On My Way...

I was driving to Bangalore early morning and decided to quickly stop at the WildCarbon facility, mainly to see if it had rained and how the new pond was coming along.

It was around 8am, so nobody was there yet and the gate was locked. I was walking around the edge while Madapatna, local village, was slowly coming to life. People starting off on their day’s work. Two or three people walked by, curious, all wondering who had bought the “Koli faram, (chicken farm)” as its locally called, all very interested in what we were doing there.

One old man in particular was almost obsessed with finding out more. He was walking with two cows and carrying a large load of fodder on his head, but still stopped and insisted on speaking to me about the pond, what we were building, and why we were digging it.

When I explained biochar and the pond to him, he became very excited and insisted I visit his farm. He enthusiastically walked me about a kilometer to his place and proudly showed me his pond and a large pile of compost he was making from organic waste and goat droppings. He seemed genuinely excited about the idea of adding biochar to it.

The relevance of what we are doing to so many different stakeholders always strikes home in moments like this.

The old man, whose name was Siddharthy insisted I save his number and call him once the biochar was ready so he could start using it on his farm. And of course, before I left, he insisted on giving me a freshly plucked tender coconut — along with two more to take back home for my family.