Debjeet Sarangi: 28th December 1966 to 15th May 2021 He was a great champion of Adivasi food systems and a strong advocate of living in harmony with nature. Working at Bissam Cuttack and Muniguda of Rayagada in the southern Odisha, he had devoted his life to work for Adivasi community, drawing immensely from the Adivasi wisdom on food, biodiversity and nutrition In a short time, he had made very important contributions relating to justice, environment protection and evolving a new development paradigm. His contribution to looking at tribal communities living in remote areas from a perspective of appreciating and understanding their world view and learning from them has been particularly commendable.
Living Farms was born out of the personal life experience of its founder Debjeet Sarangi. Having witnessed the violations of rights and voices being suppressed in different contexts since his childhood both in external situations and own life, there was a call from within to work for self-respect and social justice. As the time moved on, he gathered experience by volunteering movements led by different Gandhian leaders of the time. Later while working with the Adivasis in Odisha, he saw people having resources but living in crisis. This prompted him to look for alternatives through an agricultural lens to respond to this crisis. This which led him to few organisations but he settled down to have hand on experience in a farm under the mentorship of ArdhenduSekharChatterji in West Bengal. Here, he had to farm on half an acre of land given to him during the day and his evenings were focused on theoretical learning. Once while he was accompanying a friend who was doing his Ph.D. in Biodiversity in Niamgiri hills in Odisha, he found that the locals had a tremendous amount of knowledge – especially the women and elders of the community. He liked the place, his gut told him that – maybe this is where that he was supposed to be. At that point he had no plan, blueprint, project or any sort of financial support. He continued to stay there after his friend left – getting to know the locals and trying to understand the place for a period of three years from 2004-2007. He was convinced, that some of the crisis that the agricultural community and more specifically the Adivasis were facing could be answered by the communities themselves. He dreamt, if he could bring the different Adivasi communities together so that they share information, knowledge and learn from each other. And thus Living Farms came into being as a platform to drive this idea which got registered in 2008.
He was a “mindful being” always – a very humble, gentle, compassionate, generous and sensitive visionary.Sample Headline
