Marginalised communities often have a more symbiotic relationship with the earth and environment, believes Mercy Kappen, Co-founder and Strategic Advisor at Visthar, a Bengaluru-based civil society organisation that works in areas of education, training and environmental issues. “They know how to make a living without ruining things. I think there is a lot we can learn from them.”

In keeping with this idea, the 18th edition of Bhoomi Habba, Visthar’s annual environment and sustainability festival, will have Restore, Reclaim – Community Paths to Climate Action as its theme, which the event’s release describes as “a vital movement toward tangible stewardship across generations, asserting the agency of community-led initiatives in healing our shared ecosystems.”

Organised in collaboration with GreenKraft, Elements Organics, the Fair Trade Alliance of Kerala (FTAK), and Abheek Academy, the festival will comprise an array of events and stalls that closely align with its core themes of sustainability and community-based climate action.

Also read:Bengaluru-based natural history platform, Nature in Focus, introduces new category to its annual photography contest

“We ground environmental care in practical earth wisdom — whether through reconstructing vanishing recipes or embracing zero-waste living,” Mercy says. “Bhoomi Habba uses the power of theatre, poetry, storytelling, games and movement to transform personal stories into collective calls for climate action.”

According to Mercy, Bhoomi Habba, which began in 2008, was called the Festival of Just Peace as part of the School of Peace, an international leadership development programme offered at the Visthar campus.

“It was in collaboration with the Interfaith Forum. The School of Peace brought young people from conflict zones in South and Southeast Asia for a semester-long program,” she recalls.

As part of the programme, they thought it would be good for the participants to be involved in some sort of campaign and organise things, she says. “That is when we thought of this Festival of Just Peace, the idea being that there cannot be peace without justice.”

What started as a small event with participants from 10-12 countries, as well as some of Visthar’s friends setting up stalls with crafts and food, evolved into the Bhoomi Habba. “After three or four years of this programme, it shifted to another country, but we did not want to stop the event because we felt that there was strength and creativity in bringing so many people together,” explains Mercy.

Since the organising team felt the need to bring ecological issues into the festival, it was renamed Bhoomi Habba. “We wanted to bring eco-justice into the whole thing, because there is no life without relating to earth,” says Mercy.

Also read:A new fellowship that reimagines conservation in Northeast India

“Shanthi Habba focused on human rights violations, and when it shifted to Bhoomi Habba, just peace came into it automatically: most of the human rights violations today are based on destructive development or the ecological crisis,” elaborates Nazar P.S., Executive Director of Visthar.

Over the years, Bhoomi Habba has focused on numerous environmental themes, including “the water crisis, pollution, the Bhopal gas tragedy and different people’s movements,” says Mercy, adding that the festival has grown exponentially, with the number of stalls and organisations participating only increasing. “There are a lot of people who ask us when this festival is coming next,” she says, with a laugh.

At this year’s Bhoomi Habba, the Visthar campus will host numerous curated stalls from organisations promoting a sustainable and mindful lifestyle, including Timbaktu Collective, Desi Trust, Sahaj Living, GreenKraft, Nature Conservation Foundation, Education for Change, Bee Story, and Spudnik Farms.

Other highlights include immersive workshops on indigenous food traditions and on reclaiming vanishing recipes; performative storytelling and theatre workshops focused on climate change and sustainability; a one-day film festival curated by Amudhan; and a live performance by Dominic D’cruz and team.

“Many of the artists, performers, workshop facilitators and theatre people are doing this out of passion and commitment. There is no payment or travel reimbursement, but they are just coming in for this,” says Mercy, pointing out that many of the activities are aimed at children from government schools. “It is truly a community celebration.”

One of the biggest takeaways for anyone who attends the festival, says Mercy, is “the role that each of us has to play when it comes to things like sustainability and climate change…in our everyday life, consumption patterns and use of resources.”

Also read:A new exhibition asks whether design, like corals, can give back to the planet

She hopes that people will ask themselves how they can be more proactive with these things, going beyond being a passive witness to actually making a difference. “Art and culture can play a transformative role in making people think and rethink how they live,” she says, pointing out that the festival also seeks to create a sense of community, essential in a world divided by so many barriers.“It is important to protect the Earth and celebrate life,” she says.

Bhoomi Habba will be held on June 6 at the Visthar Campus from 10am to 7pm.

Published – June 03, 2026 05:41 am IST

Tamil Nadu is one of the largest wind energy producers in the country having nearly 10,000 MW of installed capacity.
| Photo Credit: File photo

In Maharashtra’s Jalna district, Dada Rao Ghatode, a farmer from Babultara village, owns eight acres of land where he grows soybean, cotton, and pigeon pea (tur) during the kharif season (July to October). This season, he expected at least ₹80,000 in return from four acres of soybean. However, a single day of heavy rains in September ruined nearly 80% of his crop.

This was not an isolated incident. Across Marathwada, farmers are grappling with unpredictable changes in rainfall distribution, which are threatening their livelihoods. Jalna, along with all other districts in Marathwada, has experienced a sharp increase in extreme rainfall events, disrupting traditional farming practices and water management systems.

Rise in extreme rainfall events

Through the last two decades, the distribution of rainfall in Jalna has changed significantly, according to our analysis of daily gridded rainfall data from the India Meteorological Department. The region’s total annual rainfall has been relatively stable but the timing and intensity of the rains have become erratic. Already infamous for its droughts, Marathwada now oscillates between periods of little water and those of too much, which also cause severe waterlogging during the kharif season.

Traditionally, farmers grow water-intensive crops such as paddy, maize, pulses, soybean, and groundnut during the kharif cropping season, and expect good yields. But with an increasingly unstable monsoon, the farmers have had to fall back more and more on rabi season (November to April) crops such as sorghum, chana, and wheat, which have lower market prices. Even though most farmers own medium to large land-holdings, they are not prospering.

Data from 2001 to 2023 indicated that rains in July, August, and September accounted for 70% of Jalna’s annual rainfall, and that the monsoon arrived late in July and August in most of these years (Chart 1). Further, the amount of rain in July and August fell short as much as 70% of the time, while there was a 50% chance of downpours deviating from normal patterns in September.

Chart 1 | A long period average was calculated for the period from 1961 to 2010, and each category of rainfall was estimated for that month for the last 22 years (as per the IMD method)

The greater cause for alarm may be the number of rainy days: the frequency of those with more than 3 mm of rain dropped by 30% in August, a critical period for crop growth. September had 18% more rainy days, meaning the land was water-logged just as the crops approached harvest (Chart 2 and 3).

Chart 2 | The chart show the number of rainy days for the month of August. The frequency of those days with more than 3 mm of rain dropped by 30% in August, a critical period for crop growth

Chart 3 | The number of rainy days for the month of September. September had 18% more rainy days, which means that the land is water-logged just as the crops approach harvest

These patterns are disrupting farming cycles and putting farmers who depend on kharif-season crops at even more risk. Extreme rainfall events — defined as a day with rain falling in the 99th percentile by quantity — have not only become more frequent but also more intense. The intensity on these days increased from 59 mm/day in 1951-2000 to 70 mm/day in 2001-2023. There are similar trends across central India, where studies have recorded a threefold increase in the frequency of extreme precipitation events.

Black soil and water-logging

Farmers, researchers, and policymakers often discuss water scarcity in relation to the impact of climate change on agriculture, leaving the challenges of excess water to still be understudied. The Marathwada region’s black soil can hold a large amount of water before having to discharge it, and is thus prone to waterlogging.

When this soil type becomes saturated with water, it restricts drainage and prevents water from seeping into aquifers, resulting in flooding even with normal rainfall. For farmers, waterlogging is equal to disaster because it deprives the crops of oxygen, which leads to rotting, wilting, and increased susceptibility to pests and diseases.

The hydrogeology of Marathwada further complicates this situation. Although farm ponds and wells fill quickly after the rains, the underlying basalt rocks are not conducive to long-term water storage. In other words, farmers can’t rely on these resources for irrigation throughout the year. The result is a continuous cycle of surplus water in the monsoon and scarcity in the dry months — both of which are bad for farming.

Evolving water management

The changes in rainfall distribution in Jalna reveal a pressing need for new agricultural water management strategies. Prevailing water management practices in Marathwada are based on storing excess water in farm ponds. These ponds do provide some relief, but they don’t prevent waterlogging or retain water beyond a single season. This limits their usefulness.

For conventional methods to manage watersheds, experts use historical rainfall data to determine storage capacity. But with the monsoons becoming less predictable, Jalna and other similar areas need watershed structures that can withstand high runoff volumes from extreme rain events. One sustainable approach would be to focus on enhancing the region’s drainage networks and improving surface water storage.

Transitioning from farm ponds that depend on groundwater to surface runoff capture systems could also reduce the pressure on aquifers and prevent groundwater depletion.

Additionally, shifting to more water-tolerant varieties of crops can allow the water to percolate through the soil more and help sustain the landscape even when it is inundated.

This combination of improved drainage infrastructure, surface water storage facilities, and resilient land use can foster a balanced water management system capable of withstanding the disruptive weather changes in Marathwada.

Source : Daily gridded rainfall data of the Indian Meteorological Department

Ishita Jalan and Lakshmikantha NR are hydrologists at the Water, Environment, Land and Livelihoods (WELL) Labs.