BHOPAL LAKE: MEDIA ULTIMATELY BELLS THE CAT

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That the Madhya Pradesh government has been speaking about conservation of the Bhoj Wetland and the two lakes that constitute it with a forked tongue has been known to the media for a long, long time. If I as a layman, like many others, could decipher its machinations, surely the people in the media, with their available massive resources, also would have done so. The difference was that while I had been screaming about it in my blogs and facebook notings after the doors of the English language newspapers were shut on the casual reporters, the media kept its counsel. It is only this morning that Dainik Bhaskar, the most widely read Hindi daily, brought out a feature about the doublespeak of the government, an act that is akin to belling the cat.

It said that an international conference for conservation of the lakes is being held in the city under the auspices of “Jheel Mahatsav” (Festival of lakes), Upper Lake shore is being beautified with coloured lights and the waste water of the Shamla filtration plant is being converted into a spring to descend in a cascade close to the Boat Club only to attract more visitors, there is no talk of conservation of the Lake – as is well known, a vital water body for the town. The government has blocked the report prepared by the Centre for Environmental Planning, Ahmedabad, (CEPT) an organisation that was hired as consultants by the government, for preparing a master plan suggesting conservational measures for the water body. It also said the sources of water for the Lake have been blocked by encroachments and construction and the fluid that it gets is nothing but sewer water – water that the people of part of the town are made to drink. It is a scathing commentary on the government’s conservation efforts.

The news report also said that the government is itself killing the Lake. While it allowed, inter alia, the Sports Authority of India to come up in the catchments of the Lake, it also built up a massive place for amusement, the Sair Sapata complex with toy train and what not, close to the Lake affecting the quality of its waters and impacting on its bird life. I have been raising these issues in my writings as also in the Bhopal Citizens’ Forum of which I am a founder-member. These have been taken up but have fallen on deaf ears.

Experts from 15 countries are attending the Conference on Lakes and Wetlands and field visits are slated for them. They will see what all is happening, as they did earlier on several occasions when such jamborees were held by the erstwhile Lakes Conservation Authority. They must have shared their feelings with official representatives but none in the government, especially the political bosses, listen to them. Officials seem to be in a state of paralysis. Under the circumstances, the foreign experts are likely to keep their counsel. If we cannot take care of our assets how can foreigners help? And, why should they?

I entirely agree with the newspaper that it is in fact the government which is killing the Lake. From all appearances it may cease to remain useful to us, as the CEPT had said in its interim report, in another 50 or 60 years. Three researchers had also opined that if the things continue in the same lackadaisical manner, the Lake would cease to exist in the next 70 to 80 years.

Many like us will not be around but the loss will be of the succeeding generations. They might as well SIT UP AND ACT.

DESTINATIONS: CHINA (1982)

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BEIJING

In the summer of 1982 I was put on a professional course conducted by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in Delhi, China/Philippines, Japan and Thailand. I had fellow

An old photo of Beijing Hotel

participants from Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and Indonesia. The course ran for eight weeks in Delhi after which our group was to spend four weeks in Peoples’ Republic of China (PRoC), two weeks in Japan and another couple of weeks in Thailand.

In August 1982 we were all set to leave for Beijing. A little delay in ticketing prevented us to fly via Hong Kong as the flights were heavily booked. China was just opening up and there was a rush of westerners to see the land that was considered mysterious, veiled off, as it were, by a bamboo curtain. There was no direct flight from India to China. The closest was a linkage from Karachi which was on the route of China Airline’s flight from Tirana in Albania to Beijing via Addis Ababa. The Airline used to fly to only friendly countries. While Pakistan was a friendly country Albania and Ethiopia, like China, were communist “revisionists” at that point of time.

Thirty years ago China, unlike today, was not flush with US dollars. It used to be short of the stuff – in fact, very short. It had, therefore, sealed a deal with the UPU that it would take care of us all and the allowances that were due to us would be paid to it in dollars. The Chinese Administration would advance to us a small amount of 15 yuans per day in the local currency (especially printed for foreigners) for out-of-pocket expenses. In the event, I was not advanced any hard currency before departure. What was advanced to me by the Delhi UNDP was a travellers’ cheque of measly $40.

One August morning we flew to Karachi but I had no visa for Pakistan. In fact, I couldn’t have had one as my official passport was not even endorsed for Pakistan (as also for South Africa and Israel). At the Karachi immigration my passport and that of the Bangladeshi were promptly put in a locked box to be collected before departure. The result was that both of us could not go into the arrival area. We had to loiter around in the veranda without even drinking-water, leave alone snacks or cold drinks. There was no vendor around anyway.

Thankfully, the China Airline flight arrived on time and the cabin crew served dinner soon after take-off. That put to rest my hunger. It was rather late when we finished the dinner but Chinese passengers were chattering away. They seemed like a talkative lot. The Australian consultant, Pat Kearney, told me there were no seats available even on this flight too and the Chinese Administration had off-loaded seven Chinese at Karachi to accommodate us. Rather unusual, but the Chinese Administration could take such extraordinary measures without anybody protesting. The flight was over the Himalayas and after nine hours or so in the air we touched down at Beijing around six in the morning.

The Airport was nothing much, though, it was certainly better than what we had then in Bombay and Delhi – but not like the new massive one they have got now. It was here that I came across for the first time the automated walkway which saves the passengers the effort at least for some distances of walking and lugging the baggage. These have since become common in Indian bigger airports. They now even have a name –“travellator” (to rhyme with escalator?) The formalities were completed in a jiffy because of the rep of the Chinese Administration and soon we were on a rather narrow road to Beijing in an air-conditioned Toyota minibus.

We were put up at the Beijing Hotel – a fairly old hotel, a contemporary of Taj Mahal Palace of Bombay. Like the one in Bombay, it had an old block and modern-looking newer block. Its construction had commenced in 1900 and was completed in 1915. It had hosted many distinguished people from Sun Yat Sen, Ho Chi Minh, to Nikita

A recent photo of the same hotel

Khrushchev and Richard Nixon.  I was allotted a room in the older block with that typical old-world charm. The Chinese aesthetics made it more welcoming and hospitable. Located close to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square we were all very comfortably placed.

Only, we could not have walked on to these well-known places on our own any time of our choosing. Foreigners, as we were told, needed to be escorted. Only certain areas of the country were at that time open to foreigners. For instance, in our four weeks in the country we were to visit Beijing, Xian, Nanjing, Soochow, Hangchow and Shanghai – a tourist circuit that was initially opened for foreigners in late 1970s and early '80s. We were to do the same circuit and escorted right through to several tourist sites in the six cities.

A little before eight on the second morning an interpreter arrived to pick us up and take to the headquarters. Roads were largely empty with no motor vehicles but there were lots of bicycles and electric trolley buses. Signs of China opening up could be discerned from billboards of famous Japanese firms like Hitachi, National, Citizen Watches and so on.

The Chinese working hours are long – from 8.00 AM to 12 noon and from 2 PM to 6.00 PM with a lunch break of two hours for all the six days of the week. The first day in office was as usual – speeches of welcome and the response by the consultant. The top bosses of Chinese Postal Administration seemed to have made it a point to be present. But they all were an informal lot. All wearing light grey bush shirts, they were somewhat surprised to see us all in suits and ties. As soon as the formalities were over they gestured to us to pull out the ties and things. It was indeed uncomfortable wearing a tie in that humid heat. Beijing in August can be uncomfortably warm. A bit of refreshments followed and then the Course commenced with visits to field units in Beijing.

Photos of Beijing Hotel are from the Internet

(To be continued)

****

Bastar in black and white (1979)

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The photographs below taken by me in Bastar in 1979. The district had remained a place of curiosity for long because of its tribes' observance of their peculiar lifestyle. Unexposed to the outer world they remained confined to their domain once ruled by a maharaja observing their native mores. The late antrhopologist, Verrier Elvin, spent some time there and later the former chief scretary of Madhya Pradesh did a lot to bring the people of the district into the mainstream. While working as collector of the district in the late '50s and early '60s by travelling right through the district including its unexplored and, I dare say, the feared parts.

In 1979 the district was still taking baby-steps towards modernisation. Unlike in the past, women had started draping themselves in saris and men , of course, remained their tough, muscular ans sinewy self. The photographs are in black & white as I had only such a roll.

Chitrakoot falls

New time zone for North-East

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It is good to hear that the demand for a separate time zone for the North Eastern states of India has been revived. The proposal, it seems, is with the government and is in active consideration.  It had to be so, as no less a person than Tarun Gogoi, chief minister of the state of Assam, the biggest north-eastern state, has taken up the matter. In any case, regardless of what happens to the proposal, the Chief Minister is reportedly set on introducing the “Garden Time” in Assam soon. Introduced by the British tea planters over a century and a half ago for the tea garden workers it would be an hour ahead of the Indian Standard Time (IST).

 One wonders as to why the Centre has been wary of creating another time zone for the north-easterners. It seems, those who have never lived and worked in the region can hardly ever comprehend the difficulties of the people at large and of others, like administrators or heads of offices and organizations, who have to ensure completion of assignments within the given time frame. The short duration of the “working day” in the North East imposes sometimes insurmountable constraints on those who have to oversee completion of the jobs that they happen to have at hand.

Setting up a separate time zone for the north-eastern states is an old issue. I recall while working at Shillong in the state of Meghalaya a

Rsing sun in Meghalaya

quarter century ago the matter was raised in the North-Eastern Council (NEC) meeting held in late 1980s. The NEC, created decades ago, had been instrumental in pushing the developmental initiatives emanating from the seven states of the region known as the “Seven sisters”. Most of the officials attending the meeting felt that the role of the NEC would become more effective if the most productive hours during the day were not allowed to be lost because of the straitjacket of the IST. The then Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Saeed happened to be present to whom a memorandum was presented. Since his government soon met its end, apparently that saw the end of the memorandum, too.

It is indeed a peculiar situation out there. Bangladesh, which is just south of Meghalaya, is half an hour ahead of it and the same is strangely true of Manipur and Tripura that are located east of it. The sun rises earlier in eastern-most parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur  and Tripura than in Bangladesh and yet they, curiously,  are all behind it by half an hour. Consequently, when the official day, based on IST determined by time around a thousand kilomteres away in the West somewhere near Allahabad in UP, commences the sun is way up in the sky and workers have already  spent four to five waking hours waiting for the regular working hours to commence. They thus lose those crucial morning hours when the mind and the body are fresh to contend with the day’s physical or mental challenges.

Currently, there is a kind of a double whammy. While the daily routine starts close to midday, workers generally make efforts to wind up early as darkness falls early. None in the North-East would like to stay out when it is dark, more so the women who work in large numbers in offices. Not only they may be living far, they may also have to wrestle to get a public transport (if available) to get back home. After all, it is not the safest place after dark. I had had occasion to notice that in winters women start making preparations for leaving office by 3.30 in the afternoon as, if it is cloudy, it could be pretty dark by 4.30 or 4.45 PM. On many an occasion I came back in gathering darkness from my Shillong office after 5.00 PM and watched live telecast of the dying moments of a cricket test match being played in Bombay.

The unease of north-easterners on this score seems to have been simmering all these years and off and on concerted demands for a separate time zone have been raised. They have the feeling that in such a vast country a single time zone cannot work. The country sprawls for around 3000 kilometres from west to east embracing 28 longitudes with at least a difference of almost two hours between east and west. People from many walks of life — academics, intellectuals, lawyers, teachers, youth, student and women organisations — in the northeast have been demanding creation of a separate time zone for the seven northeast States as, they feel, it was necessary to correct the anomalies forced on the people and economy of the region.

Jahnu Barua, an eminent Assamese film maker, has been very vocal in this regard and spearheaded the demand for a separate time zone. According to him, suffering enormous losses during the last six decades, the north-east is up against “unproductive tendencies, more alienation, imbalance in biological clock, degeneration of society, wastage of electricity, loss in productivity and so on…Having to follow the IST, the people of northeast are subjected to do all their day to day activities at wrong time. Waking up minimum two hours after sunrise, breakfast after minimum four hours of daylight, start of office hours only at middle of the day, lunch at three to four hours after midday, dinner after five to six hours of darkness and finally going to bed much after midnight.” He further showed that total wastage of electricity at homes and offices of the region since independence due to following of single time zone was to the tune of Rs.94,900 crore.

Earlier this month the members of Parliament from the North-Eastern states sunk their political difference over this issue. The MPs from across various shades of political opinion in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have joined together to demand a separate time zone for the region.

There are, however, detractors who think a separate time zone would spell disaster for the country. It would promote fissiparous tendencies among the regions. Given the Assam example, every state would indulge in one-upmanship and demand separate time zone. Besides, it has also been contended that it would promote incompetence and delays in decision making. The arguments seem to be fallacious, even specious. Two researchers in the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, are also against a separate time

Kohima War Cemetery, Nagaland

zone for North-East but have failed to give any convincing grounds. They surprisingly feel that a separate time zone may alienate the easterners from the rest of the country. Besides, they think that it would be difficult to implement and create complications in railways and air time tables and a slip in setting a watch on the borders could lead to catastrophic accidents. Above all, they think it would not lead to significant saving of electricity and, hence, they propose advancement of IST by half an hour which would meet many of the problems in the North-East – forgetting that even then most of the  North-East would continue to lose an hour or so of daylight. The fears seem to be all imaginary and at the same time the gains in savings and productivity have been overlooked.

The US and Russia have multiple time zones – US has five if not more and Russia as many as nine – and so did China have five before the Revolution. It was the communist government which brought the entire country within one time zone.  And yet, against the contention of supporters in India of one time zone, China, effectively, has two time zones – Beijing Time and two hours behind it is Urumqui time used locally in Sinkiang Province

A separate time zone for the North-East has been necessary for years. Hopefully, as the fresh proposal has had a powerful push from Assam before the general elections it would now be accepted.

Photos: taken by self in the late 1980s

BIRDS ABANDONING BHOPAL

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European wryneck

A report appeared in the end of November last in a vernacular newspaper about migratory birds avoiding the Upper Lake. One did not take much note of it as the report came a little too early. It was thought that, may be, birds would start arriving as the season advanced. Apparently, that did not happen as another report has since appeared, this time, in the Times of India. On 22^nd January last the paper reported that the yearly winged visitors were giving the city a miss. Several species which used to congregate in and around the Upper Lake in large numbers, apparently, find the conditions not conducive for their comfort. The report quoted two reasons cited by two noted bird-watchers for the absence of the birds: one human disturbance and pollution in the Lake waters. 

While pollution of the Lake waters cannot be disputed as year after year the Pollution Control Board has been releasing reports (to no avail) after the immersions of images post-festival seasons about the pollution levels indicating presence of metal and heavy metals in the water. Besides the chemical farming in the bordering farms continue unchecked just as the drains keep emptying their load of pollutants in the Lake.

Nevertheless, with a view to ascertaining the actual situation some of us of the Lake Conservation sub-group led by the Convener of the Forum went and met the Director Van Vihar. It was quite a disappointing meeting as the Director, it seems, has nothing to do with the birds. His jurisdiction is confined to the limits of the Van Vihar National Park between its two gates. The waters hosting the resident and domestic and other migratory birds are not under his control.

Brahmini shelduck

This threw up a vital question and that is who, in fact, is responsible for ensuring proper conservation of the bird habitat. Obviously, as Bhoj Wetland is where the birds congregate the authority controlling the Wetland, viz the Bhopal Municipal Corporation, ought to be responsible for nurturing the habitat for the birds.

We all know the capabilities of the Municipal Corporation. It has a small cell manned by a man or two to look after the two lakes but surely no one who is knowledgeable about birds and their habitat. No wonder, the Sair Sapata amusement complex with its ever-expanding activities was established so close to the bird habitat and, I dare say, within the catchments where construction is prohibited. Quite clearly, the government itself has acted in breach of the rules it has formulated and has also acted against the basic environmental norms. One wonders how no department and not even the Department of Housing & Environment opposed the proposal of the Tourism Corporation, presumably backed by the Department of Urban Administration.

Sarus cranes

Sustaining the habitat for the birds – domestic and migratory – is important for us in Bhopal as health of a water body is indicated by the presence of birds in and around it. As the Wetland used to annually get more than 20000 birds from far and near it was designated as a Ramsar Site and later was also declared an Important Bird Area by Bird Life International. The city’s wetland is the only one in the state out of five in the country that is a Ramsar Site and also an Important Bird Area.

Bhoj Wetland with its two lakes add so much to the prestige of Bhopal and yet the local authorities are so negligent about its proper maintenance.

Photos: from the Internet

Bhopal Lokrang

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The festival of Lokrang is is commencing today. There have been a spate of ads in the newspapers and one can see billboards on the

The decorated stage

streets. For the last 29 years the Department of Culture of the Government of Madhya Pradesh has been hosting the 5-day festival that commences on the Republic Day, 26^th January. It is a festival dedicated to folk art of the country and, especially of the state. Madhya Pradesh basically is a tribal state with several tribes inhabiting its various regions. Each has its own rich culture with its peculiar performing and visual arts. Every year the festival displays the folk art of a specific geo-cultural region.

The Festival is held in the centrally located Rabindra Bhawan where the open-to-sky auditorium is used for performing arts, providing lavish entertainment to all comers for free. The stage is brilliantly decorated every year on the basis of a preselected theme. This year the theme is based on the source of Narmada. A folksy bazaar is also established in the surrounding grounds of the complex displaying tribal visual art, textiles, cuisine etc.

Those who haven’t had the occasion to visit the festival may 

find the photographs of some interest 

Photos: Bandana Bagchi

Outdoor pollution in Bhopal

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A

s Sultania Road was jammed with traffic I had to take a long detour to home the other day via Shahjehanabad. The air pollution there was something to be felt to be believed. The ongoing road works have made things worse for the already congested roads. I was reminded of Darya Gunj in early 1970s when passing through it one used to feel the pollution caused by automobile emissions with burning eyes and an irritated throat. That, of course, later spread to various parts of Delhi including Dhaula Kuan, Patel Chowk and many other areas. It was exactly the same feeling that I got with an old water tanker struggling up the Idgah Hills spewing voluminous dark smoke. And ditto was the case of an old auto-rickshaw that strained its every nerve to climb that hill with a gentle climb.

As it is, automobile emission in the city is on the rise. Those who do not venture out into its older parts, perhaps, are not aware of the seriousness of the problem. To this has been added the welcome move taken by the Municipal Corporation to rebuild the roads after perhaps decades. Having not been attended to for years it is taking longer than usual time with proper provision for underground ducts and things. Those who had seen the Golghar Museum a few months ago would be surprised to see a spanking new cement-concrete surface in front of it now. However, because of the road works at various crucial places of the old city traffic is being funneled through narrow passages forcing drivers to shift into low gear causing more noxious emissions.

A few months back a report of International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the specialised agency of World Health Organisation (WHO), indicated that it had classified outdoor air pollution as carcinogenic to humans. This is the first time that the experts have done so and claimed that there is sufficient evidence to prove it; the exposure to outdoor pollution causes lung cancer and they have found positive association of it with increased risk of bladder cancer. Particulate matter, a major constituent of outdoor air pollution, was evaluated separately and was found to be carcinogenic. The predominant sources of the pollution are transportation, stationary power generation, industrial and agricultural emissions and residential heating and cooking.

In Bhopal, surely, the outdoor air pollution is caused mostly by transportation. With practically no check on pollution control heavily smoking heavy and light vehicles as also three and two wheelers are running around in the town with impunity. Apart from being undulated the older parts of the city are also congested on account of trade and commerce and therefore face most of the brunt of the outdoor air pollution. The civic authorities, however, are seemingly blind to the problems of a major chunk of the city’s population, including school-going children who are exposed to it every day.

Bhopal Citizen Forum had taken up the matter with the government to introduce pollution control campaign and to certify vehicles running on the road after undergoing the emission tests. The government, if I am not mistaken, was even reminded but unfortunately to no avail. I think it is now time to take the matter up with the minister concerned.

At the same time, environmental groups also need to press the government to establish systems for checking emission levels of vehicles and keep those off the roads that do not conform to national parameters. This is needed to safeguard our health and wellbeing as also of our progeny

Photo: From the Internet