Hyderabad (Telangana): Joining the global movement to save soil, Telangana on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Isha Outreach, a social development branch of the Isha Foundation, founded by Sadhguru. With this, Telangana became the sixth state in the country to join the movement to save soil, as per a release by the state government.
The MoU was exchanged between Minister for Agriculture Singireddy Niranjan Reddy and Sadhguru at a Save Soil event in Hyderabad's GMC Balayogi Sports Complex.
During the event, the Minister assured to extend the government's full support to the movement. "When it comes to save soil, we fully agree with you, and we will follow your guidelines and we will implement them," he said.
Calling the movement, led by Sadhguru, inspirational, the Minister noted, "Only through individual's duty and moral responsibility and through the responsibility of the policymakers, and through political responsibility, can we save the soil. In making this possible, the role that people like you play is of Immense value which is invaluable, majestic, and deserves appreciation."
Sadhguru, who sat in a conversation with Samantha Ruth Prabhu delving onto his decision to undertake the risky bike ride said, "I have been talking about it (saving soil) for 30 years and whenever I speak about it, people will say this is great, this is fantastic and then they will sleep on it. So now, wanted to awaken something, I knew the simple way for me to do it is to put myself at some risk and it's worked because three days ago our social media metrics...is reading at 2.8 billion people have spoken about soil."
"In India, nearly 30% of fertile soils in the country have already become barren and are incapable of yield. The primary objective of the Save Soil Movement is to urge all nations of the world to mandate a minimum of 3-6% organic content in agricultural soils through urgent policy reforms. Without this minimum organic content, soil scientists have warned of the imminent death of soil, a phenomenon termed 'soil extinction," said the release.
At a Save Soil event in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined Sadhguru in expressing his wholehearted recognition of the critical need for and value of the movement. Since Sadhguru's arrival in India, the governments of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have expressed their full support for the movement and have signed MoUs with the movement.
Since the start of his lone motorcycle journey which began on March 21, 2022, and covered Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East, Sadhguru reached the Western port city of Jamnagar, Gujarat on May 29. During the Indian leg of the journey across 9 Indian states, he has passed through Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The movement, so far, has touched billions while 74 countries have agreed to act to save their nations' soils. To a topic undeniably absent in mass awareness, since the start of Sadhguru's journey across 27 nations, over 2.8 billion people have spoken about soil. Over 15 lakh children in India have written to the Prime Minister, requesting him to act to save the nation's soil and their collective future, said the release. (ANI)
