The modern thinking Indian

In the last few years, there have been a spate of reports on how global warming is continuing to march ahead, irrespective of the debate among countries and politicians about the steps needed to stop the emissions that contribute to global warming. Global warming is supposed to have a horrific impact on the ice levels of the polar regions and Greenland, with large scale reduction of the Artic and Antartic ice shelfs, along with melting of the huge amount of ice present in Greenland. This melting will release enough water to increase sea water levels, in turn devastating many low lying islands and low lying coastal regions. Scientists further fear that we are moving to an accelerated level of changes due to global warming, where global warming will become unsustainable (as an example, less ice covering the water means that the blue dark water will absorb more energy rather than the light reflected by white ice).
Global warming is already devastating the habitat of animals in the colder regions in the extreme North. The impact on polar bears is already pretty well known, but there are a whole range of animals that are affected (link to article):

The Arctic as we know it may soon be a thing of the past. That's the message from Eric Post, lead scientist of a new report into the effects of climate change on life in the Arctic. "It seems no matter where you look -- on the ground, in the air, or in the water -- we're seeing signs of rapid change," said Post in a press statement.
With the decline in sea ice and snow, animals usually seen at lower latitudes are being found in more northerly regions, including red foxes that have been displacing native Arctic foxes. Migratory caribou in low Arctic Greenland and elsewhere are declining in number as they have not been able to keep their calving season in synch with changes in plant growth. With the decline in caribou comes a knock-on effect to native Inuit hunters, according to the report's authors. Hotter summers could result in more insects and parasites that prey on the caribou, which could then also reduce the annual caribou harvest by local indigenous peoples.

This impact on animals and the native human populations is different from 'Survival of the fittest' since these are changes made by humans. Unfortunately, these are just an indicator of the impact of global warming, the changes are happening all around us.

Labels: Artic Ice, Caribou, Climate, Emissions, Environment, Global Warming, Ice, Ice Shelf, Native populations, Ocean, Polar Bear, Sea, Water Level, Weather

Part of the worries about global warming is about the loss of glaciers, with increasing melting and lower mass covered by the glaciers. Recent reports have confirmed the data, that glaciers are indeed getting impacted. Since glaciers are one of the primary source of water for the world's rivers, which are in turn are the primary sources of fresh water, water for irrigation purposes, and also energy generation through dams, such reports can only increase the alarm levels for the future of the world's population. Availability of fresh water is already problematic for huge chunks of the world's population, and these confirmation by scientists can only confirm that we are headed in for more trouble (link to article):

U.S. scientists monitoring shrinking glaciers in Washington and Alaska reported this week that a major meltdown is under way. A 50-year government study found that the world's glaciers are melting at a rapid and alarming rate. The ongoing study is the latest in a series of reports that found glaciers worldwide are melting faster than anyone had predicted they would just a few years ago. It offers a clear indication of an accelerating climate change and warming earth, according to the authors.
Since 1959, the U.S. Geological Survey, which published the study on its Web site, has been tracking the movements of the South Cascade glacier in Washington and the Wolverine and Gulcana glaciers in Alaska. The three glaciers are considered "benchmarks" for the conditions of thousands of other glaciers because they're in different climate zones and at various elevations.

The melting of the glaciers has both long term and short term problems. Along with the increase in water levels due to melting of polar caps and ice on Greenland, this melting of the glaciers will initially result in river levels going up, eventually contributing to higher sea caps; over a longer period, the glaciers will contribute lower amounts of fresh water and affect huge sections of the world's population. At the same time, the world's leaders cannot quit bickering, and take the steps required to reduce global warming.

Labels: Deal, Environment, Fresh Water, Future, Glacier, Global Warming, Melting, Ocean Levels, Politics, Reduction, Research, Scientific Study, Sea Levels

Amid all the gloom of the world economic downturn, the entire discussion about climate change seems to have retreated into the background. It has been suggested in some new reports that maybe with the drop in economic growth, the growth in emissions will come down; and anyhow, with companies and governments running into monetary problems, how will they be able to spend the kind of money required to address climate change ? Well, except for a few skeptics, the theory of an accelerating climate change has been accepted as a reality that is affecting our world.
From time to time, we hear that global warming is actually happening faster than many scientists had predicted. The predictions of melting of polar ice are coming true, and these will spell doom for coastal regions (it is predicted that Greenland itself has enough land ice to cause a raise in global water levels, and Antarctica has significantly higher ice levels). Consider this case of ice levels in Antartica (link to article):

One Antarctic ice shelf has quickly vanished, another is disappearing and glaciers are melting faster than anyone thought due to climate change, U.S. and British government researchers reported on Friday. They said the Wordie Ice Shelf, which had been disintegrating since the 1960s, is gone and the northern part of the Larsen Ice Shelf no longer exists. More than 3,200 square miles (8,300 square km) have broken off from the Larsen shelf since 1986.
"The rapid retreat of glaciers there demonstrates once again the profound effects our planet is already experiencing -- more rapidly than previously known -- as a consequence of climate change," U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement. "This continued and often significant glacier retreat is a wakeup call that change is happening ... and we need to be prepared," USGS glaciologist Jane Ferrigno, who led the Antarctica study, said in a statement.

The US was a laggard in acknowledging climate change, and taking steps to counter it. In addition, climate change has so many politics involved in it that it is difficult to get agreements. Poorer nations argue (with some logic, but still hurting the campaign against climate change) that they have contributed significantly lower to current emissions and hence should bear less of the liability, while developed nations claim that developing nations are also potentially huge contributors and should pony up their part of the effort. And in all this, global warming marches on.

Labels: Earth, Environment, Global Warming, Ice Shelf, Melt, Politics, Sea Levels, US, Weather

One of the major ingredients of the emissions that cause global warming is Carbon Dioxide (CO2). The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been steadily increasing for the past many years (even decades), and except for a few naysayers, it has been accepted that global warming is here to stay. However, efforts to reduce or cap the emissions on a global scale have not been as successful as one would have expected, given the threat to our way of life. There have been many holdouts, in the form of the United States that is the number one producer of such emissions, along with developing nations such as India, China and Brazil who are powering their way to the table of largest emitters. The economic downturn has in fact turned the conversation totally away from this area, but the fact is that even with a recession, emissions will continue to grow, instead of getting capped.
Scientists are now wondering how close we are to a tipping point, when the amount of agents that cause global warming reach such a point that changes start to become more rapid (one example of a tipping point is when the rate of ice melt in the poles and in Greenland becomes so high that less light is reflected because of less ice and more water, thus increasing heat absorption and more ice loss, and so on):

ONDON, England (CNN) -- A team of international scientists led by Dr James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, say that carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are already in the danger zone. Concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere currently stand at 385 parts per million (ppm) and are rising at a rate of two ppm per year. This is enough, say the scientists, to encourage dangerous changes to the Earth's climate. As a result we risk expanding desertification, food shortages, increased storm intensities, loss of coral reefs and the disappearance of mountain glaciers that supply water to hundreds of millions of people.
The report, "Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?" appears in the latest edition of the Open Atmosphere Science Journal and brings together the expertise of ten scientists from the United States, the UK and France. It is a departure from the previous climate estimates which predict that perilous CO2 levels will be reached later in the century. As far as current global observations are concerned, Hansen cites both the decline of Arctic sea ice and the worldwide retreat of mountain glaciers as causes for major concern. In light of the new data the authors believe that merely stabilizing CO2 emissions might not be enough to avoid catastrophic changes. "Humanity must aim for an even lower level of greenhouse gases", the report concludes.

We are heading down a dangerous path of playing with our environment, and yet don't seem to see this as a problem. There is almost no public involvement in these areas, and leaders of a lot of nations who should be working full steam to avoid such problems are busy either passing the buck or having meetings without reaching the desired goals to avoid future catastrophes.
People in the sub-continent will be heavily affected, and yet, besides asking for the richer nations to do anything, the Indian Government is not really taking any measures to make sure that control of emissions (that hurts the health of people in the country) is happening.

Labels: Climate, Environment, Global Warming, Pollution

There are a number of areas where modern science and problems clash with traditions. In such cases, a reasonable expectation is that there is a compromise between traditions and the needs of today; in some cases, there is a need that the tradition changes. Why did I suddenly think of this topic ? Well, I came across this article that describes how idol immersion, a joyful and integral part of many religious festivals, is actually helping in killing the river systems of the country. Now, there are many reasons why our river systems are getting killed - there is too much flow of effluents (both domestic and industrial), not enough cleaning of these effluents, not enough flow of fresh water to do a cleanup of the pollutants in the river. No one doubts that in many cases, the conditions of our rivers as they move past major cities is that of a sewer, with the water having very high percentages of pollutants.
For those who have taken part in Durga Pooja celebrations or those celebrating Lord Ganesha, the immersion of idols is an important part. This is repeated across the country. But how many of you have read the news articles that describe the dead fish found floating days after a major festival, with these fish poisoned by the chemicals form the immersion ? Read this article in more detail:

Elaborately painted and decorated idols are worshipped before they are taken during mass processions to rivers, lakes and the sea, where they are immersed in accordance with Hindu faith. Environmentalists say the idols are often made from non-biodegradable materials such as plastic, cement and plaster of Paris and painted with toxic dyes.
After the statues are immersed, the toxins then contaminate food crops when villagers use the polluted water for irrigation, said Shyam Asolekar, science and engineering head at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. Statue remains from festivities last year still float in rivers and water tanks in Mumbai, where the annual "Ganesh Chaturthi" festival culminate in the immersion of some 160,000 statutes -- some up to 25 feet high -- by millions of devotees. Traditionally, idols were made from mud and clay and vegetable-based dyes were used to paint them.

This is a tricky issue. Issues related to religious festivities are treated with care, with efforts being made not to offend the religious. However, there is no getting around the facts of a matter, and this is not an issue that has sprung up suddenly. Even on TV, you do see many times news articles about the importance of making statues with eco-friendly material, but somehow these items do not sink in.
Sometimes direct action needs to be taken, as for example, when the courts ordered the installation of tall fences on the bridges of the river Yamuna in Delhi in order to prevent people from throwing in flowers or complete garlands.
Rivers are the lifeblood of this country (or any country), with dependence on water requiring that water sources be protected. People know this, but somehow the relation with water pollution does not sink in, or maybe many people do not care. How does one ensure that such a message sink in ? You cannot use force to ensure that such a change happens across the breadth and width of the country.

Labels: Citizen, Community, Court, Environment, Health, India, River, Waste

It is a well known (and nightmarish scenario) that the groundwater levels in cities and the rural parts of the country are declining. In rural parts of the country, the promise of free electricity, and agriculture that is not well fed by canals (along with some wrong crop planting policies in which heavy water seeking plants have been planted) has caused a tremendous decline in the water levels. In some parts of Uttar Pradesh, there were recent reports that in some parts of the state, there has been a sudden cracking of the surface land crust due to a total absence of water underneath, causing a drying up of the surface.
In cities, the groundwater is pumped out by various authorities as well as individuals; all of this is done for satiating the growing water requirements of cities. On the contra side, water levels would normally get replenished through rain water seeping in from the normal watersheds and lakes inside a city, as well as through water seeping in from river-beds (most cities have some form of river running through them). However, both of these methods are in great decline. Rivers in cities are like drains, and water bodies are in a state of decline (recent reports from Delhi point to many of these water bodies being coveted by builders, or being used as a means to dump trash).
One possible solution that is being increasingly touted for cities is the use of groundwater harvesting by buildings. The reasoning goes that if each new building is forced to do rainwater harvesting all over its compound, then the water levels of the whole city will rise. Towards this end, the Bangalore Government is trying to bring in a low to enforce water harvesting in the city:

BANGALORE: Ensure your building is equipped with rainwater harvesting technology in the next few months. If not, local authorities will install one for you and collect the expenses later.
Even though the Act is applicable to the entire state, the government is concentrating on making rainwater harvesting equipment mandatory for all new buildings — residential and commercial — in Bangalore. Aimed at replenishing groundwater, the Act, once it becomes operational, makes it mandatory for users of groundwater through well or borewell to register with the Ground Water Authority within 120 days of its establishment.

This sounds very good, but in principle. In reality, this is already law in many places (including I believe in Delhi), and it has been a spectacular failure. Why ? Because builders do not do it, and they are hardly ever caught for it. Even if at some point they are asked, they do the great India money appearance trick, and presto, no more problems. This sort of law is only good when either people genuinely believe in this sort of welfare, or when inspection procedures are strict.

Labels: Bureaucracy, Community, Environment, Policy, Punishment, Responsibility, Welfare

Indian rivers are extremely polluted, and have been so for a long time now. It is all the more horrible since we consider many of these rivers as holy and worship them; the waters of the river Ganga find a very holy spot in Hindu culture. And yet, the waters of most of these rivers look hideous (unable to support marine life, unfit for human consumption, and so on). Various Governments claim to spend a lot of time and effort to clean up these rivers and have drawn up plans over the past 2 decades with big sounding names (all ending with the words of 'Action Plan') and the rivers remain dirty.
Over a period of time, even the courts of India have been unable to push the Governments to make an effective plan that is also executed well. All you get in the end is a lot of discussion about which method is the best for river cleaning (for those familiar with the discussions, the endless discussion in Delhi around where the sewage treatment plants should be, and how to stop the big drains from throwing their filth directly into the river would be funny if it was not so critical to public health). Otherwise, you would not get cases whereby drinking water to a city became critical when the filth content of the water available for drinking became too high.
What is required is for Governments to set up dedicated action plans that will ensure proper treatment of sewage (whether industrial or residential) so that no untreated sewage flows into the various water bodies that we have. Industries that violate this dictum need to be severely fined and punished (and that means that corruption levels in the environmental inspection area need to come down). Else we will end up with more cases such as the one in Punjab where millions of fish in a canal suddenly died due to release of untreated industrial waste. What we don't really need is for this kind of publicity generating measures such as this one:

With the state police coming to the fore to free the Gomti of pollution, now those caught red handed throwing garbage in the river will be severely dealt with. This announcement was made on Saturday by the director general of police (DGP) Vikram Singh, even as along with other senior officials of the department he took it upon himself to clean the city's lifeline.
In the morning the officials arrived at the banks of the Gomti for the cleanliness drive that is on to clean the river for the past few days. During the drive, the DGP made an official announcement that one company of river police will be deployed on all the banks of the river.

How will they prevent people from throwing trash into the river ? And will it stop if they patrol a few kilometers ? Would it not be more effective to have a proper education drive along with ensuring that people get a proper garbage collection facility ? Or am I hoping for an ideal world ?

Labels: Community, Development, Environment, Health, Police, Responsibility, River, Welfare

In recent years, there has been wide-spread criticism by politicians of the Supreme Court run judicial system, claiming that it has gone out of control, and that the judiciary was over-reaching into the realm of the legislature and executive. There have been a number of cases, such as the Bihar and Jharkhand assembly cases, the whole issue about the demolitions in Delhi, and the nursery admissions in Delhi, that have raised the hackles of the Government and politicians. There are many other such cases that have caused controversy, typically with the court acting on a number of measures that are more in the realm of policy making such as anti-ragging, environment, traffic, etc. A 2 member bench of the Supreme Court has recently come out against the activist nature of the court, and asked the court system to stay in check:

The bench said the apex court erred in disturbing the delicate balance between the three organs by interfering in the functions of assembly — Jagadambika Pal case pertaining to UP in 1998 and Jharkhand assembly case of 2005.
"In our opinion, these were matters pertaining exclusively to the executive or legislative domain. If there is a law, judges can certainly enforce it, but judges cannot create a law and seek to enforce it," the bench said. If the legislature or executive is not functioning properly, it is for the people to correct the defects by exercising their franchise properly in the next elections and voting for the candidates who would fulfil their expectations or by other lawful methods like peaceful demonstrations, it said.

No doubt there have been cases when the judiciary has over-reached, such as the cases where judges pick cases without anybody filing a case against them. It is also true that the world over, courts have been in the forefront of drastic change. In the US, it was the Supreme Court that started to throw away racial segregation in society and it is the courts that are seeking to resolve the complex minefield of individual rights vs. terrorist laws; in India, it is the courts that have stepped in and brought rights to people against the actions of the Government.
For a democracy, there is one fundamental weakness; this is know as the tyranny of the majority. It means that if there is a measure that appeals to the politicians but is otherwise inmical to law or the constitution, they can only be stopped by a system of checks and balances. In most countries, this is the system of the courts. It is the same in India. The Supreme Court judgment in the Bommai case and the Bihar case are judgments that are now used as the standard text for the actions of a Governor (who is now practically assumed to be the representative not of the central Government, but of the party ruling the central Government); it is the Supreme Court that has been fighting for cleaning of the country through the environmental bench (people forget that it was the Supreme Court that forced the implementation of CNG in Delhi over a kicking, screaming Sheila Dixit). The Supreme Court is the final decider of right and wrong, and it is necessary that this remain. And of course, it is the Constitution of India that is supreme, not the executive or parliament (these are creations of the Constitution). Executive inaction in India is legendary, and people are entitled to file for corrective action through the court mechanism. The grey area of policy making when the executive is clearly in the wrong needs to be worked out on a case by case basis, not as a sweeping condemnation as done by the 2 Supreme Court judges. This condemnation has the action of giving a boost to the decision of the executive to do what is politically correct, and not what is right.

Labels: Court, Empowerment, Environment, Governance, Law, Parliament, Politics, Reform, Responsibility

How many times has it happened that you saw somebody throwing garbage on the streets and wondered as to why they did it ? Did you sometimes throw a wrapper on the street and felt guilty about it, or not even feel a twinge of guilt ? Take all these individual acts, put them together and you end up with a city (and this is about each and every city in India) full of garbage. Sometimes it is easily noticeable, for example, when the weather is humid, the smell of garbage is all around. But mostly, we criticize the municipal corporation (and rightly so) for the mess.
Surat, after the plague had gone, went through a government enforced cleanliness program with a lot of public support. That program was a good example of how a city can be made clean and kept clean. There are numerous other examples on a smaller scale that show how cleanliness can be kept. Private offices are a good example, where there are adequate facilities such as garbage bins and moral pressure to ensure cleanliness. The Delhi Metro is another example of cleanliness where the Metro ensures that people do not litter, and they also ensure that the facilities are always kept clean such that if anybody tries to litter, they will be seen as the first people doing the littering.
However, we also know that in addition to self-discipline, some amount of enforcement is also required. Singapore is one prime example of strict rules ensuring that no one tries any amount of littering, and people who do, suffer. And enforcement seems to be the measure that the Mumbai authorities are trying to use:

MUMBAI: Getting away with spitting, urinating in public, throwing garbage on pavements or any other nuisance which spoils the cleanliness of the metropolis will be harder and even costlier now.
To supplement the work done by the few nuisance detectors (NDs), the civic body today appointed five private security agencies to look after cleanliness and sanitation in the city with powers to impose fines ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 20,000 on offenders.

If you read the article, there is a lot of talk about not being heavy on the fines initially, but trying more education and getting people to be more aware of their responsibilities.
At the same time, it cannot be all enforcement. There is a crying need to have more facilities. One good example is the availability of garbage bins or dustbins and public conveniences. In our crowded cities, such infrastructure needs to be available at regular intervals and well maintained (and that is the killer nowadays many of them are not well maintained). It is easy to blame people for urinating in public, but in winter months, when there is no facility available for long distances, what can a person do ?

Labels: Community, Development, Environment, Health, Image, Neighbourhood, Reform, Waste

The separation of powers has the Government handling policy and day to day running of the country, and the Courts have interpretation of laws and the handling of civil and criminal disputes under these laws. So, normally you would not hear of courts getting involved in the matter of process of setting policy, or taking operational matters into their hands and providing directions to Governments. However, in India, the Governments have proved incompetent in so many matters that the courts have thought it fit to intervene using the basis of the rights of quality of life for citizens. Otherwise, who would have thought that a court would give directions to a municipal department to ensure that dengue protection steps are taken:

Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered the city government’s health department and its civic bodies, MCD and NDMC to take all necessary steps to prevent the recurrence of dengue in the city.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Khanna asked the agencies to comply with its previous directions to prevent mosquito breeding. At the same time, it directed the government to provide sufficient platelets in the blood banks in the city so that they are prepared to face any eventuality.

It sounded so strange when I read it; after all, these steps are something that a Government agency should be able to take on its own without having to be told to do so. But the situation is such that every year, one can see so many cases of dengue being reported that could be prevented through simple precautions by the municipal department that they do not do; and hence the court felt it necessary to order such steps. However, it still seems strange, and one can only hope that the Governments wake up.
We have had many cases in the past where court orders have forced Governments to take steps that have helped citizens, such as the implementation of CNG in Delhi and removal of polluting industries from cities (all policy matters but the Government was dragging its feet until the court intervened).

Labels: Community, Court, Development, Environment, Governance, Health, Judicial, Reform, Welfare

Given that rainy season is likely to start in Delhi & NCR anytime, it is pretty essential to make sure that drains are de-silted and able to handle as much rain water as possible. But this is something that seems impossible for the municipal authorities to handle.
This year, yet again, due to their ineptitude, there are many many drains where de-silting has not happened and where water will start collecting. In fact, with the few rains that have happened, water collection has already been seen. One fears as to what would happen if it rains for more than a couple of hours.
Now as to what I wanted to mention. I have observed drains being cleaned of the rubbish, and other things that our responsible citizens keep on dropping in the drains. So what happens ? Well, there are these machines that they use for de-silting and which remove a fair amount of dirty looking and foul smelling rubbish from the drains. And what did they do with this rubbish? You would not believe it. They just left it by the side of the road, no doubt to be picked up when some rubbish collection service could be called (why this can't be synchronized is beyond me). And what were the effects of this open dumping of rubbish ?
Well, let me just list them out:
1. The road immediately shrunk in width since half the road was now covered in rubbish
2. There was a foul smell in the whole area for days afterwards.
3. Pedestrians found it difficult to walk, because of the stench, and because the rubbish was accompanied by equally bad drain water and the road was covered with slush
4. It rained a day after, and you can imagine as to how much of the rubbish that was removed went back inside.
And mind, these were drains that were cleaned. If you go to places in older parts of Delhi or crowded places such as Laxmi Nagar, you will see the small drains in front of houses that were supposed to have free flowing sewage, instead the whole drain has stagnant water and could be a ripe breeding ground for diseases and the like.
Fellow citizens, how many of you have seen such things and think that things can be improved?

Labels: Development, Environment, Governance, India, Neighbourhood, Responsibility

The Delhi-Hardwar highway is a fairly narrow highway in most sections, and with religious traffic, it can get very crowded nowadays. As part of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) plans, there is a contract out to improve the highway; when I say improve, it essentially means widening the highway. This is a very good thing as it will decrease the time taken for travel, will reduce traffic congestion and avoid the jams that seem to pop up on the highway frequently. In addition, with the industrialization of the belt around Haridwar, it will help industry tremendously by reducing the time taken for transit of inputs and finished items.
So I was traveling along the highway, it was fairly congested, and was just thinking of the time that would be reduced in transit the next time. Seemed like a fairly win-win situation, and it may even be good for the environment, since the travel would be more effective, less fuel wastage, less need to replace tyres, and so on. And then I saw the casualty of the entire exercise, at least for the short term. The environment.
This was the first time that I had seen the clearance of the sides of a road passing through the countryside. For those who are unable to picturise it, think of a road with trees and foilage on either side, and then there are the farm lands. The land just next to the road belongs to the government in a number of places, and there are these big trees lining the road on both sides, providing shade on the road itself. In this furnace like situation that exists right now outside, the shaded portions are actually cooler. In many cases, the trees are local fruit bearing, and provide fruits during their seasons.
Anyhow, I digress. So what I saw was that the undergrowth below the trees was on fire all along the route. Maybe somebody can better explain, but my explanation was that first they clear all the undergrowth by burning it, and maybe killing the tree, and then remove the tree. This had already started happening. I was appalled to see this technique. We crib about global warming, we crib that it is the primary responsibility of the west, and then we contribute to it by this method of mass burning.
I was left wondering as to what would happen about the trees. It seemed fairly obvious that the new road would be a barren road, with not much vegetation on either side. Even if trees are planted on either side, and I am not sure, it will take ages to get back to the same condition as they were. I can only hope that when they plant trees, they plant the leafy local varieties that thrive in these regions.
Overall, I was pained to see the price of development, knowing it was inevitable, but even then..

Labels: Development, Environment, India, Road, Traffic, Transport

I just came back from a trip to Sariska. At this time, there is a lot of dryness in the air, and heat is slowly increasing. One of the moments that really hit me was the placard that talked about the tiger. Even though tigers have disappeared from Sariska, their placard still remains, a visible sign of the inaction of the Government.
Over a period of time, the tigers started vanishing from Sariska, but any such reports were dismissed by the relevant departments as untrue. Periodic marks were displayed as proof that tigers were still present in Sariska. But it was finally confirmed that the tigers were finally exterminated from Sariska, and the people who were responsible for ensuring that the natural park is free from poachers have never been held responsible. Just a committee has been set up by the Prime Minister to figure out what to do, but one really does not expect this committee to do anything worthwhile.
In the meantime, the pride of India's wildlife conservation effort is coming under the sway of poachers. The Gir sanctuary in Gujarat, the main sanctuary of the Asiatic lion is fully under the threat of poachers. As this report points out:

The Gir sanctuary, the only abode left of the majestic Asiatic lion in world, has been in news since last few days after six of the beasts were found poached and their body parts stolen from within the 1,400 sqkm protected area.

This is a major loss, and yet the only thing we hear is that the Environment ministry is looking into it. The fear is that they will keep on looking after the matter while we lose our national heritage to poachers.
There is really not much focus on making things better. One argument is that villagers living inside the parks cause problems, and there is a sustained movement to get them out. The reality is that these villagers can live in a sort of peaceful co-existence with the animals, and they are often the people who can provide reliable information on the going-ons in the jungle. But a typical high-handed behaviour of the officialdom is pushing these villagers away and preventing information flow of the sort that will prevent the poachers from killing India's wildlife wealth.
The Government really needs to ensure that people well versed in the co-existence of wildlife and humans and who are experts in the field be the ones who should be making policy and drafting laws for saving India's wildlife.

Labels: Environment, Governance, India, Wildlife

When we look around our cities, what do we see ? You see crowds, you see moving traffic, and you may see some beautiful buildings or monuments. Bring your gaze down a bit to ground level, and what do you see? Broken plastic bottles, torn wrappers, stubs of cigarettes and the matches used to light them, polythene bags (some empty, some containing some waste), and assorted other stuff.

If you are lucky, the place you are currently in has been cleaned recently, and there is only a light smattering of filth on the ground. If this cleaning has not happened, there will be a pile of rubbish that you have to carefully tread you way through. And when it rains, this rubbish turns into muck, and emits all sort of smells.

How does all this rubbish get onto the ground? Take a deep breath, stay in the same place for around one hour and keep on watching people around you. You will see how this filth starts accumulating. People from passing vehicles will open the window and drop the remains of whatever they were consuming (eatables, something to drink, smoke, etc.) onto the road.

People sitting by the side will consume peanuts, and drop the shells, as well as the container where they are sitting. A passing dump truck will have the rear not fully closed and hence will keep on leaving a trail of rubbish behind it. A sweeper will have collected the rubbish at the side, and a gust of wind will disperse it initially and keep on dispersing it till it is fully spread all over.

The worst problem is that people you would expect to keep the place clean (or at least not dirty it further), do not cooperate as you would like. I recently went with a group of colleagues to lunch outside the office, and after the lunch, they bought a couple of flavoured mint packets to eat. Once they had finished eating, these were simply dropped onto the road.

I am used to dirtying the surroundings far less, and it was very shocking to see something like this happening. I picked these wrappers up and kept them in my pocket to dispose of later; but this shocked me to the extent that I was rendered speechless and was not able to properly instruct them about their duty. The only good point was that another colleague shared the same viewpoint about ensuring cleanliness, and this gave me a level of confidence.

Why do people do this ? The primary reason that I could see was that people play 'follow the leader'. There is already so much stuff that people can see on the road on a regular basis that nobody thinks twice about leaving more stuff on the road. If everything was spic and span and clean, then a lot of people would think twice about leaving stuff on the road. I also think that civic sense is lacking in a lot of people, and this maybe because even though they do know that they are contributing to dirtying up the place, it is not something that they actively think about.

One way to increase awareness is to target schools. One campaign that seems to be slowly working through using school children as a medium is the cracker-free diwali concept. It should be fairly simple (but time consuming) to inculcate the feeling of cleanliness in children, and they can work as active agents to shame people who dirty up their surroundings.

Labels: Environment, Image, Waste

For anybody who has lived in Delhi, the world of Delhi and New Delhi seem totally different. New Delhi is the part where everything is well planned, roads always seem to be good, mostly babus, politicians and rich people live with plentiful supply of power and water. Delhi is everything else. New Delhi is maintained by the NDMC (New Delhi Municipal Corporation) and Delhi is maintained by the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi).
If anything is said about things in Delhi being shoddy, dirt being not cleaned up and sewers left rotting, it can be sure that this is in an area handled by the MCD. The NDMC, on the other hand, is flush with funds and supposed to be better managed. Residents of Delhi of course do not appreciate the functioning of either of the two corporations and condemn them for essentially non-working.
Why all this big preamble? Well, the NDMC has been hit by a judgement that could become a much quoted judgement in the area of responsibility fixing and ensuring that non-functioning babus cannot hide or shirk work. If this can happen to the NDMC, MCD officials might as well start looking for a secondary source to start paying all the fines that will start coming against them.

NEW DELHI: In a move aimed at saving the city's greens from being ravaged, the State Consumer Commission has slapped a fine of Rs 25 lakh on the NDMC for allowing marriages and events in Talkatora Garden a popular tourist hub next to the majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan.
In response to a plea filed by a group of morning walkers who visit the garden, the commission said Rs 5 lakh, out of the fine amount, will be recovered from salaries of the NDMC chairman and the director (horticulture).
Both of them will be liable to pay Rs 2.5 lakh each, the commission said in a bid to make this as "an exemplary case and eye-opener" for sloth officials of other civic agencies including MCD and DDA.

Making top offices accountable for the work (or non-work/wrong work) that happens in their department (even when it is brought to their notice) is not something that this country normally sees. If such a judgement manages to scare a few other officials in other departments to make sure that things are working, then it will all be worth it. At the least, it should shake up the babus to shed their arrogance (too hopeful?) towards the rights of the general public.
There are many caveats to being hopeful - this judgement will undoubtedly pass through the court system and may be reduced or struck down, but this is a still a good sign. It means that citizens are becoming more aware of their rights, are not willing to quietly accept the misdeeds of government and know how to make their opposition felt. A good sign indeed.

Labels: Development, Environment, Governance, India, Law

Typically, when we talk about global warming, India typically takes the stance that global warming is caused by the rich countries, and now when not-so-well developed countries are trying to develop, they are so far behind in emissions per person that they deserve the right to continue on their development track for a long time and not worry so much about environmental control. This sounds like a pretty nice track to follow and actually sounds pretty logical, but I submit that this is good as a negotiating position and not for internal policies.
India needs to follow sound environmental policies for its own good. We need to learn far more from the experience of other countries in the region of environmental control. The western countries have gone through long periods of tremendous environmental exploitation and have suffered through it. They have had long periods of smog that caused immense suffering to their citizens, they had extremely dirty and polluted water bodies. It is only when they saw the ill-effects of this on their citizens that they acted, and spent vast amounts of money to repair the situation, including putting forward laws to control things. In the US, it has been local governments that are acting when the federal government has shirked its responsibility by imposing controls. The Europeans have taken great steps towards environmental control and consider the issue to remain a priority in their policies.
We in India have a environment ministry that is only as strong as the willpower of its minister, and improvements have typically come in only when the courts have taken the quality of life as a standard and started cracking down on pollution control. Even with this small effort, there are vast sections of the economy and industry, especially in smaller towns, that continue to be environmentally unsafe.
Water bodies are extremely polluted and there are hardly any active effective campaigns to make these water bodies such as rivers and lakes (which are as valuable as gold in terms of their necessity) safer for human and animal use. We kill (in terms of poaching and due to sheer apathy) some of our precious wild-life and yet there is only a muted hue and cry (missing tigers in Sariska as an example). Go to some of the smaller cities and you cannot escape the pollution in the sky and in the air.
The health and productivity costs are incredible. Pollution and unsafe working conditions condemns many families every year to doom. We have managed to sow so much fertilizer and chemicals in the ground to try and boost farm productivity that we have a cocktail of chemicals every time we eat something. Typically every year, there is a brown cloud floating over South Asia (visible from satellites) that is a devil's concoction of chemicals.
It is only when citizens gear up and campaign for better environments that we will lead a healthier life. We need more examples of people doing their bit for a safer environment. One example is from this article on Desicritics (about a man trying to calculate the cost of a tree and propagate the message). Even the Supreme Court that has been very active in terms of improving the environment acted on the basis of complaints filed by an active lawyer and due to the campaigns by ordinary citizens.
It is only when we raise our voices that we can improve things. Even if one is not able to do something directly, at least follow good environmental policies of your own. Make sure that your vehicles are well-tuned and avoid too many emissions (this also saves fuel); observe what all your throw out and evaluate how much of re-use can happen; if you read about people doing good work in this area, see how you can contribute to their work (it could be just a cash donation or actual spending time on that effort).

Labels: Environment, Governance, India