the seeds need to get sown.

At the end of relief phase we need to mention one point – Kaustuv from Pather Katha , our one of the main pivots of PAKT, was the only person to be in Chargheri in all the eight trips. Kudos Kaustuv. It is by no means an easy job.

It is all happening because of you

2009-09-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

We joined a group of relief providers and set off for an unknown destination deep within the Sunderbans in end June, over a month after Aila struck the area and paralysed life for numerous villages and communities in the Sunderbans. We contributed some money towards the cause, and wanted to be caring enough to ensure that the foodstuff reaches the people that need it. But we were then thinking of a one-time support.

It all changed when we reached the destination where these villagers lived. We saw the condition of Chargheri & other southern villages of Satjelia. Each of the then-unformed PAKT group showed vocal / silent support to continuing the effort to supply basic food assistance to these severely affected people. To give them something to fill their bellies after their livelihood was put on hold for 2 years, and ALSO to show them a ray of hope, "to reassure them that not everyone beyond that floating horizon of the tidal waters has forgotten about them" (as we put it in our first blogpost).

We went to you with an extended plan to support these people for next few months with food relief. The basic plan was to pick up a social unit of people and supply them with bare minimal nutrition for the next months, at least till Sep'09. All of us subsequently speculated on the specific locations to lend our services to, and agreed that the devastated families of Chargheri & other four villlages (Santigachhi, Bidhan Colony, Lahiripur, Porosmoni) were as much deserving of assistance as people of other Aila-devastated areas in the Sunderbans. Then we discussed the number of people we had to support as a social unit and the quantity of rice per head that we could supply on an extended basis (was it too less to have any meaning?). We formed PAKT and re-visited the original speculative head count and rice quantity against the funds that we practically expected from within the group (PAKT) and their well-wishers - all of you - based on personal commitments and responses.

When we found that the funds were falling short of the target, we re-appealed to all of you and you responded by further replenishing PAKT funds so that commitment to supply food till Sep '09 could be met. We also asked you to join us and help us serve these people, and again got positive responses from you.

We needed to make our distribution system robust and organised, eliminating chances of deserving candidates losing out to strongmen who nudge the weaker folk out of the queue to grab more relief. Purbasha, a local eco-tourism group, offered some manpower assitance during our visits and also helped us collect local information. Thanks to Kaustuv's planning (and insistence) we implemented an extremely successful, uniquely numbered card based system for the families we identified as being 'covered' by PAKT.

Subsequently when we found that these people were going to have to fend for themselves after September, we went to them and asked them what they felt is the way forward. We did not think continuing with relief or extending it beyond September '09 as the right way forward. Fortunately, that was also the feedback we got from a lot of the locals. They wanted to start doing something for themselves.

We tried to build on that good spirit and willingness shown by the local people towards rehabilitating themselves. We found support from two NGO's, PRISM and Swanirvar, in arranging for the most effective self-rehabilitation that we think is possible for a multitude of farmers struggling with salined lands. After some preliminary background work, PAKT have arranged to train the local farmers in a manner so that they can grow their own vegetables come this winter. That will help these farming families to sustain themselves as well as to certainly reduce their expenses on expensive vegetables bought from market. The farmers will also have to take additional responsibilities and share their newly gained alternative crop related knowledge with other farmers in their villages who could not be accomodated in the external training.

We have also placed 4 needy local people at some hotels around West Bengal for jobs. More jobs are possible if more locals show their willlingness to move out.

The people of Chargheri and the other 4 villages still need to be supported before we can stand back and say that "they are rehabilitating themselves". The crop training (3rd phase) for another 25 odd farmers begins tomorrow. We then plan to distribute relevant seeds to ALL farmers (farmers with formal training as also farmers getting "second hand" training from formally trained farmers) before mid October so that the vegetable crop can be sown at the right time.

We are trying to look for more self employment options for these people in the field of cottage industry products. Exploring training of locals (especialy women) in those directions is certainly not far from our minds but choosing the right local skill is of paramount importance for making the products saleable in the market.

We plan to distribute blankets for these families ahead of the winter.

Tomorrow (19th Sep '09) is going to be our 8th trip to the location where PAKT have been distributing rice at Sunderbans since end of June '09. This is planned to be the last visit where PAKT provide food materials to the local people. We have been declaring this intended closure of relief on 19-Sep-09 over the past 3 visits to the recipients so that it does not come as a shock to them. We have also seen enough enthusiasm amongst locals with the alternative crop training program to believe that they (the local farmer community) see a lifeline in it, that they are willing to cultivate their new techniques on whatever land they can find untouched by stagnated brackish water. The relief had to come to an end, and they are accepting it as a reality at the right time.

While PAKT will continue visiting the area for other rehabilitation efforts mentioned above, the food relief part of Help Suderbans Initiative ends tomorrow. When we distribute rice for the last time at Chargheri in about 13-14 hours from now, we hope to get a further confirmation that the people in general are taking this closure without bitterness, and that they are already looking beyond waiting at queues with cards in hand to witness sacks of rice being stacked under a PAKT banner every fortnight. This sustenance of hope at the end of relief phase is what these people will desperately need to keep themselves afloat in their coming 12-15 months of struggle. Relief will now have to be replaced by self-belief, for which PAKT has been trying to arm them with knowledge to tackle their present state.

We needed a lot of funds to pull off the food relief phase. All of this has happened because of YOU. No words are apt enough to express our gratitude...or its magnitude, nor do we feel any pressing need of that being qualified or quantified. It is festival season here in West Bengal, and may your support / blessings / assistance / prayers / words of encouragement / love be as much with us as with the people we are all committed to continue supporting on their path to rehabilitating themselves.

PS: We may still come back to you for some more help for support of the rehabilitation process. We expect to have proved worthy of your trust so far, and hence we will not hesitate to ask for your (further) help if and when it is needed.

Some videos of introductory session of 1st crop training program

2009-09-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

We had a brief discussion with the trainers in the car on our way to Sonakhali:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-n9xsnVAmE

The following videos were shot during the interaction between trainers and the local farmers in the introductory session of the 1st 3-day crop training program. The program was held in Chargheri Abaitanik PRathomik Bidyalaya, a local primary school.

Inside the Primary school :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE8sTofjC50

The trainers say a few lines about themselves, and the purpose of their visit. They flag off the session in traditional fashion by singing a few lines from a local song glorifying the Sundari tree, one of the specialities of the Sunderbans [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evU00sURlKM

The trainers are made aware that farmers from 5 villages will be participating in the program [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PjH3JSHVe4

Farmers of each of the 5 villages can possibly have independent problems. Trainers propose that it may be worthwhile if they (trainers) concentrate on one vilage on each day of training. (This was not required, as all farmers later confirmed that the problems were similar across all villages.) The attentive farmers are told about shifting focus from rice (their principal produce from these fields) to other vegetables for the coming winter [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npPSs9D1PRU

Trainers touch upon the important part about farmers beginning alternative crop production at backyards and plinths of their damaged houses. Even salinity resistant crops can grow only after land is freed from saline water. This is a key factor in this area, as the salined farmlands cannot be drained (our survey reports support that). The plinths are higher, and hence present more chance to produce these vegetables.
The trainers bounce off some ideas as to which varieties of vegetables can be taken up in these conditions. The farmers are told about some techniques to free the salined fertiliser stocks from salinity.

Some trainees were thinking aloud that some options will require resources beyond their present affordability. PAKT requested them to leave that worry aside for time being and pick up all feasible options from the ongoing program. Subsequently these will be assessed and resource requirements will be discussed and supported by PAKT to the best of their ability. [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq8pSXivEh0

Trainers suggest pumping out water from ponds to 'harvest' rain water for the alternative crop. In further discussions though the farmers say this would be useless. The drainage system in this island is abysmal. Drained out water refuses to go anywhere and overflow from salined canals would flow back into the ponds and farmlands. In other words, elevated reservoirs would be needed for rain water harvesting. [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D9ok15O0_E

Trainers look to instill confidence in farmers that the options that they will explore with the farmers are not experimental ones. All of those have already been tried and found to be productive at areas similar to theirs. When they hear the names of areas where these techniques have been implemented, all farmer express agreement that the nature of their farmlands and soil is also similar to those. One senior farmer adds that amidst post-Aila despair they are seeing hope that some people are at least trying to support them in whatever way possible. [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LaVNMk0Pu8

The trainers explain to the farmers that over the next one year, the thrust will be on surviving through to the next agricultural season. Hence they need to grow specific vegetables which can provide their family a diet and thus cut back on expenses towards buying food from market. [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygAS1zXzIC4

Trainers briefly touch upon some techniques to grow alternative crop. In this video they explain how rain water harvesting can be done right at thelocation where the seeds of alternative will be sowed, so that the crop gets rain water during growth. Local mounding at crop location also helps non-accumulation of salinity at the elevated point where crop is sown. Expectedly these will be discussed interactively during the next 2 days [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvYh9gDc7Wk

The canals for rain water harvesting serve as 'reservoirs' in other seasons. Now they are filled with saline water, and these are flowing into the fields to spoil the fresh water from rains. [i.e. unless saline water from these canals are emptied they will keep despatching saline water into the fields]. However it appears that these canals have no sluices into the river, hence emptying them may not be possible....can we isolate these canals at least, so that they do not 'send' saline water into fields? Also, the non-utility of the canal water will lead to the farmers not being able to get a harvest after the rains. People need to look at alternatives, even "personal" rain water harvesting if possible. Conventionally the ponds are part of personal rain water harvesting, but those face the same problems as the fields (i.e. backflow from salined canals), since the ponds are at same level as cultivable land. I almost went down into a pond beside the primary school while crossing the fields. Essentially, this feedback from farmers seemed to highlight that the cultivable lands and the ponds may well be the lowest points in the system with no drainouts available. If that is the case, isolation of rain water harvest canal is the temporary measure, and complete dewatering of that canal as well as of the fields is the long term measure required for next year's crop to be possible. [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU6tprbJl8g

One of the farmers, Mr. Sarkar (I forget his first name), asked if they will get a certificate from the training. Surprisingly, he was trying to explore his career options as a full-fledged trainer who imparts training (similar to the role of the trainers in the current program)! He was requested to first concentrate on implementing the training into practice. He was also assured that if he is good at his work and is capable of communicating with people, there will be ample opportunities for him. If required, PAKT can then find a way to support him with the recognition that he is good at his job. [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL-GucaRGG8

Mr. Sarkar was further explained by the trainers that there is an ongoing effort to make a 'knowledge core group' of sorts comprising of 4000 such farmers across the state who can train others. They will all be selected based on their work and their willingness to train others, rather than certificates. It has started with a meagre 35 farmers, and the group will take a long time to get fully populated with names. Hence Mr. Sarkar can always turn to that option at a later date when the immediate aim, that of implementing the solutions identified in current training, is achieved. [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF05l6H3xi8

Farmers make a request. They bring to our notice that Chargheri Abaitanik Prathomik Bidyalaya (Chargheri Primary school) is at one extreme of the area we are supporting, and it would be preferable for other villages if either Kakmari Primary school or the High school at Santigachhi is chosen as the venue for next training programs. We are not sure of the modalities to make this change work, and will need to have further discussions to agree to this change. However, the very bad shape of the mud 'roads' (if you can call them so) at all places in the rainy season means some have to travel close to 1½ hours on treacherous path to attend program at this 'remote' location. Apparently the 2 alternative locations suggested above are relatively more central to the area than Chargheri Abaitanik Prathomik Bidyalaya (current venue). However we make it clear that the current training venue cannot be changed for this edition of training. [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJOm5ETgCsg

Trainers egg the farmers of the 4 villages to be "Paagol" (Mad) i.e. single-minded about the purpose they now have at hand - of making some kind of produce this winter from the pieces of land they have. They need to forget the odds against them and get down to the work itself. Our trainers try to inspire them with the fact that people from far-away Kolkata like us are making this tough trip repeatedly to support them. Although we all know that there can be no comparison of our fortnightly ordeal with their life-changing nightmare, it was the need to be single-minded that our trainers were trying to demonstrate. [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN_aURqkmyM

The trainers ask the farmers to go ahead and do something for us (PAKT & their trainers). They are told that they can make us feel satisfied about this work and believe that all our efforts were worth it. We will be almost as happy as they will be if 3-4 months down the line a few of them can stand up and say that they have been able to bring about a postive change in their post-Aila condition by sticking to the guns and putting in the hard yards to produce some alternative crops. [Please amplify your volumes if sound is inaudible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaYfdoEj2lE

An outside view of the front side of Chargheri Abaitanik Prathomik Bidyalaya, where the inaugural crop training program is held. We are told that the dilapidated building on left side of the main block is a result of Aila fury. Also, we are assured that the continuation of training till Monday should not interfere with the classes (Even if it did, we would have preferred the school to remain closed for a day to let the training continue. Having this training is far more important than a day's schooling for young kids at this point of time)

Employment of some people from Chargheri at various hotels

2009-09-13T06:26:00.000-07:00

We have missed out on highlighting to you the news of another important bit of support that we could provide to some people of Chargheri over the past 2 visits. I am including Kaustuv's email below which some of you may have already received. It is self-explanatory. This is a very effective initiative for which PAKT's Khelaghar and Biswajit da have taken a leading role.

Inspite of the desperate condition that they find themselves in, people of Chargheri have generally shown mixed responses when presented with the option of moving out for a job. Hopefully a feedback from the four people, who have already moved out by taking up jobs at Sikkim, will help some others make up their minds on taking up the remaining offers available.

--------------

"As per the commitment made by PAKT to the local people of Chargheri, we have successfully placed 4 men from Chargheri into Hotel jobs at Rinchenpong, West Sikkim. These guys halted overnight at Kolkata
on 8th Sep'09. On 9th Sep'09 they departed for Sikkim via Darjeeling Mail and on 10th Sep'09 they have reached the hotels at Rinchenpong, safely and in good health.
All the arrangements for these 4 men, since they reached Kolkata, have been done by the Hotel owner Mr. Dibbendu Ghosh. He has also arranged for garments, shoes and other necessities of these 4 men. At present these 4 men are working in two Hotels at Rinchenpong. They will undergo a training cycle of 2/3 months, after which they will be fully functional to serve the Hotel & its customers.
The names of these 4 men are - Harekrishna Mondal, Surajit Mondal, Manab Mondal & Ranjan Mondal. They are placed in the hotels, "Rinchenpong Nest" & "Norla", at Rinchenpong, West Sikkim.
This is just the beginning of the PAKT's Employment Rehabilitation program. We are planning to provide such placements to 15 more villagers from the Aila affected Chargheri area and hopefully this shall be accomplished within a month's time. At present, we are satisfied to be able to save at least 4 families by providing them an alternative livelihood.
Regards,
Kaustuv (on behalf of
PAKT)"

An eventful journey on the 7th trip

2009-09-12T21:28:00.000-07:00

The journey from Sonakhali to Chargheri during 7th visit (05-Sep-09) was somewhat more eventful than other weeks.

We woke up early in the morning to find that the overnight wind and rain still continued into the dawn. We started a little late. On the way to Sonakhali, Sandeepan got a met office forecast that there will be a cyclone. We looked at each other for a while. None of us is a regular at river travel, especially in areas that are so severely exposed to tropical storms. We second-guessed the wisdom of making the trip with a cyclone alert in the backdrop. However all of us knew fully well that people will be waiting for our food materials at Chargheri as we have promised to come this week. Besides, the crop training was scheduled to start from this visit.

Over the preceding weeks we had to put in some effort in making this training happen. All of us in PAKT saw the importance of this training to the locals who are largely farmers. Since the time he learnt of this idea, Sandeepan in particular had put in relentless effort towards this training program. An earlier attempt to get this effort started had to be cancelled because the trainers were done in by vehicle problems on their way to Sonakhali. Trainers, thus, could not make that earlier trip. This time we were determined to start the crop training program. It was too important a program to get delayed any further. We decided on going ahead and travelling to Chargheri.

We started the journey from Sonakhali at around 11 AM. Some videos of that journey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHSESLAHqV4

[This video shows the windy conditions prevailing during most of our river journey to Satjelia on 5th Sep 2009]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL_FGen-7gQ

[The wind and rain lashed us to wetness on the top deck of the boat. Kaustuv and Sandeepan were better served by their rain jackets.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu0CXg0KO38

[The usual practice of picking up Sumo driver from Gosaba. We started from Sonakhali where we buy the rice. Mahender took the Sumo to Gadkhali and crossed the ferry to Gosaba, where we pick him up.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCj_GF5leE0

[A bird soared along with the boat for a stretch near Chargheri, as if to wish us good luck]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVoYp_c98mg

[Soon the well wishing bird near Chargheri was joined by a companion. They said hi to us and then went their way.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glYl5EeCz7I

[Since the water was already receding, our boat was anchored at a distance from the banks. The remaining distance was covered on the now-familiar small boat. We also carried some bags of rice and kochu (Arum) with us as also the soya packs, so that initial distribution could be promptly started even as the material gets unloaded from the main boat.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIRIHlV1vfA

[Another common sight on our visits: A video of the small boat being dragged from the river over the mud to the distribution point. As I said in an earlier blog post, the slippery mud (which poses a serious accident risk to all who walk on the dyke paths) is a boon for this activity.]

The return journey had a little twist a well. It was dark and we were yet to start our return journey when we learnt that the cyclone warning was now a TV news. Upon return to the boat, we learned that the boat hull had been punctured at the bottom by a blow from the anchor spikes during lifting operation. Some repair work had thankfully been done to 'cover' the return journey.

Midway through the 3 hour journey we realised that water still kept seeping in though the repair work. We checked it out. Thankfully the rate on seepage was evidently too low to raise an alarm. Also, the boatmen were attentive to that . They kept throwing out accumulated water from the boat hull manually from time to time.

The good wishes from the two birds on Ganral river near Chargheri were desperately needed on our way back as well.

Agricultural Training Phase II

2009-09-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

From tomorrow Second Phase of Agricultural Training on alternative crop cultivation will be starting at Chargheri. The first phase of training program, initiated during our last visit (on 5th September), was successfully completed on 7th, covering over 25 farmers from our five villages: Chargheri, Parasmani, Santigachhi, Bidhan Collony and Lahiripur. The training started with a great enthusiasm almost 40 farmers were present on the first day including a number of women folks. Trainers are happy with the keen interest of the villagers and the trainees are satisfied after learning something new. The trainers from the NGO
SWANIRVAR, Mr Narayan Bachar and Mrs Anjana Mandal, will again be back to Chargheri Primary school tomorrow (on 11th September) to resume the second phase of training with a fresh batch of 25 farmers. This time the trainers will distribute some seeds to the trainees of last batch so that they can start experimenting in the field. The trainers have suggested for arranging lunch for the trainees to ensure uninterrupted day long training and PAKT has readily agreed to arrange for the same. The responsibility of food and lodging of the trainers during these three days will be taken care of by Purbasha, our local group of friends. We have requested the trainers to identify at least 10 trainees from the last batch who can impart further training to some more farmers in the villages. This way we will try to benefit maximum possible villagers from this agricultural training program.

As advised by SWANIRVAR, the farmers will have to start working with the new techniques in their fields by October 15th. That is essential to have a crop of suitable vegetables during the coming winter. The seeds can always be handed over to them before that deadline but the key part is making hundreds of farmer families aware of what needs to be done with those seeds under the prevailing conditions.

The only way to achieve this is to train 2 or 3 batches of farmers through external trainers and then getting the rest of the farmers trained by these trainees. In other words, trainees will need to become trainers within a span of days. This is easier said than done. The first thing they will need to do that is some initial work on their fields with the alternative methods.

To achieve this, we have tried to make sure that the trained farmers start on their fields within days of receiving training. This is the principal reason behind PAKT distributing seeds to first lot of trainees this early. Subsequently they can train others in their villages about the procedures learnt by them. This is the only way to attain the target that by early October, majority of the villagers will be ready to make productive use of the seeds that PAKT plans to support them with.

7th Trip in pictures

2009-09-09T10:13:00.000-07:00

Reaching Chargheri Primary school for initiation of alternative crop training program

Inaugural session of 3-day alternative crop training program for local farmers, starting 05-Sep-09

Local farmers interacting with the trainers during the inaugural session

Chargheri Abaitanik Prathomik Bidyalaya: the venue of inaugural training program for local farmers on alternative crop production

The still pictures from 7th trip (including food distribution camp and crop training) can be found in the following Picasa albums:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseVII#

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip7Pix#

Crop Training Program: Introductory session

2009-09-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

It is a matter of sweet coincidence that the alternative crop training program for farmers of Chargheri was initiated in Chargheri on Teachers' Day, the 5th of September. Furthermore, it was arranged inside a primary school, Chargheri Abaitanik Prathomik Bidyalaya!

The first crop training program was a 3 day session for around 40 farmers (including women from farmers' families). Introductory session of this program took place on the 5th of September in front of PAKT. The attendance was a little lower on this day due to heavy rains and cyclonic weather which prevented many farmers from the distant villages to come. [Request you to spare some time and look into the videos at the bottom of this post to get a feel of the terrain that they need to cross to reach any destination far from their homes on a rainy day]

A lot of effort went into arranging this program. The training was given by experienced trainers Shrimati Anjana Mondal and Shri Narain Bachar on behalf of an NGO, 'Swanirvar'. We liked what we saw in the inaugural session of the training program. Clear communication was happening between trainer and trainees. The trainers clarified that the purpose of their visit was to provide guidance to the trainees and to agree on some proven solutions, rather than imposing something new on the latter. The trainers asked for feedback from the local farmers to chart a way forward. The trainers also urged the locals to leave aside the despair they must be having within and be single minded on the purpose for which the training is arranged.

The locals too appeared to be eager to make a success out of the knowledge they gain from Swanirvar trainers. A senior person amongst farmers said that they can see the brighter side when they find people from far off people coming to help them. They were assured by us that they will be supported by PAKT further down the line in their effort to get a produce.

This 1st phase of 3-day training has now been completed. We kept in touch with the trainers over these 2 days of hands-on workshop following the introductory session to keep ourselves updated with the progress. Also, we needed to check that two of them were confortable as they too were visiting this area for the first time.

We are awaiting the detailed report from the trainers. The feedback sounds encouraging from both sides. However the amount of land that each trainee can take up right now is likely to be substantially lesser than the total land owned by him / her. This is mainly because of the absolute non-existence of draining facility to help empty the brackish water from their fields and ponds. This is so frustrating..... if only there could be some miraculous way of emptying the area of the trapped saline water in their inland rain-water irrigation canals as well as fields. Or a not so miraculous way of someone relevant in the administration driving to execute this critical need of these villages and getting the dewatering done from all the areas in the next one month's time.

Some videos of the mockery of a 'path' that we traversed to reach the school from distribution point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoYrdUjo18w
A major part of our walk from food distribution point to the primary school (venue of crop training) consisted of plodding in the stagnated water on the erstwhile paddy fields. It served a direct reminder that if Aila had not happened then these fields would be sporting a lush-green-with-crops look instead of the depressing state they are currently in. Also, these are quite dangerous for unintroduced people like me to be walking on (A Purbasha guide was leading me along with Shri Narain and Smt. Anjana - but I fell way behind on both up and down trip). There may be ponds on the sides of these plots. Also, almost all plots have local deep cuts from which earth has been taken away for bund reconstruction work. On the way back I fell in one of those by deviating from the route shown by our 'guide' (the Purbasha volunteer) and promptly found myself standing in chest deep water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3JOd9nbeWU
In this video we are seen to be heading towards the venue where local farmers are waiting for us. This slippery entrapment is all that the locals have got to use as a road to travel. These mud paths are better when dry, in that at least standing still is not an ordeal. When these get soaked with rains, the mud gets really slippery. Any travel from one area to another on these 'concoctions' is like an adventure sport. To be able to travel some distance, especially climb up /down a slope, without having a fall feels like a triumph.

We from PAKT do it only during daytime, that too once in a fortnight on a special mission....and we still get daunted by the risk of it. Not without reason though. Sandeepan has already picked up a cut below the foot and an upturned toe nail in two separate trips while moving in the mud. And it is a miracle that the others amongst us have not had some more such injuries. The locals - they need to 'travel' on it every day (and also during the night if required with no illumination around) to go to dyke work, to go to the riverside for "bagda maara", to visit the market place for buying essentials, to go to the doctor, to visit the nearby shop for a sudden household requirement and to rush back home upon hearing that someone in the family is sick or injured. Children need to do it to go to school and come back.

Often these roads would have a break and the connecting part would be a plod in the inundated fields (including a treacherous climb down from the slope, as well as an equally harassing climb up). By the time we reached Chargheri, It had rained for over 24 hours and there was a cyclone warning. The location of this primary school selected as venue was near the distribution point (a mere 20 minute ordeal) which is at an edge of the area covered by PAKT. Hence a number of farmers must have needed to travel over these over miles to come to the inaugural program on alternative crop training organised for them. We were lucky that the rain held up specifically at the times we were moving through these areas.

Reaching the school: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip7Pix#5378309831895574290

The PAKT banner on display at distribution point

2009-09-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

SEVENTH TRIP COMPLETED

2009-09-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

A landmark trip for us. We could finally start our rehabilitation initiatives. The initiative was kicked off with the training program on alternative crop production by the trainers from the NGO SWANIRBHAR, and the inaugural program was scheduled with our visit. This was practically the main reason for which we decided to proceed to Chargheri on 5th, despite heavy shower and cyclone warnings and met the cyclone on the way.
Two trainers (Mr Narayan Bachar and Mrs Anjana Mandal) from SWANIRBHAR, accompanied us for the first phase of training. With help from Purbasha volunteers we could identify 50 trainees beforehand. Many of the farmers from far away villages and could not come due to the abominable condition of paths (if we can call them even paths) connecting villages during heavily rainy days like it was on 5th September but attendance is expected to increase in the following 2 days. The trainers met them in the primary school building of Chargheri and started the first phase of training program for 5th to 7th. They will discuss in detail the available practical options on growing vegetables in lands “poisoned” by saline water and guide the farmers to implement those options.
It is doubtful if the other part of the training, the practical hands-on training in fields, will be possible in this phase due to inclement weather. The condition of fields after these 2 days of rain may not help either. However following the initial interactions and positive responses from the local farmers, the trainers are confident that they can still be given enough training in the first phase for them to make a start and for them to spread the word around in their respective villages on the techniques to be adopted and crops to be selected.

Food Distribution
The food distribution was not easy this time. We have to take a smaller team (six only) to accommodate the trainers. Purnendu, a friend of Debajyoti-da joined us for the first time. The river was full of waves and from the mid river (where the boat anchored), the PAKT team has a tough time to move to the distribution point on land. The volunteers of Purbasha also had a much harder task in downloading and taking the rice and arum (kachu) sacks from our boat over the sticky and slippery mud. Braving sudden spells of torrential rains, almost 2100 persons came to the distribution point. With great help from Mahendra (he drives our car almost every time and join us for Chargheri instead of waiting in the car) and Purnendu, we could distribute almost 2100 kg of rice along with kachu and soya nuggets very quickly. We continued in dark till the last person in the line is served. The only source of light for verifying the cards was the torch lights held patiently by the volunteers of Purbasha. What is left (around 700 kgs of rice) will be distributed in the next few days by volunteers of Pusbasha.

Rehabilitation Program
At the starting of the distribution, like the earlier weeks we again informed the people that the relief stage involving food distribution will be over by 19th September and we will move into next stage – rehabilitation. Biswajit-da, our seniormost team member from Khelaghar, has already arranged for unskilled jobs for five local youths in the hotel industry. With not many opportunities available for alternative occupation in the village, it will be a good opening for them. Biswajit-da is trying hard to place another 10-15 people in similar jobs. With the agricultural training started, we hope to provide some restoration of the agricultural livelihood. As advised by Nilangshu, the key person from SWANIRBHAR, who responded to our request for arranging the training; the seeds will be distributed to the farmers by mid October. PAKT has already committed to bear all expenses for training and distribution of seeds.

PAKT Banner
So far we have not used any banner of PAKT. We did not feel it is necessary. But since our last visit we found that quite a few members of our extended team (everyone who supports the initiative), who could not accompany us, is getting confused that all things are distributed with a banner of PURBASHA in the background. So to clear the confusion, we just put up a simple banner during this trip.

Problems
Our main concerns still remain
i) Getting water out from the low lying agricultural lands. We know we cannot do it, but some initiative from irrigation department will be very helpful and we can motivate the villagers to carry forward any good suggestion in this regard. In the very least the backflow of salined water from these main rain water harvesting canals to the farmlands & ponds needs to be immediately arrested. If we can achieve at least that miraculously in the coming few weeks, the farmers have an outside chance of emptying their ponds and holding some water from any October rain to bring up their crop in the coming winter. The emptying of main canals can then be carried out in coming months.
ii) Proper restoration of the embankment. On our way to Chrgheri this time we observed that in some locations, the newly formed embankment showed signs of breach. Chargheri is still surviving, but not sure how long it can hold on
iii) Mobilising the government fund for restoration of houses. This is also something we could not help directly, but believe something needs to be done
We appeal to the people of extended PAKT Team and our well wishers to help these cause

PAKT banner

2009-09-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

We have been asked a common question by some of the readers of these blogposts: "Is it you or Purbasha doing this relief work?" Some of the queries are from contributors to PAKT effort. When we tried to look for the reasons behind this common query, we found that most of the people in our video interviews referred to 'Purbasha' the eco-tourism group as the organisation that distributes relief to them. They do not seem to be well aware of PAKT's contribution to the relief they get, perhaps because they 'see' only Purbasha at the distribution point. Even the pictures we share show banners of Purbasha.

Till date we (PAKT) have not put up any banner during our activities at Chargheri. Purbasha is a local eco-tourism group that was already known to the locals before Aila happened. Now in this post-Aila phase, Purbasha are not only playing a 'visible' role in the final step of distributing the relief after our boat reaches Chargheri, they also put up their banner at each of the distributions. As a result the general impression that comes out to commoners is that 'a group of people from Kolkata' are coming regularly and Purbasha is doing this with their support. The name PAKT is not known to many people.

Why have PAKT not put up their own banner? The answer is simple. We never had any intention to put up photos of our banner and let people see those. Trying to publicise the PAKT name is something that we never intended to do. We are not 'regular's or NGO's. PAKT was formed only to carry out this effort. Yes, we do try to publicise this relief & rehabilitation work going on at Chargheri through the net and email communications. But it is done solely to bring in more help for the people we are supporting. Publicising the name under which this work is being done is the last thing on our minds.

The principal reason for sharing the pictures and videos was to update our contributors about our activities. We owe it to them that they learn in detail where there money is going. Another purpose of bringing the videos & snaps up on the net is to demonstrate the need to support people in the area we have chosen. The PAKT group at Kolkata felt that presence or absence of PAKT's banner did not have much to add or take away from the purpose of PAKT.

PAKT had no objections to Purbasha putting up their banner and publicising their participation in this welfare activity. They were our local facilitators and were also contributing to the effort. They too are providing the support to their village folk as a welfare job. Besides mobilising their own people at Chargheri to handle huge foodstocks on every visit, Purbasha's contribution also includes meeting us at Kolkata in between visits to chalk out way ahead, distribution of cards, passing important information to locals and such other supporting work. If they wanted to put a banner up for that participation, we did not see much harm in that.

However the 'invisibility' of PAKT at distribution activities, essentially our unwillingness to announce ourselves, has resulted in a lack of awareness of people about the name 'PAKT'. PAKT's contribution is well known amongst people though. We can assure you that the people there know each one of us in PAKT very well. It is just that they are not particularly aware that our collective name is PAKT. They visualise us as "the Kolkata guys that bring in the stuff for Purbasha". We really did not care about it as long as the job is getting done.

Now we know that this invisibility of PAKT is a reason of concern and query for our contributors and supporters. We will take full heed of that concern. We will strive to make more people aware of the critical role of PAKT in the activities being taken up. This will start right away from the coming visit to Chargheri on 5th September. Purbasha have also offered to spread the word on the leading role played by PAKT in the welfare activities that are reaching them.

A banner is expected to help spread the name of PAKT amongst the people we are supporting. Hence we shall have a banner pretty soon!

Update: Here's the banner. It was displayed in the distribution venue durng seventh visit. This snap is clicked there. The role of PAKT was also announced to the people who collect assistance from us.

Exploring Chargheri and Bidhan Colony

2009-08-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

In most of our earlier visits we barely found time to distribute the food and rush back for the return journey. This time Debajyoti da and myself snatched ourselves out of the distribution and tried to carry out a survey to assess some of the ground realities as on date.

This exercise took us to some new localities in Chargheri and Bidhan Colony. Sharing with you some snaps and videos of these places (links in red):

People working on earthwork for the bund
These people are cutting earth from the spoiled agricultural lands to build up / repair the bunds. I hope that is advisable to be done on agricultural land, and does not damage long term prospects of the productivity of this .

Hopefully we will see them cultivating alternative crops on these fields this coming winter after due training. Certainly the normal crop, rice, is set to return within 2 years. Now does this earth cutting from surface of these fields hurt any or both of those prospects? I wish I knew...

A shot of Chargheri on our way to Kakmari Bazar
[not much to add to that snap - we have earlier published a number of pix like that one]

House damaged by Aila but saved from collapse due to presence of 'konchi' (bamboo) reinforcement in mud walls
We found only two "pucca" buildings on the route from distribution point to Kakmari bazar which was close to 2 km away from distribution point (We made this journey via an unpaved and undulating dyke where walking barefoot can cause foot pain to unaccustomed feet - ask me!). None of these were residential houses. We saw evidence that water had reached above window top level in many of the intact houses. The houses that had bamboo stick (‘konchi’) reinforcement in walls managed to keep standing (even after mud was washed away) via support from the bamboo sticks. This house (in above pic) with ‘reinforced walls’ told the story clearly: in the picture we can see that the ‘konchi’s are showing up to man height with no mud around them – and ABOVE it the konchi’s are disappearing into mud still left intact.

Some of the standing houses have been repaired back with thatched roof and applying mud back on the walls. The houses that had walls of pure mud are all erased.

"Aise ujde aashiyaane tinke ud gaye"
This is how some of the occupants of those erased houses are living now.
They are literally living on the road....

The boundary point of Chargheri and Bidhan Colony
[hope that fishing net used as a fence is not the administration's brainchild while marking the boundary...]

The primary school located OUTSIDE the old bund

The old bund near this school was seriously damaged but the school would have been inundated in Aila even if the bund were intact. This primary school in Bidhan Colony is strangely outside of the main bund / dyke and it is at quite a low level as well. In other words, it was always exposed to forces of nature and tidal variations as the bund does NOT protect it.

This omission of a government primary school outside bund premise may look like a surprising flaw in layout of the bund, but we need to remember that pieces of land keep surfacing in these areas every year due to silting. It is quite possible that this school is located in a land area that surfaced AFTER construction of bund. It can (un)safely be expected that there are many such areas across these region. Hopefully the new 'Ring bund', currently under construction, will bring these buildings within the ambit of safety.

The new "Ring Bund" under construction
[This picture is taken facing the river and the old bund is behind the photographer Debu da when this picture was taken. We can see the primary school being covered by this new ring bund.
This video, shot from atop the old bund, shows the above photograph being taken and also indicates the topography near the school]

Bund damage near Kakmari bazar southside approach
[The above video, along with this snap by Debu da, bears testimony of the magnitude of nature's fury faced by these bunds on 25th May 2009. Even after nearly 3 months of restoration work the bund still looks like having been hit by a disaster in very recent past. ]

Kakmari bazar
PAKT discussing with people at Kakmari bazar
Kakmari bazar video 1
Kakmari bazar video 2

On the return journey from Kakmari to distribution point, we met Shri Girindranath Paik and Shri Ajit Kumar Biswas. Both are from Chargheri.

Girindranath Paik is a familiar face at relief distribution (he generally has something to say or some request to make). We met him on the way back and he dragged me to his house. Apparently the water logged lands seen behind the hutments in this snap are land belong to him.

Ajit Kumar Biswas' story is a little intriguing. Ajit is apparently a graduate who has not managed to get a coveted government job. He has a small piece of land and used to cultivate it before Aila. But the returns from his small piece of land were insufficent to support his young . He used to supplement his income by giving tuitions. Even Rabindranath Gayen, the respected primary school teacher of Bidhan Colony that we met during survey at Kakmari bazar, used to be his student. He is apparently well liked by people (certainly by Girindranath Paik) and also does some book keeping for shops. He wished to opt out of the area if he gets a job outside, as both his vocations have stopped now. He stays in a makeshift hutment reconstructed from his damaged mudhut. Like many other families, both he and his wife do menial labour on earthwork related to bund repair these days in order to sustain themselves.

Ajit brought me up to the fact that the dewatering of fields has taken place only at specific areasm lostly near the periphery of the island (we used to see it happen at our distribution point) but many fields in the interiors are still flooded with brackish water. The small sluice gate does not help at all as it prevents effective flushing out of the brackish water in a heavy rainfall.

Critical concern: We have requested assistance from PRISM in order to arrange for alternative crop training in fields damaged by brackish water with an aim to have some vegetables grown on these fields by this winter. We are driving to expedite this training. But the least that is required for some of these farmers we are trying to help is the stagnated brackish water to be removed from their fields. We are talking to people related to administration but we still do not know how to solve that critical first part (i.e. dewatering agricultural lands that are still under water) in our attempt to get these people back on fields.

6th Trip to Chargheri: In pictures and videos

2009-08-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

Links to pictures and videos are provided in chronological order:

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip6PixCellcam#5375446011467016354
[A tentative route sketch of our journey from Sonakhali to Chargheri, also indicating the major landmarks along the route - satellite pic courtesy google maps]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpzl9mLQfyA
[Video: A view of the dyke at Sonakhali 'ghat', and approach to the 'ghat']

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip6PixCellcam#5374731255912742002
[Stillpic: Our boat is seen here leaving the Sonakhali ghat after getting loaded with 480 kg of 'kochu' (arum) and 2800 kg rice. We had also taken 150 packets containing 100 gms of soyabean each, meant for each family with a child less than six years. Kaustuv and I stay back at Sonakhali to guide Bappa, the new Sumo driver of this trip, to Gadkhali where the Sumo will be parked.]

Anecdote: Qutub, the boatman, left his assistants to take care the boat and took the trip to Gadkhali with us in the car. I found him closely watching Bappa operating the gears of our Tata Sumo. When I enquired if he (Qutub) wished to learn driving a car by visual inspection, Kaustuv observed that operating a boat had criticalities like knowing exactly about the size of the whole thing and where the tail was going, especially while bringing to the shore. This was enough to open up Qutub, who declared that he could learn driving a car in 2 weeks. We nodded, politely noting that the hard part was to do it at places like Kolkata's Esplanade or Lalbazar at 11 am on a weekday.

Well versed though Qutub might be in operating a much bigger piece of mobile equipment in croc infested waters on the outskirts of tiger territory, he still does not get overtaken in narrow stretches by speeding boats simultaneously on both sides with a few millimeters as clearances....and get a few glares from the left side overtaker for not 'giving way'! Nor is Qutub used to seeing a guy suddenly put a hand up towards him (meaning "please halt"....make it "halt") and nonchalantly cross his path assuming the driver will be able to halt irrespective of speed.

Bappa did not respond to Qutub's comment, but all along the boat trip to Chargheri he too kept watching the operational aspects of Qutub's boat right up to Chargheri. Perhaps he too was finding out a way to learn boating in 15 days...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alyuKWRaSpg
[Video: Approach to the Gadkhali ferry ghat, and a glimpse of the high tide water level]

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip6PixCellcam#5374731285262063410
[Stillpic: hightide at Gadkhali]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5uQ5gKtu1c
[Video: Boat reaches Gadkhali to pick up Kaustuv and myself. It takes 20-25 minutes from Sonakhali to Gadkhali by road but the boat takes close to an hour]

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseVI#5373605670229477010
[Stillpic: Dr. Susanta Bhattacharya, also called Santo da, seen here at the top deck of the boat near the sacks of arum]

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseVI#5373605733636553906
[Stillpic: 2800 kg of rice loaded in our boat.
Disclaimer: the stamp of 'Pather Katha - ATMA - Khelaghar' was included in the soft file - the sack really did not have that stamp, but it is a nice illusion!!]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppmq-5As-W4
[Video: Captain Qutub gets off the boat, letting his assistants complete the balance 85% of the trip!]

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip6PixCellcam#5374731347832181714 [Stillpic: Purbasha carrying out the rice unloading operation, as is the usual practice on every visit]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZiwIo5Z2-k
[Video: Sanyasi Mandal was one of the trainees to receive Unicef training on ORT solution at Dhamakhali on the 16th of August. He describes the training as 'fruitful' here. Unfortunately the supply of solution from Unicef is yet to materialise.]

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseVI#5373605807814162738
[Stillpic: This time we noticed that people arriving early had reserved their position in the queue with bags!

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip6PixCellcam#537544137897241339
[Stillpic: Rice stacked at distribution point ahead of start of distribution]

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip6PixCellcam#5374731414299539314
[Stillpic: Distribution starts, and the cards are out]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUwzkl4qV0U
[Video: Doctor (Santo da) moving to the boat in order to take stock of medicines and to flag off the medical camp]

Annoucement 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRoLTS-n01w
Annoucement 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpOC5QE2I20
Annoucement 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQBGD7Bjn7o
[Video: Kaustuv made 3 sets of annoucement with the megaphone, for which we have added links above.
Announcement 1: Kaustuv shared with the people in the queue the plans of PAKT in the coming weeks - essentially that relief will be stopped after a month;s time, and that each village needs to offer volunteers to carry forward our attempts to rehabilitate them by facilitating various trainings (e,g, training on alternative crops on saline soil, training on other alternative employent options like handicraft.)
Announcement 2: Kaustuv announces that PAKT, mainly through efforts of partner Khelaghar, will look to rehabilitate some families by placing some villagers in hotel jobs across the state.
Announcement 3: The distribution is done at 2 ends of the distribution camp. Some villages are lined up at the North end and some others at the South end. On all previous occasions we found a few cases where people had waited an hour or more at the wrong queue. Kaustuv declares the names of villages that will be covered by each queue.]

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseVI#5373606290281699698
[Stillpic: Biswajit da and Kausik (my Foster Wheeler colleague who joined the team this week) carry out card checks for the 1st point of distribution]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joDVHeoe3Gk
[Video: Distribution being carried out at 1st point of distribution through card system]

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseVI#5373606358093988210
[Stillpic: Kaustuv and Saptarshi (not in picture) carry out card checks for the 2nd point of distribution]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItNvl1T9MYQ
[Video: Distribution being carried out at 2nd point of distribution through card system]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkJNMIZhJ9s
[Video: Bappa sets his boating skill development aside and spontaneously joins in to help the distribution]

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseVI#5373606450658531298
[Stillpic: Santo da running the medical camp on Purbasha boat. His marathon sitting would go on till past 6-30 pm]

[Pics and videos related to survey carried out on 6th visit are appended to the earlier post listing subjects attempted to be covered in that survey]

Doctor on 6th trip: Dr. Santo-da joins us

2009-08-29T02:05:00.000-07:00

His full name is Dr. Susanta Bhattacharya. He is universally known as Santo da to people who know him, and he does not mind us calling him by that name at all.

Santo-da joined in as a friend of Debajyoti-da who wished to assist our effort. He took to the trip like the proverbial fish (or duck) did to water. He was kind enough to sit through nearly 4 hours and untiringly check all the patients (more than 100) attending this week's medical camp with various complaints. He also did some sorting work on the stocked medicines. Thanks to Santo da's contribution to the sixth trip, we are now satisfied to a degree that the medicines stocked by us so far at Chargheri during previous visits was properly distributed.

There is further scope of improvement in sorting & supplementing the medical stocks. We will need help from Debajyoti da and Santo da for it.

At a more opportune moment, I would like to put up a post exclusively on Santo da (with inputs from Debajyoti da, as I only know him for a day). Let me tell you that he is a man of many parts.

Topics covered by survey carried out in 6th visit

2009-08-27T14:45:00.000-07:00

To assess further need for relief
To assess if the distribution process was acceptable to people
To assess needs of people for the coming months outside of food
To assess impact of Aila on people’s livelihood
To list common professions practiced in the area before Aila
To list options available to earn a living after Aila
To assess impact of Aila on infrastructure
To assess receptiveness of people to alternative professions and to obtaining training for alternative earning options

UPDATE: SOME VIDEOS RELATED TO SURVEY

Debajyoti da's conversation with an earthwork labourer who used to cultivate land before Aila

"On the walk" Survey - part 1 of 5

"On the walk" Survey - Part 2 of 5

"On the walk" Survey - Part 3 of 5

"On the walk" Survey - Part 4 of 5

"On the walk" Survey - Part 5 of 5

6th visit: Food distribution and survey

2009-08-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

PAKT completed the 6th trip to Chargheri last Saturday (22nd August). We distributed 1 kg of rice per head for a fortnight to the selected families of the 5 villages. We also distributed 100 gms of soyabeans to families having children aged less than six years. Like previous (5th) visit, we again provided a piece of arum (kochu) to each of these families.

In addition to distributing food during this visit, we also carried out a survey on a few pre-identified issues related to PAKT activity at Chargheri-Bidhan Colony-Santgachhi-Porosmoni-Lahiripur.

Purpose of survey:

(a) Assessing the effectiveness of our past effort at providing relief and

(b) Carrying out some ground work for the future months in which we intend to withdraw food relief but assist these people in more specific ways to get started at rehabilitating themselves, as far as our (significant) limitations permit.

The sample of people selected was not enough considering the short period (3 hours) we got to carry it out, but we believe we still get a representative assessment.

Summary of findings

The survey does not throw up any dramatic findings as such, and generally supports the expected. For last 2 visits we have been letting people know that we intend to withdraw food relief from end of September. This time we again announced the same at the distribution and also tried to spread the word individually during the survey. It was heartening to find that most people were supporting us to withdraw relief in the near future and instead assist them to get back to earning their own living if possible.

The subjects of survey and its outcomes are compiled into a detailed survey report. We are ready to share it with anyone willing to go through that detailed report.

Volunteers

Before distribution we put forward an important request to each of the 5 villages to facilitate implementing our future plans for these people: we requested that some of their villagers must now come forward and enlist themselves as volunteers for their respective villages. This is essential to provide smooth knowledge transfer via various vocational / self-employment trainings we intend to provide to people of these villages in coming months.

The volunteers are intended to be the direct link between the experts providing the training (PRISM / other NGO's / other sources) and the villagers that intend to implement this training for self-benefit, without any 3rd party bottleneck formation. [For example, we will endeavour to push and get each of these programs started the first time, but if subsequent communication keeps happening through us who visit so sporadically then we can become bottleneck instead of facilitator]

Update: The picture-cum-video story of the 6th visit is overdue. Apologies to all for inadvertent delay. We request you to check up on the snaps of 6th visit at the Picasa sites of Kaustuv and myself....while we put together something to take you to the live action of 6th trip.

Our distribution spot at Chargheri

2009-08-15T00:51:00.000-07:00

The above top-view sketch of the distribution area at Chargheri can help provide you with a mental image of the location to you, in case you have not already visited this place with us. [Click on the image for a larger view]

Now we will try to show you the exact location of this point in the map of Sunderbans.

You may have noticed a snapshot of a map extract of Sunderbans on our main page which shows our action area in Satjelia.

Satjelia is a big island with a number of villages and village panchayats, and we cover only a part of the Lahiripur gram (village) panchayat for our distribution. A village panchayat consists of many hamlets and is generally named after one of them. Santigachi, Parashmoni and Bidhan Colony are such hamlets, as is Lahiripur itself; but the locals refer to the hamlets as 'villages' and so do we. Chargheri is actually a mouza (part of Lahiripur panchayat), consisting of a few other such hamlets.

I tried to find the distribution spot on Google maps with the help of Wikimapia and here's the best result that I could find. We have asked Dipankar for a river map that will help identify the route to Chargheri with more clarity. But we reckon that entire yellow coloured area in the link (as we see it today) is the Satjelia island. The administrative structure of the area has more than one gram panchayats. There is a Satjelia gram panchayat as well. That panchayat presumably covers the top of that island (North part). Our action area is the South eastern part of Satjelia island area, which is part of Lahiripur gram panchayat.

I took a screenshot of that area and tried to highlight the exact location where we distribute at Chargheri. As you see in that screenshot, the probable exact location is under a piece of cloud that obstructed the satellite picture!!

The river on the east (right side) of distribution point is Ganral River, the same river you see in almost all pictures of us arriving at Chargheri or departing from there.

UPDATE: This pic from the 6th trip shows the above distribution area along with the central shed as well as the 2 queues on either side [pic taken looking east from western side of temporary ditch]. We are beginning to depend a lot on Debajyoti da's pix to share information more effectively with you.

The 5th trip: in pictures and videos

2009-08-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

Visuals are sequenced in chronological order:

1) Journey to Satjelia-Chargheri:

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip5PixCellcam#5368765359990764562 A typical sight at Sonakhali: materials being loaded for transportation across / along the river

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrJr_uw_UJ0
Video: This is a mid-river view of the dyke repair work going on near Sonakhali.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlNCPmnXxZo
Video: Kochu (Arum) was also included for distribution on 5th trip. It is a low cost food item, with no side effects envisaged.

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip5PixCellcam#5368765400903491234 Snapshot of 'kochu' sacks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lbKDomS7s4
Video: As usual, we took 54 bags of rice, totalling to 2700 kg (to be distributed with 200 kg stock remaining at Chargheri from previous distribution)

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip5PixCellcam#5368765479445006578 Young Sharafat's arkwork on his papa's boat

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip5PixCellcam#5368765620644867394 Another illustration on the same boat (surely not by Sharafat)....

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseV#5368066036532608194 On the route, we went past villages where some women were busy catching fish & prawns on the riverside

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgNWOVIiNyY
Video: A patch with such dense cover of vegetation in deep water is a rare sight even in the Sunderbans

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nPiY1GkAQ4
Video: The team making the 5th visit (putting faces to names)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyFP4cS9y48
Video: We kept dropping time along the way today, and arrived at Chargheri close to 3pm - more than an hour later than last time. Combined with shifting diurnal tide change time, this meant water had already receded significantly by the time we came.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNqU_auz9YE
Video: We explore the tidal entry route, and then go back into the river for an entry from the low tide muddy route. This meant significant time delay in transporting goods to distribution point
[For a contrast, view the video link of tidal entry for 4th trip Chargheri arrival at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8mpRdEENds]

2) The distribution at Chargheri

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseV#5368066315688151474 Arrival at Chargheri: A nice shot courtesy Debajyoti da. You can see the boat in the distance - it stayed there for unloading for another hour and consequently got stuck as water receded further. While returning back after distribution, we reached the boat at 7-15pm and waited on it till 8-30pm (with no ray of light except 2 battery torches) so that the tide returned and boat could float again....The far side of the river is starting point of the wilderness ruled by the Bengal Tiger

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip5PixCellcam#5368765762180314594 Avijit feeling his way through the mud on his second visit
[video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDYm9WyWpWk]

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseV#5368066358767559314 Transporting the stuff to the distribution point is a tough affair in low tide. It was unloaded from our larger motor boat into this Purbasha boat. Then this boat had to be physically pushed through the mud to the bank.....

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseV#5368066390712696098
....and only then could the stuff get unloaded for distribution. High tide is preferable any day.

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseV#5368066411330359666 http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip5PixCellcam#5368765829391073778 Felicitation: It was a little embarassing for us that they insisted in felicitating us under a shed in front of the multitude waiting under the sun for hours to collect their rightful share of bare minimum food. But in any case the materials were taking a long time to be carried from our boat to distribution point due to the low tide, and we thought the schedule of distribution could not get any further delayed by accepting the sentimental requests from the local people (mainly Purbasha) to felicitate us with garlands and sweets. It was a brief affair in any case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPu-OIYv7Ns
Video: The 2 distribution points at either end of the temporary distrubution shed. As highlighted earlier, 2 points of distribution are necessary for quicker disposal of material to the waiting people

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip5PixCellcam#5368765998229130066 Another view of the 2 queues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5wEt_eTDrg
Video: Dipankar arranged for some microphones to communicate essentials of the distribution (2 queues, materials getting distributed, next distribution after 2 weeks etc) to the people in queue

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseV#5368066666369542226 Card based distribution for Lahiripur, Bidhan colony, Santigachi and Porosmoni

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip5PixCellcam#5368765958943282498 This is the other point of distribution, where Santanu, Debajyoti da, Angshuman (myself) and Mahender were distributing....[note: I did not remove the garland presented to me at the felicitation by a little kid hardly a couple of years older than my daughter]

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseV#5368066747266766658 Dipankar distributing essential medicines, assisted by Debajyoti da

http://picasaweb.google.com/kaustuvlive/SunderbanAilaReliefWorkPhaseV#5368066530961034162 Ticking off the cards after handing over requisite quota of material

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip5PixCellcam#5368765870942328242 Distribution was finally over at dusk

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip5PixCellcam#5368765911022372226 http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip5PixCellcam#5368765930890800322 Our turn to play rice sacks: The Chargheri volunteers load us on a boat and push us through the mud into the river where our boat is stuck on the river bed

http://picasaweb.google.com/angshu2909/ChargheriTrip5PixCellcam#5368765934413460946 Purbasha volunteers and the boatmen ask to get snapped as we board back into our boat for return journey to Gadkhali

HIGH FIVE

2009-08-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

Fifth Mission

The fifth mission is completed – at 3 am of night. We have a fabulous trip this time - reached during ebb tide and had to wade through more than a km of sticky mud to reach chargheri, our launch got stuck in mud during low tide and delayed our return journey by almost 2 hours, we had a scaring car journey from Godkhali to Kolkata in torrential rain with visibility less than 15 m, our people back home were too worried. But we are very satisfied. We could distribute almost 2500 kg of rice among 671 families in our list (total 721) in little over three hours. Our card system worked fine. Indeed there were some complaints like someone's child is not ocunted in card or one or family members will be one more. We asked all to take their grievances to our local volunteers from Purbasha. But if anyone with a child in his/her lap complained about missing a child's count in card, he/she was obliged with a milk packet even if the it is not marked in card. This time with 1 kg of rice per head (for two weeks), we also distributed one Arum (kachu) per family and powdered milk for families who has children of age between 1 to 6 years. The Arum received good response from the vilalgers. We went to Chargheri this time with 2700 kgs of rice, 440 kgs of arum, 185 milk powder packets (full courtesy to our Khelaghar friends) and medicine worth Rs 3000. We mainly gathered medicine for common problems like worms, skin problems, stomach troubles, but a doctor remains ever elusive – we need a doctor who can help the villagers with right medicine.
Will any young doc volunteer ?

Are we missing out some?

we have finished our distribution and suddenly found a few anxious faces from the Parashmani village. They didn’t featured in the list, and despite our requests, that we cannot accommodate anyone outside the list, they waited all day. Their look says clearly they are real needy but it’s a dilemma. If we start accommodating people outside our list, again the old problem will come back, we cannot handle the whole Chargheri arew. Somewhere we have to stop, but it is tough to ignore people's hunger.
In such helpless situation the old question comes back in mind: what the Government is doing?? Why they are not still taking a proactive role? We cannot satisfy the whole Sunderbans.

Felicitation

Purbasha, the Eco-tourism group of Chargheri, responsible for setting up the local volunteer team for distribution of our relief material, with the villagers, arranged for a felicitation of PAKT members. Extremely embarrassing for us. We put all kind of resitance, logic etc etc. , but finally has to succumb to their sentimental requests. It is a simple and touching function - all of us were garlanded by local people and sweets were offered. We briefly explained about our future plan to continue at least till September end and mentioned about all the supports we are recieving from the friends of PAKT, who are not physically present there but providing us resources.

Back to life?

We heard a mike blaring out in Chargheri and came to know that the contractor engaged in temporary repair of embankment is organising a Kali puja, to celebrate the success of finally preventing the water from entering the village. When waiting in our mud stuck launch – we heard from far, a little sweet voice reciting “mone kore jeno bidesh ghure ‘ – then a folk song on Aila (I could hear a line”henokale Aila elo”). Cultural program on the occasion of the Kali Puja. So people of the village are coming back to life slowly. We salute this spirit and that is why we want to help these people. But some assistance remains illusive. We heard that the local Panchayat member Mr Mandal has assured that the Rs 10,000/- assistance from Government for reconstruction of houses will reach before the pujas. Still no sign of that! We can just hope that the government will take care of their need for a home before the pujas.

Planning for PHASE V

2009-08-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

Revised List Ready

We sat with Dipankar today evening. Dipankar came down from Chargheri with the updated list for our distribution. Now the number of families are 721. As we told that quite a number of cards are damaged last week and also some people were found to be missed out, we have decided to issue a new set of card based on these revised list. Surely it’s a headache for us now to print the cards in Bengali and put them in some kind of card holder. But we can solve it.

Cost cutting:

Good news, we have been successful in reducing the cost of our expenditure for hiring the boat (Sonakhali to Chargheri and back). It is now Rs 2300 per trip now. After some discussion, Purbasha, thelocal volunteer group working with us has agreed to share Rs 500 per trip and a boat owner has agreed to reduce the rent to Rs 1800/- per trip. So we save Rs 1000 per trip. Next was rice. We started at Rs 12.50 per kg, but last two week the rice sellers at Basanti did not buzz a paisa from 13.50. No Dipamkar come u with a good idea to procure directly from the people who prduces rice in the mill – not from the wholeseller. This may give a price reduction we are looking for. He will confirm the possibility by next Wednesday. A ray of hope – a savings of Rs 1 a kg will save Rs 1400 per week, almost 100 kg rice. Good bargaining.

Additional Supply

During our third visit as soon as I got down from the boat, a villager very politely asked, " any vegetable this time?" I was too embarrassed to say no, could just manage to mumble "no, we are concentrating on rice only". But we vowed if possible sometimes we will try to give them some vegetable, they almost forgot the taste. Considering cost and local people’s liking, Arum (simple kachu) was selected. It will cost us Rs 900 to provide each family with one Arum. Just the amount we saved from boat. We are really feeling happy. Also there is a need of some 10 pieces of polythene sheet to provide sheds for tuition classes for the students . With almost half empty stomach, people are still thinking about education. Again, it is a mutually beneficial effort for both student and teacher . So we immediately decided to supply this next week. The cost may be something like 2500 Rs. But we will spare it. Dipankar has also brought a list of medicine,

Ground reality

Again we try to assess from Dipankar how people are maanging. We know what we are giving is less than bare minimum. We came to know the help earlier coming in that area from different benevolent organisations has almost stopped. Their only supply line is our weekly assistance and that from Forest department. Yes, the forest department is supplying 1 kg of rice per week per family and 200 gm pulses. The distribution is done from local ADC (? Will try to know about it) office. So government is doing something, but far less than the required. Some people are working on temporary embankment rehabilitation and earning some amount. To buy essentials.

So planning is complete, waiting for the mission next week.

Informative videos on Chargheri 4th trip

2009-08-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

Please find in this post some youtube video links of the 4th Chargheri visit videos uploaded on youtube (chronologically sequenced below - links given in red font).

Many of these videos are 'annotated'. In other words, texts explaining specifics now appear in the video at relevant points, and automatic pauses have been also provided in the videos as suitable so as to let you read the information on offer. The annotation has been done with the aim of explaining the contents of these videos better, as well as to try and take the viewer close to the scene of action.

-------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxiWYa4QAQo

(En route videos showing that high tide water level in Sunderbans area generally exceeds ground level inside the dykes)

-------------------------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8mpRdEENds

(Our boat is poised to enter, through a breached dyke of Chargheri, into an area that used to be agricultural land till 28th May)

------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiHPq66ieXQ

(Our boat sails through earstwhile Chargheri farmland that is now lost to the river due to dyke breach during Aila)

------------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1esm5GEhTs

(View of Broken dykes)

------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PCx4KF2pRw

(Another video of land areas lost to the river)

-----------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inFZdsLGV6s

(Dewatering pumps on dyke)

----------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTrQ_1L0m4Y

(Location of lowtide access to Chargheri from the river bed - now inundated due to hightide)

----------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYG9IEtMBTM

(New dyke under construction)

-------------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2XhDW1PJVY

(Implementation of distribution through cards)

---------------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hH7zCNIrXw

(Saptarshi on the job)

----------------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws2kYxcGtCI

(Interview with local old woman)

--------------------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4sSoexsFJs

(Dipankar pushing injection - and apathy of some local people to cleanliness)

-----------------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwPuiEecni0

(Return to the boat in heavy rain - and a remote view of banks of Chargheri at dusk as we walk deep into river bed in the lowtide to get back to boat)

---------------------------

These links were already provided in the previous blog posts on 4th visit. However the annotations added to these videos over the past few days will hopefully serve to speak out on the situation at Chargheri as we see it, and on the distribution process that we have implemented. We believe you will find these video more informative after the annotations.

It will be gratifying if supporters of Sunderban cyclone relief activities (of any kind - HSI or otherwise) and other interested netizens can have a look at these videos. Request our friends to forward this post / these links to any other persons / organisations you know who may be interested in supporting cyclone affected people in Sunderbans.

Focus on next week's visit (5th trip, 8th August)

2009-08-01T02:54:00.000-07:00

As we have shared earlier, we are intent on saving conveyance costs by cutting down on number of visits. In other words, distributing for two weeks in one visit.

In line with that, last week we had distributed rice to the people of the five villages for two weeks (i.e., 2 x 500 gms = 1 Kg/head for 2 weeks). This gives us a spare weekend, as also a fine scope to plan the details and logistics for our next visit including assessment of our fund situations.

Dipankar is likely to join us in the evening today with an updated list of families. During that meeting we plan to discuss and look into other observations and requirements that we noted down during last visit.

Off week

2009-07-31T19:58:00.000-07:00

We are not visiting Chargheri this week as we had distributed stuff for 2 weeks last time. We plan to visit the next weekend to distribute food and medicines for the next fortnight. In the intervening time we will also assess if we can manage to provide a few more of the essential requirements. Polythene sheets were one of these. Some of the Chargheri people requested for these sheets when we enquired about any other essential requirements at the time of last distribution.

We had noticed that some of the common medicines were already in short supply and needed to be replenished. The common ailments of adults and children were also noted down. Stocks need to be maintained of medicines for those ailments. If things go as per plan, we may also have a kind doctor joining us on these Chargheri visits in the coming weeks to run a 'proper' medical camp.

Khelaghar had arranged for useful medicines in the first few weeks. We are happy to learn that we now have commitments of support stocks for medicines as well. We may get some boxes of such medicines from our generous supporters for the next trip.

4th visit in Pix and Videos: part 2

2009-07-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

Chargheri Trip 4 dated 25-07-2009, Part 2 of 2:

[The relevant picture or video is followed by the description]

...continued from part 1

13_rice_bags@dist_pt

The rice bags are stacked at distribution point, ready to be served to the people queuing up

14_books_for_good_students

The local volunteers request us to explore providing books & school dresses to the better students, as the village school is re-opening. This will need further discussion. Is it a primary need under the prevailing conditions? How many students are in a position to attend school within next few months?

16_some_teammembers

Some of the team members of PAKT who made the 4th trip to Chargheri

17_other_group_and_routing_people

This video shows the distribution point just ahead of the start of distribution. The other corporate group to arrive on the same day is seen here with our group, merging their distribution of food material into our card based issue system.

In the 2nd part of this video, the routing of queue and after distribution point is also indicated.

The card we used

This picture shows the format of the card we used (the script is in Bangla). Notice the dates indicated, which we tick during the check process. The card number (unique) and name are identifiers used during distribution. As this week’s distribution was for 2 weeks, we were ticking off 2 consecutive dates (25th July & 1st August).

18_Kaustuv_explaining_card_check

Kaustuv briefs the group on the check system for the cards ahead of the issue

19_implementing_dist_thru_cards

The process of issue of rice through the cards, including the checking, is shown in this video.

Distribution in progress

The distribution starts off slowly and then picks up pace.

The queue kept building up…

...faster than we could clear it. To complete our work before dusk, we had to open up a 2nd distribution point at the closing stages.

Lady queueing up with her card ready

We traversed the length of the queue in order to clarify to people that issue will be made against cards (which they seemed to be aware of), that they can queue up irrespective of serial numbers, that we would issue rice for 2 weeks (we will not come next week), that they need not come and stand in the sun from 10 am on the visit days as we are never going to arrive that early. A megaphone will do just fine next time for the announcement purpose!

We also told people that they should not change head count on the cards of their own even if they think the headcount needs redressal (they would not get more than what our register shows in any case). Unauthorised correction was observed in a few cards. They need to register their issue with the volunteers for address during the next time.

With more time, we expect to get in closer touch with the people, but coming from so far for an afternoon there can be only so much progress per week! This week we were already controlling the distribution entirely by ourselves, with the volunteers mainly controlling the crowd.

20_rice_filling_in_bags

Rice is getting filled into the bags of recipients during distribution

21_interview

Interviewing a local old woman

22_Saptarshi_checking_list

Saptarshi is seen here doing the card checking duties….

23_exchanging_duties

…and Saptarshi is equally adept at distributing rice at lightning speed!! He does that in his very first visit. What a guy to have in your team!

As I said, he was good at it.

Another picture of Saptarshi distributing rice.

Bag filling

Gopal and Trinath helped with the bags (need strong arms for that - some of those were filled with 7-8 kgs of rice for the entire family). Amar was checking the cards with Kaustuv and returning to the holders.

24_medicap_camp_Dipankar_tablets

Dipankar issues tablets, strips and tonics for common ailments for common ailments

25_Dipankar_injection_part1

He can also push a dose of tetvac to people having wounds and injuries (see next video)…

26_Dipankar_injection_part2

…and the recipient is seen here complaining that he did not have any pain!

I was there too

During the latter stages I was with Dipankar in the medical camp (makeshift – what else). 94 people attended the camp on the 4th visit.

Snapshot of the medical register

I tried to note down the common problems, and also the medicines that were not in stock. There were no serious problems mentioned by anyone this time. The above snapshot shows the listing of missing medicines, as well as common ailments (in my own inimitable Bengali handwriting, of course).

Many of the adults were complaining of stomach related problems. The children were mainly affected by stomach issues as well as cough / cold / fever. I asked about the water quality, but they appeared to be satisfied with the water they get from the unaffected tubewell.

27_returning_to_boat_in_downpour

When the skies opened up, we were almost through with the rice distribution. The medical camp had already served 94 people. The common ailments were noted down, and the medical stock requirements were also noted. We hope to have a doctor accompanying us sometime very soon.

Waiting for the boat to turn up from the haze of downpour

Thus ended our 4th trip to Chargheri. It was low tide again, and we waded back to the mud and the waters to go back to our boat. We were thoroughly drenched by the end of it. But we felt that this visit gave us additional confidence. Firstly that 2 weeks stuff CAN be distributed in one afternoon, and that the people are generally happy (you can’t please everyone, but we truly did not hear any serious complaints) with the process we have adopted.

We could distribute to almost all the recipients (686+ out of 721 families) in our presence. Minor grievances (like head counts in families) were also noted and can be addressed before next visit.

We are planning to improve the cards. We had issued plain papers, and some of them may already have been destroyed as the people returned home in today’s downpour. Reissuing the piece of paper is not much of a problem but repeated distribution can be a problem, leading to grievances. More on that later.

Adieu to Chargheri from the bed of River Garal

4th visit in pix & videos - PART 1

2009-07-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

Chargheri Trip 4 dated 25-07-2009, Part 1 of 2:
[The relevant picture or video is followed by the description]

Explaining HSI to Saptarshi
The history of Help Sunderbans Initiative (HSI) till date is explained to Saptarshi

01 hightide water level outside dykes

This sight is common to almost all areas of Sunderbans during the high tide. The inhabited land inside is lower than the high tide level and protected by earthen dykes. Hundreds of kilometres of these dykes were breached by furious Aila on 25th May 2009.

02 Boat enters Changheri through breached dyke

Our boat leaves Garal River and enters Chargheri territory, into an area which used to be a farmland.

03 Area lost to river

In this video, the boat enters an estuarine part of the village that used to be a farmland before Aila happened. Now this is an extension of the river. The new dyke is getting built a few hundred metres inside the old damaged dyke.

This entry of boat through dyke and straight sailing to the distribution area is possible only during high tide. The high tide was already receding when we reached. The boat had to be unloaded quickly and navigated to deeper waters of Garal to ensure we did not get stranded till the next high tide.

04 broken dykes of Chargheri

This video shows the remnants of the old dyke of Chargheri on Garal river. It was destroyed by Aila.

05 Another video of the area lost to river

This is another video where Kaustuv shows to Saptarshi the areas outside the new dyke, of Chargheri, all of which was farmland. Saptarshi is our friend from IBM. He was visiting first time.

06 Pumps operating on new dyke

This video shows the land inside dykes being emptied by pumps operating on them. This is done with the purpose of emptying accumulated water from farmland inside the dyke. It is the first step towards getting the land back to cultivability.

This is the first step towards of landmark of desalination. Pumping is being done by the dyke repairing contractor employed by administration.

07 Destination Chargheri draws near

The boat reaches Chargheri and we alight very close to the distribution point.

8 The lowtide access of Chargheri from Garal River, inundated in high tide

The area in the video here (first 5-6 secs) becomes subnerged in the river in high tide . This is what we see here. But when the tide wanes it becomes the access path from the Garal river (see next pic).

The same area outside dyke, but in low tide

This picture from 1st trip shows the same access area in low tide

09 Unloading at Distribution point

The distribution point, and unloading rice bags from boat to stack them up there

11 People waiting near the distribution point

They are waiting for unloading to finish and issue of their allocated quota of rice.

Another boat carrying another group

A corporate group arrives on the same day through Green Camp. They distribute a few things to the locals (polythenes, lamps, a small quantity of rice, biscuits etc). They distribute the food materials under the issue system employed by us and we have no problems in accomodating them. However due to lack of prior information the distribution for their non-food materials, done independently from us, goes a little haywire in the end. The first time is always difficult in these areas, and some information, detailing and planning is required to make the distribution equitable. It is not known to us if they wish to come back regularly or it is a one time effort. We will learn later. We only hope that more groups can come, as we know that we are not supplying not even nearly the full quota needed.

12 New dyke under construction

The first thing we notice is that the dyke has grown noticeably bigger than what it was during my first visit on June 28th (see next pic)

A comparative picture of the dyke work progress

The progress of dyke work is visible in the above comparative picture, where the dyke size as on June 28th (trip 1) can be compared with the dyke size on 25th July (trip 4).

[contunued in part 2]

Phase IV: C O M P L E T E D

2009-07-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

Fourth Trip
Our team is almost an hour's distance from Kolkata and shortly PAKT will finish its 4th successful mission to Chargheri with a consignment of 2800 kgs of rice. This is supply for two weeks. As we told earlier that to save transport cost, henceforth we will try to visit fortnightly and disburse the supply of two weeks in one go.

Better Planning
Koustav (Pather Katha), Angshuman (ATMA), Biswajit-da (Khelaghar) with Gopal, Saheb and Trinath (other friends from Khelaghar) along with Saptarshi from IBM, reached Chargheri by 2 pm. So we could spend around 4 hours in Chargheri. Good planning paid benefit. This time 56 rice sacks were loaded in the boat at Basanti (near Sonakhali) by the time we reached there by car; courtesy Dipankar.The main objective was to spend more time in the village to supervise the distribution work and ensure all the listed people get there share. Dipankar Mandal is one of the leaders of the local group of volunteers from Chargheri village. Every week he is coming to Gatkhali/Sonakhali before we reach there, ensure loading of rice and plays a major role in the distribution of medicine (he can even give injections!!!).
Like Saptarshi this week and Abhijit last week, we always welcome friends from any organisation to accompany us, so that they can go back a more real situation to his friends and colleagues.Saptarshi was shocked to see a village with almost no "sheds", he expected the storms has at least spared a few shelters, for taking refuge during the rains.

The List Worked
As planned last week, we have provided the listed villagers (from Chargheri, Lahiripur, Bidhan Colony, Parashmani and Santigachhi) with an ID card, to ensure smooth distribution. I must mention again that this list was prepared by the local volunteers, with the criteria of providing rice supply to all families with monthly income of less than Rs 1200. The ID card was nothing special, just a piece of paper, carrying the name of the head of the family, number of family members. The list is constantly updated and as a result the number of families has gone up from 691 (2800 people) in last week, to 721 this week. The objective is very simple: to ensure that maximum number of villagers from these five villages, willing to avail our assistance and satisfying the above criteria, can get it. This idea of ID card concept worked quite well.

Before an evening storm with heavy downpour forced us to make a hasty retreat to our boat, we could finish distribution to 686 families. PAKT team is quite satisfied. 94 people were provided medicine. The PAKT team carried 20 tetanus with them. But we could not arrange any doctor also this week. This is something we are trying desperately but in vain. So the medicine department was left to the charge of Dipankar – our local hero. One good thing – the same patient never visit him twice!!!

Thank you but We Need More Well Wishers
At least six more weeks – we need to race against the time to collect resources. We thank all the well wishers of PAKT who has so far extended their hand to our Help Sunderban Initiative. We hope more people will join us, so that we can achieve our dream of continuing supply till the government assistance are regularised. We look forward to a Chargheri, which will welcome the tourists in the last human habitation of the Sunderbans – not wait for the boats carrying relief materials.

Thank You! We know you are with us

2009-07-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

Some of our wellwishers have already responded to our request for support. A few of them have also requested other people they know for extending support. And we have got positive responses from those quarters too.

A few have offered to help HSI (Help Sunderbans Initiative) financially. Others have contributed by extending our call of help to reach more people. There are those who have also offered to come with us to help the distribution.

We sincerely hope that this post gets read by anyone who has extended, or wishes to extend, his / her hand in one capacity or the other towards the people of Sunderbans who brought us all together.

All we can say now to all of you is:

We are encouraged, inspired and energised by your spontaneous responses. We are banking on you to see this through. All we require now is the message of need to help the affected people to spread as wide as it can. We are some way into the journey, but we have a long way to go. And we will need the support to keep coming in all the time.

We are visiting Chargheri tomorrow (actually today). This time we plan to distribute food materials for 2 weeks. It will not be easy at all. Everything except the number of people will be double. It will be a challenge to complete it all before dusk.

But then this saves us about 4500 bucks per fortnight by way of cutting the transport expense into half.

We need you

2009-07-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

Aila is a tropical cyclonic storm, formed due to severe depression over the Bay of Bengal, near coastal Bengal. It hit West Bengal and Orissa as well as Bangladesh on 25th May, 2009. The severe storm with tidal waves, caused by winds of speed up to 110 kilometers per hour, continued to play havoc till the evening of 26th, from coastal Sunderbans to the Hills in the Darjeeling, causing widespread damage to human life and property and left millions of people homeless.

According to Government sources the total loss is 1300 crores of Rs. and assessment report of damage is as follows:

Affected people : 67 lakhs
Loss of life : 137
Most affected area : North and South 24 Parganas, specially in the Sunderbans
Houses destroyed: : Almost 9 lakh semi permanent
houses. Till middle of June, 3.78 laks of people were in shelters of 765 relief camps
Severe damages : 500 kms of earthen dyke in the Sunderbans breached and saline water inundated the villages, poisoned the agricultural lands (2.89 milion ha), rendering them useless for around next two seasons, 100% loss of standing crops and substantial amount of stored crops.

The Sunderbans bore most of Aila’s wrath. Being remotely located and poorly connected with land part, many of the island villages here had received very little sustained assistance from Government or other non Government sources. Chargheri village in Satjelia Island is one such worst affected village. It takes 3.5 hours by boat to reach this place from the last land point (Gatkhali) connected to Kolkata city by Road.

After Aila, Purbasha, an Eco-tourism organisation by local village people sent SOS to everyone they know in Kolkata. Immediate response came from a Chandannagar based club and subsequently the baton was passed to a combined initiative of PAKT, a team comprising Pather Katha (an Orkut based community), ATMA (a benevolent organization of Jadavpur University Students of Civil Engineering, 1995 batch) and Khela Ghar (a Garia based club). None of these organizations are NGOs.

The members took part in the relief at Chagheri as individuals on 28th June, 2009 and after seeing the conditions decided to joined hand together to continue assisting the people there with food and medicine.

So far during 4 weekly visits (fourth visit is about to start while writing this) PAKT has been able to distribute 5700 kg of rice, medicine worth more than 25,000 Rs., Mushuri Dal 100 kg, Mosquito net - 35 pieces, soyabean Chunks - 60 kg, 4 big bundle of clothes, 350 packets of ORS, 250 packets of biscuits, 200 Candle Sticks, 200 Match Boxes. The distribution mechanism formed by the local people, (mainly by the people of Purbasha) under our supervision are performing effectively in ensuring distribution in an unbiased manner. Presently, the concentration is mainly on providing rice (@ 500 gram per head per week for 2800 villagers from Chargheri and nearby 4 villages Santigachhi, Parashmani, Lahiripur and Bidhan Colony) and medicine.

The cost of weekly assistance provided by us is around 30,000 Rs. including transportation cost from Kolkata to Gatkhali and cost of mechanised boat. We are determined to continue this assistance for at least another two months by which time local people are expected to rebuild their houses, receive Government assistance and find out alternative livelihoods. However, our aim is to continue for four months as the Government sponsored permanent dyke repair work will start by that time and people may have a steady source of income.

With the available funds of the participating groups of PAKT we cannot continue for another two weeks. So we request for assistance from all people. ATMA has a bank account to which all the contributions can be made.
Will you kindly extend your support to us??

RDPH

2009-07-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

That is Rice distribution per head. We have not really been able to come to a decision on this issue.

This part of Satjelia consists of 5 villages - Chargheri and 4 other villages called Lahiripur, Santigachi, Bidhan Colony and Porosmoni. The 5 villages have approx. 3500 people in total. These folk have been receiving help so far as a community. We found that it is almost socially impossible now to randomly adopt some of these villages and tell the others to disappear. There would be no plausible ground based on which we can choose one village over another. We believe that such arbitrary seggregation will make the task of PAKT even more difficult.

Pushed to our limits of decision making, we are now going ahead by 'adopting' all the 5 villages. However to support 3500 people with 'normal' rice consumption for weeks on end looks like a financially daunting prospect until we can fully assess the volume of funds we are likely to have.
Hence we have tried four exercises to maximise the food quantity per person per week:

Identify the families with virtually no current income, prioritise their need and exclude the others: this exercise is done by the local group of volunteers at Chargheri but is yet to be substantiated. However it has taken the number of recipients down from 3500 to 2800 in the current week - we may need to further refine this method of "elimination by logical discrimination"
Assume that people these families are not doing the physical work (as they have no employment) they did in normal life, and hence the minimum food requirement for sustenance may be lower than 'normal'.
Cut down on cost of transport of rice from Kolkata by procuring rice after reaching Sonakhali / Jayanti and directly loading it on the steamer: this allows a cutdown on land transport cost of rice. However this increases the total 'start to end' time required for the team visiting from Kolkata and returning here. [They start at early morning - around 5 am - and reach home after midnight].
Explore the possibility of making the food grain distribution a fortlightly affair instead of the current weekly one: This modality is not yet decided, but making it fortnightly obviously makes it more cost effective. However there can be other very practical issues that can prevent it from happening (e.g. doubling of quantities may mean that it is no more possible to complete purchase / transport / distribution in a single day's time frame)

With all but part 4 of the above steps implemented, 1400 kg still measures up to a meagre 500 gms for each of the 2800 persons over a week.

We hope to implement part 4 in the next trip.

The 'discrimination' based on part 1 was implemented on the 3rd visit. We still have no formal policy on this, and I doubt if there ever can be. It received mixed responses from the folk, and needs to be streamlined / fine-tuned over time supported by more information.

Silver lining

There are a few things that can get better hereon. The bund (or dyke) may get repaired for which work is underway. Rains may remove salinity and people may go back to the fields later in the year. More unforeseen employment opportunities can come up. There is a genuine expetaction in local people that within a few months administration will finally jump in to redeem this lot. They have been told that they can get home re-building loans as soon as within 3 months. Many of them can also get a loan to resume their trade a further couple of months later. However none of these infomation are first hand. All are from sources in Chargheri.

If some of these actually happen, these people can find a way to survive without anyone's help.

3rd visit and formation of PAKT

2009-07-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

Kaustuv, Sandeepan and Biswajit - da (another friend of ours, introduced to us by Kaustuv, who is actively supporting this effort from the 1st visit itself) have made the 3rd team visit to our target area on Saturday the 18th of July with a shipment of 1400 kg of rice. This food material is distributed amongst approximately 2800 people in 670 odd families (expected to cover for one week). Like previous weeks, the expenses of food purchase and transport were met through individual contributions from some of the above people and a few of their friends.

Pictures here.

For ease of reference, henceforth we will refer to this initiative of ours to support the people of Sunderbans as "Help Sunderbans Initiative" or HSI.

Kaustuv, Sandeepan, Biswajit da and myself represent 3 independent non-profit organisations. Starting off more as individuals willing to help the people at Sunderbans, we have now involved these organisations in this work. It did not take us long to assess the manpower and fund involvement required to pull through this effort on a sustained basis.

Sandeepan and I are associated with Atanu Memorial Association, or ATMA, for nearly 6 years. It is a registered welfare association formed by our college mates. Pather Katha is Kaustuv's orkut travel community. Khelaghar is a youth club at Garia who are involved in social welfare activities. Biswajit da and our other new friends Susanta, Santanu & Partha are all associated with Khelaghar.

Pather Katha has joined hands with ATMA and Khelaghar to form PAKT i.e. PatherKatha-ATMA-Khelaghar Team!! In other words PAKT is an informal and temporary "JV" of these three associations, formed solely for the purpose of making Help Sunderbans Initiative (HSI) a reality.

But then PAKT is also so much more than these three organisations. It would have little chance to fulfil its purpose of formation without the many others, perhaps including you, who are putting their hands up to offer help in various forms.

[Hope this deluge of names does not distract you! Let us just say that HSI is merely the reference (or project) name for the undertaken work and PAKT is the group trying to carry it out.]

Map of Sunderbans

2009-07-18T15:04:00.000-07:00

This is a representative map of Sunderbans (source unknown to us - apologies for inability to quote source). It shows the various inhabitable areas along with the Tiger Project / Wildlife sanctuary areas (shown in red & blue dotted lines) in the Sunderbans region.

Our area of action is going to be "Chargheri'r char" (the distribution point) and four other neighbouring villages called "Lahiripur", "Santigachi", "Bidhan Colony" and "Porosmoni". These are part of Satjelia which is indicated in the map.

Click on the map to get an enlarged view.

Considering we start the river journey from Sonakhali / Basanti, this map explains why it takes us so much time (3 hours one way - can be more depending on the tide) to reach Satjelia. The steamer got a little delayed today in the morning. The immediate impact of its late arrival was that the team from Kolkata returned back home past 1 am in the morning.

Chargheri - Trip 2

2009-07-08T14:30:00.000-07:00

So for another week we could make it. The feeling is like playing out a mandatory over to avoid an imminent innings defeat. This Sunday, Koustav from Pather Katha went there with Avijit, four friends from Khelaghar and Goutam of Green Camp. As usual Koaustav's Picassa and the captured videos tell it all.
This time Team Pather Katha could manage 1000 kg of rice. To save the conveyance cost, it was procured from Sonakhali, before boarding the launch. Not a very easy task, but had little option to save this transportation cost from Kolkata. There were some left-over (60 kg soyabean nuggets, around 200 kg rice, and good amount of medicine) at Chargheri (obviously at our local storeroom in Dipankar’s Launch) after last week’s distribution. Kouastav also took with him 10 vials of tetanus after getting information about the local requirement.

By the way, Can anyone suggest any Kolkata based wholesaler who is ready to supply 1000 kg or more rice every week @ Rs 12 or less a kg? That will be a big help.
One main objective of this week's visit was to collect the basic information so as to streamline our future requirements and course of action. Just jotting down what we could gather by talking with people there (courtesy Koustav and our friends from Khelaghar)

How strong is the distribution mechanism
There was a very decent queue. Separate arrangements were made for food and medicine. A clear register was maintained (we got a copy). Whenever people were coming with some specific demand like mosquito net or any special medicine, it was verified that he has not already received one. If the resource is not available it is noted down. We wanted to ensure that the mechanism we are using for distribution were unbiased. Extensive interaction was done with the people in the queue and the general feeling is they are satisfied with the mechanism

What are the villages from which people are coming

On 4th July (I just remembered what a significant day, America’s independence day and Swami Vivekanada’s death anniversary), there were people not only from Chargheri but also from nearby villages Lahiripur, Santigachi, BidhanKoloni, Porosmoni. Earlier we checked out from internet that Lahiripur and Santigachhi among the worst affected one. We had a feel that people from nearby villages are also coming to Chargheri, hen the heard about the relief distribution and only get confirmed after the verification.

How many families we have covered

Last Sunday precisely there were 666 families who collected the assistance. There were not too many requirements for medicine. Good – the general health condition is not so bad. Koustav has a good flavour for data analysis and after gathering the lists for past few weeks he prepared a nice trend analysis on how many people has been served so far in Chargherir Char by Green Camp and its associates like Pather KAtha, Khelaghar, Euphonic.

28th May: 565 families (distribution was done on 28th, 29th May and 1st June)
5th June 649 families (distribution was done on 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th June)
14th June 895 families (distribution was done on 14th, 16th June)
21st June 577 families (distribution was done on 28th, 29th May and 1st June)
28th June 671 families
5th July 666 families

Clearly when a consignment reaches there on a particular day, the distribution often spills over a few days, courtesy Dipankar and the local people who are actively doing the distribution work. But it is clear we have to be ready between 600-700 families.

Is there any help from other sources
This is a major information that was needed in order to streamline our role. After talking with people we could find, so far government has given 5 kilos of rice per family since 25th May, tarpaulin and intermittently some supply of kerosene. This is what we could gather by talking with people on that day, so do not consider it as a official figure. What worries us is the lack of steady supply of relief material. That is evident. Employment opportunities are there in the form of works for embankment repair. Government is paying through the Panchayet for engaging local people in the repair work. Still not sure how many people are getting opportunities under this. But a person can earn 900 Rs for each 1000 cfm of earthwork and this can be done in 4-5 days. May be they get 50% of this as the appointment is through contractors. But this is still equivalent to more than 20 kgs of rice. Nearesr market is Satjelia bajar – not too easy to rich without a boat. But clearly if a family has at least one person getting this work opportunity, he does not have to depend on our relief much.

“Bare” Economics of sustenance revisited
Or shall I call it mathematics of hunger? The whole calculation was done considering 500 grams per head per week. But we calculated based on urban hunger. An elderly person clearly told “babu kaj kore khete gele dine 900 gram chal lage ekek janer – er kame chalti pari na”. Just no answer. How selfish we are to reduce it to half.
So revise the calculation with 4 kgs of rice per family per week and the weekly requirement for 500 families is around 2000*13 =26,000 Rs.
Still too big an amount for long run (may be a month or more). One way may be to cut down the number of families. Those who has got some work in embankment repair can possibly be leftout. The filtering is an arduous task - but let us give it a go.

Another thing - an well wisher suggested us to contact the concerned ministry of State Government to make them aware of the situation. He was kind enough to give us all the contacts - still we are undecided on this issue. Does the Government need us to tell that people needs help? Don't know .... . If anyone has a view will love to listen.

Update for 5th July

2009-07-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

Kaustuv has accompanied Green Camp to distribute some more relief at Chargheri today. We can expect to see some pictorial updates from him on Kaustuv’s Picasa in a few days. The fund collections for this week were quite less compared to last week, and the quantity carried to Chargheri may fall short of the requirement for the week (even taking account of any surpluses from last week). Most of the contributions for the current week are based on large personal contributions from fewer members. Mixed feelings come.

However as the previous post unambiguously states, our action area and role is yet to be decided. Assessment of ground realities have to continue a little longer. It may be a little frustrating for all of us over this period, but unfortunately there is no shortcut to it. We need to assess well to have any hopes of doing it well and ensuring that the right people get the benefits of people's contributions. We have been late in jumping in; the worst we can do at this point of time is try to make up for it by drastically cutting down on the time needed to assess and plan.

Our plan of action

2009-07-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

On 1st July I had sent an email communication to my friends for two purposes:

a) Updating them about the plight of the people in Sunderbans (via links to this blogpost and uploaded snaps on Picasa), and

b) Explaining the course of action we have taken to first decide what (and how much) we can do and then to frame up how to do it.

Sandeepan advises me to share that email communication on this website. I see no harm in sharing the same with people visiting this blog. Doing the needful below.

---------------------------------------

My college mate Sandeepan and I joined a group of acquaintances to participate in a visit to Sunderbans to distribute relief to cyclone Aila affected villagers in a remote part of the Sunderbans named Satjelia.

I have tried to put up an account of the experience we had on that day in this blogpost. Request you to go through it now if time permits. I am almost inclined to say that I am willing to call up and explain the experience to you in person. I would love to do so, but I am going through a phase when I can hardly manage that kind of time. Hence that post. Hope you do not miss out to go through the picture and video links for (i) the journey to Satjelia and (ii) visit to Aila affected village Chargheri (Chargheri is a village in Satjelia no. 10 area)

After that visit, some of us want to seriously be responsible to take up a particular affected area of Suderbans on an extended basis. It will all depend on the resources we can pull in. Right now we are trying to assess our capability on five aspects:

1) To identify an affected place which is remote, which is not receiving essential help and where we can manage to sustain the operation through an apolitical setup facilitating the relief ditribution (could well be Chargheri which fits the bill, or some other)

2) Ensuring one of us can take turns to visit the place to keep a control on the distribution process

3) To have a control on the distribution process which will involve some other concerns like polarisation of local people & mass flocking from 'non adopted' villages,

4) Establish a way of stock-taking to ensure that target people are receiving the relief and that relief stocks are not getting misplaced / misappropriated, and

5) The funds that we can pull in over this extended period, so that we can assess exactly how many people we can aim to support with bare necessities (rice, essential medicine, used clothes, mosquito nets, etc) for that period of time.

[This post tries to summarise the approximate expenses per head per year - the figure is not too much per person but the smallest unit we can adopt is a village. If funds permit, we can possibly go for a small cluster of 3-4 villages]

When we are through with this exercise, I may come back to you to ask for help. If we do ask, we are likely to ask for a commitment from you as to what amount (if any) you think you can contribute to this cause. We may also ask whether you have any problem if we want you to give us the option to decide when to request you for it.

This is because we are not opening any fund account; instead every time we need funds we plan to ask for the commited amount from a different set of people, raising just enough to ensure that supplies we send in that instalment are adequate. Please be absolutely clear that after committing you will be asked only once - it is only that we may request that the time of asking be left to us.

As I said, we are first assessing our capabilities and resources to see this effort through. The last thing we want is is to adopt some people and then say to them one fine day "hey folks - this is the final time as we can't do this anymore - best of luck" and never return.

If we think we can manage the above issues and last the distance, we come back to you.
I know you well and long enough to expect a frank answer from you.

Thanks for the patient hearing.

Angshuman

Note: Even if we do not come back to you, I request you to look for ways to contribute in your own way towards helping his people out of misery. Maybe you already have.

And do spread the message that people in this area may need more help over a period of time than is now forthcoming.

--------------------------

Travel time

2009-07-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

I will be travelling over the coming 2 weeks. While I will try to keep you updated on our relief activities by making a post or two in this period, there is always a possibility that I may not be able to do it as I will be travelling minus a laptop.

It may be worthwhile to check up on Kaustuv Bhattacharya's Picasa album from time to time, in case you find this site to have stagnated for the next 2 weeks. Kaustuv is the one who has brought us together in this common cause.

I expect to resume normal duties in 2 weeks time.

The bare economics of sustenance

2009-07-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

As the earlier post summarises, people in some of the areas in remote Sunderbans need long term support till they are back to sustaining themselves on their own. Even providing them a meagre ration of rice for an extended period (which can potentially reach upto a year) will keep alive hopes of their surviving through the ordeal. We have learnt that a person can just about manage with about 500 gms of rice (chaal) per week. That effectively means about 25 kgs of rice a year - approx 300 rupees worth. Add 50% more for medicines, mosquito nets, match boxes, some other one-time necessities and it comes to about Rs. 450-500 per person per year for the barest sustenance. [see Update below]

Am I sounding too cruel? "Why can't we give them dal and vegetables?" Sometimes they get those too, but you see a kilogramof dal costs the same as about 4 kg of rice - and hence even dal is a luxury. Many more mouths can be fed if rice is supplied. And we thought the people there also support the approach that it is better to distribute some extra rice than replacing it with a fistful of dal & vegetables. Ocasionally vegetables are supplied based on 'good fund' weeks - but the plan still remains to provide meagre sustenance for more people.

Hopefully the bunds will be repaired and the cultivable soil will be purged of salination in another year, in addition to the people creating new job opportunities for themselves through enterprise. So five hundred bucks of stuff is all that each person asks to be supplied at his doorstep to prop him / her up through the year from hell. But even so they are hardly getting their need fulfilled.

Update: After making this post we have done some analysis of the figures above, and we feel the minimum rice consumption given above may need review. The rice consumption at ou homes works out to nearly 1.4 kg per person per week for a moderately eating people taking rice twice a day (with quite a few other items to be had with it). Perhaps there was some serious error in the figure we received.

I suspect 500 gms per week per person may be a little too less ever for bare necessity. Sustenance figure goes up closer to Rs 750/- per head per year or thereabouts, considering we will need to provide close to a kg per person per week to sustain him / her.

Any feedback from you on this will be most helpful. And it will be priceless if you have participated in relief activities earlier. This estimate will be the basis for any effort we plan to take up. [See further update below]

Note: Established benevolent organisations like Ramakrishna Mission and Bharat Sevashram and others including UNICEF are also working in various areas in Sunderbans. However they have already assessed what they can manage and are now concentrating on their chosen area. We have been late in getting into the act, but as things stand now we intend to work in areas that have not being adopted and supported by any major groups including the establishment.

Further update: Another visit to Chargheri seems to make even the above assessment in "update" section seem too tight. Ultimately we are talking about people putting in physical labour, but assessing their food requirement as per city dwelling office-working folk. The requirement per week per head may go up a little further. Sandeepan gives an idea in this post.

A visit to Aila-affected Chargheri at Sunderbans

2009-06-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

The newspaper headlines on 26th & 27th May said that the Cyclonic storm "Aila" hitting South Bengal during daytime of 25th May had caused widespread damage to the many villages of the Sunderban delta. The previous day (i.e. on 25th May) I had witnessed Aila lashing around at my office in Rajarhat, Kolkata and did not think it could be that bad. I had even ventured out of office with some colleagues to take lunch while the storm was supposed to be at its peak. Why, I had even taken some cellcam pictures and videos of the moderate storm that struck Kolkata on 25th May (pics posted here & movie files posted here).

Going beyond the headlines revealed that the dykes around the villages had broken up at various places. It was then that the possible magnitude of destruction hit me. I had been to Sunderbans a few months back, and the first thing we noticed during the tour was that each habitable piece of land - more correctly, each island - was protected from the tide by earthen dykes (or bunds) built continuously around the periphery.

The low tide waters would perhaps stay below the grade level in the islands but the high tides were a problem that only the dykes could insure against. We were looking at a number of mini Hollands around us, un-engineered construction separating life from a watery grave. All transport and material carriage to and from these islands would have to be via boats and steamers, as there are no roads and bridges connecting these islands to the humanity on mainland.

At around the time we were busy taking 'daring' pictures of a much-mitigated Aila hitting Kolkata, the force of raw and uninhibited cyclonic storm was devastating village after island village in delta region of Bengal. The destruction was greater for places that were closer to the open sea. 'Kachcha' houses, comprising almost all residential units of the meagre-earning folk in that region, were demolished without a trace. And that was only the beginning. The dykes were broken at many places. This resulted in flooding inside the villages, salination (equivalent to 'poisoning') of cultivable land and pollution of the drinking water sources. While the large waves waned as Aila receded, the tidal floods would not go away as the dykes were still broken. Remember the Tsunami hitting Indonesia / Sri Lanka / Tamil Nadu on 26th December 2004? Now consider that happening in these villages with broken dykes, with the saline water only partially receding after wreaking havoc.

Most of these people raised there livelihood from agriculture. That land is now partially under water and will remain so until dykes are fully repaired. Even so, the dry land would not become cultivable till it is purged by a season or two of rainfall. The only livelihood some of them have now is the daily wage for earthworks towards re-construction of dyke. They cannot grow food for themselves, most of them have no money to buy their food from the expensive sources around them and their condition is likely to stay that way for an indefinite period. They need support. They need it badly. And worst of all, they need it for an extended period.

Why this is the worst part? A look at the newspapers will tell you why. The media has 'moved on'. Aila related affairs are no more hot news. They are gradually getting out of sight and out of the minds of people unaffected by Aila. That is us. The waves of sympathy that brought relief efforts to this region are receding almost as fast as the waves that caused this plight.

Government relief is woefully inadequate. While they are diligently supplying potable water, they have not been able to provide minimum staple food requirements of affected people. Private efforts are there but these are not well organised within a single window to ensure need-based distribution of relief. Many relief providers are considering this as a one time effort. They come, distribute their relief and go away, never to come back. Moreover, distribution of relief is far from equitable. The relief is generally distributed at the parts nearest to access, i.e. areas that may well have been less affected than the more remote villages. This is always the case, as my experience of Tsunami relief work in remote Vedaranyam of Tamil Nadu taught me.

We visited a village named Chargheri at Satjelia no. 10. We were supporting a relief work by orkut community 'Pather Katha' and 'Khelaghar' from Garia. All of us contributed to an ongoing effort carried out by Green Camp, a green tourism enterprise who are carrying out relief work by continuing distribution of food and bare essentials (like clothes, mosquito nets, medicines, match boxes) to residents of a few villages in Satjelia of Sunderbans. We went from Kolkata to Gadkhali, mounted our relief material (mainly rice and clothes) in a steamer arranged by Green Camp and started off towards Satjelia. It turned out to be twice as deep into Sunderbans as Sajnekhali, which is the central point of Tiger reserve tours. Pictures and videos of our 28th June journey to Satjelia are uploaded here.

On the way we found local folk of many villages coming to the shores and requesting us to distribute relief to them. Some of them shouted at us a tough query - "Amader ki Khidha nai?" [Don't we get as hungry as those you want to feed?]. Some of it was perhaps a rehearsed act put up to maximise 'income' of relief as many of these villages looked like being well located enough to be getting relief. But it hardly seemed artificial as we moved deeper. They have only one direction to look for help - and that is into the river in front from where all good and bad news comes. We saw people waiting on the banks with containers for the water distribution vessel to turn up. On one fateful day chosen by the weather Gods, they lost even the right to drink water of decent quality.

We were delayed right at the onset of the steamer journey by some problems faced one of the relief carrier truck which led to its late arrival at Gadkhali. We had plans of participating in the distribution of relief materials. However reaching Chargheri at 5:30 pm and then having to wade through slippery mud before hopping on mud-lubricated stepping stones for 15 mins (without falling over - a miraculous feat, let me tell you) to reach the actual village meant we had no chance of distributing relief that day. Reason: there is no illumination to be availed after sunset. So we had to come back after depositing our relief material to the local relief team. Green Camp have apparently set up a local team to stock up and distribute relief in that village and also distribute in some of the nearby islands using a steamer owned by one of the villagers (this boat was often hired by Green Camp from its owner Dipankar for their Sunderban tour packages; it was Dipankar who raised the pathetic plight of people of his village to Green Camp and asked them to visit Chargheri).

The plight of Chargheri and its neighbouring villages can be assessed by having a look at the pictures and videos of the place (pics and videos uploaded here). It is hard to believe that this village was home to a reasonably self-sufficient set of people having land and means of livelihood of their own. Virtually no homes are to be seen now, and it is a wonder how these people are managing themselves at this God-forsaken place (I have seldom seen a place more deserving of that term) for a good month since the destruction happened. They live on the dykes and under polythene sheets (one family that had a good home and a piece of land are now staying in a boat), cook a bare rice meal or two per day and sustain themselves in the desperate hope that things will turn better one day. And until that happens they need our sustained help to get that bare meal.

Some of them work on the re-construction of dykes and manage to earn some wages. There is no other possible local source of income at present, other than the normal alternatives of fishing and honey collecting. There is every chance that the relief distribution, if left to these desperate people, will get skewed and ultimately degenerate into a base game of 'survival of the strongest'. That is why we were less than happy at not being able to witness the distribution during the 28th June visit. And hence it cannot be stressed enough that as much as it is important that willing people pick an area and contribute to sustained support of relief to the affected locals staying there, it is further essential that these contributors also pitch in by volunteering a visit or two to their chosen place just to support and monitor the distribution of the relief stocks.

Each such visit can be something of a big effort for us city dwellers, but believe me it is worth it. At the end of it you will want to make the effort again and go back to be with the hapless thousands for one more time. If not for nothing else then simply to reassure them that not everyone beyond that floating horizon of the tidal waters has forgotten about them.