A road is laid

After the drama for obtaining the access to the farm was over, we were faced with the need to build a usable road. So what was the problem to solve? The new road had to ramp down across a few feet of an erosive road-side ditch, then run through a 100-foot stretch in between the (illegal) mango orchard, then across a 12-foot wide runoff creek, finally ramping up into the farm.  Initially all we did was to employ an earth-mover to push dirt over the eroded road-side and then had a rough pathway manually cleared in-between the mango trees. This served as a temporary road until the next rains which washed out most of the roadside ramp. We spent the next several weeks evaluating the kind of road that we could have there. RCC and cement masonry structures were ruled out due to the costs involved. It was clear that our access pathway had to accommodate significant amount of runoff from the hills, and allow it to join the creek without eroding away the pathway itself. Among the resources we had looked at was this excellent document on dirt roads but none of its ideas directly translated to our situation. One idea in the document was that in situations such as ours you would elevate the road and allow water to flow along side in an appropriately sized drain. Given that all that our neighbour was allowing us was an 8 to 9-foot wide pathway, we couldn’t have a road and drain it too. We literally had to share the path with the water. After some more deliberation, we decided to pack this path with stone and random rubble and let the water flow over it.

In a way the selected solution was staring us in the face all along. We had local expertise and local material. The expertise came in the form of the stone mason, old man Ram Baidu, who lives in the settlement next door. In his younger years Ram Baidu has built well linings, revetments, embankments, stone masonry walls – in short any stone structure you can think of. Although he is considered too old to be employed now, we still decided to hire him as lead mason with his sons working under his instructions. Interestingly, a significant part of the settlement, named Sai Nagar, consists of Ram's assortment of sons and daughters, all married, some separated, but all with children or grand-children. This makes Ram, in his relatively young old age, a great grandfather. So it occurs me me that while the nearby hamlet of rich land owning caste looks empty and forlorn with mostly old people biding their time, Sai Nagar, thanks in part to Ram's descendants who haven't flown to the cities to make their livelihoods, is always abuzz with folks of all ages. You can see children playing in the street or walking their goats to the hills for grazing, women chatting near the water taps, and old folks just hanging out watching the world turn around them. But I must get back to technical matters. So where would the material come from? The hills around are strewn with rocks of all sizes. And sitting in the farm are are three small hillocks of small gravel, the result of our well digging two years ago.

Here are some pictures of how it was all done.

Ram and his son Vasu lay angular stones on the creek bed which had been excavated about a foot. The ramp at the back forms the entry into our land. The angular stones were given us by our (previously hostile) neighbour for free.

Creek bed is nearly complete.

Looking back towards the farm through the mango orchard.

In-between the mango trees. All stone used here was found in the local hills and hand collected.

The gravel road now more than three-quarters done as the work proceeds towards the ramp leading to the public dirt road. Ram's daughter, who also helped with the project, is seen on the ramp.

The stone cladding is filled in with rubble/gravel excavated when we got our well dug two years ago. The idea is that as different grades of gravel are packed-in, the result will be able to resist surface flow much better. Ideally we should get a road-roller to compact everything down but where does one rent a road roller in Athimanjeri? We will have to wait until the end of the year monsoonal rains to see how this performs.

And finally the ramp to the public road.

Post rain update: The NE monsoon has failed this year. There was just one rain in the month of November. But now, at the time of publishing this, we are receiving some cyclonic rains and the road has held up pretty good so far.

- D & H