Krishna is the original pastoralist of Indian sub continent. He understood laws of nature very well and showed others how to live accordingly.
In this day and age of desertification, IMHO Allan Savory is showing us the same way by way of intelligent grazing and Holistic Management (HM).
I will recount 3 stories from Krishna and how Allan has shown us the same in contemporaneity.
1. When Krishna ate soil – Once when Krishna ate soil and Yashoda chastised him for doing so – Krishna opened his mouth to ‘show’ her that there exists an entire universe in soil.
Allan Savory and many soil scientists believe that there are a beneficial billion bacteria in 1 tsp of soil (about which they have very little knowledge) – but we have to keep the soil organically farmed to keep it healthy and the eco-system going.
The UN agrees that by proper soil management we can save our planet from climate change and restore carbon. Notice the desi cow in the UN’s info-graphic below:
2. For Want of Water – Allan Savory has said that floods and droughts are man-made.
At first glace it sounds as bold as Krishna saying ‘Do not worship Indra – the God of rain’. Thus followed the story of lifting Govardhan, after a deluge of rain.
On the outset it seems that Govardhana is a mountain that Krishna lifted on his pinky finger to save the world from floods. Truth is that he taught people the importance of Govar-dhana in managing floods and drought.
Allan’s analysis is that we have interfered with the effectiveness of the water cycle. These activities – farming, allowing for overgrazing and undergrazing, clearing trees and other vegetation, over relying on fire as a management tool – have left land less able to absorb water. This leads to drought and runoff which then causes erosion and floods.
However, we can reverse it by appropriate use of cow dung and cows!
3. Holistic Management as Music To The Ears –
Before we explain Allan Savory’s method of Holistic Management, Krishna’s flute says it all:
In his book – Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making – Allan Savory writes – “Here I saw domesticated livestock could do to the soil what I had seen with large herds of buffalo. The surface was broken, litter lay everywhere; water was soaking rather than running off, aeration had improved; and new seedlings grew in abundance”
What Allan does with moveable pens today, Krishna did with his flute. But that is not the point. Please realize that Yamuna was the same river that fed north India for thousands of years, but today it is a dead river. Are we still too shy to learn?