Bhaskar Hiraji Save (1922-2015) *93

known in India as the "Gandhi of natural farming", was an educator, entrepreneur, farmer, and activist. Bhaskar Save was born in the coastal village of Dehri, India, on the Arabian Sea into a family belonging to the Wadval community of farm tenders. His early years were spent in Dehri, at that time a small city in Valsad District in the state of Gujurat, where modern conveniences, like electricity, did not yet exist. Farming was a natural, integral part of life, changing according to the season, but regulated by the monsoon, which signaled the beginning of a new production season.

As a child, Bhaskar Save learned the value of cooperation. Like most other local farmers, Save’s family grew mainly rice, pulses, and some vegetables. People often worked together on each other's fields when extra hands were needed to transplant or harvest a paddy field.

Often, he accompanied his father on bullock cart trips through forests to neighboring areas. After encountering the Warli tribe, he was fascinated by their way of life and culture, and particularly awed by their belief that God lived in green trees. Among the Warli, trees were never cut down till they dried and shed all trace of green from their body. It was an idea that struck a chord and was to be applied in his own farming career, since the planting of tree crops was not a part of his family's traditional agricultural practices.

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