# Cauvery Calling (Isha Outreach)

> Farmer-led agroforestry campaign to plant 2.42 billion trees in the Cauvery river basin

Source: https://treerm.org/org/cauvery-calling · Updated 2026-11-07 · Data license: CC BY 4.0 (https://treerm.org/about#license)

## Facts

- Type: Nonprofit
- Scope: Regional
- Headquarters: Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
- Founded: 2019
- Website: https://consciousplanet.org/en/cauvery-calling
- Volunteer sign-up: https://consciousplanet.org/en/cauvery-calling/volunteer
- Donate: https://consciousplanet.org/en/cauvery-calling/plant-trees
- Countries where they plant: India
- Activity types: Agroforestry (primary), Nurseries & seedlings, Education & advocacy
- Trees on record: 139,000,000 (larger of latest cumulative figure and sum of annual figures; trees planted or distributed)

## About

Cauvery Calling is a campaign launched in 2019 by Isha Outreach, the social outreach arm of the Isha Foundation based near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. It encourages farmers in the Cauvery basin of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to shift to tree-based agriculture by supplying saplings, training, help with farmer producer organisations and advocacy for government incentives. The stated goal is to enable 5.2 million farmers to plant 2.42 billion trees over 12 years. The campaign reports 139 million trees planted and 263,306 farmers converted to tree-based agriculture.

## Metrics

> Note: Cauvery Calling's 139 million is its count of living trees planted by farmers in the Cauvery basin since 2019. The 84 million on the same page is a donation counter of trees contributed and includes 32 million saplings supplied by the Government of Karnataka; the campaign does not reconcile the two. Its own campaign pages put the total at 120 million trees as of December 2024.

| Metric | Year | Value | Cumulative | Program | Confidence | Source |
|---|---|---:|---|---|---|---|
| Hectares restored | 2024 | 200,000 | yes (to date) | organization-wide | Self-reported | [source](https://consciousplanet.org/en/cauvery-calling/campaigns/cauvery-calling-tamizha-action-now-139) Same campaign page, as of Dec 2024: 'rejuvenating more than 2L hectares of land' (2 lakh = 200,000 ha). This is farmland shifted to tree-based agriculture, not forest restored; campaign's own count |
| Trees planted | 2024 | 120,000,000 | yes (to date) | organization-wide | Self-reported | [source](https://consciousplanet.org/en/cauvery-calling/campaigns/cauvery-calling-tamizha-action-now-139) Conscious Planet campaign page: 'As of Dec 2024, 12 crores trees are planted impacting more than 2.5 lakhs farmers'. A 2025 UNCCD drought-resilience case study written by Isha's Save Soil team gives 12.4 crore (https://droughtclp.unccd.int/case-study/india-cauvery-calling-hand-holding-farmers-agroforestry-adoption-cauvery-basin). Campaign's own count |
| Trees planted | 2026 | 139,000,000 | yes (to date) | organization-wide | Self-reported | [source](https://consciousplanet.org/en/cauvery-calling) 'Progress So Far' section (re-checked 2026-11-07): 139 million living trees planted since 2019, 263,306 farmers; undated. The same page's donation counter shows 84,016,018 'Trees Contributed Until Now' with a footnote that it includes 32 million saplings produced and distributed by the Government of Karnataka; the page does not reconcile the two figures and states no third-party verification |

Confidence: self-reported is the organization's own published figure; independently verified means a third party confirmed it; estimated means TreeRM derived it and the note says how.

## Links

- x: https://x.com/cpsavesoil
- instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consciousplanet/
- facebook: https://www.facebook.com/consciousplanetmovement/
- youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConsciousPlanetMovement

JSON: https://treerm.org/api/v1/organizations/cauvery-calling