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Hindu, India : Naturally Pochampally
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Hindu, India : Naturally Pochampally



KAUSALYA SANTHANAM


Will the use of natural dyes in weaving the famous Pochampally saris lead to a pollution-free village?


IN the ancient village of Pochampally live thousands of weavers who ply their loom to create the most complex designs through the warp and weft. Here, the art of Ikkat weaving is honed to a degree of precision that fills the onlooker with awe and it has placed this centre of silk weaving, 45 km. from Hyderabad, on the textile map of the world.


Price of pollution

But there is a price to be paid for the vibrant saris and materials produced in the village. The weavers complain that when they consume water from the borewells, their bones ache and so they buy water for their drinking needs.


As the borewells of the neighbouring villages are not polluted, it is believed that the chemical dyes used for the silk yarn are causing quite a bit of the pollution in Pochampally. Each weaver's family on an average spends Rs. 10 a day for the water, which is transported by tankers from Hyderabad.


Welcome therefore are the efforts of the Punjab Durrie Weavers' (PDW) association to implement the "Promotion of Natural Dyes in the Textile Industry" project here.


The "Promotion of Natural Dyes in the Textile Industry" is the only project from India, short-listed for one of five Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development (SEED) awards instituted by the UNEP and other partners, to be announced in New York in May 2007. The finalists were short-listed from 230 applications from 70 countries.


The PDW is working with the Kalamkari Research and Training Centre, and other organisations to implement the project, which is funded by the India-Canada Environment Facility. Technological support is provided by the Natural Dye Resources organisation in Mumbai.


"We chose Pochampally because of the pollution here. Fifteen weavers including three women are involved in this endeavour. The yarn is from Bangalore, the dyes from Sawantwada in Maharashtra and the yarn is dyed at Srikalahasti," says J. Niranjan of the Kalamkari centre who is the facilitator of the project.


Integrated project


Ann Shankar, who founded the PDW, is an Englishwoman married to an Indian. She has made her home in this country for the past 27 years. " This is an integrated project and can be reproduced anywhere in the country," she says.


Shankar and Niranjan are on one of their numerous visits to Pochampally. At the Swamy Ramananda Tirtha Rural Institute, they are busy glancing at the designs master weaver Lakshminarayana is trying out on the computer.


The PDW association began rehabilitating the widows of the insurgency movement in the Punjab through the use of natural dyes to weave bridal durries and then went on to do a UNDP project for survey of dye yielding plants to help the Durrie weavers — new colourfast dyes were discovered and methods that yield high-quality indigo patented. PDW's activities include the formation of women's self-help groups.


Scientific intervention


Dr. Bosco Henriques, plant molecular biologist of NDR, does systematic scientific intervention whenever needed; speeding up the dyeing process and untangling knots.


The translation of the natural dyes project is seen in many of the weavers' houses in Pochampalli. (There are 2, 500 weavers in Pochampalli of whom 400 are master weavers).


Boga Narasimha is busy weaving a pinkish-brown dupatta from yarn dyed with manjista and peru leaf in the courtyard of his ancestral house while his grandson sleeps in his cradle, the sound of the loom providing a lullaby. Narasimha's wife Lakshmi, is engaged in making the bobbin.


Narasimha's ancestors, of course, would have been weaving with the natural dyed threads before chemical dyes took over.


"It is more difficult and time consuming to weave with these threads than the chemical dyed ones as they are rather sticky. But it is well worth the trouble as we can get more wages," says the master weaver. "The vegetable dyes will not cause allergy and they will also help solve the water problem."


Walking though the narrow lanes one enters other courtyards where entire families such as that of Purapati Venkateswara are hard at work weaving accurate and beautiful geometric patterns while the skeins of madder red, turmeric yellow, henna green, and indigo blue hang like rainbow bands behind them. "The project will be completed in June 2007," says Shankar. "We are also trying out natural dyes with the weavers of Kanchipuram and of Sambalpur in Orissa," adds Niranjan.


In the Pochampally style of weaving, the penetration of the dye into the knots of the tie-and-dye was difficult as chemical dye penetrates easily but the natural does not. "So we had to inject it." "Saris are at the top of the spectrum and we hope to go gradually to other areas of clothing," says Shankar. The natural dyed saris produced at Pochampally will be featured in a fashion show on vegetable dyes to be held in Mumbai in May.


Will the project gradually lead to a pollution-free Pochampally? One can only hope and dream.

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