Many poor families are going hungry due to this massive lock-down. Many have reduced their food to just eating 'rice-kanji-(water)'. Our local volunteers are identifying these families and supplying them food provisions for a week.

Today our team provided food provisions for a week to 143 poor families that were going hungry. Totally so far since the lock-down, we have now provided food provisions to 621 families.

Our Strategy: The scale of this lock-down disaster is huge. Govt must supply rations to everyone in all poor communities. But as a small organization with limited resources, we cannot do that. So we focus on reaching the poorest who need immediate help. Our strategy is to NOT SUPPLY food provisions to entire communities at one time. Though most of are poor, many have food for a few days and will hopefully get Govt rations soon.

But within each village or slum, there are 5-10 families that are going without food right now. We identify them and supply food provisions for a week. We realize that during this long lock-down, others in the community may also soon start going hungry. So our volunteers will keep checking on the entire community and arrange food support as the need arises.

Led by our AID Odisha coordinator, Dhanada, our volunteers and partners have reached food provisions to over 100 poorest families in Odisha.

* AID volunteer Arun reached out to homeless people living on the streets of Old Bhubaneswar.

* Through our field partner, Yuva Vikas we reached food to a children's orphanage and many poor families in villages near Balasore

* Another field partner, GSS, reached into remote villages in Adaspur in Cuttack district and Siha in Jajpur district.

* With help of volunteer Srikanta Bhai, we supplied food provisions to many poor families in Rajkanika village in Kendrapara district.

International Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur tweeted about our work of forest restoration to create awareness about the need of the hour. Shekhar is known for his Oscar-winning movie Elizabeth, Bandit Queen, Mr. India, and Masoom, which have touched the hearts of Billions of people across the world. Shekhar's film career revolved around presenting the most innermost human connections as part of the mainstream cinemas. Elizabeth revolved around the newly throned British Queen Elizabeth I and how a woman of that era had to face enormous prejudice to be respected as the Queen. Bandit Queen is the famous biographical about the Indian outlaw Phoolan Devi who goes on a rampage to avenge against her mass gangrape. Mr. India revolves around an orphanage running gentleman who is bestowed with a superpower that helps him rescue his adopted children. Masoom presents a wonderful story of a son conceived out of wedlock and his acceptance to his father's family. All these movies are the evergreen collection of Hollywood and Bollywood masterpieces.

In his interaction with AID volunteer Nishikant Deshmukh (Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University) and Shekhar expressed his innermost desire to protect mother nature and conveyed his support to the movement.

Nishikant Deshmukh interacting with Shekhar Kapur at a morning interaction in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

Nishikant Deshmukh with Filmmaker Anand Gandhi of Ship of Theseus fame and Shekhar Kapur. 

With your support, we were able to dig 11,500 pits of higher dimensions 60 x 60 x 60 cu.cm. to plant an excellent forest. 

The total cost was of digging was nearly $2000 and provided employment for 15 landless labors from the village of Payvihir

Continue the work of positivity by donating to this project.

You can also start a monthly donation by using our Blackbaud powered secured online donation system at http://www.aidjhu.org/donate

The year 2019, is the 100th anniversary of the Jalianwala Bagh Massacre that shook the consciousness of the entire nation. As the veteran journalist and Magsaysay award winner, P Sainath puts it, "Our spirit did not break, their empire did."

As the celebrations of Indian Independence from the British Raj winds up, it is time for us to retrospect on the current water crisis in India. Since India attracted waves of invasions due to its abundance primarily due to its ever-flowing rivers, the same rivers are now increasingly the source of worry.

On the one hand, parts of India are under heavy rainfall and floods, while the rest of India is still monsoon deficient. 

As Sainath, aptly covers in his other article, It's raining sand in Rayalseema, these arid wilderness scenes are not from the great Indian desert of Rajasthan or the Bollywood immortalized wild wild Chambal Ghati. But from one of the most prosperous regions of ancient India.

As predicted by climate scientists, the coastal cities of Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and other coastal cities will face a catastrophic reversal in their economy, as early as 2050.

"According to a World Bank report, about 600 million Indians could suffer high to extreme water stress by 2050. What could make matters worse is the possibility of a 200-fold increase in heatwave exposure by 2100. The frequency of severe heat waves in India could see a 75-fold increase by 2100. If temperatures continue to rise and monsoon rainfall patterns continue to change, the country could see a GDP loss of 2.8 percent, depressing the living standards of nearly half its population by 2050." -- Source, DownToEarth.in

To read complete report and charts, please press "Start Exploring" on the following link https://www.downtoearth.org.in/dte-infographics/61502_extreme_anomaly_india.html

The following infographics from Association for India's Development (AID volunteers explain that Destruction of the forest is one of the biggest contributing factors towards floods and desertification of India.

Watch! How women in Koderma, Jharkhand, save their forest!

Due to deforestation, the water retention capacities of the soil has been adversely affected. Once, the mighty forests of Western India would hold adequate water to ebb the flow of rivers and support the perenniality of these rivers.

In my January 2019 visit to India, one of the forest conservationist in Pune, Mrs. Jayashree Jog mentioned that the mighty forest of Western India was destroyed to convert wood to charcoal to support industries in India.

Whose Independence is it anyway when the backbone of the economy is based on the environmental destruction?

These pictures show the unfortunate aftermath of Forest Fire in Payvihir on April 13, 2019. Over 1,53,000 trees were burnt and much of the grass cover lost. This project was one of the top livelihood projects in India that protected the rights of the tribal over the forest and also help regenerate the forest.

Please contribute for rebuilding efforts, even $20, $50 would go a long way. Please donate at our secured donate page at http://www.aidjhu.org/donate

AID is a 501 (c) (3) organization with EIN 04-3652609 and all donations to AID are tax-exempt in the United States.

October 2015, Payvihir:

Payvihir eco-village was started when the organization KHOJ helped the villagers of Payvihir to bring around 180 hectares of land under the gram panchayat as per the Forest Rights Act (FRA). Srinivasan C with the experience of Vellore Hill Restoration Project got involved in the project and helped the village of Payvihir in planning and execution of afforestation. Today around 1 Lakh saplings are planted in the village of Payvihir with the help of MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme). Contour Check Dams were initially dug to help percolate the water. With the help of department of renewable energy, a grant of Rs. 75 lakhs helped the villages of Payvihir and Naykheda to build 70 community biogas plants. The aim is to reduce the dependency of households of both the villages from firewoods. Payvihir received the United Nations Development Program award for the decentralized governance and biodiversity.

Site visit to Chetana Vikas, an AID sponsored project to fight farmer suicides in central India.

A total 300,000 farmers have committed suicide in India in the past 20 years, primarily in the central Indian region of Vidarbha and Telangana. The primary causes are the introduction of high input farming, low farm credit/loan, reduced water levels due to deforestation, the unfair price given to farmers (especially cotton growers). The introduction of genetically modified (GM) cotton primarily by Monsanto has further increased the cost of farming and further led to distress in India. Increased use of pesticides in farming has increased instances of cancer cases across India.

August 15, 2014: Aamir Khan visits inaugration of Solid and Liquid Resource Management Center in Jodhpur, a project managed and directed by Srinivasan C (AID JHU supported). 

To support such work, please donate by check payable to "AID", AID JHU, Mattin Center 131, Mailbox #18, 3400 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21218