Mumbai: The Cauvery Calling movement, envisioned by Sadhguru, has announced the successful plantation of 1.36 crore saplings across 34,000 acres in the Cauvery basin during 2024–25. With this, the cumulative plantation count has soared to 12.2 crore saplings, supporting 2.38 lakh farmers in transitioning to tree-based agriculture.
The world’s largest farmer-driven ecological initiative, Cauvery Calling has emerged as a model for tropical eco-restoration. Recently named Top Innovator by the Trillion Trees: India Challenge, the movement is working to rejuvenate the Cauvery River — a lifeline for 8.4 crore people — by enabling the plantation of 242 crore trees on private farmland, thereby also improving soil health, water retention, and year-round river flow.
In the past year alone, 50,931 farmers and citizens actively participated in the ecological initiative. Reflecting on its transformative scope, Sadhguru earlier stated on X, “#CauveryCalling will demonstrate to the world that it is possible to change the terrain of degraded Land by taking planned & strategized Action. Everyone who is nourished by Soil & Water must be a part of this Movement. Let Us Make It Happen.”
Anand Ethirajalu, Project Director of Cauvery Calling and a representative of the Save Soil movement, highlighted the urgency of investing in soil regeneration at recent global forums. “One of the key topics that we were campaigning during this COP29 summit of UNFCCC and COP16 of UNCCD is that less than 4 percent of the global climate finance is actually reaching agriculture and food systems.”
“We highlighted this because climate change cannot be fixed in the atmosphere. It can be fixed only in the soil. Putting more focus and investment in soil regeneration through tree-based agriculture is the need of the hour, and that’s what we’ve been doing!”
To meet its ambitious goals, Cauvery Calling has built a robust nursery infrastructure, including the Cuddalore nursery, one of the world’s largest single-site nurseries, entirely operated by women with a production capacity of 85 lakh saplings, and the Thiruvannamalai nursery, producing 15 lakh saplings. These two nurseries form the backbone of a supply network that includes 40 distribution centres in Tamil Nadu and 10 in Karnataka, offering 29 high-value timber species like Teak, Red Sandalwood, Rosewood, and Mahogany at a subsidized rate of ₹3 per sapling.
The nursery at Sadhguru Sannidhi Bengaluru also reached a milestone by enabling the plantation of 1.3 lakh saplings since its launch in December 2023.
To ensure sustained support and awareness, the initiative has deployed over 160 field executives who have visited 32,000+ farmlands, conducting soil and water tests and recommending region-specific tree species aligned with local agro-climatic conditions and income cycles.
The movement also fosters grassroots collaboration with Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), NGOs, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Gram Panchayats, and regularly engages over 52,000 farmers through 225+ active WhatsApp groups. A dedicated helpline, operational daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., resolves farmer queries within 24–48 hours, supported by expert insights.
In 2024, Cauvery Calling organized 2 mega training programs and 6 zonal workshops, reaching 8,721 farmers, with experts from premier institutes such as NRCB, IIHR, NIFTEM, and CTCRI offering practical training.
On landmark days including World Environment Day (June 5), Van Mahotsav Week (July 1–7), Gandhi Jayanti (October 2), and World Soil Day (December 5), the movement hosted 506 plantation events, resulting in the planting of 10 lakh saplings.
With a decade-long vision, Cauvery Calling continues to position itself as a catalyst for ecological restoration and farmer prosperity, combining traditional wisdom with modern execution on an unprecedented scale.
