Memories of an ordinary Indian :: 14

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As we would leave for the College in the evenings my father would extend his right index finger towards me to hold it so that if I stumbled I would be saved from falling on the uneven road and hurting myself. To my infant eyes his index fingers appeared fat and big. I was a mere child then and he would take me along to the college where he would play either tennis or badminton.

 On the way would be Tandon Stores, a very good looking store run by the brother of my father’s colleague who would force my father into the store and engage him in longish conversations. The store would be full of candies, toffees, pastries. cakes and what have you. Mr. Tandon was incredibly fair and he appeared to me like a white man. His apparel were also like those of the white men we used to see those days. He would be in half sleeves white shirts, khaki shorts stockinged legs with tough looking boots encasing his feet. The khaki sola hat used when he would go out on his bicycle made him look like a genuine white man. This used to be for summers; in winters too he would be smartly dressed. He would always fill my pockets with candies. While father played tennis, thanks to Mr. Tandon, I had plenty to keep myself occupied with. Much later Mr. Tandon’s s son became a good friend of mine when we were in the college.

Father was apparently was very easy to get along with. On the tennis courts a white man would come very frequently. He used to be in the employment of Sardar Phalke, who was a minister in the Gwalior State administration. Bradley by name from Ireland, he used to be teaching young Phalkes at home. He became very friendly with father and would borrow my father’s racquet to do some knocking around. He would frequently come home too. We used to find his hair style funny as he would have two partings on two sides and the hair in between would be raised – somewhat like the current trends in hair styling. Occasionally he would also bring a small car of the Phalkes and take us children on rides in the town. Quite curiously, he would come in summer afternoons to relax in what could be called the drawing room where we had a settee to lie around and relax. Apparently, with just a table fan, the heat of the summer didn’t matter to him much. As the evening approached he would have a cup of tea and get back to the Phalke’s big rambling sandstone house.

The same Phalke children became friends when we came together in the college. My mother used to like the youngest one – a close friend of mine – who used to be fond of her Bengali-ised Hindi. These are fond memories as all the Phalkes have since passed on. My friend’s son, however, does keep in touch. Bradley, Bradley Sa’ab for us, used to converse with us in his broken Hindi. I suppose, as the Phalkes one by one got admitted to the Scindia School – an Indian Public School that was meant for the children of Maratha feudals, Bradley Sa’ab had to pack up and go. But I do not remember him coming home to tell father about his impending departure.

***

I can recall two Hindi pictures that I saw with the entire family. The first one was Naya Sansar which apparently had a theme song with the same words. I remember scenes in which the hero would come out of the foliage to sing “Ao basal ek naya sansar” This must have been in late 1930s or early 1940s. The hero was Ashok Kumar. I don’t recall the heroin who most probably was Leela Chitnis. I do not remember the name of the other film but I remember during a brawl a bald man was hit on his head with a liquor bottle. I got so scared that I started crying and was quickly taken to my mother sitting a few rows behind us. The man who was hit was David Abraham, a consummate character actor who worked right up to 1950s.

Father had taken the two youngest of us brothers to the award winning Walt Disney film Vanishing Prairies. I still remember the landscape that appealed to me so much and the huge Prairies bison. They were being driven westwards or just killed when the Americans were out to colonise the Prairies. In the process, Walt Disney showed the wildlife of Prairies. If available online, I would want to see it again. It is such a powerful documentary. Another film by Walt Disney that I remember was the animation film Mickey Mouse. Enormously funny for children the film had a very long run. I don’t know whether it is ever shown to children in schools.

That reminds me; it is time to go to school.

*Photo from internet

Destinations :: Mount Abu (2010)

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A temple thorugh the bushy growth

We caught a train from Ajmer for Abu Road that is on the way to Ahmedabad in Gujarat. As it is around 350 kilometres away it takes about five hours. From Abu Road one has to take a cab to go 28 kilometres uphill to get to Mount Abu. The place is around 4000 ft in elevation located as it is on Aravali Hills. With a visit to Mount Abu we registered visits to most of the hill stations in the country

Nakki Lake

 The only hill station in the state of Rajasthan, Mount Abu once hosted the Indian Police Academy. The Academy was later shifted to Hyderabad, perhaps, for the reasons of inadequacy of space and proper facilities. Police Service officers of our class of 1961, however, had to proceed to Mount Abu from Mussourie for professional training as the Academy  was then yet to be shifted.

The boat-like structure hosting snacks joints

 If one asks the pundits they would speak of how Mount Abu was mentioned in Hindu ancient texts. But that was in the hoary past. In more recent times it was a Chauhan Kingdom that was later conquered by Parmars in the early parts of the last millennium. That it is a place of history cannot in any way be denied because of the numerous old Hindu temples on several hills surrounding the place. Most of the Hindu temples are locally famous. There are some Jain temples as well but the

Another view of Nakki Lake

best known one is Dilwara temple It is known the world over for its intricate workmanship on marble.

Abu, too, has a lake that is steeped in Hindu religious lore. It is not a big lake by any standard as it is half a mile long and a quartet mile wide. But it is the most visited site by the tourists. While there is a garishly painted boat-like structure that offers Rajasthani snacks, there are marine vehicles available for boating. At some places from the shore the lake offers picturesque views. None can really deny the beauty of a place where a water body and green hills happen to collide.

Madhuban, Brahmakumaris head quarters

As we walked away from the lake we came across Madhuban of the organization of Brahmakumaris. A magnificent structure in the midst of nature it is excellently maintained. It has a huge hall known as the Om Shanti Bhawan that seats 3000 people. The place exudes efficiency as the gardens and the hall and other attached areas were excellently maintained. In one areae some exquisite life-size effigies of Radha and Ktishna are kept in protective glazed

Radha Krishna effigies in Madhuban

almirahs. It is a very impressive outfit managing conferences and participants’ boarding and lodging.

Incidentally, Brahmakumaris is an international NGO aiming at transformation of human outlook from material into spiritual. The organization is headed by women but all decisions in running it are said to be taken in consultation with their male associates. The organization was established in 1937 by Prajapita Brahma Baba.

With great hopes of seeing top class work on marble we took a taxi and went towards Dilwara Temple. We had heard so much

Masons at work outside one of the temples

about it and had also seen its photographs depicting the fine work on the temple walls, on pillars and on the ceiling. But, unfortunately the most beautiful example of work on marble was closed for repairs. We had to satisfy ourselves with one of the other five temples of the Dilwara group. It was nothing much in comparison to the the Vimal Vasahi temple photographs of which we had seen. Nonetheless, the carvings on marble are mindboggling considering that the temples

Spire of the temples in the Dilwara temples complex

were erected between 11^th and 14^th Centuries. To use primitive tools to carve so beautifully so far out in the past is something which is remarkable.

We had to come away disappointed but we took a few shots of the spires of the temples. The satisfying part was refreshments available on the premises were delightful.

Sunset from our hotel window

Our Life, Our Times :: 19 :: Need to abandon hate

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The ongoing debate that is raging basically on the progressive extinction of the, “Idea of India” in the Indian Express’s the “Ideas Page” is fascinating. The debate in the newspaper was provoked by Harsh Mander to which a rather aggressive response came from Ram Chandra Guha, the noted historian and columnist. The field then somehow widened up and numerous, according to Guha’s count around 14, independent thinkers ventilated their own thoughts.

 In his latest piece Harsh Mander has expressed his anguish on the wrong direction the debate was shepherded by Ram Chandra Guha. He picked up as a thread the mention by Mander of the injunction of a Dalit leader meant for Muslims not to wear burkas or skull caps if and when they happened to attend his political rallies. Mander’s anguish was born out of a general absence of appreciation of the fact of Muslim marginalization. He was appreciative of the coverage by Rahul Gandhi, the newly--crowned president of the Indian National Congress, of the country’s socio-economic condition. He, according to Mander, ably talked of everything from economics to politics in his first address to his party men at the Talkatora Stadium. But what hurt Mander was the conspicuous absence in his address of the rising tide of violence against Muslims under the current regimes at the Centre and numerous provinces.

Rahul Gandhi’s failure to mention the Muslim marginalization or attacks on them by the Hindu vigilantism could have a well-considered reason behind it, Although it is difficult to fathom the mind of a politician, howsoever green his horns might be, yet in case of Rahul Gandhi it could be conjectured that his new-found strategy of shaking off of the pro-Muslim tag attached to the Congress might be one of the reasons, or even the only reason. For too long has the country seen the Congress attempting to woo the Muslim vote by playing the card of secularism as opposed to the Hindu Fundamentalism of the BJP which the Congress always branded as communal. Come elections one would find Congress biggies trooping to mosques or for addressing the Muslim conclaves. Even in 2014 I remember Ms. Sonia Gandhi visiting the Delhi Jama Masjid on announcement of the polls.

Visiting Jama Masjid before the elections, by itself, cannot be held against Ms. Gandhi or the Congress Party. But the Congress over the years had displayed a tilt towards the Muslims while calling itself secular, whatever that meant. So, it was secularism with a tilt towards Muslims and this had come down to the Congress from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru seemed to have everything against Hindu bigotry and obscurantism but none against the Islamic varieties. His tilt was so pronounced that some political critics of his attributed ulterior motives to his resistance to the idea of exchange of population at the time of partition as, they said, he wanted Muslims in India as the vote bank of the Congress. That may or may not be true; any sensitive person would find the idea of exchange of population nothing but abhorrent – as well as impossible.

 Besides, at that time the Hindu-Muslim divide, as I know of it, was not so pronounced as it is today although the partition had just taken place followed by riots and mayhem. Growing up in the princely state of Gwalior we never felt the heat generated by the partition. Gwalior was typically a secular state where the Maharaja was revered by both Hindus and Muslims and he used to participate in Hindu and Muslim festivals with equal verve and passion. After stray instances of communal killings the town quietened down and we never heard of the divide, though some people known to us migrated to Pakistan and some even came back after having been to Karachi and witnessing the turmoil there.

 My father, teaching in the local college, had his best friend in Professor MA Qureshy, who, incidentally, had two brothers in the ICS and lost one of them while migrating to Pakistan. Father’s Muslim students came to see him before they left for Pakistan. In our own small younger world of schools and colleges we had Muslim friends and it never occurred to us that they needed to be shunned. That was the culture that we were brought up in – a culture innocent of the divide – and secular, if that is the right word, to the core.

This environment continued for some years and as we grew up and started our own careers we slowly became aware of the changing atmosphere. And yet, I for one, can claim with some amount of pride that my attitude towards my Muslim subordinates or superiors remained the same – respect for them as fellow humans.

 However, as elections became more combative and the fights became more vicious for power than for doing good to the country everything was sacrificed. In this deteriorating milieu the Indian composite culture was a notable, if not the first, casualty. Religion was used and misused to win votes and wield the state power. As corruption increased in the government and the pickings became hefty elections became more like dog-eat-dog fights and even creamiest of ideas – including the Idea of India – were sacrificed to win power and the pelf associated with it. Ideologies, if there were any, were made to rest on shelves gathering dust. The contests became free of all niceties of culture and civilized discourse.

So, if there is a Hindu- Muslim divide today, it is the so-called netas who have to take the blame for it. One dares say that Rahul Gandhi is not helping to diffuse the tensions by changing tack and visiting temples and ignoring the Muslims. He is playing with the same poison of communal politics for the sake of power. True, the British also indulged in the policy of “divide and rule” – making the two communities fight each other but the atmosphere hardly ever became as toxic as it is today. Even at the time of partition when a homeland for the Indian Muslims was created a larger number elected to remain wherever they were. In fact, the province from which shrill shrieks for “Pakistan” emanated had the largest number who decided to stay put.

In such a country how can we sustain ourselves with mutual hatred and enmity. We belong to the same stock, only our faith might be different. One’s faith cannot be be-all-and-end-all, more so when we are economically so retarded. Our efforts need to be directed towards education and enlightenment to enable us to live meaningful lives. We cannot be obsessed with hatred for each other that generally culminates in killing of innocents.

It is time to say enough is enough and cry a halt to this reprehensible politics of hate. It certainly does not behove us. For ages we have hosted people of varying persuasions and fostered among them the spirit of brotherhood and harmony. In the current enlightened age we cannot throw those priceless values out of the window. The civil society must come together to impress on the political parties to abandon the politics of hate and work together towards people’s betterment and a stronger India which, one presumes, are the goals of all political parties.

*Photo from internet

Our Life, Our Times :: 18 :: Fraught Urban Life

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The Delhi High Court recently asked the Delhi Government about their plans to deal with the monkey menace in the metropolis. The matter was last heard sometime in January last but so far no progress has been achieved. The Capital seems to have been overrun by monkeys and people are afraid of them as the simians have become aggressive and frequently chase elderly people or even bite them. 

Things have become so alarming that a two judge Bench of the High Court said that the matter of contraception of monkeys cannot brook any delay. On the other hand the Environment Ministry briefed the Court that it would take seven more years to drive out the monkeys. The Court gave a glib reposte to it by saying that by that time they would all be driven out of Lutyen’s Delhi.

The Court’s reposte came when the Environment Ministry deposed before it that it was waiting for release of funds for research on immune-contraception and that it would take another seven years after funds are allotted to research and develop the vaccine. The Court did not like it and said some African countries have a vaccine and we are still talking of funds to develop one. It said that the Government should think of importing the vaccine in view of the desperate situation caused by the exploding population of monkeys in the capital.

It seems Asola sanctuary near Delhi where the city’s monkeys are relocated is now spilling over and they frequently raid neighbouring colonies and farm houses.

While Delhi is dealing with monkey menace we in Bhopal are faced up with the stray dog menace. A recent report in the local press lamented deaths due to rabies in the city. Apparently two deaths occurred within twenty days of one another. The newspaper criticized the local authorities since as much as Rs. 2 billion have been spent to deal with the menace of stray dogs but there has been no respite from it.

This is largely true. The locals have to face the menace on a daily basis. Groups of a couple of dozen or more of these free ranging dogs move around or lie around on the streets and in the markets oblivious of the traffic that passes by. At night they become active and bark all through the dark hours picking up fights. In case a motor bike came their way they give it a hell-for-leather chase. They have been known to have attacked old women and infants.

They have multiplied, shall we say, exponentially, as stray dogs cannot now be liquidated, thanks to Mrs. Maneka Gandhi. She comes down heavily on any municipality that kills stray dogs. That would be well and good as also kind only if she provided adequate resources – financial and technical – to keep the population under control. Since the staff for sterilisation is insufficient to deal with the enormity of the problem the numbers of stray dogs have been merrily increasing. While the human population of Bhopal is reported to be around 20 lakhs there are 2 or three lakh stray dogs – that is, for every 10 humans there is one or more stray dogs.

While Hindus in general have a soft corner for monkeys, considering them, as they do, as representative of the Monkey God Hanuman, the dogs are a different kettle of fish. Mrs Maneka Gandhi’s express orders prohibit killing of stray dogs. No wonder, such as they are, stray dogs are making merry in urban India attacking all and sundry. Kerala reportedly had the worst of it as several infants were picked up, taken away and eaten up by these street bullies.

Quite surprisingly, one sees reports every other day of a tiger being poached. It is a protected animal and yet it is killed for money and many a times the perpetrators of the crimes are not even apprehended. Likewise another protected animal that has had the wrong end of the stick is the leopard. Because of shrinking habitatat poor fellows have to come looking for prey close into urban areas and get brutally killed. The irony is that while we are not able to protect a rare animal in the wild we are protecting hundreds of thousands of those which, in fact, need not be protected as there are far too many of them. Trust this country for all the decisions that are generally topsy-turvy.

If nothing drastic is done in a jiffy urban India will soon become a huge and happy hunting ground for of free ranging dogs and simians.

*Photo from internet

From my scrapbook :: 8 :: The Experimental Forest

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Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest

Not many in India would have heard of Hubbard Brook which, in fact, is an experimental forest. It is a massive slice of forest of 7800 acres in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the US. While the forest has been there since perhaps the beginning of time the experimental forest came about around 63 year ago. Located in its own little valley, forested with beeches, birches, sugar maple and what have you it has spectacular cobalt blue skies and clear streams that run down to a mirror-like lake. Sounds just like heaven on earth.

While it is indeed so, a large variety of experiments are also conducted here. With as many as five dozen collaborators working on numerous projects that are generally about learning and monitoring the flow of nutrients through the ecosystem, tracking animal population over time or learning the way the northern forests would react to drought or climate change, the Experimental Forest has been at the forefront of several crucial findings. Open to public the Forest has been basically a place of learning for more than sixty years.

 As far back as in 1963 some scientists began to look at rain samples collected from the forest. They soon discovered that something was wrong. One of the samples that was collected was as acidic as vinegar and having almost its pH level. Later they found that the rain was acidic and eventually their findings revealed the first instance of acid rain that was traced to industrial pollution. It was the first documentation of acid rain in America that led to the amendment to the Clean Air Act by George Bush to specifically address the dangers of acid rain. Since then scientists have monitored water and air quality and several other variables accumulating continuous date over decades making the Experimental Forest very valuable from a  scientific perspective.

The site manager Ian Halm says data of a year or two might be important but it is the long term data over decades that give a clearer picture to gauge what we, humans, are doing to the environment. Earlier, he says, when he started it was all manual work with “strip charts and charts on drums”. He goes on to say that “now it is all electronic. Every hour data is wirelessly uploaded to the headquarters”. If something goes wrong Halm says he knows immediately. Every morning his team checks out the computer screens and ensures things are normal in the forest. Earlier, in the event of something going wrong one had to hike up to the spot to check things out. Now, however, if one happened to visit the Experimental Forest one would find some mysterious things like trees dotted with tiny metal tags that “jingle like collars of a pack of dogs” but they continuously indulge in transmitting data

Among about 60 scientists working in Hubbard Brook there is one from the University of Boston  - Dr. Pamela  Templer. Her team uses snow shovels and heating cables to study another important long term trend that may be affecting the forests and that is climate change. She said the idea was to create conditions that the forests are likely to encounter in the future. Her studies have predicted that the North East of US may warm up by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit which would mean a warmer growing season and less winter snow. By  using the buried cables like underground space heaters to warm the soil and by manually clearing the overground snow Templer is “simulating warmer future world”

According to Templer, “Forests provide a whole suite of wonderful resources for us, including clean water, clean air, habitat for animals and plants. We need to know how they might change in the future if we want to preserve and manage them. Whether through logging, urbanization and climate change humans have been making an impact. Now we need to understand the true extent of it, and the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is one place to find out”.

One wonders whether such experimental forests have been created in this country where trees and forests are apparently not priority areas for the governments. Forests are there for the mere asking and permission is given to clear-fell them.

Destinations :: Ajmer & Pushkar (2010)

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Buland Darwaza

We had come out to visit Mount Abu sometime in March 2010 but stopped over for two or three days at Ajmer. Ajmer was deeply ingrained in our consciousness as all my siblings had to clear matriculation examinations conducted by the Ajmer Board of Secondary Education.

 In the 1940s and early 1950s we had no board of secondary education or a university in Central India. Based at Gwalior as we were it was the Ajmer Board that decided whether we were capable enough to clear the matriculation examinations and march on for higher education. Believe me, those examinations used to be tough and never was an

Yours truly in a namaji topi outside Buland Darwaza

occasion when one heard of mass cheating like we do today. Everything was straight and the examinations went off like clockwork in numerous centres in areas that were far away from Ajmer. From what happens these days, it seems, we were doing much, much better in those days that

were devoid of information and communication technology.

A major city of the state of Rajasthan, Ajmer is virtually sitting on the Aravali Hills – the most ancient mountain feature of the country. The town’s origin is lost in the misty antiquity but it was ruled at one time by Ajaypal Chauhan, one of the ancestors of Rana Pratap. It came under the control of the Mughals after Emperor Akbar defeated Rana Pratap.

The bazar out side the Buland Darwaza

Ajmer is famous for the shrine of Moinuddin Chisti. The age of Chisti’s Dargah is not quite known but it is recorded history that he was one of the predecessors of Hazrat Nizamuddin, another Sufi saint of the Chisti order, whose shrine is in Delhi. Akbar was such an ardent follower of Moinuddin Chisti that he used to walk down every year to Ajmer from Fatehpur Sikri near Agra – a distance of 132 kilometres – to pay his obeisance to the Sufi saint.

Another view of the Darwaza

The Saint’s dargah is the most important site in the town. Located at the foot of Taragarh Fort the shrine is approachable through a network of narrow roads which is always crowded with devotees. In order to access the shrine we had to remove our footwear outside the Buland Darwaza to be kept by a devotee in a shop-like outfit. Even the camera had to be handed over to another keeper. Earlier, as I had read, cameras were allowed inside the shrine. Now, perhaps, after the 2007 blast cameras have been prohibited inside. Another, imperative was for all males to have the head covered. Instead of covering my head with hanky I opted for a Namazi topi.

The shrine is the final resting place of the Sufi saint Moinuddin Chisti. He was as revered by Akbar as he is revered by almost all Muslims across the world even today. It is said that one can visit the shrine only when the Saint condescends and permits you to do so, otherwise howsoever one might try, one wouldn’t be able to go there and pray. Something like this happened to Parvez Musharraf when he visited India as President of Pakistan for talks with his Indian prime minister. The things so transpired that he went back in a huff from Agra from where he was

Crowds outside the shrine

scheduled to visit the shrine at Ajmer. Despite being the head of an Islamic country and a guest of Indian Government he ultimately couldn’t fulfill his desire to visit the shrine.

 Muslims from all over the world want to visit it when they come to India. A co-participant of mine from Pakistan in an international training course was desperate to visit Ajmer during his visit even though according to his passport entries he was not eligible go anywhere beyond Delhi. Pulling some strings at his Embassy, he succeeded to get permission for a day-long visit that was rather harsh on his body but, perhaps, soothing for the soul.

Another view of the gate

The shrine is quite like any other Muslim grave, though it has enormous historical value. Besides being hundreds of years old, it is well spread out with appealing natural setting. Faith in the Saint’s miraculous powers attracts large number of people despite the austere ways that are prevalent . Since we had nothing to ask for, we went and looked around, were happy to see chadars being placed on the grave by common folk who may have come over long distances rom far away places. It was a new experience as we had never been to Hazrat Nizamuddin where another saint of Chisti order lies restfully in Delhi and where we were located several times during my service career.

Moving around in auto-ricksaws I found some roundabouts quite interesting with a mix of modern and Rajasthani architecture. We saw

Soni-ji's Jain temple

Soni-ji ki Nasiyan Jain Temple, a temple, as Jain temples usually are, built of marble. We gave a miss to Mayo College and pushed instead to Pushkar about 15-odd kilometers away. Pushkar is at a greater elevation than Ajmer. It is known for its numerous temples, especially the Brahma Temple and hence is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus.

 In addition, it is known for its cattle fare where around the month of October camels, horses and cattle are bought and sold. Pushkar

The pyramidal hill and the pond of Pushkar

reportedly changes into a colourful place during the fare as hundreds of thousands of people visit the place. The camels with their colourful knitted coverings, the Rajasthani women in their flamboyant saris and, not to be left behind, even the skies in the evening assume the crimson of the sun gives the place a surreal appearance. As by the time the fare commences monsoons wash the skies over Pushkar into pure azure and this is reflected in the pond along which there are well-built ghats. We happened to be there in the wrong

A couple at work on the street

season and, naturally, were not quite impressed. The waters in the pond had depleted and cattle were roaming free making the place somewhat disagreeable.

Pushkar is also a place of Rajasthani art and it is the seemingly unschooled who practice it with aplomb. We saw a couple sitting down on the main street drawing away on paper out of sheer imagination something that turned out to be exquisite. Their minds are so trained that no amount of disturbance on a public road is able to distract them.

Bhopal Note :: 65 :: Threatened Lake of Bhopal

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I am sorry I have again to go back to the subject of the Upper Lake of Bhopal. Those who are fed up with this topic they may well pass on to more interesting items or whatever grabs their fancy. I consider it my duty as a citizen of this town and drinking the precious fluid of its premier lake to dwell on whatever is happening in regard to its conservation – or rather, the lack of it.

This morning (9^th April 2018), of all the newspapers, the local issue of the Times of India published a photograph of a drain live with mucky fluid joining the waters of the Lake. The local municipal corporation has been claiming while some sewage treatment plants (STPs) were already functional others were being planned – an argument the municipality has been recycling over and over again for the last few years. The truth is probably much farther than what it claims. Hardly any new STPs have been added in recent years and drains with sewage have merrily been flowing into the Lake.

Worse, a report only three days back showed how the Lake’s feeder, the Kolhans River, has been encroached upon and its channels are blocked. In any case, the river is on the verge of drying up. Even the tributaries of this small river have been encroached upon. So even if the area gets normal rains as is being predicted, the Upper Lake is likely to be starved of water during the rains. That would mean shortage of water in the town despite the predicted normal rains

Perhaps, informal agencies or NGOs will have to get after the municipality. Nothing was mentioned about the other feeder – River Uljhawan. Perhaps it too is under threat flowing as it is through more or less the same area. But the other disturbing fact is that unauthorized colonies have come up in the catchment area which, in all probability, will be regularized for the sake of votes. This is most likely to damage the catchments of the Lake and its waters.

One must grant it to the local municipality that though declared as the custodian of the Lake, it has no legal or administrative authority over the areas that form its catchments. These fall in the district of Sehore. Hence the Corporation’s intervention in this regard will be resented by the Sehore authorities. For this very reason the Citizens’ Forum had suggested years ago an empowered management authority for the Lake that would have unhampered jurisdiction over the Lake and its catchments. The government did form such a body but it was so unwieldy that to get so many people together at one place at the same time proved difficult. The body, if I recall, met only once without any fruitful results. One wonders whether it is still in existence. Without such an authority it would be difficult to take proper steps to conserve the Lake as well as its catchments through which its feeders flow.

While this matter should have been sorted out by the municipality it seems to be more interested in creating physical assets around the Lake for variety of uses regardless of existence of any demand. Not only an amphitheatre has been built, a “Selfie point” called “Explore Bhopal” has been created by cutting the hill below the Medical College. The place has been provided with facilities of a food court, a thing which should have been strictly avoided near a drinking water source. If I am not mistaken, even toilets have been created at the level of the VIP road. One does not know whether there was a demand for any of these facilities. The periphery of the Lake is thus being built up as places for recreation and relaxation. The former Commissioner of the municipality had elaborated at a meeting with The Bhopal Citizens’ Forum the policy of the Corporation towards use of the Lake. She had said, quite fallaciously, that the Corporation wanted the people to “enjoy” the Lake. Apparently, she and her cohorts in the Corporation were not aware of the need to insulate such lakes as ours from large collections of people and concurrent presence of eating joints. The people of Chandigarh have done the same with their Sukhna Lake – not a source of drinking water – after being ordered by th High Court.

 Clearly, the Corporation does not go by the principles of wetland management. The other day I happened to go towards the Boat Club. A number of restaurants have come up and at least a couple of dozen handcarts serving snacks and beverages were parked on both sides of the road. It was like a regular Indian mela there. Apparently, the authorities were not satisfied by building up Sair Sapata which reportedly has progressively lost footfalls. The Tourism outfit thought it would attract tourists from outstations. That did not happen and it was only the local visitors who used it. They too apparently are more than sated by it. But, In the process, severe damage was caused to the Bhoj Wetland, the Important Bird Area that it hosts, as also the waters of the Lake

While the official neglect of the Lake continues, private parties are carving out its pieces for their personal use. One might recall attempts a few months back to create a wall inside the Lake in the area known as Khanugaon which, after being repeatedly reported in the local media, received personal attention from the chief minister by way of a surprise visit. He promptly ordered its demolition. The vested interests in the Corporation are so daring that till today the wall stands as it stood when the chief minister saw it. The other day a report came out that about 1000 truck-loads of soil were dumped in the Lake near the Bhadbhada dam. Latest reports say that the huge dump is being cleared. But the question is who had the temerity to take such a daring step; papers are not naming any individual or organization. Then, of course, the unauthorized colonies are trying their best for regularisatio tha in all likelihood will seal the fate of the Lake, at least partially, if not fully

Sometime back a mention was made in the papers about a wetland authority in Bhopal. None of us had heard of any such authority. Nonetheless, if it exists it should look sharp at whatever is transpiring to kill the Lake. Otherwise the Environmental Planning and Coordination Organisation needs to come in in a big way to save the Lake. The lake seems to be well past the stage of protection; it now needs to be SAVED.

*Photo from internet

From My Scrapbook :: 7 :: Eco-systems

http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot.cpm

With shrinking habitat Polar Bear is well on  on way to extinction

In matters relating to environmental one repeatedly comes across the word eco-system which does not quite convey its meaning clearly to many. While the Planet Earth is full of ecosystems of various kinds many wouldn’t know what precisely they are and how do they affect us. De-mystification of the word “eco-system” would go a long way to enhance understanding of our environment so as to be able to foster its conservation.

 Simply stated, an eco-system, as defined by Wikipedia, is a community of living organisms and non-living components such as air, water and “mineral” soil. It can also be defined as a network of interactions among organisms or between organisms and their environment.

 An eco-system can be of any size but it has to have a limited specific space. Some scientists say that the entire planet is one huge eco-system. That may well be true but the fact is that the earth is full of eco-systems of varying kinds and varying sizes­­­, of varying organisms interacting with varying physical components which, in turn, may be interacting with each other or various organisms in their own respective ways.

Questions have been asked why eco-systems are important for us, humans. They are important because we live in various eco-systems and avail of the services rendered by them without being even conscious of that. Eco-systems are delicately balanced phenomena that cannot suffer any imbalances in the mix of their constituents. If the constituents undergo changes of any kind – from their size to intensity – the ecosystems tend to degrade and become harmful to its constituents, including us.

 The biggest and the most important example of imbalance in our eco-system is climate change wrought by the industrial revolution of the 19^th Century. This change has been brought about by pumping of greenhouse gases over decades into the atmosphere by burning of fossil fuels in factories, automobiles, ships and aeroplanes, etc. Carbon in the atmosphere has risen beyond what it could take and took the form of a greenhouse over the earth trapping the heat radiated by it towards space. This has given rise to global warming (a warming that mimics warming in a greenhouse) that has set off chain reactions harmful to us like climate change adversely impacting our habitat, our water resources, agriculture, our climate and bio-diversity and so on.

Scientists have estimated that were the earth’s temperature to rise by 2 degrees Celsius above the temperature that prevailed before the Industrial Revolution as a consequence of global warming it would be almost impossible to save the earth as we know it. This assumprion (yes, for the present it is only an assumption) is born out of a general consensus but many have said the 2 degrees Celsius, in fact, was determined by happenstance. Nonetheless, a sliver of opportunity is, seemingly, still available to prevent the earth from further heating as currently the temperature is hovering around 1 degree Celsius higher than what prevailed in pre-Industrial era.

The United Nations Environment Programme has recently emphasised the way eco-systems are helping humanity by buffering it against the worst impacts of global warming. According to the groundbreaking Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity published last year, the UNEP chief Achim Seiner said the “world’s bio-diversiity and eco-systems might seem abstract and remote to many people but there is nothing abstract about their role in economics and in the lives of billions of people.” Further, he went on to say, “the range of benefits generated by these ecosystems and the biodiversity underpinning them are all too often invisible and mainly undervalued by those in charge of national economies and international development support,”

According to the UNEP, continued loss of animal and plant species and eco-systems soch as forests is causing poverty as well as environmental damage. Steiner went on to reiterate the economic value of corals and forest eco-systems. According to the Economics of Eco-systems and Biodiversity study coral reefs generate up to $189,000 per hectare in coastal defense and even more in fisheries and tourism revenues while continued deforestation and forest degradation is costing $2 to 4 trillion a year.

Steiner said one-fifth of the coral reefs were already degraded or were at the risk of collapse due to over-fishing, pollution and coastal developments. The most exotic example is the degradation of the Great Barrier Reef along the eastern coast of Australia. The reasons for its degradation are classical like global warming, over-fishing, pollution and, of course, human interference. Closer home, a report in Down to Earth recently said the people of Lakshadweep could well be the first environmental refugees as the corals around it have started bleaching owing to ocean warming. It is being said that the Indian Ocean waters have never been so warm. Warming of the globe is being credited for this unlikely aberration which might make the localsto run for their lives.

Stiener goes on to say that it is similar story in respect of all the planet’s nature-based resources – from forest to freshwaters to mountains and soils. We all know how in India the eco-systems of fresh waters, forests , grasslands, mountainous and coastal regions of the country have been damaged over the last few decades. The process goes on without any let or hindrance giving rise to changing climate, violent weather, rising temperatures, a general warming of the earth that is speeding the process of melting of polar ice sheets severely threatening the survival of that symbol of polar eco-system – the polar bear.

The UNEP is going to decide shortly about establishment of a platform similar to Inter-governmental on Climate Change and Biodiversity for dealing with degrading eco-systems. The proposed International Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) would use the latest science to help drive forward policy recommendations. Steiner hopes that the new body, apart from demystifying the terms biodiversity and eco-systems, will start convincing countries to include the value of natural capital in their national accounts and economic decisions.

 Such a strategy is urgently called for in this country as all of our natural assets are being depleted or degraded ata reckless pace.

7^th April, 2018

*Photo from unternet