Tackling the Monsoon Mayhem

 July brings monsoon to a large part of India and heavy rains in many parts of the world. While a welcome break from extreme heat and heatwaves, monsoon brings its own kind of mayhem. 

And considering India is a water-stressed country that has overdrawn its groundwater as well as having large parts of the country in drought and drought-like conditions saving water is always a priority. This is the situation in most regions of the world. Even in flood-prone weather communities and governments need to remember to 'Catch the Rain'.

Catch the Rain Pledge of Government of India 

The Government of India during the period of March 22 to November 30 has called for efforts to enhance rainwater harvesting and 'Catch the Rain'. The Jal Shakti Abhiyan's Catch the Rain (JSA:CTR) campaign calls for 

• Water Conservation at the household level
• Rainwater Harvesting from the household and community levels all the way to the state and national levels
• Mapping and Geo-tagging Existing Water Bodies Across the Nation
• Reviving and Restoring water bodies and wetlands
• Afforestation (Especially in watershed regions)
• Water Security and Conservation Education
• Jal Shakti Kendras - district level centers for water management information

EcoBloc & Rainwater Harvesting

The above The Better India reel shows the "smart drain" EcoBloc made using recycled plastic that harvests storm water. A solution by Chennai's R.R. Sivaram implemented in thousands of locations across Tamil Nadu and India harvesting millions of liters of rainwater from surface runoff.  - a win-win for SDG 12 and SDG 6 - responsible consumption and production of plastics and water - ensuring clean water and sanitation in drier non-monsoon periods. 

Sponge City Model

The Sponge City model of flood mitigation and rain and storm water harvesting is mentioned in the last post of May 2026 (28 May 2026), "Ecomodernism in the lead up to Environment Day."

Sponge cities are prime example of nature-based solution. Tested by Chinese Landscape Architect Kongjian Yu (who passed  away in September 2025) in 30 cities in China with plans for over 500 more. It includes harnessing

• porous pavements, 
• green rooftops, 
• rain gardens
•  wetlands 

to manage water, support biodiversity and improve air quality.

Reviving Water bodies and Wetlands

A major reason for both Heat Island Effect and increased instances of floods in urban areas is the encroachment and mismanagement of water bodies and wetlands. Thus whether in Summer or in Monsoon weather-proofing requires healthy wetlands and water bodies. The bonus of healthy water bodies and wetlands is the boost to biodiversity - a boost to Life Below Water (SDG 14) and Life on Land (SDG 15). 

Enhancing Watershed Areas

Water security is holistic and involves securing water resources, forests, wetlands, soil and biodiversity from overexploitation. Watershed management is vital to water security. Especially ensuring natural resources in rain-fed and rain-collecting areas that replenish both surface and ground freshwater resources is vital to ensure human security and sustainable development - especially SDG 6 and SDGs 13, 14 & 15. 

A Climate Resilient & Water Secure Future 

While being inundated by news of floods, landslides and infrastructure destroyed by heavy rains, cloudbursts and thunderstorms one is always reminded of the power and fury of nature and the man-made disasters we create by destroying natural protection against such monsoon mayhem. 

Revived and restored floodplains, wetlands that function fully as the sponges to storm water that they are and, forests and grasslands that anchor soil and prevent landslides are vital to survive the monsoon. Most especially in the watershed regions but also in urban areas where man-made flooding has become the norm rather than the exception from Millennium City (Gurugram) to Maximum City (Mumbai) to our Software and Startup Hub (Bengaluru). 

Reviving Shola grasslands in Nilgiris and the Western Ghats, protecting and restoring rainforests and forests in hill and mountain regions as well as checking unsustainable urbanization in sensitive ecosystems by fostering Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11) instead would ensure a climate resilient and water secure future for us all.

Big Apple First

The news of a planned Urban Forest in New York is a step in the right direction. In a city with such a high real estate value per square feet the declaration to prioritize greening to make the Big Apple climate resilient is a signal to the rest of the world. If New York and its NYC Urban Forest Plan can afford t make space for 30% tree canopy by 2040 then any other urban center can do it too. 

In the midst of news about the heatwaves in Europe I read about what a privilege it is to be able to see three trees out of your home, school and workplace. A globally recognized pillar of urban planning and healthy living: the 3-30-300 rule put forth by forestry expert Cecil Konijinendjik. The core of which includes

• 3 trees in view 
• 30% Canopy Cover 
• 300 meters to a Park 

This metric is failed by most global urban centers according to a Nature journal research. 

I realize how privileged my life is that my part of the world checks off this 3-30-300 metric.  Perhaps if more places met this criteria there would be less news of monsoon mayhem, wildfires or heatwaves. 

Supporting Women Farmers for Sustainable Development

 A sustained effort is needed to support women farmers to enable sustainable development beyond the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF2026), Women's Day (IWD) and the scope of their conferences. It is a low hanging fruit and a potential windfall: supporting women farmers to boost the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in rural communities across the globe in general and in India in particularly to achieve objectives in greater numbers.

 Source: Empowering Women Farmers in Agriculture, Press Information Bureau of India (PIB), 23 March 2026

Beyond IYWF2026 & IWD 

A lot of  effort has been put in to empower women in the agri-food system, but it happens in pockets and silos, with limited reach and barriers to scaling-up whether they are government programs, PPP (public-private partnership) initiatives, CSR or ESG programs. Despite many award-winning efforts by women farmers and food and agricultural entrepreneurs the impact has been very local. With the feminization of agriculture more mainstream efforts, publicity and hand-holding is needed to improve the plight of women farmers and as a corollary the lives and livelihoods of rural communities.

Trinity Saioo of Meghalaya won the Padma Shri in 2020 for her efforts to train women and boost the production of the GI tagged Lakadong Turmeric. The efforts of this rural teacher single-handedly boosted multiple SDGs and developmental indicators and enabled sustainable development through empowering women to elevate local produce. 

They say one person can’t change an entire system. In Meghalaya, one teacher quietly proved otherwise.

A former school teacher from Mulieh village, Trinity Saioo turned to farming not just to support her family, but to transform an entire community. What began as a small step… pic.twitter.com/Ypmkya2asE

— The Better India (@thebetterindia) April 27, 2026

Krishi Sakhis, SHGs & Women Farmer Collectives

The Government of India is promoting Krishi Sakhis (literally: Farming Women Friends) trained women farmers who can help and train other women farmers to access government initiatives and funds to farm better. Women Farmer Collectives and Self-Help Groups are also doing great work locally in the community-level to empower women farmers and hand-hold them in accessing government, private and CSR programs, training and funding. 

 

 Tamil Nadu ranks number 13 in organic farming in India. Efforts such as EPIC-SS (Eco Park and Information Centre - Sustainable Solutions, Padur, Chennai) of former IAS officer Santha Sheela Nair and Kalpavriksha Farms - a food forest set up by Kalpana Manivannan, a Chennai high school biology teacher turned homesteader who won the Karamveer Chakra are doing a lot in promoting natural farming, organic farming and permaculture in the state. Education and hands-on training with access to best practices in action does more than elaborate policy documents and frameworks with little on-the-ground grassroots uptake. 

Think Tanks, Conferences and Research: Sharing Best Practices

The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's Central Institute for Women in Agriculture (ICAR-CIWA), Bhubaneswar have produced some great research on farming in general and methods to support women farmers in particular. 

 

 The MSSRF webinar on Pathways to Gender Justice as part of IWD2026 highlighted gaps and solutions to gender just transition in climate resilient agriculture in India. 

The March 2026 Global Conference on Women in Agri-Food Systems (GCWAS 2026) in New Delhi inaugurated by the President of India Droupadi Murmu in the presence of the Union Minister for Agriculture, Farmer Welfare and  Rural Livelihoods Shivraj Chauhan shone a spotlight on women farmers in India to international audiences while also becoming a repository of best practices and policy support for women farmers. 

Amplifying the voices and the efforts to support women farmers so that those who seek to improve their lives in the agri-food system is essential to ensure food security, human security, climate action and ecological action. Empowered women farmers will be the engines of change in our path to Viksit Bharat and Sustainable Development - locally, nationally and internationally. 

Puthandu, Prosperity & Women Farmers

 It's celebration time across the Subcontinent again. Puthandu or Chitrai Thirunal - Tamil New Year marks the movement of the sun into the moon sign/rasi of Aries in Hindu astrology. It is marked by celebrations such as Mesha Sankranti, Tamil, Bengali, Odia and Sinhala New Year, Vishu in Keralam, Baishakhi in Punjab, Bihu in Assam as well as Buddhist New Year/Songkran celebrations across Southeast Asia and Yunnan in China - the Water Festival.  This is a time where we all hope for peace and prosperity as always in these troubled times.

In this time of family, friends and shared celebrations I thought I'd share some successful CSR & government projects that have empowered and trained women farmers as well as rural and tribal communities and brought prosperity to previously arid and drought-dulled rural regions of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra as well as poverty alleviation programmes of the Keralam government that tackled the unpaid labour burden of women and women farmers and uplifted hundreds of thousands and eliminated poverty.

Tata Capital's watershed restoration and other rural community development initiatives in Maharashtra as well as Thiruvanamala district of Tamil Nadu has benefitted many women and women farmers as shared on World Water Day on the Sunshine Millennium Facebook page.

I have mentioned in this blog the successful intervention of the Srinivasan Services Trust (SST) the CSR wing of the Tamil Nadu based MNC TVS that has done great work in 4 states more than 15 years ago and many more places now since. A pioneer of sorts in CSR in Tamil Nadu especially in their empowerment of women and women farmers as well as tribal and community development made  a huge impact in providing decent work and economic growth SDG8 to Thiruvanamalai district of Tamil Nadu among others. 

To quote Ms. Krithika Ram, my Master's classmate's project submitted in December 2011 for the National Institute for Rural Development's Post Graduate Diploma in Sustainable Rural Development on Corporates and Rural Development. 

SST's Vision statement reads- “To be catalysts in creating self-reliant villages by deploying the skills and resources of local governments, development agencies and the private sector to fulfill this vision.”

 The Mission statement of SST reads-”To facilitate the process of sustainable development in rural India in key areas such as economic opportunities, quality education and health care, the creation and maintenance of infrastructure and environmental and cultural conservation, through active participation of national and state governments in partnership with local communities.

holistic approach aimed at making people self-reliant through active involvement of local communities. The Namakku Naame Thittam/Village Self-Sufficiency scheme in partnership with the local community, Rural Development Department and the Trust is maiden initiative leading towards sustainable community development. 

The livelihoods of the members [NOW] consist of food processing; animal husbandry; silk weaving; flower decoration; and banana fiber making. The SHGs dedicate this achievement of theirs to SST which has been taking care of their training and has been helping them get loans from banks. 

 

Meanwhile more recently in Maharashtra's drought-prone regions the Mann Deshi Foundation's Centre for Climate Resilient Agriculture has trained women from the region with an agricultural and rural background as a ‘soil-sakhi’ or soil tester.

The soil-sakhis have reached 2,394 farmers across nine drought-prone talukas of the five districts of Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur and Pune. As per a study conducted about the programme, their intervention has led to a total reduction of 988.37 tonnes CO2e (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent) emission. 

Meanwhile Farmers for Forests headed by Kruthika Ravishanker with investments from across the globe (SDG17 Partnerships for Progress and SDG13 Climate Action) is quietly transforming lives of farmers and boosting the carbon sequestration of the region by planting fruit trees which also boost incomes and reduce hunger and poverty in the formerly suicide prone belt of drought hit regions of Western India - Maharashtra especially.