Legacy harvested: Silt-based agri, ‘puran sheti', shoots out from oblivion in Sattari
Keri:
The traditional silt-based agriculture, locally known as 'puran sheti', that had gone into oblivion has been revived at Shir, Savarde, in Sattari. The renaissance represents the will of farmers to surmount multiple hurdles.
A quarter century ago, right from Uste to Ganjem on either side of the Mhadei in Sattari, chiefly landless farmers were engaged in silt-based agriculture. It provided them rice, a basic constituent of Goa's staple diet.
However, as the water resources department began building bandharas to store raw water, the water levels along the banks surged, wiping out puran sheti.
This year, Sujan Sawant, a youth from Shir, undertook an initiative to bring back the agricultural legacy.
He was guided by his father Krishna, 65.
'Our ancestors lived in harmony with nature and started this unique silt-based agriculture inside the river by using its rich alluvial silt,' Krishna said.
'By transplanting paddy, they used to grow the crop in the winter without ploughing. They irrigated the field through naturally available river water,' he added.
Rice is a family necessity, Krishna said. 'As it usually starts raining early in Sattari, we immediately reaped the crops,' he added.
Suryakant Gaonkar of Bhuipal said, 'The bandharas have increased water levels. Yet, in the vicinity of Pishyabaichi Kond, the Sawant family decided to revive puran sheti without any govt support.'
They were successful in reaping paddy this season, Gaonkar said.
'In the past, many landless families had been involved in puran sheti in the winter,' he said. 'As the new generation was unaware of the tradition, we decided to resuscitate it, focusing on the respectful relationship with the river.'
Shilpa Bhousule, an associate professor at Dhempe College, helped the Sawant family by providing seeds of walay, a local variety of paddy and boosted the farmers' morale by visiting their field.
Vithoba Gawade, a member of Vivekanand Environment Awareness Brigade, who photo-documented the tradition, said, 'At Shir, I got an opportunity to experience this year's theme of the International Day for Biological Diversity — living in harmony with nature and sustainable development.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
16 hours ago
- Time of India
CM promises settlement of forest right claims by Dec 19
Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday announced a fast-track schedule to clear claims for land under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. A special gram sabha will be convened on June 21 in villages to approve pending applications and forward them to the sub-divisional level committee (SDLC). He said that the two district collectors will conduct meetings with authorities to coordinate and organise special camps on June 14 across six talukas to fast-track pending forest rights cases. There were 10,500 applications for forest rights submitted, of which 870 cases were cleared and 949 cases were rejected because the land was not forest land but revenue land. 'We have decided that by Dec 19, all applications will be disposed of,' said Sawant. On Thursday, the North Goa collector and South Goa collector will hold a meeting with the panchayat secretary, joint mamlatdars and BDOs to prepare the groundwork for the gram sabha meetings and special camps. 'On June 14, in the talukas — Quepem, Sattari, Dharbandora, Sanguem, Ponda and Canacona — the dy collector will hold special camps from 10am to 1pm,' said Sawant. He added that of the 10,500 applications, about 8,000 are pending —2,000 at the gram sabha level and 3,500 with the deputy collectors. The rest are at various other stages of processing. Applications to recognise the rights of forest-dwelling communities have been pending since 2006. The current process requires the claims to be approved by the respective gram sabha, after which the file is sent for the SLDC's approval. Once the SLDC clears the application, the respective district collector grants the final nod and issues the Sanad certificate. 'The cases that are pending with the deputy collector will be reviewed on June 18, and they will clear approximately 3,970 cases on that one day and send them to the collector. The collector has about 564 cases that need to be issued sanads. Right now, we have sanads ready for 150 applicants. On June 9, we will give these 150 sanads to the applicants,' said the CM. Dismissing allegations of govt inaction, Sawant blamed delays on non-participation at gram sabhas and the failure of community representatives to prepare files. 'We found that people were not attending gram sabhas. So we've simplified the process — our staff will now prepare the files, and applicants only need to attend the gram sabha,' he said. Sawant also cited issues with a survey agency that abandoned its work midway. 'It's not a bureaucratic delay. The process depends on a community-based committee. But going forward, our govt staff will handle the file preparation,' he said.
Economic Times
16 hours ago
- Economic Times
Cities have failing infra and poor crowd management SOPs say Urban planners
An evening of celebration for RCB turned into a tragedy at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where a stampede claimed 11 lives, highlighting the cracks in the city's civic planning and crowd control systems. Citizens and experts alike have questioned the government's preparedness and the promise of 'Brand Bengaluru' to handle large gatherings, especially at high-footfall venues. Urban planners told ET that not just Bengaluru, but many civic agencies in Indian cities fail to have robust standing operating procedures (SOPs) for crowd management. 'We tend to employ very ad hoc measures to manage crowds, poor fencing, lack of proper pathways, poor lighting and lack of emergency services,' said Ujjvala Krishna, urban researcher at WELL labs. She added that there is a clear lack of foresight in building long-term infrastructure that anticipates such scale.'Bengaluru doesn't have an active master plan. The Regional and Metropolitan Area Master Plan for 2031 is still a draft. It's more like a reference. Other major metros like Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai have active master plans,' Krishna said. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which makes rules for handling disasters in India, released a guide in 2014 to help state governments, local bodies, event organisers, and police manage large crowds safely. The guideline titled 'Managing Crowd at Events and Venues of Mass Gathering' suggests that before any big event, authorities should do a Rapid Venue Assessment to check preparedness. This includes an 11-point checklist evaluating aspects such as disaster preparedness, stakeholder coordination, crowd flow, safety, emergency response, ability to manage complexity, and potential for crowd growth, all rated on a scale from poor to best in urban planner from Bengaluru with over 30 years of experience in architecture and urban design said civic bodies are supposed to have SOPs. 'It's a combination problems of law and order, traffic management, and civic bodies. I don't think they have individual SOPs or even a common one,' he said, suggesting that such celebrations can be delayed by a day or two and organised with proper planning. The NDMA has also issued Guidelines on the Incident Response System (IRS), to ensure that there is a structured and coordinated emergency response. The guideline emphasises the need to encourage research on crowd behaviour and psychology to better inform planning and risk mitigation at mass urban planner said mismanagement of crowds is not an isolated incident. 'We've had enough of these events to actually learn from them. The answer lies in capacitating our governance systems to deliver better,' the expert said, requesting is not the first time a stampede has claimed lives. Earlier this year on February 15, a stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station resulted in 18 people losing their lives. During Maha Kumbh in Prayaraj on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya, where lakhs arrived to take a holy dip at the Sangam, 30 died and over 60 were injured despite advisories and emergency policy advisors also highlighted that cities continue to build for lower capacity than needed. They pointed out that metro cities have inadequate road infrastructure, pavements barely exist, and public mobility services are congested and worn down.
Time of India
17 hours ago
- Time of India
CM Saini's intervention reunites missing youth with grandmother
Panchkula: The intervention of Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini, along with swift action by Panchkula Police, led to the safe reunion of a missing 19-year-old youth with his grandmother and the successful recovery of Rs 1 lakh. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The case concerns Krishna, a widowed woman originally from Uchana, Jind district, who currently resides in a rented house in Sector 19, along with her grandson, Prince. According to Krishna, Prince was missing for the past 4-5 days. Earlier on Wednesday, Krishna sought help from CM Saini and informed him that before disappearing, her grandson transferred Rs 1 lakh to some of his friends through various online transactions. Taking immediate cognisance of the matter, the CM contacted police commissioner Sibas Kaviraj. The commissioner formed a special team under the leadership of sub-inspector Tajinder Pal Singh, in charge of the anti-immigration fraud unit. The police traced the missing youth in just five hours. Prince was found safe at a friend's house in Panchkula. The police also recovered the full Rs 1 lakh that was transferred online.
