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By setting up schools and eco-restoration schemes, a couple of dedicated volunteers bring about remarkable changes in an impoverished place
Timbaktu is situated in Chenakothapally mandal of Anantapur district, a couple of kilometres off the Bangalore-Hyderabad highway. This area has been neglected by the forces of development; indeed, `Timbaktu' in Telugu means 'last horizon'. Thanks to one young couple, however, the script for Timbaktu is being rewritten. In 1990, C K Ganguly and Mary Vattamattam, volunteers with the Young India Project, set up home in this dry underdeveloped place. Over the last 11 years, their hard work has changed the lives of the villagers here. The two volunteers began by procuring 32 acres of barren land at Rs 800 per acre. With the money left over they built a hut and registered the Timbaktu Collective as a society to generate funds. "We were planning a kind of activists' retreat. There was no green cover and the land was arid, almost dead," says Ganguly. The couple then directed their efforts to greening up the dry land. Soon, a change in the soil type was observed not only in the 32 acres belonging to the Timbaktu Collective but also in the surrounding 800 acres. Time-tested conservation methods were applied to increase the water level. And the villagers were taught how to generate forest cover and protect the existing vegetation from forest fires. "I believe that if protected, the land will yield. We allowed that to happen," says Ganguly. Eco-restoration schemes have now been launched in eight villages. Incidentally, Anantapur district which is where Timbaktu is located, once had the best dry deciduous forests in south India. Dissatisfied with the standard of education at the local school, Mary set up a unique Nature School in an abandoned government building. Today, the Timbaktu Collective runs five schools in Anantapur district. Contact:
Young India Project
Penukonda
Anantapur 515110
Andhra Pradesh, India
Tel: 91-0855-20221
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