Sustainability
"Growing in Harmony with Nature"
The journey of Muni Seva Ashram in sustainability started much before it became fashionable to talk about it. Anuben, MSA's Founder, believed firmly in living and growing in harmony with nature.
Sustainable development is a way of human development wherein the use of resources meets human needs while preserving the environment. Living with sustainability does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Muni Seva Ashram is an active agent in the drive for sustainable development, with large-scale interests in organic farming, agro-forestry, horticulture, animal husbandry, solar energy, and biogas.
Over the years, the Ashram had made a sustained effort to use modern technologies to reduce the use of conventional resources. Please visit the various Sustainability dropdowns to learn more about the Ashram’s varied efforts towards promoting the use of renewable energy.
Organic Farming
The purpose of organic farming at Goraj is intended to foster our sustainable initiatives while providing employment opportunities to the local communities.
One of the most important aspects of farming at the Ashram is to alleviate local farmers from the plight of unfair prices, and dependence on external factors that adversely affected their livelihood.
Spread across 1000 acres, with 670 acres certified by state for organic farming, the initiative supports farmers in terms of providing them with standard pricing and land cultivation technologies to better their lives through farming. Currently, mostly farmers from Goraj are using the land for growing crops and selling the produce to local markets.
The initiative has come a long way within just a short period of time, helping every farmer get their rightful share for the hard work they have put in to cultivate the earth.
Solar Power Plant
Muni Seva Ashram uses solar energy for heating water, cooking meals, lighting, and ventilation demands on campus.
Every day, 31,000 liters of water is heated and used, through solar flat plate collectors, at the Ashram’s kitchens, guest houses and hospitals. We also have two Scheffler Dishes (10m2 each) at the Sharda Mandir school, used to cook meals for 200 students. The Green Campus at Vankuva, home to our Eklavya and Vivekanand Schools, lunch and dinner for 400 students is cooked using 10 Scheffler dishes (10m2 each) and thermic oil as a heat carrier. Box solar cookers and SK10/14 parabolic solar cookers are also used for domestic cooking and demonstrations.
Since grid power was not available when Green Campus was being built, a 13KW solar power plant was installed to meet the lighting and ventilation demands of the schools and hostels. Most of the streetlights at the Ashram are automatic, self-contained solar photovoltaic systems (with panels mounted on the light poles)
Biogas Plants
As Muni Seva Ashram grew in size over the years, Ashram employees remained very conscious about cost reduction and sustainability. As a result, the Ashram adopted many sustainable technologies wherever possible, allowing work activities to be in harmony with nature. One such technology was the use of compression cylinders to create bio-gas, a combustible gas made of fermented cow dung that can be used to cooking and as fuel in farm vehicles.
Today, biogas is produced at both the Ashram's Gaushala Cow Sheds and the Green Campus at Vankuva. In addition to using cow dung, the Gaushala biogas plant utilizes organic food waste to generate gas for kitchens on the Ashram's main campus.
Another 430m3 biogas plant, fueled by cow dung, press mud from sugar mills, chicken litter, and kitchen waste, produces gas that is enriched by scrubbing and bottled under pressure. This compressed natural gas, called Bio-CNG, serves the Ashram's Athiti Mandir (guest house) kitchen.
Vermicomposting Toilets
Since our inception, we have been serving over 150 villages around the Ashram by providing them with basic living amenities. In an initiative to put these village folks on the path of hygiene, we have recently decided to build 1000 eco-friendly toilets at the behest of the all the village sarpanches. 10% of villages in Gujarat have already installed such toilets, which has in turn led to a decline in illnesses arising from lack of sanitation facilities.
Vermicomposting toilets were considered to be the best alternatives owing to the fact that they do not require any soak chambers and therefore will not produce contaminated water. This technology was suggested by Shri Shashi Shah, Gopal Shah, and HD Pathak of Engineering Seva Trust of Vadodara. The design of these toilets was suggested by Shri Dhiren Bajpai and Mv Shaikh of Svades, a Vadodara-based NGO which has successfully built 4500 toilets so far.
The biggest advantage of the toilets is that the waste is turned into fertilizer, giving people of the village organic fertilizer for their plantations. We are already in the process of procuring 300 KG of earthworms for the toilets. If 10% of the people in India adopted the use of these toilets, we would convert 27 lakh tons of human waste into 5.4 lakh tons of organic fertilizers.
Gaushala Cow Sheds
Currently, Muni Seva Ashram manages three Gaushalas (cow sheds) and one heifer rearing center. Our Gaushalas include Gir and Kankrej cows, both indigenous breeds of India. Our goal is to provide clean and wholesome milk to our patients, staff, visitors, and locals, which preserving the indigenous germplasm.
Organic farming techniques, including intercropping, crop rotation, and scientific feeding and breeding policies, are practiced at all four locations. Cow urine, a rich source of nitrogen, is used in farming, and cow dung is used to power our renewable energy efforts. We have a gas plant to produce cow dung slurry, a rich source of nitrogen for the farm, and also to convert kitchen waste into rich manure. The biomass created at the farm is also used to create a natural manure called vermi-compost. As such, no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides are used at any of our agricultural sites.
All Gaushalas with male calves are given to poor farmers in the vicinity at a nominal cost. We also conduct camps in surrounding villages for vaccination, treatment of gynecological disorders, and deworming of cattle, and organize local conferences to extend scientific knowledge of animal husbandry to farmers. We have appointed a veterinary surgeon on a permanent position to attend to these very valuable gifts of nature.
The Green Campus at Vankuva School
The Green Campus at Vankuva is a 120-acre farm featuring timber plantations, fruit orchards, and farming land for food and fodder. A wide range of scientific methods are used to make compost with the biomass generated at the farm, including windrow composting, NADEP, biogas slurry, and pit-composting.
As the Vankuva School is residential, daily meals and lodging are provided for all students. To prepare food, organic agricultural techniques are faithfully used with minimal use of mechanical farming means. Specifically, there are no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides used on the farm. In addition, intercropping and crop rotation is routinely used to revitalize the soil, and water harvesting is employed to maintain the water table at its natural level. The campus features a solar and wood gasifier to reduce cooking-related wood consumption and carbon emissions, and a drip irrigation system to conserve water usage. After cooking is complete, organic waste from the kitchens at Vankuva is reused to generate gas and manure.
To protect the local biodiversity, no life forms are ever slaughtered, with the exception of feral swine, and 25 Gir breed heifers are reared at the campus itself. The biogas produced at Vankuva through cow dung is piped to three nearby homes for domestic use.
Environmental Education:
Owing to a major chunk of students from farming community, the Vivekanand Uchchatar Uttar Buniyadi Vidyalaya school, a part of the Green Campus at Vankuva, has designed an additional syllabus where the students are taught scientific ways of farming, animal husbandry, dairy farming, computer courses and agro processing. The school thrives on donations from generous patrons who have helped us introduce a lot of innovative technologies like computer labs, library and girls hostel. Their support has been vital in molding the future of children who pass through the school's classrooms.
The students of the schools in Vankuva assembled and showcased the Celestino funnel solar cookers at the VCCI Vibrant Gujarat Trade Summit.