Selfless as worms

You speak once to this bearded professor and you will never see the earthworm the same way again. In the hands of Dr. Sultan Ahmed Ismail, Director, Institute of Research in Soil Biology and Biotechnology (IRSBB), New College, this harmless but useful creature gets a respectful life in the modern world. In this part of the world, he is a pioneer in vermicomposting, the science of converting organic waste into useful manure using earthworms. He says that worms have taught him the positive attitude to life. ``It's fascinating how without bones, it weaves into hard soil and works wonders,'' he tells Akila Dinakar.

Dr. SULTAN AHMED ISMAIL

FOR DR. ISMAIL, searching the worm began just by accident. It happened in 1978 when, as an M.Phil. student, he was asked to present a paper at an Ethology Seminar. ``I asked the attender what animal he has in the lab and the reply was worms''. There began his saga of weaving his way up the ladder as a teacher besides giving expression to his multifarious faculties which include painting and poetry- writing on humanity, wood-carving and burning (Japanese arts), gardening, embroidery, journalism, writing and humour.His philosophy of vermicomposting is simple. ``Do not waste, waste is precious''. We have so much material in our dustbins. ``If we get waste before they get contaminated with other debris, it can be converted into organic wealth''.Unfortunately, his expertise and service found more use in other States and abroad than in Tamil Nadu. Some effort by the local bodies to garner vegetable waste in Koyambedu and Tiruverkadu came to naught. ``I have been invited for meetings including that for Singara Chennai but there is no commitment to implement waste composting techniques''.

His work on soil waste management was used in Lucknow along with the Uttar Pradesh Bhoomi Sudhar Nigam. On a dry patch of sodic land, endemic worm treatment made it green in four years.

Vermicomposting can gain popularity only through sensitising people to its benefits. It should begin with children at schools and colleges. Big hotels and educational institutions could be targeted with incentives to adopt eco-friendly technologies.If practices like composting vegetable market garbage, urinals with soak beds, opting for more food varieties like ragi, sorghum and millets, than just wheat and rice and organic farming are given a try, they will help lessen the burden on food production.

His dream, which has a strong accent on wasteland development, is the village with five houses, a toilet, a bio-gas unit, a common kitchen and a slurry to compost bed from where people will get their manure for vegetables and greens.

In his activism, Dr.Ismail's energies are not confined to vermicomposting alone. As an advocate of computerised dissection, he is concerned about teaching sensitive poetry to children in the lower classes and then asking them to slit frogs with their heart still beating. He is also a member of the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experimentation on Animals (CPSEA).

As the chairperson of ARISE, an organisation to promote traditional agriculture, how does he view the entry of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) ?. Bio-diversity should be revived by incorporating modern technology in traditional systems.

Dr. Ismail's basic philosophy also came from the worms. ``I have gone through it in my life and when I am dead, it will go through me.

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