Bhaskar Hiraji Save (27 January 1922 – 24 October 2015), known in India as the "Gandhi of natural farming", was an educator, entrepreneur, farmer, and activist. Biography Bhaskar Save was born in the coastal village of Dehri, India, on the Arabian Sea into a family belonging to the Wadval community of farm tenders. His early years were spent in Dehri, at that time a small town in Valsad district in the state of Gujarat, where modern conveniences, like electricity, did not yet exist. Farming was a natural, integral part of life, changing according to the season, but regulated by the monsoon, which signaled the beginning of a new production season. As a child, Bhaskar Save learned the value of cooperation. Like most other local farmers, Save's family grew mainly rice, pulses, and some vegetables. People often worked together on each other's fields when extra hands were needed to transplant or harvest a paddy field. Often, he accompanied his father on bullock cart trips through forests to neighboring areas. After encountering the Warli tribe, he was fascinated by their way of life and culture, and particularly awed by their belief that God lived in green trees. Among the Warli, trees were never cut down till they dried and shed all trace of green from their body. It was an idea that struck a chord and was to be applied in his own farming career, since the planting of tree crops was not a part of his family's traditional agricultural practices. His formal education included "Standard 7" of the old system (equivalent to "class 10" today), followed by two years of work towards the Primary Training Certificate. This qualified him to teach in a secondary school in a neighboring village, which he did for 10 years. On 2 February 1951, Bhaskar Save married Malatibai, who has since been his companion. The same year, the Save family began digging their well. By 1952, the well was completed and a waterwheel was constructed. After harvesting their monsoon rice, the family grew irrigated winter vegetables. And for the first time in his life, Bhaskar Save used chemical fertilizer, together with dung manure – for his vegetable plants. And, in 1953, he used chemicals for his rain-fed rice paddy as well. The harvest he reaped attracted attention from a director of the Gujarat State Fertilizer Corporation who offered Save an agency contract for marketing their chemical