Save The Desert

   ...before they vanish from this planet...

Our Mission & Objectives

We at ‘Save the Desert’ have pledged, vowed and committed ourselves to work untiringly towards the objective of saving the desert, the sand dunes and the forests from disappearing through haphazard and meaningless construction activities, stopping the land grabbers from acquiring land in the name of farming, building of hotels and apartments, industrialization etc., and thus saving the rich culture, heritage and traditions of the desert. The goals to be achieved in the immediate future are—

  • Making people aware of the concept and necessity of the desert.
  • Making the people realise, through extensive exercise, that they should be proud and not ashamed of the desert.
  • Making people aware that the sand dunes and the desert land is gradually diminishing.
  • Attempting to educate people as to why the desert needs to be saved.
  • Bringing the fact to the notice of all that efforts have already begun in countries like USA, UK, Australia, Egypt and in the Middle East to save and protect the desert.
  • Making people aware that the traditional and conventional crops and vegetables of desert called in local language as Sangris, Kairs, Kachri, Falis are vanishing and are being replaced by the regular vegetables and crops. To recognise the fact that the prices of these vegetables have skyrocketed and are out of reach of the common man.
  • Bringing the facts to the knowledge of people that with disappearance of desert, the culture and traditions of desert will also gradually fade.
  • Highlighting the fact there is a substantial threat to the species, herbs and animals of the desert.
  • Educating and pursuading the village folks not to sell their land to the builders and industrialists.
  • Identifying and highlighting the facts that the there are alternative employment opportunities through Tourism, Exploration of Oil and Minerals, purposeful mining and setting up of Cottage Industries.
  • Pursuading the Banks and Financial institutions to offer special rates of interest/terms for the organisations creating employment opportunities in these areas
  • Getting a declaration from the new industries about the area of desert proposed to be depleted by them and justification thereof.
  • Identifying the old heritage buildings which are being misused as Government and Private offices, Courts etc.
  • Identifying the old Hawelis and Palaces which are closed or locked and pursuading their owners to open them for public exhibition and thus generating employment.
  • Following up with the authorities to ensure that the mining activities in the Aravali range, a potential threat to the desert is immediately stopped.
  • Pursuading the Government to undertake construction of Roads and Railway tracks through over bridges, as done in case of rivers/seas, causing minimum damage to the desert.
  • Pursuading the Government to get an undertaking signed by all seeking elections to Parliament, Assembly or Panchayat etc., that they would respect the desert and would work towards saving the same.
  • Bringing the facts about the depleting stage of the Indian desert to the attention of the Government, United Nations and any other International organization.
  • Coordinating with various environmentalists, activist groups and desert lovers in other parts of world to work jointly towards the common goal of saving the desert.
  • Extracting and analysing information, through RTI and other regulations about the year-wise size and area of desert to identify the fall in the area.

Your Participation

The aforesaid goals can be achieved through large scale participation and cooperation of those who have a ‘feel’ towards desert, who have some emotions attached with the desert and those who love and adore nature in its purest form. ‘Save the Desert’ as an NGO is working towards it at a micro level. The process involves —

  • Holding Camps in the country side to educate the villagers to save the desert.
  • Reminding the villagers of their rich culture and traditions and persuading them not to be swayed by or influenced by the builders.
  • Organising camps in the villages persuading the villagers to stick to the natural desert crop and vegetation.
  • Educating the villagers of the revenue and employment generation through tourism and cottage Industries.
  • Distributing pamphlets and literature relating to protection of deserts.
  • Organizing cultural programmes under the cultural wing “Dharti Dhora Ree” (The Land of Desert) with primary objective of creating awareness about desert.
  • Collecting and storing the facts, informations and datas relating to desert depletion.
  • Taking notice of any large scale construction activity in the desert.
  • Persuading Government to bring suitable legislation to save the desert.
  • Interacting and coordinating with other global groups working in this arena, UNO and other such agencies.
  • Persuading the Government to opt for constructing of overbridges in the desert areas as an alternate to roads which destroy the basic concept and identity of deserts.
  • Locating and listing old Hawelis.
  • Identifying and listing heritage buildings in dilapidated condition.
  • Listing heritage buildings being misused as offices.
  • Submitting Online Petition.
  • Persuading Government to organize Desert sports such as Desert Safari Car Race, Camel Race and other traditional desert games
  • To explore and start on experimental basis popular games like Cricket, Golf and Hockey on deserts. Though difficult and appearing as impossible, once popular it can be a big success amongst the youth.