Bengaluru, Aug 2 (PTI): Isha Foundation, a spiritual organisation, which has undertaken the campaign Cauvery Calling to revive the river of the South, launched its second major farmer outreach programme on Monday.

Covering 1,785 Gram Panchayats in 57 Taluks throughout the nine Cauvery basin districts of Karnataka, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev of the Foundation said, the coming eight weeks would see 1,800 events to popularise tree-based farming model among the farming community.

The Rally for Rivers Board and the Cauvery Calling panel met today to formalise the objectives and the action plan for the new initiative, he told reporters here.

According to him, 11 million saplings were planted in farmers' land across the river basin last year.

The Karnataka government offered a subsidy of Rs 125 on each saplings spread over four years, he said.

He said 890 people would be working for Cauvery Calling to get saplings by contacting the local farmers.

When asked about the proposed Mekedatu reservoir project at Kanakapura in Ramanagara district across Cauvery, which is a bone of contention between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Sadhguru said the controversies between the two States were unfortunate. "Cauvery is just 40 per cent of what it was 50 year ago. That should be our concern. We can build whatever we want and all this is about how to use it. I am talking about how to save it," he said. He further said the controversy can be sorted out by sitting together if the issue is about Cauvery water distribution.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)