16 Janaury 2021, Kathmandu

Shodh Yatra

Shodh Yatra attempts the part of SRISTI, a journey, a search for knowledge, creativity, and innovation at its very roots. During Shodh yatra, the most remote areas are reached out to believe that hardship and challenges of natural surroundings bring out the innovative and creative side of humans and thus unearth such knowledge and talent at its roots.

It is a mutual exchange journey where you take in knowledge and share wisdom and practices with people in need.

Shodh Yatra was first started to share the innovative efforts of farmers and villagers regarding their problems and make the interaction between experimenting farmers and scientists.

With the invitation of Gafarbhai Kureshi, a farmer from Junaghad district, to start Shodh yatra from his place and suggestions from farmers on how to conduct it, the final decision to start Shodh yatra on foot came to be.

Objectives of Shodh Yatra

Shodh Yatra being a major scouting journey of SRISTI, carries out these major objectives:

• To learn about the experiences of farmers engaged in organic farming and inform other farmers about the same.
• To encourage the curiosity of the children about variety in organic farming and to discover the knowledge of bio and crop diversity among rural people.
• To meet the people who solve their problems through their presence of mind and inborn ability, store their knowledge, and felicitate them.
• To compile and disseminate the knowledge, which is fast disappearing and establish a dialogue between the old and the future generations.

Activities during Shodh Yatra

The usual activities to take place during Shodh Yatra:

Night Meets

A meeting is held with the villagers during the night to introduce the objectives of Shodh yatra along with the activities of the Honey Bee Network.

This meeting also acts as a forum to share ideas the villagers have developed over the years.

 Bio-diversity Competition

This activity is targeted towards the students and young impressionable minds of the village. In this competition, the participants are to identify and stick samples of local vegetables from their village on cardboard and their uses.

The participants to make the best impressions during the oral test are given certificates.

Recipe Competition

The recipe competition is organized for the women of the villages. The participant in cooking the most nutritious foods using the local ingredient is encouraged with a prize and certificate.

The objective of this competition is to aware people about the values of their local crops and their importance in maintaining ecological diversity.

Felicitation of Creative Villagers

During this activity, the farmers active in organic farming, those who develop new creative methods, the villagers who had helped in the publicity of the aims ad objectives of the yatra, and the oldest person of the village are felicitated and presented with a set of the volumes of “Madhubindu”; “Samvad thi Sanshodhan Sudhi” and various issues of “Loksarvani.”

Previous Shodh yatras

1^st Shodh yatra (Gir to Gadhada, Gujarat)

2^nd Amirgadh to Tundia (Gujarat) December 1998

3^rd Shodh yatra, Gola Gamdi to Ningaht (Gujarat)

4^th Shodh yatra Neelpar to Nani Khakhar

5^th Shodh yatra, Panchmahal Gujarat to Bansawar Rajasthan

6^th Shodh yatra, Mohandari to Dhulda (Gujarat – Maharashtra)

7^th Shodh yatra, Dabhudala to Sarasla (Gujarat)

8^th Shodh yatra, Bhikampura to Nilkanth Gadh (Rajasthan)

9^th Shodh yatra, Samadara to Bhadarva (Gujarat)

10^th Shodh yatra, Thenur to Sevapur (Tamil Nadu)

11^th Shodh yatra (Rudrapur – Dehgala Village)

12^th Shodh yatra, Kopa Town to Shrungeri Malnad (Karnataka)

13^th Shodh yatra, Nana Ambala to Balachadi (Gujarat)

14^th Shodh yatra, Nagapattinam (Tamilnadu)

15^th Shodh yatra, Mazin to Palampur (Himachal Pradesh)

16^th Shodh yatra, Edduki to Kattappana (Kerala)

17^th Shodh yatra, Potangi to Koraput

18^th Shodh yatra, Gangagadh to Doula (Uttar Pradesh)

19^th Shodh yatra, Kanjigud to Anantnag (Jammu & Kashmir)

20^th Shodh yatra, Patamda to Binodbatti (West Bengal)

21^st Shodh yatra, Bora to Pedaguruv (Andhra Pradesh)

22^nd Shodh yatra, Motihari to Lauriya (Bihar)

23^rd Shodh yatra, Fangia (Gujarat) to Aamkhunt (Madhya Pradesh)

24^th Shodh yatra, Okajan to Hathigadh (Assam)

25^th Shodh yatra, Narayanpur District of Chhattisgarh

26^th Shodh yatra, East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya

27^th Shodh yatra, (Kisan Bhawan to Hundru, Ranchi, Jharkhand)

28^th Shodh yatra, (Sailam – Melriat, Aizawl District, Mizoram)

29^th Shodh yatra, (Jamonia Dam – Talab, Sehore District, Madhya Pradesh)

30^th Shodh yatra, Churachandpur to Kolhen, Churachandpur District, Manipur

31^st Shodh yatra, Sevagram Wardha to Maharashtra

32^nd Shodh yatra, Punjab

33^rd Shodh yatra, Haryana

34^th Shodh yatra, Sikkim

35^th Shodh yatra, Tripura

36^th Shodh yatra, Ziro to Yetap (Arunachal Pradesh)

37^th Shodh yatra, Ayee (Maharashtra) to Colamb (Goa)

38^th Shodh yatra (Nagaland)

39^th Shodh yatra, Barpali to Nrusinghnath (Bargarh district, Odisha)

40^th Shodh yatra, Chakwali to Dawar, Bandipora district of Jammu & Kashmir

41^st Shodh yatra, Andaman & Nicobar Islands (South India)

42^nd Shodh yatra, Rapar to Anjar (Kutch)

The most recent 46^th Shodh Yatra was held in Tamil Nadu from 21^st to 27^th May 2020.

It started on 21^st May morning from Paramakudi and ended on 27^th May afternoon at Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Memorial, Peikarumbu, Rameshwaram, with the participants traveling approximately 130 km on foot.

For more detailed information about all the previous Shodh Yatras, go to the official website of SRISTI.