We came across Shri Balbhadrasingh Rathod, an innovative teacher in Naharpur village. He used pictures of fruits, utensils, birds etc., to form different alphabets. This method enabled students to grasp faster and remember the alphabets easily.

Activities like biodiversity contest and embroidery contest were also organised during the ‘shodhyatra’. Eight biodiversity contests were organised and a total of 166 students participated in these contests. The students were asked to identify the maximum number of plants and their uses. Twenty-one students were given awards for their knowledge about various uses of local plants. They showed tremendous enthusiasm and the contests also showed that the knowledge of plants in the local communities was immense. An embroidery contest was held in Kasana village of Gujarat in which fifteen women took part. Three participants viz. Shardaben, Parvatiben and Radhikaben of Kasana village of Gujarat showed extraordinary performance and were given prizes.

In order to build confidence of the local people in their ability to develop innovative solutions on their own, the villagers were shown innovations done by others through the multi-lingual, multi-media Honey Bee database. It triggered the curiosity of the farmers, men and women as well as young children about innovations. Many innovators like Amruthbhai, Bhanjibhai, Badribhai, Rajnikar Kanadiya also shared their respective innovations with the local people. Impromptu plays were also performed about the importance of sustainable agriculture. The play evoked tremendous response among the young and the old. Badribhai took the lead in enacting the play.

During the course of nine days, we met several farmer men and women, local vets, and teachers who used their indigenous knowledge to solve their day-to-day problems. 

Totally, 49 innovators were honoured. Among them, 24 were local vets who were experts in their respective field. Most of them were serving their fellow villagers voluntarily. Five women were also honoured for their indigenous knowledge about livestock management, grain storage and plant protection.

SRISTI team appealed to the villagers to set up ‘gyan van’ (knowledge forest) in their villages to preserve various species of medicinal and useful plants. The ‘gyan van’ could be set up on a small piece of land either owned by the ‘panchayat’ or some interested farmer. 

He said, "There was no ‘context’ in 

which he could have shared such a solution". 

We kept thinking about the reason for an

absence of this context in our society.

They could collect some of the threatened species from the nearby forests, plant them and look after them. The villagers could then use those plants for personal use but would not let the trees be cut. The villagers were excited in many places as it was a totally new concept for them and they agreed to set up ‘gyan van’ in their villages. The youth of the villages seemed to be more enthusiastic in this endeavour.