Beri Renovated for Beneficiary Mishraram S/o Ridharam

A Beri has been renovated in Kishneri village. The lime mortar has been used for construction of the superstructure and silt catcher. The internal wall has also been plastered with the use of lime mortar. Before the super structure construction the de-silting work of beri was done by excavating the settled mud & silt inside the beri.

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Lime Grinding

Due to unavailability of cow the work is getting delayed. The lime grinding has started now.

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Lime Mill Completed

The PCC of pivotal centre and the peripheral pit (track) was completed using cement, sand and kapchi at 1:2:3 proportion. The PCC was allowed to settle down for a week.
As well as stone partition on the side of the peripheral pit was completed using mortar of cement & sand at 1:2 proportion. It was allowed to settle down for a week.

The stone wheel was fixed inside the peripheral pit. Ball bearing system has been assembled in the central rod, the metal rod and the stone wheel for smooth rolling of the stone wheel in the peripheral pit all round the mill.

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Lime Mill Progress

PCC of the peripheral track of Lime Mill in progress

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Lime Mill Progress

The peripheral pit of the lime mill completed. The work was delayed due to lack of labour availability (due to agriculture season). Even the labour demanded for more wage.

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Procurement of Metal Rod

Procurement of Metal rod done.
Ball bearing assembly for casting in the central pit and ball bearing assembly( made of wood) for stone wheel was done.

Lime Mill digging

Due to misunderstanding of lime mill design, the peripheral pit of the lime mill was dug at 17' instead of 13'. so the peripheral pit digging work started again at 13' circumference. Previously, JCB machine was used to dig the pit but this time pit digging was done manually by labour.

Lime Mill Progress

The pivot rod at the centre of the lime mill has been fixed. The central ball bearing for the stone wheel has been made.

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Discussion after Field Visit - Day 4 (22.11.12)

Dean and I departed from Baap centre at 8:30 after breakfast and reached Baap centre at 9:30 A.M. There we (Dean, Praveen, Shrikant, Devichand) had discussion about the issue of feasibility of lime taanka construction in Reen village and came up with conclusion that we will take Kishneri village for the 1st Taanka (test/experimental taanka) construction instead of Reen, as the grinding mill is also in the same village. It would be easier for us to transport the mortar in the same village, understand how the mortar is working like the time for it to dry up, hold the stone bricks, mortar usability within the time it takes to after being transported to field village 45-60 kms away from grinding mill, etc. In short, it would be easier for the field staff to learn and draw inferences about lime construction work. We also discussed that we can construct cement Taanka for the beneficiary in Reen, as we had already promised the family for taanka construction and they have already dug the pit. Dean and myself departed for Jodhpur at 11:30 A.M and reached Jodhpur at 4:00 P.M (On the way to Jodhpur, we had our lunch and also visited Balaji Temple). Dean Forbes departed for Delhi at 10:00 A.M next day on 23.11.12.

Report on Field Visit_20 Nov 2012

See attached Detailed report.

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Field Visit at Kishneri Village, Baap - Day 2 (20.11.12)

We (Dean, Saurin & Praveen) departed for the field at 8:00 A.M from Kalron Field Centre, reached the Baap Centre at 9:00 A.M. On the way to Baap, we visited a Naadi (pond) at Bhartasar village and took photographs of it. We moved all around the Naadi and understood its water flow, catchment area, spillway to control excessive water, steps & mud wall erected to hold the water, barricade of dirty railway track water by erecting mud bunds, rules made by the village committee for proper water management, etc. We (Dean, Saurin, Praveen, Shrikant, Devichand) reached Kishneri village at 10:30 A.M (we had our breakfast on the way and even vehicle tyre got punctured which consumed time to fix it back). In the site where the grinding mill was constructed, we had brief discussion with Khanuram. Photographs were taken of the grinding mill. Masons and field staff were present there. Shaurin showed us a presentation with example of Taanka on how construction can happen with lime, the precautions to be taken and process to make lime mortar for construction. He gave detailed explanation on steps to prepare the grinding mill like pit digging dimension, central and track PCC, central pivot fixing, stone partition on track side, ball bearing in the wheel, etc.
After field discussion we went to see the new Beri (1st test/experimental beri) which has to be renovated under the project. Discussion was done on how Beri works to conserve rain water. We also saw few already renovated Beris with cement superstructure. We confirmed to construct the superstructure with lime for new Beries to provide more durability as compared to the cement structure. Photographs were taken of the Beries. We visited some dilapidated Beries and understood the reason for it to be run down. The owner of the Beri said us that due to excessive water storage and absence of superstructure the Beries have rundown. We discussed that in future such collapsed Beries can be converted into Taanka. The owner of the Beri invited us to have a feast of sweet & delicious desert cucumber (locally called Kachar). We also visited a Taanka constructed out of cement by GRAVIS in the same village. We discussed some details about the Taanka like, size, capacity, catchment bed, silt catcher system, beneficiary contribution, etc. Water samples were taken of Beri and Taanka as well. We had a prolonged discussion with one of our beneficiary Jeevanram, he had a Beri about 50-60 years old and he has constructed a new one also. We understood about the different layers of the earth surface which has to be dug during Beri construction. The layers are primarily categorized as Top surface (consisting of soil, sand and porous soil), Middle surface (consisting of soft and hard rocks) and Bottom surface (consisting of clay soil). These 3 layers are of different depths. Photographs were taken of all the layer and physical structures.
After our lunch we went to visit the Percolated Beri in the pond at Nokra village near Bikaner. The pond had about 60 percolated beries dug everywhere in the bed. Though the pond had dried up but all the Beries were full of percolated water. Some of the Beries super structure had been renovated by GRAVIS before, but still more than 50 % of the Beries needs structural renovation. Then we departed for Bikaner and reached there at 5:30 P.M. There we visited a Lime Bhata near Gajner and met the lime contractor Jahurddin Khan. He explained us the whole process of converting limestone into lime. He told us that the Bhatta needs to be kept lit up for 24 hrs and the existing Bhaatas has been lit up continuously from past many years (20 years as said by a labour working there). The Lime Bhatta had layers of limestone and coal in it which gets heated up and burnt evenly to be converted into powder lime after treatment with water. Photographs were taken of the activities. We also visited Jahurddin Khan’s House which was constructed out of lime. We were really amazed to see the fine lime work on walls which had a shining effect like ceramic. After that we dropped Shaurin to the railway station and reached back to Kalron Centre at 11:00 P.M and had our late dinner.

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Visit to a naadi (pond) at Bhartasar village

This report contains photos of the naadi that we stopped at. It is referenced in "Field Visit at Kishneri Village, Baap - Day 2 (20.11.12)" by Praveen Kumar.

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Photos of beris to be renovated

This note contains photos of beris that require renovation that I saw during my field visit with Gravis.

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Field visit at Kishneri village, Baap - Day 1 (19.11.12)

Dean Forbes and Saurin Shah arrived at GRAVIS’s Jodhpur office in the morning at 9:30 A.M. We (Dean, Saurin and Praveen) had discussion with Dr. Prakash Tyagi about field visit plan and expectations regarding the project.

We all left at 11:30 A.M for Baap field office (180 kms away from Jodhpur) and reached there at 4:30 A.M. (On the way to Baap, we had our lunch and also visited Osian Temple). After reaching Baap we had brief interaction with Shrikant Srivastava (Project Field Staff) and Devi Chand Mishra (Field Engineer) and departed for the project villages.

We visited Kishneri village, one of our 5 project villages, where the lime grinding mill was set up. Reaching the village site, we noticed the progress of the grinding mill. The digging of mill’s track (periphery) was completed. The grinding wheel (of stone) and lime bags were already purchased and transported to the site. We had discussion with Khanuram (representative from community) about our plan to construct the Beri and Taanka with lime. Khanuram is the person who does day to day monitoring and progress of the mill, as the mill has been dug in his land near to his shop close to the highway road. Shaurin suggested the field staff to fill up the mill’s track (periphery) as it was overdug compared to the wheel’s width and diameter. Next day plan was made to come back to the field as early as possible and visit the water structures in the village. As it was already dark, Dean was not able to take the photographs. We left for GRAVIS’s Kalron Field Centre and reached there at 8:00 P.M, there we had our stay and dinner.

PhotoPhilanthropy visit to lime mill site

These photos were taken during two visits to the village-site of the lime mill. Construction was behind schedule when these visits took place due to a reported labor shortage.

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