Karsanbhai, Rinaben and the eleven others who walk the rows every morning at six.
Karsanbhai Patel has been walking these rows since before there was a Vanamitra. He grew up in Vasna village, 400 metres from where our farm begins. His family has farmed this district for three generations, and he knows the land's character in a way that no amount of soil testing can replicate. When we were choosing which blocks to prioritise for our first plantings, it was Karsanbhai who pointed us toward the northeast corner — where the groundwater sits two metres higher and the soil clay content is just right for Peepal. He was correct.
Rinaben Solanki is our field photographer. Every first of the month, she walks each dedicated tree with a calibrated phone camera and a measuring rod, documents the trunk girth, canopy spread, and any pest activity, and uploads the photos through our admin portal. She learned to do this in two days, having never used a smartphone before. She now trains the new team members. Her photos are why dedicators in Mumbai and Bengaluru stay emotionally connected to a tree they may not have visited yet.
The full team of thirteen includes three women, two of whom were previously agricultural day labourers with no fixed employer. Vanamitra pays above the district minimum wage, provides a monthly health allowance, and has a written grievance process — which none of them have needed to use, but which exists. The work is physical and repetitive and matters. We think that is worth saying plainly.
Written from Vasna village, Kheda district, Gujarat. We plant on Tuesdays and Saturdays.