Chennai's Tula has made strides in revitalising desi cotton production

Over 2,700 litres of clean water go into making one shirt of inorganic cotton. And effluents from dyeing pollute life-giving water sources

Imagine being able to say exactly where the cotton fibre for your garment has been cultivated, handspun and woven into fabric. As people across the world wake up to the hidden costs — both ecological and environmental — of their mass-produced garments, Tula, a Chennai-based non-profit, has been working for the past five years with cotton farmers in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra to change not only what they grow, but how they grow it. “We ask farmers to sow only desi cotton without pesticides, inorganic fertiliser or even irrigation,” says Anantha Sayanan (he prefers the moniker “Ananthoo”), founder of