Sukh Bhumi presently conducts a project in India, in the watershed of the Tansa
River (Thane District, Maharashtra).
The area benefits from a high rainfall (2300 mm per year) during the monsoon
season (June to September). The remaining part of the year is dry with a hot
season reaching up to 45 degrees Celsius (March - May). Located at the tip end
of the Western Ghats and beginning of the Deccan Plateau, the area belongs to
the "biodiversity hot-spot of the Western Ghats" where a large number
of species of plants and animals are endemic and rare. It also serves as water
reservoir, collecting run-off from the hills, carried to the lowland and to the
Tansa river, with the Tansa lake supplying about 14% of water to Mumbai
Municipality. Part of the hills and villages’ surroundings are still forested,
with Forest Reserves covered with moist deciduous forest.
This project has a Holistic approachthat primarily aims at
forest rehabilitation and conservation with addressing the local people’s
welfare issues on a sustainable basis because they play a major role in forest
degradation. The villagers are mainly tribal people settled as farmers and mostly
Below Poverty Level with low level of literacy. It is only when their basic
needs are fulfilled that these villagers will be willing and able to sustain
the environment. Therefore our activities are addressed to all age-level - children,
youth, and farmers – and include natural resources conservation as well as all
sectors of village life.
The project's activities are part of 4 main programmes aiming at
sustainability in the villages with 1) water availability, 2) self-sufficiency
for the villagers, 3) personality development and environmental awareness for
the next generation, and 4) planting multi-purpose trees in the villages'
surroundings.
