SWGM: Reinvent or Perish!

The resurrection of the loose-knit Save Western Ghats Movement in 2009 was indeed a shot in the dark, few of us who conceived it knew it as an 'art of the impossible' (recall the Bamboo musicians in the picture!). Any work of 'art' creates a 'dent', we knew. The unpredictable spontaneity did the trick, both at Goa and at Kotagiri. The unrealistic demand, at least at that time, of a 'western ghats ecological authority' was a work of 'art' for us. Like any work of 'art', there ought to be at least a buyer for it. The connoisseur in Jairam Ramesh saw value in putting money on it. The day he bought our art work at Kotagiri in 2010, we were left penniless. Not penniless in monetary sense but in every other sense of the term.!

First, our 'art' was redrawn to suit to the minister's 'drawing room'. Perhaps not without reason, the fine lines of an 'authority' were converted into hard lines of a what was construed as a 'panel'. Second, an imaginative piece of work was converted into a 'process', with a definite timeline to deliver the end-product a'la WGEEP Report. Pinning hopes on the leftover of the original, the movement laughed and cried at each stage of the process (post 2010), missing out on the next possible opportunity to get back on the drawing board for its next 'creation'. Living in a state of strange schizophrenia the SWGM instead has been lost in the illusory notion of being close to achieving the unachievable!

Many may disagree but any 'movement' is 70 per cent work of 'art' and 30 per cent 'commerce'. Since the first work of 'art' was bought at Kotagiri, this ratio has been reversed. What was spontaneously unpredictable could now be predictably contrived - the movement has literally been swallowed by time-bound activities. What is not written in the project document is most unlikely to be considered, cause-effect linearity determines the logic of any 'action'. No wonder, it is a losing battle that the 'movement' is currently engaged in, if at all. Unless the current batch of 'proponents' go back on the drawing board, commerce-driven gainful engagement will ensure that the SWGM only celebrates its 'past', something to 'w(g)eep over!
      

Heritage Tag: Milestone or Millstone?

By tagging the Western Ghats to the World Heritage List, UNESCO has brought to fore the hitherto low-pitched battle between environmentalists and the development juggernaut. While environmentalists have lauded the move, industrialists have denounced it as an anti-development measure. The Federation of Indian Mining Industry has gone to the extent of saying that: 'India's growth is being stalled' whereas Deccan Herald editorial opines that 'the new tag has defeated such naysayers'.

The heritage tag to the Western  Ghats does improve its TRP but getting the rating translated into tangible actions to protect the fragile ecosystem could indeed be far-fetched. Such perceptions are not without reason because the 39 sites of the Western Ghats selected as heritage sites have all been governed under the existing environmental regulations and legislation. It is unlikely if the heritage tag alone would suffice to accentuate compliance of existing protective measures....more

WGEEP report is nobody's baby?

Is there a hidden message the government has conveyed by dropping Prof. Madhav Gadgil from the National Advisory Council (NAC)? Has persistent efforts by Gadgil to ensure that the report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), of which he has been the chairperson, be accepted by the Ministry of Environment & Forests been negatively construed by the government? It is seemingly clear that Gadgil's stance as an activist, to get the report accepted, hasn't gone well with the government.

Sources indicate that at this crucial juncture, with a close eye on the 2014 general elections, the government wants the NAC to work in close synergy with the UPA to provide a clutch of actions that can deliver political goodwill to keep the 'aam aadmi' image of the ruling coalition alive in popular perception. With Food Security Bill, Communal Violence Bill and the Land Acquisition Bill already mired in controversy, the NAC can least afford controversies and dissension on additional matters.

Insiders believe that the WGEEP report, despite public opinion been sought on it till July 5, would remain an exercise in ecological academics. If it could not be accepted when Gadgil was member of the NAC, the chances that anything dramatic may happen when he is no longer member of the august council seems remote. While the Western Ghats may not be politically volatile region, accepting WGEEP recommendations may have serious implications (with likely spillover to other regions) on the growth agenda of the government.  Jairam Ramesh, who was instrumental in setting up the panel, has already expressed his fears that the WGEEP report may get junked.   

Gadgil's Dilemma

One can only sympathize with Madhav Gadgil who, after leading the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) constituted by the Ministry of Environment & Forests for little over a year, has to lobby to see the panel's report accepted, not only by the ministry which chose to appoint him to lead the panel in the first place but by the respective state governments who are supposed to implement the recommendations in their respective states in the region. The situation could not have been worse given the fact Gadgil is a member of the National Advisory Council as well.

One can only sympathize with Madhav Gadgil who, after leading the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) constituted by the Ministry of Environment & Forests for little over a year, has to lobby to see the panel's report accepted, not only by the ministry which chose to appoint him to lead the panel in the first place but by the respective state governments who are supposed to implement the recommendations in their respective states in the region. The situation could not have been worse given the fact Gadgil is a member of the National Advisory Council as well.


Gadgil's response to Kerala government's decision to appoint a committee to propose alternatives to the recommendations of the WGEEP clearly reflects his predicament. Said he: “Let the people of the State and not a government-appointed panel decide on the fate of the report. Any decision on the report shall be taken through a democratic process and not by the expert panel." Gadgil seems to have contradicted himself in his outburst,  missing on the crucial fact the WGEEP has been a government appointed panel only.  Can one government appointed panel hold itself sacrosanct over the other?


Despite the fact that the ministry is now seeking public opinion on the panel's report before accepting it, the writing on the wall makes it clear that like numerous other reports this too will find a convenient place on the dust-laden shelves.  Without doubt the Save Western Ghats Movement would not like this report to languish because it has been the outcome of one of its major demands that the then environment minister Jairam Ramesh had accepted at Kotagiri in 2010. Gadgil can draw comfort from the fact that his panel, though appointed by the government, was fulfilling a democratic obligation. 


Jairam Ramesh had conceived WGEEP as a precursor to Western Ghats Ecological Authority, which was put forth as a demand in the Citizen's Manifesto on Western Ghats, released by SWGM before Lok Sabha elections in 2009. The irony is that neither the self-appointed custodians of SWGM (the core team/group) are taking the panel report to the people nor does it dawn on Gadgil that it is finally peoples' power that will exert desired pressure on the elected governments.  In a compliance deficit state, decisions by information commission and green tribunal can only go half the distance!


It is both a challenge and an opportunity for Gadgil to first acknowledge the role of SWGM in what he and his panel has been able to accomplish, and then join hands with the movement to get WGEEP report accepted as a Citizen's Report to Save Western Ghats!  

Jairam in Kotagiri

 After hectic travel across the country hearing public outrage against the introduction of Bt 
 Brinjal, Hon'ble Minister of Environment & Forests inaugurated the Save Western 
 Ghats congregation at Kotagiri on Feb 18, 2010. In response to the demand for creating
 the Western Ghats Ecological Authority, the minister announced the setting up a
 Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) with the primary task of making recommendation based on scientific facts for such an authority. The Ministry appointed ecologist Madhav Gadgil to chair the panel, the report of which shall be presented within a year. 

The Nelliyampathy Riddle

Try locating Nelliyampathy Hills on the Google Earth. It is a fascinating hill station on the tourist map of Western Ghats in Kerala where thousands flock to see the picturesque Seetharkundu view point from where the famous Palghat gap starts and where the Karappara River emerges through the coffee and tea plantations. What neither do tourists notice nor can google earth reflect are the plantation labour that is flocking to the neighboring Tamil Nadu plains for jobs. Falling productivity, increasing cost of production and reduced control over prices have only added to the impact of subtle climate change. The beauty of Nelliyampathy is only on the surface!

Nelliyampathy is a microcosm of change in the high altitude areas of the entire Western Ghats. The hills agro-ecosystems are dominated by tea, coffee, rubber and other monoculture plantations like oil palm – an estimated 750 sq. km under tea, at least 1,500 sq. km of coffee plantations and some 825 sq. km of cardamom cover have been reported in the Western Ghats. While around 40 per cent of natural vegetation was replaced with plantation crops between 1920 and 1990, it also became a source of livelihoods to as many as 3.6 lakh workers in Kerala alone. But all that is seemingly changing as more and more of plantation labour is pushed out of jobs owing to water scarcity, reduced productivity and falling prices. The high hills are also becoming ecologically and climatically incapable of supporting the existing crops, leave alone the new.

The eco-restoration of degraded forest patches between plantations and abandoned plantations areas, restoration of wild life corridors between plantations and other agricultural areas, shift to organic farming practices are critical to the rejuvenation of the hill streams and shola that give birth to the rivers in the Western Ghats. Only by doing so can an year-round flow in Karappara and thousands of such hill streams be restored, which currently have reduced flow immediately after the north-east monsoons. Coupled with reduced moisture in the soil and humidity in the atmosphere, irrigation through groundwater has intensified. Excessive pumping of groundwater in turn has dried small streams feeding into the river. A cycle of destruction has been set in motion!

As many planters are reverting to traditional crops like coffee, one wonders if we have come full circle! Is nature forcing us to mend ways and revert to sustainable land use? The answer is hard to come by. However, it is time the plantation industry and the Spices board wake up to the inevitability of the situation. For sure, the drier winds and desiccating weather can neither support plantations nor the tourists. The paradox of Nelliyampathy is out in the open. The tell-tale signs are reverberating across the entire Western Ghats. Is anyone listening!

Author Dr A Latha, a frequent visitor to the place, is pained at the steady transformation of Nelliyampathy

Western Ghats can't afford GM crops

Kerala has been the first state to denounce GM crops and was followed by Orissa, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Unless others states existing within the Western Ghats region viz., Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Goa and Maharshtra make similar commitments, the Kerala decision may not have the desired impact.

It will be foolish to introduce `genetically engineered' products in a region where `natural engineering' is still at work, tossing new species frequently. Almost a dozen new ambhibians (see picture) were found in last couple of years. Clearly, this laboratory is far more sophisticated than any GM lab.

It costs no less than $41 million to develop a GM crop and secure administrative sanction for it. Data on safety and productivity of these crops is therefore generated to suit the interests of the companies that developed them because at the end-of-the-day the companies would not only need to recover the investment but make profit too.

Kerala has taken first step to say `NO' to GM crops but unless it is enacted as a legislation, it may remain vulnerable to the dismal science and dubious design of the GM industry. The GM industry has already co-opted the most vulnerable sections of the country's scientific and administrative syatems, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Genetic Engineering Advisory Committee being the frontrunner in the category.

Despite growing opposition to GM, in India and across the World, the GM industry may not give in easily. It is backed by `money' that can buy `patronage'. Reports indicate that two US-based scientists are travelling across the country to convince people about GM crops. They already held a meeting in Trivandrum in early December. The scientists who are allegedly on the payroll of industry would only like to clone their species.

Western Ghats cannot afford mindless violation by genetically-modified industry and its cronies. It is a ecological heritage whose economic worth is several times the cumulative assets of the entire GM industry.