Jodhpur, January, 2020.

Introducing “Change the Climate”: a positive and action-oriented campaign to combat rapidly rising environmental challenges.The campaign envisions to build a positive relation between people and nature. Earthworm India brings together key stakeholders, including business professionals, philanthropists, environment activists, officials from government departments, professors from agricultural universities, children and adults from schools, panchayat members, farmers, youth and women from villages, to find positive solutions for climate sustainability.

“Change the Climate”| Jodhpur is a flagship initiative of Earthworm India to promote meaningful plantation with robust monitoring to ensure quality trees with healthy survival rates. This is done to increase the green cover, and create  sense of responsibility amongst society at large on sustaining natural resources. Jodhpur has emerged as a big centre of artistic furniture and ethnic / traditional handicrafts. The handicraft export industry of Jodhpur has virtually become the power house to sustain the economy of the state in general and the region in particular. The handicraft sector is economically important to high potential for export thereby earning valuable forex for the nation reckoning to about Rs. 1500 crores a year.

Everything comes with a cost. In order to meet the high demand, although, the trees have been harvested at a faster pace, but there is a big decline in compensating this harvest with fresh sowing. Farmers are losing interest in agro forestry model and are getting dependent on mono culture crops. It is thus important to maintain a viable balance between need and supply in order to ensure the business and environment sustainability.

Earthworm India, through its flagship campaign “Change the Climate”,works closely with more than 2000 farmers in 250 villages of Punjab, Haryana  and Rajasthan promoting afforestation by distributing more than 2 lakh saplings.By the month of March, we have planned to plant more than 150,000 saplings, with support of many handicraft exporters in Jodhpur.

We all must remember that “Nature is not a legacy we inherited from our forefathers; it is a debt we borrowed from our future generation. We are aware of the magnum of environmental challenges being faced by mankind. Planting trees is one simple solution that can bring balance to the entire ecosystem.At the same time, will ensure the perineal supply of raw material.  It is time to accept our responsibility and to take the corrective measure without wasting anytime.” explained Naresh Chaudhary, Earthworm India’s Country Manager.

Gaurav Kaushik, Head of Programs, Earthworm India said, “Agro forestry intervention is a pertinent solution to rectify this disbalance. We strongly recommend agro forestry in India, this important practice translated into an exclusive campaign called, 'Change the Climate'.

 “Change the Climate”is based on the principle of “for the farmers, by the farmers and with the farmers”. The high quality nurseries are completely run and managed by women self-help groupsin villages” stated Sanket Bondre, Project Officer, Earthworm India.

Praveen Sharma from Sharma Industries says, “If we want our businesses to thrive in longer run then we need to take care of the means of our raw material. We are so pleased to join the “Change the Climate” campaign as we now can connect with many farmers to witness that importance of agro forestry is well understood by each one of us.In fact, we are broadcasting this news on our social media handles to urge our fellow exporters to join the campaign as well.”