A Miracle in a thirsty Indian village

January 23, 2009
Text: Shobha Warrier | Photograph Courtesy: Ram Krishnan
Article Link : Rediff News

It was Pongal with a difference for Ram Krishnan, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, who spent it in Vilathikulam, a village in Tamil Nadu.

Vilathikulam in Ramanathapuram district is one of the driest regions in the state. On an average, it receives only nine days of rainfall in a year.

But the parched village has seven million litres of water in three ponds today, thanks to Ram Krishnan's efforts.

His involvement with Vilathikulam started four years ago. Today, the villagers are like his family. In fact, he had invited many of them to the Pan IIT conference in Chennai in December and also arranged rural visits for the alumni, hoping to motivate some of them into working for the betterment of poor Indian villages.

Ram Krishnan, 62, migrated to the United States over 30 years ago and lives with his family in St Paul, Minnesota.
Like most IIT graduates, he opted for a well-paying job abroad after finishing his studies. But the severe water shortage in IIT-Madras forced him to realise the gravity of the problem. He was reminded of his childhood days when his mother had to wake up at 3 am everyday to collect the limited water supplied by the municipal corporation in Chennai.

Dr Sekhar Raghavan, a physics professor, started a door-to-door campaign in some residential areas in Chennai to popularise the concept of rainwater harvesting. He convinced over 500 homes, industries and charitable institutions to implement rainwater harvesting programmes.

When Ram Krishnan learnt of Dr Raghavan's efforts, he got in touch with the professor and the duo formed the Akash Ganga Trust, a citizens' action group comprising 10 persons who harvested rainwater in Chennai. Ram Krishnan, the president of the North America IIT Alumni Association, became the overseas coordinator of the project.
He invested Rs 4 lakh (Rs 400,000) to set up a model house called the Akash Ganga Rain Centre to create awareness about rain water harvesting.

Ram Krishnan admits that he didn't venture out to villages to spread awareness about rain water harvesting as there were no comfortable hotels for him to stay. But his attitude changed after he paid a visit to a village in Gujarat, which had been devastated by the January 26, 2001 earthquake. Ram Krishnan and many of his friends raised money to rebuild the village.

Four years ago, Ram Krishnan, along with 17 of his friends from US, went on a five-day trip to the Tamil Nadu countryside. After travelling through many dry villages, they realised that Ramanathapuram and Thoothukudi were the driest places in Tamil Nadu.
Ram Krishnan chose to start his work in Vilathikulam. "Everybody warned me that nothing grows in Vilathikulam. I was wasting my time there as it rains only nine days a year," he says.

Today, Vilathikulam has donned a new look. The villagers have collected 7 million litres of water in three ponds, which can be used for agricultural purposes, drinking as well as shared with three villages nearby.

Ram Krishnan plans to clean the water, collect in it 20 litre cans and ferry it to other villages in a bullock cart! Vilathikulam has sufficient water supply till the next monsoon.

Ram Krishnan has also started a community centre -- the Bharatiyar Community Centre -- for the villagers, where farmers are taught various things including organising health camps, Self Help Groups, improving agricultural production etc. IIT engineer-turned-farmer R Madhavan is helping him in this endeavour. At the centre, farmers also try out the methods adopted by Madhavan for first-hand knowledge of new agricultural methods.


Ram Krishnan visits Vilathikulam four times in a year to check on the work done by villagers. "It is worth a million dollars to see a smile on the face of a child or an old woman. When they welcome you, a total stranger, like a part of their family, you feel so happy," he adds on an emotional note.
Recalls Ram Krishnan, "On December 22, after the PAN IIT conference, we took a group of people to many villages including Madhavan's village. Madhavan's efforts touched one IITian's heart so much that he wrote to me. He wanted to help a village."

He urges the youth to "reach out and understand Indian villages."

"It is simple. You don't need a Tata or Birla to help a village, even one person can do that. We need many, many people to change the face of Indian villages. Youngsters do not have to wait till their hair turns grey," he says.