How Farmers Shaped a Desert to Feed Millions

Permaculture Instructor Andrew Millison travels to the Thar Desert in Rajasthan India to see the 40 year water harvesting and community development projects spearheaded by Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti (GRAVIS). We spent several days touring the Thar Desert projects of GRAVIS, and found incredible inspiration in the deep resilience of that harsh and dry region.

DISCLAIMER: The wet season footage was filmed closer to Jaipur, which is a slightly wetter region of Rajasthan. So for those of you who are very familiar with the Thar Desert ecosystem, you may notice the trees are a little bit bigger and more dense on the land then you find West of the Arvari Hills.

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[dangabro]

A colab between Andrew Millison and Mossy Earth would be awesome

[willm]

There is NOTHING more important than this work! Thank you from 🇨🇦🙏

[harun]

Humans are amazing when they're applying intelligence in a positive way and adapt and go with the nature and not against it.

[kinexkid]

I was wondering why the ground water was so salty, so i did some quick google searches to try to find out why. I found that the reason why the ground water is so salty is because this region of India has the largest saline (saltwater) lake in the whole country. Its an endorheic lake which means it's a lake that does not drain into the ocean. All the salty mineral runoff from streams gets sent to the lake, the water evaporates, and the salt is left behind, which ends up leeching into the local watertable making the ground water extra salty

[x-mess]

I really love seeing these types of videos... it's possible to make the earth green. People using their brain to make it possible!
Gotta ❤ ponds

[boogiedownforever]

I love these videos. It is exciting to see people greening the earth.

[strawwagen]

Love your stuff, really nice to have positive videos like this, that really highlight that we DO have a future!

[km]

I cannot express enough how much I appreciate your content is that is both educational and full of hope and joy.

[eustaciogriego]

Nature can be wonderful if we treated fair. More videos like this should be shared, Water is life.

[emsie]

This is one of the most inspiring channels on YouTube. Thank you!

[lamdao]

Thank you for making this video Andrew.

I visited Jaipur in March or April, 1997 or 1998. It was a very parched land and was told it was a desert.

Around 4.36, I see a structured which could be the Amber Fort near Jaipur. If so, then when I visited, I remember it was very dry land with hardly any trees.

So it's wonderful to see how green the fields can become as shown in this video and the other video which Andrew Millison made about Rajasthan and thanks to effective water harvesting and storage, how the benefits have flowed to it's people.

[calmeilles]

The captured and sand filtered rainwater in underground tanks is exactly how the "wells" of Venice worked.

[pongop]

Very educational and inspirational! Thank you for highlighting and sharing their incredible work and yours as well.

[NateLee-nctb]

I hope your work inspires millions of people, Thank you for all of your effort Mr Millison.

[growingwiththemoons]

Great video as usual! Thanks for your work, Andrew 🙏🏻

[feisty_jali]

Videos like these give me that extra dopamine hit😂 Please continue to make such videos.❤

[parullgossain]

Every video drop from Andrew Millison makes my day ❤

[gianni]

kudos to you for reporting and to all the people behind these projects!

[lephtovermeet]

This is amazing and it's great to see humans working together and working with the environment. I imagine this takes a lot of cooperation and restraints from inhabitants to keep this going and growing - that's probably the biggest obstacle for adoption in other regions: if one person or family or company decides to drain communal ponds or tries to grow too much or harvests too much rainwater for short term gains, the community will suffer and future projects will be harmed.

[DevinHeida]

Its neat being this early. But I also like to read the comments. I'll be back for a second watch!