The temperature at Himalayan
regions has increased quite dramatically. Once salubrious Uttarkashi
experienced 40 degrees, the signs of rapid melting of glaciers are evident,
with rising water level and intensity of Bagirathi River (look at the picture,
taken in midsummer few days back!!. It was dangerous to even sit at the bank).
I was interacting with elders who run the nearby tea shops and they expressed
puzzlement and said these changes are becoming much evident in last three or
four years. This year seem to be exceptional as the temperature has risen to
new levels. Receding glaciers are a fact and will definitely have an impact in
very near future. With these the perennial source for many major rivers
originating from Himalayas will be depleted. I shudder to think what would be
the impact. It would be socio-economic catastrophe.
If Himalayan glaciers are the
source of major rivers in north part of the country then Western Ghats are
critical source that tap the monsoon for rivers in southern India. It is not
about rivers and its water that growing population and it demands need. It is
complex riverine system that not only feed great rivers but provides thriving
ecosystem for myriad species, discovered and undiscovered. It is a biodiversity
heritage that is beyond price tag. When Kasturirangan suggests plundering these
areas with coded innovative words like ‘green growth’ ‘culture landscape’ what
we would like to know is what has been the contribution of those who have cut
and sold the hills for minerals and ores in regions that are indeed extremely
impoverished. What is sold is product of millions of years of formation,
irretrievable asset that is exploited so cheap. They haven’t added any value,
there is no R&D, only exporting to smarter people, who in turn add value
and sell it back many times the price of raw material. For decades this is happening as the land get
plundered few get richer and richer without adding any value to raw material or
society. In the meanwhile the richer
they get greedier they get, and find innovative ways to multiply their money.
These exploitative minds and its easy ways pervade and degrade the system.
This blogger has spent lots of
time in Western Ghats, even worked briefly. The environmental friendly talk is
euphemism for cosmetic measures, make it look good kind of thing. Vast amount
of forest with rich biodiversity were destroyed by Britishers for tea gardens
(ah the love of the tea), resorts have come up for rich to spend value time.
Some are still encroaching with impunity (for instance resorts in environmently fragile regions are still encroaching land that are corridor/feeding space for
endangered species. Incidentally the
management of these resorts are for all purpose incompetent and least bothered. It is worst of Indian corporate, for me these are
revelations on inner working of incompetence that Indians have so much in
abundance!!). As forests get fragmented, corridors blocked, Rfactor and
invasive species thrive.
The policy makers seem least
concerned, indeed the government (who increasingly clear are part of con act)
are doing their best to scuttle the issue. The recent case being how they got
their axe out on Gadgil report, a report that is sane and widely appreciated
for its sensitivity, it sought an open and sensible debate and policy input. In
return the economist-led-world-bank-trained policy makers recruited
“westernized” Kasthurirangan (only Sanskritised could be Westernised, so said
MN), who did exceptional job of a henchman, he surely has the credential.
Wonder when they will come to sense and acknowledge the reality. It is same thing they did in Maoist affected
areas, the reason why Maoists cannot be completely be criticized, market
romantics may find it difficult to fathom. Exploitative market (ala crony
capitalism) kills people without taking their life, neo-Brahminist expertise in
this nuance.
This an open letter by Madhav
Gadgil to Kasthurirangan
Dear Dr.Kasturirangan,
JBS Haldane, the celebrated 19h century scientist and humanist who quit
England protesting its imperialistic invasion of Suez to become an Indian
citizen has said: Reality is not only stranger than we suppose, but
stranger than we CAN suppose! I could never have imagined that you would be
party to a report such as that of the High Level Working Group on Western
Ghats, but, then, reality is indeed stranger than we can suppose!
In our report to the Ministry of Environment & Forests, based on our
extensive discussions and field visits, we had advocated a graded approach
with a major role for grass-roots level inputs for safeguarding the
ecologically sensitive Western Ghats. You have rejected this framework and
in its place, you advocate a partitioning amongst roughly one-third of what
you term natural landscapes, to be safeguarded by guns and guards, and
two-third of so-called cultural landscapes, to be thrown open to
development, such as what has spawned the 35,000 crore rupees illegal
mining scam of Goa. This amounts to attempts to maintain oases of diversity
in a desert of ecological devastation. Ecology teaches us that such
fragmentation would lead, sooner, rather than later, to the desert
overwhelming the oases. It is vital to think of maintenance of habitat
continuity, and of an ecologically and socially friendly matrix to ensure
long term conservation of biodiversity rich areas, and this is what we had
proposed.
Moreover, freshwater biodiversity is far more threatened than forest
biodiversity and lies largely in what you term cultural landscapes.
Freshwater biodiversity is also vital to livelihoods and nutrition of large sections
of our people. That is why we had provided a detailed case study of Lote Chemical Industry complex in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, where
pollution exceeding all legal limits has devastated fisheries so that
20,000 people have been rendered jobless, while only 11,000 have obtained
industrial employment. Yet the Government wants to set up further polluting
industries in the same area, and has therefore deliberately suppressed its
own Zonal Atlas for Siting of Industries.
Your report shockingly dismisses our constitutionally guaranteed democratic
devolution of decision making powers, remarking that local communities can
have no role in economic decisions. Not surprisingly, your report
completely glosses over the fact reported by us that while the Government
takes absolutely no action against illegal pollution of Lote, it had
invoked police powers to suppress perfectly legitimate and peaceful
protests against pollution on as many as 180 out of 600 days in 2007-09.
India's cultural landscape harbours many valuable elements of biodiversity.
Fully 75% of the population of Lion-tailed Macaque, a monkey species
confined to the Western Ghats, thrives in the cultural landscape of tea
gardens. I live in the city of Pune and scattered in my locality are a
large number of Banyan, Peepal and Gular trees; trees that belong to genus *
Ficus*, celebrated in modern ecology as a keystone resource that sustains a
wide variety of other species. Through the night I hear peacocks calling,
and when I get up and go to the terrace I see them dancing. It is our
people, rooted in India's strong cultural traditions of respect for nature,
who have venerated and protected the sacred groves, the *Ficus *trees, the
monkeys and the peafowl.
 |
Buchanan, an avowed agent of British imperialism, who wrote in 1801 that
India's sacred groves were merely a contrivance to prevent the East India
Company from claiming its rightful property.
It would appear that we are now more British than the British and are
asserting that a nature friendly approach in the cultural landscape is merely
a contrivance to prevent the rich and powerful of the country and of the
globalized world from taking over all lands and waters to exploit and
pollute as they wish while pursuing lawless, jobless economic growth. It is
astonishing that your report strongly endorses such an approach. Reality is
indeed stranger than we can suppose!
With warm personal regards,
I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Madhav
Res: A-18, Springflowers, Panchavati, Pashan, Pune 411008, Tel 020-25893424
Office: Biodiversity Department, Garware College, Karve Road, Pune 411004,
