SHADES OF FADING INDIGO
In arid Kutchh, fashion faces a threat from climate change as craftsmen behind the popular Ajrakh print fight a losing battle against falling water tables and erratic monsoons
The sand is blue in parts of Kutchh, but it’s a blue that’s fading.
Across the arid villages of Dhamadka and Ajrakhpur in Gujarat, the earth has taken on this colour from more than 300 years of dyeing the region’s iconic Ajrakh print.
You probably have a kurta or a stole featuring these geometric patterns in bright natural dyes, usually with at least a little indigo. Or you’ll also have seen them on the mannequins at Fab India, Anokhi, Ritu Kumar and Anju Modi stores.
Ajrakh in Gujarat — and Bagru in neighbouring Rajasthan — were in that tiny minority of highly successful handicrafts. The craftsmen print the patterns by hand, using blocks, and their work became so popular in the 1990s that they were able to swap their mud huts for brick-and-concrete homes (a sure sign of prosperity in rural India) as orders poured in from the US, UK, Canada, Australia and France. Now, their profits are literally drying up. As climate change, urbanisation and increased agricultural activity deplete water tables, some Ajrakh craftsmen are buying land just to dig wells on it. And new generations are abandoning the traditional livelihood as one that has become too unpredictable and increasingly unprofitable.
Because it takes 13 litres of water to produce a single metre of this block-printed cloth. And while that water can be reused to irrigate fields and water plants — because the only things in it are resin, flour, fruit skins, alum and natural indigo — the water itself is becoming increasingly hard to come by.
“We worry for our future. Every year the water level in the wells drops by about 10 feet,” says Ismail Khatri, 56, a ninthgeneration craftsman from Ajrakhpur. “If this continues, our craft will die out in 15 years and we’ll all be left doing menial jobs.”
The water crisis has intensified over the past 10 years, says Ghatit Laheru, senior development manager at local NGO Khamir. This is mainly due to inconsistent monsoons. Over the past five years, the average annual rainfall in Kutchh has risen, but the average number of rainy days has dropped.
“Instead of consistent rains through the season, the area now receives heavy rainfall over just a few days. The desert soil isn’t capable of soaking in so much water over such a short period, so much of it flows away and the groundwater levels aren’t recharged,” says Arun Kumar Mahato of the Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology.
Average annual rainfall between 2000 and 2009 averaged 400 mm distributed over two months; from 2010 onwards, it has averaged 850 mm over five to seven days.
“This is partly why groundwater levels have receded to as much as 500 ft, from 250 ft six years ago,” Mahato adds. “It is also why salinity in the water has risen.”
The salinity is bad news for the craftsmen, because it means that even if they dig their own wells and sink borewells, the quality of the water will make it unusable. Salinity and high iron content tarnish the colour and brightness of natural dyes and cause blotches on the cloth.
It’s the same in the Bagru region of Jaipur district, Rajasthan. “The amount of rainfall hasn’t changed. But we get it all in just a few days. Last year, no rain was recorded after first week of August,” says Sunil Sharma of the Central Arid Zone Research Institute in Rajasthan. “Simultaneously, the heat levels are rising. The climate is changing at an alarming rate.”
A VILLAGE BORN OF TRAGEDY
Ajrakhpur owes its very foundation to the plentiful water this spot offered. It was set up in 2002, after the Bhuj earthquake caused groundwater levels to plummet the year before. When 200 villagers left Dhamadka in search of greener pastures, they picked this stretch of land 37 km away, because groundwater was plentiful. Over the following decade, as the water crisis intensified in Dhamadka, another 500 people moved.
“But now the wells are all drying up because the population and number of industries around the village are growing,” says Ismail Khatri, 56, a ninth-generation craftsman and co-founder of the village.
Two months ago, the village sold a common plot of land and raised Rs 15 lakh to pay for a water recycling unit (it cost Rs 25 lakh and NGO Khamir pitched in with the rest). The system processes 50,000 litres a day, but that’s still 1.5 lakh litres short of the village’s requirement.
Some craftsmen are tiring of the struggle. A few have sunk their savings into small local businesses like retail stores. Others have abandoned the water-intensive natural dyes in favour of harmful, and less profitable, synthetic colours.
Among those that continue the struggle, many are seeing the quality of their work deteriorate alongside the quality and quantity of the water they use.
“Ajrakh and Bagru cloth is definitely losing its lustre,” says fashion designer Anju Modi. “I have loved and used the prints since 1990. But it’s harder to find a perfect sample now. And the cost is soaring. Over the past two years, the price of 1 metre of Ajrakh cloth has gone from Rs 100 to Rs 400.”
This has prompted many small designers and retail stores to opt for digital prints instead. “This will further affect the craftsmen,” Modi says.
Ninth-generation Ajrakh craftsman Abdul Rehman Khatri, 53, would agree. “Finding water has become such a big hurdle, that if we aren’t allocated water by the state government soon, the craft will only be seen in museums,” he says. Rainwater harvesting and recycling can help, says textile technologist Durga Venkataswamy.
“The recycling unit in Ajrakhpur is a good initiative. Similar systems must be encouraged and funded by the government,” says Radhi Parekh, founder of Mumbaibased crafts gallery Artisans’ and professor at the Ahmedabadbased National Institute of Design (NID).
Adds Venkataswamy: “The burden of conserving water should not fall on the craftsmen’s shoulders alone. While they use about 13 litres to process 1 metre of cloth, the textile industry uses about 20.”
Adds Pradyumna Vyas, director of NID: “There are about 40 million people dependent on crafts in the country. These crafts are a big part of our heritage. Just as the government allocates funds to save endangered wildlife, they should initiate schemes and build shared facilities for craftsmen.”