Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Chugging along the wrong track

The din of controversy around the Kasturirangan Committee and the Gadgil Panel reports on protecting the Western Ghats notwithstanding, the recent visit by the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to the contentious corridor of the proposed 167-km long Hubli-Ankola railway link in the region, has stirred up hornet’s nest yet again.

In their petition to the CEC, environmentalists have argued that the proposed rail link will clear-fell 727 hectares of pristine forests and ancillary developments along the track will impact an additional 3,000 ha of virgin forests and wetlands. That the proposed rail line will pass through the tiger reserve area has already been highlighted in the impact study by the Indian Institute of Science. 

Since Mallikarjun M Kharge from Karnataka became the Union minister for railways, vested interests have worked overtime to reopen the case for getting the pending environmental clearance for the Kalghatagi-Ankola stretch of 122 km on the proposed line. The project requires not just environmental clearance but also an additional `3,000 crore. 

Not only has the cost of the project escalated three times since it was approved by the Railway Board in 2001, lack of funds has prompted the state government to suggest that the project be taken up through a public-private partnership. No wonder environmentalists have argued that the project is a cover for providing easy access for the Hospet-Bellary mining belt to the port at Tadari.  

CEC members are apprised of the fact that the Western Ghats (through which the proposed railway line will pass) has been declared as a World Heritage area by UNESCO. Led by Pandurang Hegde, a group of environmentalists apprised the committee that compensatory afforestation can only be a poor substitute for any stretch of the tropical forests.

The group further informed the committee of its experience with the high voltage power lines passing through the forests in the region. On paper, the transmission corridor had sought a clearance of just three meter width through the forests whereas in reality it accounted for no less than a 56 meter width. The irreversible forest destruction was several times more. However, batting for the project the state government considers the railway line important for linking the hinterland to the coastal region. In reality, however, there exists excellent road connections from Hubli to Ankola built with the help of the Asian Development Bank.

It is shocking that despite being a signatory to the UN Convention on biological diversity, the destruction of 727 hectares of biodiverse tropical forests is considered of little consequence....Link

(First published in Hindustan Times, December 19, 2013)

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The missing other half

In the field of traditional healing, Sreedhar Desai has carved out a name for himself. While his fame has spread far and wide, awards and recognition have come his way thick and fast too. Torch bearer of a family tradition called the ‘Royal Practitioner’, Mr. Desai uses his service for the community’s benefit. An areca plantation adjoining his ancestral home in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district has sustained his family as he pursues his family tradition.

Mr. Desai may have rid innumerable patients of their chronic ailments but has little clue to rid his community, called havyaka, of its persisting gender crisis. Gone are the days when a havyaka boy could get a bride from the same caste unless he is a doctor, engineer or has a high-profile job. Being a qualified banker, his elder son has long settled into matrimony in Bangalore whereas the younger sibling, holding the family tradition, is paying the price for staying back.

Pramod, 28, shares his parents’ anxiety but tries to ward it off saying, “Isn't it more important to take forward rich family traditions?”

The havyaka have distinct lineage as followers of the Advaita philosophy. In the past, the havyaka community used to perform spiritual rituals for royal courts and empirical governments. However, it is only in recent times that the community has diversified outside its primary vocation of agriculture.

In the emerging situation, eligible bachelors are facing the dilemma of either to forgo their traditional vocation or be ready to marry outside of their community. For majority of young havyaka, it has remained a tough call. No wonder, the number of those awaiting matrimonial alliance has continued to swell. Sample this: in some 10 villages around Hulemalgi village in the district, there are as many as 80 eligible men in the age between 26 and 56.

Given a much skewed male to female ratio, many consider it to be testing times for a community that is just about 300,000 in number — spread across Uttara Kannada, Dakshin Kannada and Shimoga districts in Karnataka and adjoining Kasargod district in Kerala. Much to the disappointment of the organisers, a community matchmaking attempt a couple of years ago in Sirsi town attracted only four girls against a contingent of a thousand boys.

The crisis has been further amplified as more parents prefer to marry their daughters outside of their community on the pretext that village life is difficult. The case of havyaka is a reflection of the larger malaise afflicting the farm sector. While elsewhere negative return on investment is forcing farmers to shun farming, it is the market-driven value system that is downgrading the rather profitable plantation agriculture in this region.

Unlike in any urban centre, the Desai household located in the thick of the forests has 24x7 water supply. Diverted from a perennial spring, the supply is not only uninterrupted but rich in mineral nutrients, too. Most of what the household consumes daily is drawn from the farm which is also endowed with no less than 300 medicinal and aromatic plants. Not only is farming still profitable here, the quality of life in one of the world’s 16 biodiversity hotpot could be anybody’s envy.

No wonder, the havyaka take pride in their rich culture and are aware of the influence they have had in politics. However, it is the erosion of values in recent times that have let the community down. While the radicals within the community argue that the young generation needs to break the family norm of searching for a bride within their community, the unresolved question is whether such compromise will help the community pull itself from its current abyss....Link

(First published in The Hindu dated Oct 22, 2013)

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Where have the children gone?

Balni village is not far from the coastal town of Karwar, south of Goa, known for the heavily fortified naval base called Seabird and its little known beach named Rabindranath Tagore. Drawing inspiration from the beauty and serenity of the beach, Gurudev had initiated his work on his Nobel Prize winning work Geetanjali here. Vinod Gurav takes pride in rich legacy of the place but regrets its consistent decline of values.

Retired as a school teacher over a decade ago, he informs that the enrollment has uniformly declined across all the classes, from 1 to 7, in the Government Higher Primary School at Balni. ‘As against 153 students a decade ago, there are only 10 students in the school today,’ regrets Vinod. Given its close proximity to various towns on the outskirts of Goa, including Karwar, parents prefer sending their children to English-medium private schools.      

Balni is located in Joida taluk in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, the most densely forested area in Uttara Kannada district. Joida is located in the Kali river valley, the most-dammed river in the country.Not only are there six hydro-electric projects along its 184-km length, one dam every thirty kilometers, the controversial Kaiga Nuclear Power Plant is located along its banks too. Despite such developments, the valley is inhabited by traditional forest dwelling communities. 

Further upstream into the valley, at Henkol, is located another Higher Primary School. Mid-day meal is under preparation for its 76 students and 4 teachers. ‘Sustaining enrollment and retaining children is tough’, admits headmaster E Revappa. Revappa is joined by his colleagues in asserting that despite adequate financial resources and facilities at their disposal, enrollment of students in higher primary schools has been on the decline in the region. 

The trend is prevelant all across the district. In many schools, there are classes without a single enrollment. Does declining strength of students in the schools concern the teachers? The biggest worry the teachers harbor relates to the probability of school being closed down with the likelihood of them being transfered to schools at far off places. To ward off such fears, some teachers coax their relatives and friends to enrol their children.    

In contrast to overall improvement in school enrollment across the country, enrollment as well as retention continues to be a serious issue in this district. However, one look at any school gives a distinct reflection of region’s rich culture. Not only are school premises clean and green, the classrooms are neat and engaging too. Though teachers seem competent and committed, they are grappling with the reasons behind declining enrollment of children.
   
While migration of families to urban centres remains the prime reason for poor enrollment of children in schools, small families and declining fertility in the region could be another plausible reason. In the absence of any demographic study, many hypotheses persist to justify the prevailing trend. All said, teachers in government schools remain circumspect about their future and the future of government schools in the region. 

As one leaves the taluk limits, one is reminded of the fact that Joida is the place where legendary writer Manohar Mulgaonkar grew and attained prominence as a literary genious....Link 

(First published in The Hindu, Sept 18, 2013)

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

It is official, Sept 8 is the Sahyadri Day

More than ever before, our society needs reminders to maintain its ecological sanity. With the long arm of commerce stretching into the most pristine regions of the country, the need for evoking conservation ethos and supporting protective efforts to preserve the fragile ecosystems have become compulsive. Haven’t thousands of people paid a heavy price for decades of ruination of the hills of Uttarakhand?

Had people been reminded how a group of women led by Gaura Devi had quelled those who had come armed with axes to fell forest in her village in Garhwal on March 26, 1974, it could have acted as a deterrent against wanton destruction of the hilly slopes. But the opportunity of making the birth of the Chipko Movement an ecological reminder was lost amidst internal squabbles between activists and official apathy to acknowledge peoples’ movements.

Much before the world had woken up to ecological consciousness, India had already embarked on an annual national reminder to green the country. Initiated in 1950 by the then Agriculture Minister K.M. Munshi, Van Mahotsav (festival of trees) had become an annual tree-planting festival. Over the years, however, indigenous environmental events like van mahotsav have largely lost out to global annual reminders on environment like the World Environment Day.

Has the impact of globalisation played heavy on the minds of people to neglect events of local and regional ecological significance? Has ecological consciousness become hostage to how such events/days are indeed hyped? In addition, other issue worth addressing are: do people relate as closely to global environmental events as to their local ecological milestones? In many ways, the current ecological insensitivity among masses could be directly attributed to such disconnect!

For the past five years, however, a group of concerned academics and activists have come together to bring the relevance of one such local event to light amidst people from various walks of life. Celebrated each year on September 8 as Sahyadri Day, it marks the day when people from villages around Salkani in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka had undertaken an eight-km trek to lay siege to a tree-felling site in the Kalase forests in 1983.

The Appiko Movement (hug-the-tree) was born that day and grew quickly over the next three months as the perpetrators of the attempted felling were given a swift and unceremonious send-off. Chantingulisu, belasu and balasu, meaning “save, grow and sustain”, the movement had spread to other districts in no time as forest-dwellers challenged the tyranny of the State that was bent upon clearing the native tropical forests to pave the way for monoculture plantations.

Not only did this spontaneous social action led to a moratorium on green felling across the Western Ghats or the Sahyadri range of mountains, the movement has been the vanguard of ecological conservation ever since: from opposing a seventh dam on the Kali river in Karnataka to saving the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, and from taking on the controversial ‘Nylon 66’ project in Goa to supporting the Chalakudy river campaign in Kerala.

In fact, the success of this movement had led to the launch of the ‘Save Western Ghats Campaign’ in mid-1980s. The media has hailed it as one of the finest ecological campaigns aimed at protecting the 1,600 km length of the Sahyadri range across five States — from the edge of Gujarat in the north to the tip of Kerala in the south. Its revival in 2009, 25 years after its launch, alone pressurised the Union Ministry of Environment & Forests to set up the much talked about Gadgil Committee.

The Appiko Movement has not only worked within its limits, but also pushed the limits, showing enormous level of maturity in being politically correct in contesting the development priorities of the States and the Centre in the Sahyadri range. No wonder, it is not only part of the school curriculum in Karnataka but has also registered its presence in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) textbooks for the ninth standard.

Pandurang Hegde, who had launched the movement in 1983 and continues to inspire it, insists: “The movement and its driving principles ought to become the living tradition in the region.” Only by celebrating Sahyadri Day can the ethos of this movement be turned into a potent household expression to counter violence against nature. Backed by its rich history, Sahyadri Day easily qualifies as an annual ecological reminder.

At this time when the contours of ‘environment versus development’ discourse have shifted in favour of individual gains emanating from the economic conversion of natural resources as opposed to collective survival upon them, the challenge has been to address the widespread apathy towards environmental conservation. Only by putting local environmental movements on the annual calendar can people be made to value them as essential ‘ecological reminders’....Link

* read more about the Appiko movement.