JUNE 2016: 1-15 (FORTNIGHTLY)
(1-15) JUNE 2016 (पाक्षिक)
World
Environment Day
GREEN FEATURES
- जलवायु संकट,
पारिस्थिकी
-
प्रदूषण
-
आदिवासी विमर्श
-
कृषि और किसानी
- जल
दर्शन
- देशज ज्ञान और स्वस्थ
- विविध
ZERO TOLERANCE FOR THE ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE
******************
|
विषयवस्तु
|
जलवायु संकट:
·
Bringing potable water to villagers of Dhar
·
Ensure Irrigation Water for 15,000 Villagers
·
Traditional
methods to the rescue
·
Centre prepares to dilute wetland protection rules
·
India’s
perfect storm: Environmental and demographic stresses building up
·
“Life in Syntropy” is a short film that was screened at the Paris
climate talks.
·
केन-बेतवा
परियोजना
की
मंजूरी
मे
देरी
पर
उमा
भारती
करेगी
अनशन
·
अब
हर
16 साल मे
3 बार पड़ता
है
सूखा
|
·
‘Gangotri glacier retreated by 3 km in two centuries’
·
Scientists
say dwindling snowfall affects volume of water fed to the Bhagirathi, the main
source of the Ganga
·
पेड़
लगाने से जंगल नहीं बनता, जंगल कई
सौ सालों में
प्रकृति बनाती है-हरित स्वराज संवाद
·
THIRSTY INDIA HEADING FOR CRISIS
·
SPECIAL STORY: GREEN WARRIORS
·
Standing by the river
·
Death of a river is the death of an ecosystem
·
Beyond starvation: How drought sickens insidiously
·
Nobody creates a narrative around climate change: Amitav Ghosh
·
No respite from heat wave in parts of North India
प्रदूषण:
·
The hidden
connection between air pollution and heat spikes: India’s lethal double bind
·
Letters: Prevent farm waste
·
Letters: Insidious effect of plastic
कृषि और किसानी
·
Sustainable agriculture: A new Anand cooperative model – this time, in
solar farming
·
A publication on agroecology , 'How to leave industrial agriculture
behind'
·
"The
Food and Agriculture Organization’s new book, Pulses, nutritious seeds for a
sustainable future takes us on a journey across varied cultures"
देशज ज्ञान और स्वास्थ्य:
·
Eating from the Farm: the social, environmental, and economic benefits
of local food systems
विविध
·
The dark and dirty side of liberalisation
·
A dumb primate?
·
United Nation- INTERNATIONAL DAYS for 1-15 June
·
A HISTORY OF THEMES: World Environment Day
*****
|
जलवायु संकट
|
Bringing potable water to villagers of Dhar
Fluorosis-affected villagers can now
heave a sigh of relief. The dream of safe drinking water at their doorstep has
become a reality.
Seema Kalu,
suffering from skeletal fluorosis (Source:Dalpat & Heena)
A water tank
installed just outside a house (Source:Dalpat & Heena)
The
residents of Bankpura village in Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh, Dilip Bundela
(19), Seema Kalu (20) and Naval Singh (35), have one thing in common. All three
of them suffer from skeletal fluorosis. Skeletal fluorosis is a bone
disease that is caused by the accumulation of fluoride in the bones. In
advanced cases, it could cause severe pain and damage to the bones. They are
not, however, alone in this village. Many are suffering from this ailment, due
to the high fluoride content in the water.
Today,
fluorosis is prevalent in more than 200 districts of 20 states and Union
Territories of India and Dhar district is one of them. There is no treatment
for fluorosis. The disease, however, is easily preventable if diagnosed early
and steps are taken to prevent the intake of excess fluoride. This is possible
by making safe drinking water available and through adequate diet.
Source
of water
Dhar,
a drought-prone area, lies in the southern tribal belt of Madhya Pradesh. The
groundwater level in the district is low and at many locations, it is highly contaminated
with fluoride. But unfortunately, in these villages, people are dependent on
ground water which they traditionally draw from open wells. With the increase
in irrigation for agriculture and the use of motor pumps, the ground-water
level has started depleting, forcing people to draw water from deeper aquifers
using hand pumps and tube wells.
Due
to the lack of awareness about fluorosis, people use hand-pump and tube-well
water for domestic purposes because of easy accessibility. Pipe-water supply
from the government wells is also available at some places in these villages
but the supply is mostly irregular. Moreover, the wells are not cleaned
periodically, resulting in water-borne diseases like typhoid and
diarrhoea.
Access
to water is fundamental to human dignity and health. However, it is a struggle
for many in Dhar as 50 percent of the population in this district belongs to
marginalised tribal communities. Within rural Dhar, disability is a significant
issue with many people experiencing impairments of all natures due to increased
fluoride content in the water, poor healthcare, old age and other factors. Most
people in these vulnerable groups have no access to the facilities available
for basic necessities like water because these are not often designed or
positioned with the needs of such people in mind. They often rely on others for
assistance. This affects their dignity and self-esteem.
A
new solution
In
order to help such people live with dignity and also to mitigate fluorosis, a
Dehradun-based research organisation People’s Science Institute (PSI) initiated community-based safe drinking water supply system
in these villages with the financial support of Frank Water, United Kingdom.
Their interventions were based on local hydrogeological studies, groundwater
quality monitoring and strong community mobilisation. This resulted in the
preparation of operation and maintenance plans, monthly contributions and
sharing of groundwater by the communities.
In each village, Water User Groups (WUGs) have been formed and the water tanks have been constructed. These are built at places easily accessible to the majority of people. The villagers too helped during the construction of water supply setup. The tanks are now filled up with water from the fluoride-safe well. The waterman, appointed by the villagers, runs the motor pump to fill these tanks twice a day. Most villagers have tap-water connection from this tank. The WUGs collect a monthly contribution -- in the range of Rs 30-50 (as decided by the villagers) -- from the villagers, which is then deposited in the WUGs’ bank account for repair works and also to pay a monthly honorarium to the waterman. The disabled and those who cannot afford to pay are exempted from contributing. In this way, the system is being operated and managed by the communities themselves. The villagers have been trained to clean the source and the water supply tanks well.
The result shows
Growing up as a girl child with four siblings in a poor family is difficult but growing up with a disability in such a family is worse. It was a joyous moment for Seema when fluoride-free water became available just outside her house. Affected by skeletal fluorosis, the most difficult task for her was to walk up to the hand pump or the government tank around 150 m away from home to collect water and carry it back home. At times, she would avoid taking bath or would ask someone to get water for her. But now with a water tank installed just outside her house, she is perhaps the happiest person in her locality. She has to walk very little to get water and doesn’t have to depend on others to fetch her water. With improved access to water, she has ample time to engage in household chores and take care of her personnel hygiene as well.
As Seema’s story elucidates, things
have changed for the better now. Water has brought respite to not only the
marginalised communities in these villages but also the physically-challenged. Prem
Kumar (20), who resides in Banjari village, has an impaired hand due to polio.
All these years he had been getting water by manually operating a hand pump but
now he gets water easily by just opening the tap. He even stores some water at
home so that he can use it at his convenience. The villagers believe the safe
drinking water now available will eventually help in fluorosis mitigation as
well.
This initiative has set a successful
example of decentralised management of groundwater resource. Earlier, a pilot
programme on community-based safe drinking water supply was successfully
developed by PSI and Frank Water in Kaalapani, Badichetri and Daheriya villages
of Dhar. This kind of participatory and scientific approach is safe and less
expensive than the installation of defluoridation units attached to the hand
pumps which become dysfunctional after sometime. To make this effort
sustainable, there is also a need to promote operation and maintenance of these
water supply systems by the local communities. The differently-abled people
should also be involved in the decision making.
The author, Anita Sharma, is with Peoples’ Science Institute, Dehradun. This write up is a collation of the ongoing work by the
PSI team that includes Anil Gautam, Puja Singh, Dalpat and Heena.The views and
opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not
necessarily reflect those of India Water Portal.
Ensure Irrigation Water for 15,000 Villagers
Nava Talav has been the lifeline for
nearly 15,000 villagers for the last 144 years. The situation has started turning
grim and the crops are under threat.
The lake spread over 1,000 acres built
by the British in 1872, had developed a huge breach due to heavy flooding last
monsoon. Driven to the brink by state government's indifference, poor farmers
in Surendranagar have taken upon themselves to save the lake.
They had even apprised
chief minister Anandiben Patel about the problem when she had visited
Kharaghoda last year. But nothing has been done so far even as the cost of
repairing the 100m breach is not more than Rs 11 lakh. With the situation
turning grim and their crops under threat, the farmers have now started Lok
Faalo (people's contribution) to collect Rs 11 lakh required for the repairs.
They have collected Rs 4.5 lakh so far.
Five villages including Kharaghoda, Patdi, Odu, Chikarar
and Savda are directly dependent on this 144-year old lake for irrigation
water. The farmers have have no option but to migrate from their homes and work as
salt-pan workers since it's difficult to grow cotton and castor due to lack of
water.
The villagers have formed this
association to repair the washed away embankments and ensure potable and
irrigation water for these villages. They require Rs. 10 Lacs for temporary
repair work and have already collected 4 lakhs from the five villages. The farmers
have initiated the repair work with the money collected so far, but need your help to be able to
fix the breach and save the 15000 villages dependent on the lake.
Alternatives: Traditional
methods to the rescue
Source: http://www.ecologise.in/2016/05/30/series-combating-drought-3-traditional-methods-to-the-rescue/
Centre prepares to dilute wetland protection rules
The Union environment ministry has
proposed to overhaul the regulations which identify and protect wetlands under
the Environment Protection Act (EPA).
It has suggested the time-bound process set under the regulations of 2010 be done away with, along with the existing central authority, leaving it almost entirely in the hands of state governments.
The period for public comments on the draft notification ends by the month.
In an ongoing case before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), it emerged that states had not notified wetlands under the 2010 regulations. This forced the tribunal to demand that states begin to do so in at least 5-10 districts in a time-bound fashion. The Union meanwhile has proposed to substantially change the existing regulations.
The 2010 regulations created a central authority of government officers and experts to oversee the protection of wetlands. It gave a fixed time for states to identify and demarcate wetlands and the Centre again a fixed time period to notify and protect these, as is now done for environmental and forest clearances. The process of identifying and demarcating the wetlands included recommendations and advice of scientific experts at state levels. Some wetlands falling in high altitudes and ecologically sensitive areas, beside the 26 Ramsar Convention sites, were to be automatically given protection.
Instead, the ministry has now proposed that a state-level authority headed by the chief minister, including the chief secretary and other state officials, with four experts on board, who can also be from the government, identify the wetlands. The recommendations of this CM-headed authority are to be then sent to the state government for approval or rejection. The Centre will only be informed of the decision by the state. Only the 26 Ramsar wetland sites will get automatic protection.
The 2010 regulations prohibited seven types of activities in wetlands, such as reclamation and setting up of new or expansion of existing industries. It required prior state government permission be sought for an array of other activities impacting wetlands. And, that the permission be given following an environmental impact assessment as required under the EPA.
The central government held the power of permitting any activity on the recommendation of the central wetlands authority, which had four independent experts on board.
Under the proposed regulations, the Centre has said wetlands would be put to ‘wise use for maintaining ecological character, achieved through implementation of eco-system approaches, within the context of sustainable development’. These terms have not been strictly defined in law and are only conceptually explained in the regulations. Ecological character is defined as “the combination of eco-system components, processes and services that characterize a wetland, and provide necessary conditions for delivering eco-system services and maintenance of biodiversity”.
The term ‘eco-system approach’ is defined as “the strategy for integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way”.
The new regulations do away with the elaborate list of activities that are prohibited or restricted. It prohibits reclamation of wetlands, conversion to non-wetlands, diversion or impediment of inflows and outflows from the wetland and ‘any activity having or likely to have adverse impact on ecological character of the wetland’. However, the rules then give the Centre powers to allow these activities as well. The need for the environmental impact assessment before permitting such activities is to be done away with.
The earlier regulations allowed appeals against the decisions of the central wetlands authority with the NGT. This, too, is to be done away with, though aggrieved entities could continue to file cases against violations of these rules.
It has suggested the time-bound process set under the regulations of 2010 be done away with, along with the existing central authority, leaving it almost entirely in the hands of state governments.
The period for public comments on the draft notification ends by the month.
In an ongoing case before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), it emerged that states had not notified wetlands under the 2010 regulations. This forced the tribunal to demand that states begin to do so in at least 5-10 districts in a time-bound fashion. The Union meanwhile has proposed to substantially change the existing regulations.
The 2010 regulations created a central authority of government officers and experts to oversee the protection of wetlands. It gave a fixed time for states to identify and demarcate wetlands and the Centre again a fixed time period to notify and protect these, as is now done for environmental and forest clearances. The process of identifying and demarcating the wetlands included recommendations and advice of scientific experts at state levels. Some wetlands falling in high altitudes and ecologically sensitive areas, beside the 26 Ramsar Convention sites, were to be automatically given protection.
Instead, the ministry has now proposed that a state-level authority headed by the chief minister, including the chief secretary and other state officials, with four experts on board, who can also be from the government, identify the wetlands. The recommendations of this CM-headed authority are to be then sent to the state government for approval or rejection. The Centre will only be informed of the decision by the state. Only the 26 Ramsar wetland sites will get automatic protection.
The 2010 regulations prohibited seven types of activities in wetlands, such as reclamation and setting up of new or expansion of existing industries. It required prior state government permission be sought for an array of other activities impacting wetlands. And, that the permission be given following an environmental impact assessment as required under the EPA.
The central government held the power of permitting any activity on the recommendation of the central wetlands authority, which had four independent experts on board.
Under the proposed regulations, the Centre has said wetlands would be put to ‘wise use for maintaining ecological character, achieved through implementation of eco-system approaches, within the context of sustainable development’. These terms have not been strictly defined in law and are only conceptually explained in the regulations. Ecological character is defined as “the combination of eco-system components, processes and services that characterize a wetland, and provide necessary conditions for delivering eco-system services and maintenance of biodiversity”.
The term ‘eco-system approach’ is defined as “the strategy for integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way”.
The new regulations do away with the elaborate list of activities that are prohibited or restricted. It prohibits reclamation of wetlands, conversion to non-wetlands, diversion or impediment of inflows and outflows from the wetland and ‘any activity having or likely to have adverse impact on ecological character of the wetland’. However, the rules then give the Centre powers to allow these activities as well. The need for the environmental impact assessment before permitting such activities is to be done away with.
The earlier regulations allowed appeals against the decisions of the central wetlands authority with the NGT. This, too, is to be done away with, though aggrieved entities could continue to file cases against violations of these rules.
India’s
perfect storm: Environmental and demographic stresses building up
“Life in Syntropy” is a
short film that was screened at the Paris climate talks.
It tells the story of Brazilian farmer Ernst
Gotsch, who bought 1,200 acres of completely deforested land on the edge of the
rainforest in 1984 and transformed it into a remarkably biodiverse farm that
reverses climate change by sequestering carbon"
Source:http://epaper.jansatta.com/c/10881923
‘Gangotri glacier retreated by 3 km in two centuries’
THE HINDU; New Delhi, June 4, 2016
Scientists
say dwindling snowfall affects volume of water fed to the Bhagirathi, the main
source of the Ganga
After a four-hour-long trek from
Bhojwasa, the final camping spot in Gangotri, when a brown, fractured pile of
rocks finally came into view it was hard to believe that this was the mouth of
the glacier from which the ‘holy’ Ganga emerged.
Gaumukh, the snout of the Gangotri
glacier, named after its shape like the mouth of a cow, has retreated by over 3
kilometres since 1817, says glaciologist Milap Chand Sharma of Jawaharlal Nehru
University.
It was nearly two centuries ago that
the retreat of the glacier was first documented by John Hodgson, a Survey of
India geologist.
With 10 Indian States reeling under
drought and the country facing a severe water crisis after two weak monsoons,
the story of retreating freshwater sources such as the Himalayan glaciers is
worrying. And though a three-kilometre retreat over a period of two centuries
might seem insignificant at first glance, data shows that the rate of retreat
has increased sharply since 1971. The rate of retreat is 22 metres per year.
Less ice formation
The retreat points to lesser ice formation each year than its current rate of melting, a process that is continuing, say scientists at the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee. “Winter precipitation is when the glacier receives adequate snow and ice for maintaining itself. About 10-15 spells of winter snow as part of western disturbances feed the glacier. But last year Gangotri received very little snowfall. We have also observed more rainfall and a slight temperature rise in the region, both of which transfer heat on to the glacier, warming it,” Professor Manohar Arora, scientist at NIH explained.
The retreat points to lesser ice formation each year than its current rate of melting, a process that is continuing, say scientists at the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee. “Winter precipitation is when the glacier receives adequate snow and ice for maintaining itself. About 10-15 spells of winter snow as part of western disturbances feed the glacier. But last year Gangotri received very little snowfall. We have also observed more rainfall and a slight temperature rise in the region, both of which transfer heat on to the glacier, warming it,” Professor Manohar Arora, scientist at NIH explained.
In summer, the melting of the
glacier feeds the Bhagirathi River, the source stream of the Ganga. A week ago,
when this correspondent scaled 4,255 metres to reach the glacier, the day time
temperature was about 15 degree Celsius, and the Bhagirathi was swollen with
water. However, dwindling snowfall levels have also affected the volume of
water discharged (see chart below) during summer into the river, compared to
peak levels.
“Small lakes have formed on top of
the glacier, as you go beyond Gaumukh towards Tapovan,” eminent
conservationist, and mountaineer Harshwanti Bisht, who won the Edmund Hillary
Mountain Legacy Medal in 2013, told The Hindu. “It was the blast of one
such glacial lake in Chorabari that led to the June 2013 flood disaster in
Kedarnath,” she said worriedly, adding, “If such fast pace of melting continued
here as well, such disasters cannot be ruled out.”
Caving in
Earlier the Gangotri glacier appeared as a convex shape structure from atop Tapovan, the meadow at the base of Shivling peak beyond Gaumukh, but now the glacier appears to be caving in and is concave in shape, Ms. Bisht added.
Earlier the Gangotri glacier appeared as a convex shape structure from atop Tapovan, the meadow at the base of Shivling peak beyond Gaumukh, but now the glacier appears to be caving in and is concave in shape, Ms. Bisht added.
“In 1977, when I used to go for
mountaineering training, hardly two or three cars could be spotted in Gangotri.
But now there are hundreds and thousands of cars and buses plying pilgrims and
tourists to these places during the summer months,” Ms. Bisht said.
“The Bhoj (birch tree) forests have
disappeared in the region, and though we are planting new trees now, their
growth is very slow,” she said. Since 1992, Ms. Bisht has been running a tree
conservation programme ‘Save Gangotri’ to help address the ecological crisis.
But the process of global warming
and climate change could well be part of a normal natural cycle, Professor
Milap Chand Sharma pointed out. Reversing the process of retreat is impossible,
according to him. “Stop people from visiting glaciers... you think this can
happen... that too in India?” Prof. Sharma asked. “Or else, increase solid
precipitation during accumulation season... Can anyone do it? Otherwise put a
tarpaulin cover over the Himalayas during ablation period...” he said.
In the end, if expert opinion is to
be believed, the climate change phenomenon of melting the glaciers could well
be irreversible.
(This work is supported by a
fellowship from the Earth Journalism Network and The Third Pole)
पेड़ लगाने से जंगल नहीं बनता, जंगल कई सौ सालों में प्रकृति बनाती है…
जंगल को मनुष्य की जरूरत के हिसाब से बचाया जाना
चाहिए, सरकार के हिसाब से नहीं…
हिमालय
पर मंडराते संकट को लेकर जमीनी कार्यकर्ताओं ने जताई चिंता…
नैनीताल
7 जून। हिमालय
पर संकट बढ़ रहा है और हिमालय के इस संकट को गंभीरता से नहीं लिया गया
तो देश की एक तिहाई
आबादी से ज्यादा को पानी देने वाली गंगा ही खत्म हो जाएगी।
यह
बात नैनीताल
के उमागढ़ स्थित महादेवी वर्मा सृजन पीठ में सोमवार को हुई कार्यशाला में उभर कर
आई। कार्यशाला का आयोजन हरित स्वराज संवाद की तरफ से किया गया
था।
कार्यशाला में
बोलते हुए सच्चिदानंद भारती
हरित
संवाद की तरफ से आज यह जानकारी दिल्ली विश्विद्यालय के प्रोफ़ेसर अनिल
मिश्र ने दी।
कार्यशाला
में तय हुआ कि आगामी नौ सितंबर को नई दिल्ली में हिमालय दिवस के मौके पर पहाड़ के प्रमुख सामाजिक कार्यकर्त्ता और पर्यावरण के
क्षेत्र में काम करने वाले पहाड़ पर मंडराते संकट का ब्यौरा देंगे। कार्यशाला में गैरसैण के आसपास
करीब डेढ़ सौ गांवों में पानी और जंगल के मुद्दे पर काम करने वाले
सच्चिदानंद भारती और जंगल के विशेषज्ञ विनोद पांडे इस कार्यशाला के मुख्य
वक्ता थे।
री भारती ने कहा कि हिमालय से मनुष्य का संबंध
हजारों साल पुराना है और ज्यादातर धार्मिक ग्रंथों में इसका उल्लेख मिलता है। पर
वह हिमालय आज संकट में है। तरह-तरह की आपदा से जूझ रहा है। इनमें कुछ प्राकृतिक हैं तो कुछ मानव निर्मित। जगह- जगह बादल फटना हो या जंगल में आग लगना, यह
इसी सब का नतीजा है। हिमालय क्षेत्र की तीन प्रमुख
नदियां और नदी प्रणाली गंगा, ब्रह्मपुत्र और
सिंधु हैं जो देश की 42 से 47 फीसद आबादी का भरण पोषण करती आई हैं।
अब ये संकट में हैं। हिमालय की समय पर सुध
नहीं ली गई तो न गंगा बचेगी न सिन्धु।
उन्होंने आगे कहा कि पहाड़ का समाज पानी पर बसा समाज है। यहां विवाह के बाद दुल्हन से पहला काम धारा या नौला से पानी लाने का कराया जाता
है, जिससे इस समाज में पानी के महत्व को आसानी से समझा जा सकता है। पर अब
सबकुछ बदल रहा है। अब पहाड़ पर ही पानी का
संकट पैदा हो चुका है तो मैदान का क्या होगा।
कुछ साल पहले ही अल्मोड़ा में कोसी से पानी खींचने वाले चार में से तीन पंप बंद कर देने पड़े क्योंकि नदी में इतना पानी ही नहीं बचा था।
तब करीब एक लाख की आबादी वाला अल्मोड़ा
बेहाल हो गया था। अब पहाड़ के कई हिस्सों में
यह हालात हो चुके हैं।
कार्यशाला में बोलते
हुए पूर्व विदेश सचिव शशांक
श्री
भारती ने आगे बताया कि कैसे उन्होंने गैरसैण के पास कई किलोमीटर क्षेत्र में
गांव वालों की मदद से तीस हजार से ज्यादा छोटे-छोटे तालाब बना कर उस अंचल
में न सिर्फ पानी को बचाया बल्कि बड़े पैमाने पर जंगल भी बचाए।
कार्यशाला
के दूसरे सत्र में विनोद पांडे ने कहा कि पेड़ लगाने से जंगल नहीं बनता। जंगल कई
सौ सालों में प्रकृति बनाती है। जंगल का अर्थ सिर्फ शेर बाघ और हिरन
नहीं होता। इसमें मेढक भी होते हैं तो हजारों कीटों को खाने वाले चमगादड़ और
पशु पक्षी भी। समूची जैव श्रंखला होती है। इसलिए जंगल जो हैं उन्हें
मनुष्य की जरूरत के हिसाब से बचाया जाना चाहिए, सरकार के हिसाब से नहीं।
कार्यशाला
के प्रथम सत्र की अध्यक्षता पूर्व राजदूत और विदेश सचिव रहे शशांक
ने की तो दूसरे सत्र की अध्यक्षता दिल्ली विश्वविद्यालय के हिंदी विभाग की
पूर्व विभागाध्यक्ष और जानी मानी आलोचक निर्मला जैन ने की।
इस
मौके पर आईटीएम विश्वविद्यालय के कुलपति रमा शंकर सिंह, महात्मा गांधी अंतरराष्ट्रीय
विश्विद्यालय के पूर्व कुलपति विभूति नारायण राय, उत्तर प्रदेश के पूर्व आईजी शैलेंद्र
प्रताप सिंह,
पत्रकार अंबरीश कुमार, रजनीकांत मुद्गल, सुप्रिया राय, सविता वर्मा, राजस्थान के पूर्व मुख्य फारेस्ट
कंजरवेटर राजेश भंडारी आदि भी मौजूद थे।
THIRSTY INDIA HEADING FOR CRISIS
With ground water level at an all-time low and depleting
surface water resources, India needs water harvesting plans to rescue millions
from an arid future
Hindustan Times (Jalandhar), 5 Jun
2016
Chetan Chauhan Chetan. chauhan@hindustantimes.com
HIMANSHU VYAS/ HT PHOTOVillagers
head towards a water hole atop a hill where ground water has risen due to
harvesting in Piplantri village, Rajmasand district, Rajasthan
Drinking
water shortages are known to spark scuffles, but last week, it led to Sunil
Giri, (23), losing his life. Giri was beaten to death in the Ramgarh district
of Jharkhand for objecting to his neighbour Anwar Hussain taking more than his
share from a drinking-water tanker that reached the drought-affected village
after several days.
Similar
violence over water sharing has also been reported from water-scarce districts
in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and
Telagana since April.
Scarcity
kills in other ways too. Yogita Ashok Desai, 12, died of heatstroke after her
fifth trip to fetch water from a handpump in drought-hit Beed district of
Maharashtra, when temperatures had crossed 47 degree Celsius in April.
In
the first week of May, a 15-year-old girl died and 23 others were injured when
the roof of an underground water tank collapsed while they were waiting to
collect water from the almost dry tank.
LOST SOURCES
The
World Resources Institute’s March 2016 report said 54 per cent of India was
water stressed, with scarcity affecting every part of the country except the
Himalayan region and the Ghats. “Almost 600 million people are at higher risk
of surface water supply disruptions,” the report said, attributing water stress
to climate change and poor water management.
With
surface water sources dwindling, people have shifted to unregulated tapping of
ground water — for agriculture and drinking — leading to levels dipping by
three times over the last 60 years, making groundwater the main drinking water
source for 80 per cent of the population.
Rising
temperature also mean greater human loss.
Of
the 4,204 lives lost to annual heat waves over the past four years, half were
in the drought year of 2015.
“The
deaths were a result of flawed government emphasis on building highcost dams
and canals that have wiped traditional ways of water harvesting,” said Himanshu
Thakkar of South Asian Network of Dams, Rivers and People.
Another
concern is that 50 per cent of ground water sources in the country are not
“completely safe”. Of the 660 districts, ground water in 276 districts has high
levels of fluoride, 387 districts have nitrate above safe levels and 86
districts arsenic, shows data from Central Ground Water Board’s latest report.
Close
to 650 major towns and cities in India are on the banks of rivers contaminated
with pesticides from farms and effluents from industry, said the latest report
of the Central Pollution Control Board, which afflicts 100 million people with
sickness each year because of contaminated drinking ground water.
If that’s not enough, more and more
states are entangled in disputes over water share from major rivers, from
Haryana and Punjab in the north to Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the south to
Arunachal and Assam in the north-east.
THE WAY AHEAD
If
ground water exploitation continues, the World Bank estimates that the per
capita water availability in India — where 46 farmers committed suicide every
day in 2014 — by 2030 may shrink to half from the 2010 level of 1,588 cubic
metres per year. This will push India into the ‘water scarce’ category (1,700
cubic metres per year), from its existing ‘water stress’ classification (1,000
cubic meter per year).
“We
have to adopt a bottom-up approach with a mix of modern and traditional
solutions that are acceptable and inclusive,” said Arvind Panagariya,
vice-chairman of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog,
which is holding consultations with states on water stress management.
To
start with, the water resources ministry has drafted two model bills — first
for overall water management and second for ground water — aimed at improving
water management and groundwater levels. Shashi Shekhar, secretary, water
resources, said the water problem was escalating and the proposed laws could
ensure better and efficient water management.
But
a lot depends on states as water is a state subject. Some, like Maharashtra and
Rajasthan, have started community-based Jal Swabhilambhan schemes that give
ownership of government-aided watershed management to communities. “We just aid
and assist the villagers in creating durable water assets. The villages decide
what they want,” says Sriram Vedire of Rajasthan Water Authority, who initiated
the programme in half of the state’s districts in early 2016.
It
is too early to state whether the Rajasthan model works but independent studies
have shown that similar community-based watershed management programmes have
improved ground water levels in Jhabua districts of Madhya Pradesh.
Panagariya
hoped that it can work elsewhere also provided “right” government intervention
happens. Mukul Sanwal, retired civil servant and former director of UN Climate
Change Secretariat, said restoring traditional water harvesting and management
systems like ‘bundis (household ponds)’ to store rainfall water has worked and
will work as it is a timetested model that was destroyed during the British
era. “Even the Mughals gave tax rebates if farmers invested in water
harvesting,” he recalled.
CLOSE
TO 650 MAJOR TOWNS AND CITIES IN INDIA ARE ON THE BANKS OF RIVERS CONTAMINATED
WITH PESTICIDES FROM FARMS AND EFFLUENTS FROM INDUSTRY
SOURCE:
Hindustan Times, 05 2016
SPECIAL STORY: GREEN WARRIORS
Drought is not the end of the world, show these gutsy
water-starved communities, who have transformed their arid lands into oases
with a bit a jugaad and a lot of hard work-RAJASTHAN
Hindustan Times (Bhopal), 5 Jun 2016
Arid village becomes an oasis
It’s
2 pm, but the fiery sun does not appear to bother the motley group of people
gathered in the sprawling compound of Jal Grahan Committee in Piplantri village
in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district.
The
group is here on a learning trip. These trained and newly-promoted Block
Development Officers (BDOs) are among the many government officials who are
here to learn from the Piplantri model of rainwater harvesting.
Over
a span of 11 years, this village among the Aravalli ranges has become an
‘‘adarsh gaon’ (ideal village), which has survived Rajasthan’s severe drought
and water scarcity.
“Around
1,800 check dams have been constructed on the pasture lands over the mountains
in the last 11 years to recharge the groundwater level. Now, we there are
countless puddles in the ranges, which is an unlikely sight in Rajasthan,” says
Shyam Sundar Paliwal, former sarpanch and president of Jal Grahan Committe,
which turned the barren Rajsamand into an oasis.
The
effective utilisation of government schemes has played a big role.“All the
check dams and trenches have been constructed by villagers working under
different programmes, such as the MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act) and the Integrated Watershed Management Programme,”
said Paliwal.
In
a bid to promote tree planting, Piplantri has started a unique custom of
planting 111 trees for every girl child born in the village. “Over the past few
years, we have planted thousands of trees and this custom has also spread to a
few other villages,” said Paliwal.
The
BDOs are visiting the village to take a leaf from the Piplantri model of
rainwater harvesting. “I am determined to use similar rainwater harvesting
techniques in the area where I will be posted. By combining schemes such as Jal
Swavlamban Yojana and building check dams and trenches to store rainwater, the
adverse effects of drought can be minimised,” said Bhagirath Meena, one of the
visiting BDOs.
Women
were in the forefront in building the rainwater harvesting facilities, wiith
their participation the highest in the village under the MNREGA
scheme.“Constructing the check dams and planting trees in the almost barren
land was not easy. Eleven years ago, the scenario was contrastingly different
from today and we used to face very acute water shortage,” said Kala Devi, who
was instrumental in overseeing work under the MNREGA project in Piplantri.
Mining
waste being dumped around Piplantri is negating some of the gains. “We couldn’t
stop the mining companies from dumping the mining waste, so we planted 200
trees near the dumping places to mark the area in the hope that it will stop
mining companies from dumping the waste,” said Ranglal Mehta, member, Jal
Grahan Committee.
The
villagers have built 12 water tanks in the mountains with a capacity of 30,000 to
3.5 lakh litres, which now provides direct tap water to the over 8,000
residents. Groundwater is pumped up using innovations such as a
roundabout-cum-water pump in the school playground that pumps up water when
children take a spin.
“We
have selected 46 other villages where the Piplantri model will be adopted and
work has already been started to construct check dams and trenches in some
places. The focus is to develop rainwater harvesting facilities in the
abundance of pasture land in Rajsamand,” said Archana Singh, collector,
Rajsamand. A research centre is also being developed at Piplantri for
environmentalists to study the Piplantri model and its influence on the
ecosystem. —Deep Mukherjee
Standing by the river
Hindustan Times (Ranchi), 5 Jun 2016
Abhinav Madhwal
abhinav.madhwal@hindustantimes.com
HT PHOTOVillagers participating in Save Kosi Movement in Almora/
Icouldn’t
watch a life-giving river dying so I decided to do something,”says Basanti
Behen, who recieved the Nari Shakti Samman from President Pranab Mukherjee on
March 8 for her efforts for saving the Kosi in Uttarakhand.
In
June 2003, the Kosi near Almora registered its lowest summer flow of 85 litres
per second. The district magistrate declared the water be used for drinking and
not irrigation and police was deployed to stop farmers from taking the water.
The annual rainfall in Almora fell from 1,059 in the 70s to 752 mm in 2004,
exacerbating drought, which affected 13 districts.
That’s
when Basanti started her campaign to educate village women not to cut trees for
firewood to save the 168 km Kosi, which originates in Kausani and merges with
the Ramganga in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. Initially. people were incredulous,
and she was often told that villagers would not listen to her.
But
that didn’t deter Basanti, 58, who formed 200 women’s group ‘Mahila Mangal Dal’
to save the river by using only deadwood, planting lakhs of broadleaved Oka
trees, stoping hotels and resorts from siphoning off water, and preventing and
putting out forest fires.
”We
would walk to scores of villages to tell people about the need for protecting
the environment and sometimes used street plays to get the message across,”
said Pushpa Bora who accompanied Basanti in 2008.
There
is visible improvement. “The river had become a mere trickle at some places,
but afforestation and awareness has improved flow even though all 13 districts
in Uttrakhand are droughtaffected,” said Tulsi Sah who lives in Bageshwar.
“The
catchment area is now full of trees that will eventually help the river,” said
Profesor JS Rawat , former head of geology at Kumaon University, Almora , who
has been monitoring the Kosi river since 1992. —Abhinav Madhwal
Death of a river is the death of an ecosystem
Renuka Narayanan; Jun 04, 2016 ;
Hindustan Times
Respecting water has everything to
do with believing in God. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)
Do we really need to be told the obvious, by
Leonardo da Vinci, no less, that “Water is the driving force in Nature”?
“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water,” said the twentieth
century English poet WH Auden, which may be closer to the bone. Indeed, we can
go for longer without food than without water. Plans to protect air, water,
women and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man. All these fights are one
fight. All their solutions are interlinked. The death of a river is the death
of an ecosystem.
In human terms the death of a river or a lake or
a sea is as though somebody important in the family, somebody central to its
well-being, has suddenly died. The absence of this key person pushes the
remainder of the family below the poverty line – the line of loss and
deprivation. If a parent dies, the children and remaining spouse must start all
over again from minus. They have lost their advantages in several ways, if they
had them to start with – they have lost their emotional confidence, their
physical nurture, perhaps their financial security and certainly they have lost
out on their overall well-being. That is the impact of a river dying, as if
your father or mother suddenly died when you were very young, leaving you
deprived forever. That is why our culture still mourns the disappearance of the
Saraswati in ancient times. That is why we must fight for our rivers now, many
of whom are half-dead. The pity and terror of it is they are being killed by
our own indifference and greed or worse, by our inability to see that water is
the pillar of our family and not an impersonal ‘substance’. Water contains us.
As E.E. Cummings wrote, “For whatever we lose (of a you or a me)/Something of
ourselves we find in the sea.”
Moreover, respecting water has everything to do
with believing in God. If we believe in a Creator, then by abusing water, which
is not only what most of our world is made but is also what we ourselves are
mostly made of, we are guilty of a sin against Creation.
Respecting water also has everything to do with
not believing in God. If we think we do not need a Mr or Ms Fixit God person
but are absolute and ‘scientific’ masters of our destiny, we are guilty, by not
respecting water, of destroying mankind. “Remember you are half water. If you
can’t go through an obstacle, go around it,” as Margaret Atwood writes in The
Penelopiad.
One of the most powerful invocations of water was
by Martin Luther King Jr in his fight for civil rights: “Until justice rolls
down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Water not only sustains our physical life and its
context, it also sustains our spiritual life. Some of the most deeply moving
experiences of a person’s life are with water from a holy river or spring. The
water from these places symbolises our spiritual healing while rain pouring
down from the sky is considered the master healer, the well-spring of life and
the antidote to poison. But in the end, it will not matter who said what. It’s
when the well or the tap is dry that we realise the worth of water.
Beyond starvation: How drought sickens insidiously
Sanchita
Sharma, Hindustan Times, New Delhi;
Jun 04, 2016
An Indian farmer stands in his parched cotton field at
Chandampet Mandal in Nalgonda, east of Hyderabad. Some 330 million people are
suffering from drought in India, according to the government. (AFP)
Suspended particulate matter (SPM) in the form of dust, fly ash and carbon irritate and constrict the airways passages to aggravate chronic lung illnesses such as pneumonia and asthma worse, raise the risk for infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia, and use irreversible lung damage.
Lung disorders
Hazardous
gases asphyxiate by displacing oxygen in the air, leading to breathlessness,
dizziness, headaches, nausea and vomiting. (Shutterstock)
Forest fires account for 30% of the
world’s greenhouse gasses – such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide –
that trap heat on the earth’s surface and cause global warming. While using
fossil fuels like such as petrol and diesel spew 5.6 gigatons of carbon into
the atmosphere each year, burning biomass –wood, vegetation, crop stubble,
undergrowth, among others – adds another 2.4 gigatone, shows data from the Earth Observatory.
Apart from carbon, biomass burning
releases methane, which is 20 times more effective than carbon in trapping
heat. It asphyxiates by displacing oxygen in the air, leading to
breathlessness, dizziness, headaches, nausea and vomiting. Fires account for
2-3% of the nitrous oxide associated with the production of troposphere “bad”
ozone, which causes lung tissue damage.
Heat stress
Soaring
temperatures result in heat strokes and dehydration. (Shutterstock)
The obvious fallout of hot, dry
weather is dehydration and heatstroke, with young children, people over 65
years and people with chronic diseases such as heart disease, kidney problem
and uncontrolled diabetes being at most risk of hospitalizations and deaths.
Drought-hit areas tend to have
higher dust and pollen suspended in the air, which worsens chronic respiratory
problems, such as asthma, and lung infections such as pneumonia. Fungal spores
in the soil that become airbourne in dry weather add to cases of fever and
muscle pain when inhaled.
Water diseases
Filthy
water cause even more problems. (Shutterstock)
With the majority of India’s
reservoirs, rivers, ponds, groundwater etc being rain-fed, drought conditions
dry up or shrink fresh water sources for more than half of the population.
Water scarcity during droughts causes pooling and stagnation in rivers and
lakes, which lowers water quality and makes stomach infections (E. coli and H.
pylori, among others) common summer ailments across India. Diarrhoea is the
third biggest cause of death in children in India, killing one in eight children under five each year.
Hygiene and sanitation deteriorate
in times of drought, causing outbreaks of infections such typhoid, jaundice
(waterborne hepatitis E) and trachoma, an eye infection that can cause
blindness. Storing water in containers for drinking in times of scarcity is increasing
making human habitat ground zero for outbreaks for diseases caused by
mosquitoes that breed in fresh water, like the dengue-spreading aedes egypti
and malaria-spreading anopheles.
Malnutrition
An
analysis of 87 studies on the health effects of drought showed that food
shortages add to malnutrition, wasting and stunting. (Shutterstock)
Drought, coupled with erratic and
variable rain patterns, lowers crop yield in rain-fed fields and increases
infestations, pushing scores of farmers to suicide and hundreds of thousands to
penury. Crop failure causes shortages and raises food prices, making it
unaffordable for millions.
An analysis of 87 studies on
the health effects of drought showed that food shortages add to malnutrition,
wasting and stunting.
Agricultural disasters triggers mass
migrations, with farmers heading to urban centres in search for work. Most end
up living in slums in sub-human conditions, which adds causes frequent
illnesses and aggravates malnutrition.
Living, thriving
Already, air, water and soil
pollution, chemical exposures, climate change and ultraviolet radiation
contribute to more than 100 diseases and injuries, estimated the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2016. Globally, nearly one in four deaths in 2012
-- 12.6 million people – were caused from living or working in an unhealthy
environment.
More than 50 million people affected
by drought globally in 2011, estimates international disaster database EM-DAT
, with India amongst the worst hit. Unless India makes water management and
harvesting a social and economic priority, the drought-like conditions are
likely to add to the many other diseases sickening the nation.
Nobody creates a narrative around climate change:
Amitav Ghosh
Suveen Sinha, Hindustan Times; Jun 07, 2016
Amitav Ghosh says that artistes need to create a narrative
around climate change. (Samir Jana/HT)
Film factories the world over love romance, war,
terrorism, and crime. Bollywood has gone a few steps beyond and made a movie on
former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s slogan of Jai Jawan Jai Kisan
(Manoj Kumar’s Upkar), the Mumbai riots (Mani Ratnam’s Bombay), and the Mumbai
attacks (Saif and Kaif starrer Phantom).
But there has been nothing on the Mumbai deluge
of 2005, or on the Uttarakhand flood of 2013. Even Chennai’s Kollywood, usually
given to high drama, has so far ignored the city’s fate last year, when it
found itself under water.
It’s the same with publishing. Authors fall over
one another to choose love and war as their themes (Love Story, Arms and the
Man, A Farewell to Arms, Half Girlfriend...), or crime (too many to name). But
they pay little heed to climate change, though it may be an even bigger threat
than love, war, or crime.
This baffles Amitav Ghosh, who is today perhaps
the best-known Indian writer in English. “Is it difficult to think of a love
story somehow interrupted by the great Mumbai deluge?” he says, as we sit down
to chat over lime and soda at the open-air restaurant in Kolkata’s Tollygunge
Club.
The
deluge, to Ghosh, was an inconceivable catastrophe. “Yet I don’t know of a
single book, film, or documentary about it. Nobody seems to be able to create a
narrative around climate change.”
He
hopes that his new book on the subject, The Great Derangement, which marks
Ghosh’s return to non-fiction after a decade, will change some of that. “I hope
it will begin a conversation. This issue of what climate change means for our
future is not discussed at all. That’s frightening.”
Ghosh
talks about farmers in Tamil Nadu who use up all the subsidised electricity
they get to pump out water, which they sell in the market. If they are asked
why they do it, they say that if they don’t, their neighbour will. A large
percentage of irrigation water in Maharashtra goes into sugarcane, a
water-intensive crop which must not be grown in the water-deficient state. “We
need a serious discussion on water use,” he says.
Thrift to waste
Two
of Ghosh’s more vivid childhood memories are learning to write on a slate and
the all-around culture of thrift. “There was an emphasis on never being in
debt, and saving not just money but everything around you. You would squeeze a
tube of toothpaste until there was nothing left,” he says.
Ghosh
is only 60 – a very-well-spoken 60 with a thatch of wavy white hair – but he
cannot stop marvelling at how far we have come from the days of his childhood.
Young people these days are constantly bombarded by advertising that thrusts
easy credit and consumerism upon them.
The
Anglo-American form of capitalism, built around extreme exploitation of natural
resources, has created a culture of waste. Its roots lie in British imperialism,
whose hallmark was sucking its resource-rich colonies dry. Even though the sun
has set on the empire, the general mindset remains that there is no limit to
the earth’s bounty. “Once you get into the culture of waste, it’s very
difficult to get out of,” says Ghosh.
Economic
power has shifted to developing countries like China and India, which have a
pressing need to grow their economies so they can pull their population out of
poverty. That entails digging out more coal and burning it, cutting trees down
for construction, and tearing down mountains to build dams and bridges. The
developed countries have done their share of the damage, now the developing
ones believe it’s their turn. They feel emboldened, Ghosh notes in his book,
because their people are anyway used to hardship; a little more will not hurt
much. The rich, fattened on life’s luxuries, have more to lose. In this race,
someone somewhere invariably wants to overreach himself. Take the example of
Volkswagen and its cheat device, a software that aced emission tests.
That raises the role of technology.
Man seems to believe that, armed with the latest advancements, he can tame
nature and shape his own destiny. The earlier generations were wise enough to
keep their distance from the sea. Even the busy port cities, as they came up,
built their settlements some way away from the shore.
Not so modern man. How do you think
Mumbai’s Bandra Reclamation got its name? It’s among the large tracts in the
city reclaimed from the sea in the last 40 years. “You can be sure the sea will
claim it back,” says Ghosh.
Church vs states
Two significant documents on climate
change came out last year: world leaders signed the Paris Agreement, and Pope
Francis wrote an encyclical on ecology, Laudato Si, that says climate change is
real and mainly a result of human activity.
Ghosh
has closely examined the two. “I have judged it entirely on the writing, I have
some kind of expertise in that,” he says, and smiles.
The
Paris Agreement, written by experts, has ended up being a document written for
bureaucrats. Its language is stolid, with some sentences running into several
pages. And what those sentences say is worse than how they say it.
“It creates a new liberalisation of climate
change and opens it to businesses, mega corporations, and billionaires. What is
more disturbing is its complete refusal to even invoke the term, ‘climate
justice’,” says Ghosh. The Paris Agreement talks about poverty as something
that can be fixed. There is no acknowledgement that something has gone wrong.
The Pope’s document, says Ghosh, is remarkably
enlightened. It conveys complex ideas with extreme simplicity. That’s something
few governments are able to do. In fact, governments tend to do the opposite.
They make rhetorical gestures towards climate change, then go ahead and issue a
series of incentives for coal mining, fracking, or offshore drilling. “We are
trapped in a model of economics and politics that does not provide any
solutions,” says Ghosh.
The ordinary Indian believes climate change is a
problem for developed countries, that for us it is about survival. “But
survival of whom?” says Ghosh. “Many businesses decided to skip the city after
2005. This has an impact on the life of people in Mumbai as much as on a
drought-stricken farmer.”
Pope Francis gives him hope. Maybe the leaders of
religions will rise and mobilise a mass movement, at which religious groups
excel, on climate change. Hindu texts are full of respect and worship for the
elements. And mythology is full of people like the saint, whose name Ghosh
forgets, who used to eat his meals with a needle next to his plate so that he
could pick any grain he might have spilled.
The fight against climate change is about leaving no grain unpicked.
No respite from heat wave in parts of North India
The Hindu; June 6,
2016
Parched times:Village
women collect water from a well on a hot Sunday on the outskirts of Ajmer.–
Photo: PTI
Sriganganagar hottest at 47.7 degrees Celsius; Met
department predicts onset of the southwest monsoon over Kerala during the next
two-three days
There was no respite from heat in several parts of northern India
with Sriganganagar and Phalodi in Rajasthan recording a maximum of over 47
degrees Celsius even as IMD predicted onset of the southwest monsoon over
Kerala during the next two-three days.
The IMD said heat wave conditions prevailed at a few places over
Rajasthan and at isolated places over Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
The national Capital continued to reel under heat wave conditions
as mercury settled at 42.6 degrees Celsius, two notches above average, while
humidity oscillated between 85 and 40 per cent, making it tough for the people.
The MeT office here predicted possibility of duststorms and
thunderstorms towards afternoon and on Monday night.
In Rajasthan, heat wave affected normal life in parts of the
State, with mercury soaring to 47.7 degrees Celsius in Sriganganagar followed
by Phalodi at 47.5.
Kota, Barmer and Bikaner recorded maximum temperatures of 46.8,
46.5 and 46.2 degrees Celsius, whereas the day temperature in Jaipur, Jaisalmer
and Jodhpur was at 45.8, 45.5 and 45 respectively.
Heat wave sweeping Punjab and Haryana for the past several days
continued unabated with Hisar recording 44.4 degrees Celsius, three notches
above normal.
Union Territory of Chandigarh recorded a maximum of 41 degrees
Celsius, three notches above normal. In Punjab, Ludhiana recorded 43.8 degrees
Celsius, four notches above normal.
According to the regional MeT Department, light rain or
thundershowers are likely to occur at isolated places in the two States
including Chandigarh.
In Uttar Pradesh, where light to moderate rain and thundershowers
occurred at isolated places, the maximum temperature was recorded in Agra at
45.5 degree Celsius.
According to the Met department Siroligauspur received 5 cms precipitation,
Dhaurahra 3 cms, and Nawabgunj and Pilibhit 1 cm each.
Day temperatures fell appreciably in Bareilly division and
changed little in the remaining divisions of the State.
In Bihar, there was no respite from the heat where the State
capital recorded a maximum of 39.4 degrees Celsius. In Gaya, the maximum
temperature was recorded at 41.2.
There was no report of rain from any part of the State, however,
the MeT department there has predicted rainfall in north and east Bihar over
the next two days.
In Odisha, rainfall at several places kept the temperatures below
40 degrees Celsius through out the state except for Sonepur (42.5) and Balangir
(40)
State capital Bhubaneswar recorded a maximum of 34 degrees
Celsius. Baripada received 29.6 mm rainfall and Koraput 27 mm. - PTI
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प्रदूषण
|
The
hidden connection between air pollution and heat spikes: India’s lethal double
bind
ndia has an extreme air pollution problem, which
kills up to 400,000 people every year. This pollution, made up of fine
particles called aerosols, also has the effect of cooling the local climate by
reflecting or absorbing sunlight before it reaches the ground. It is feasible
that India’s pollution problem has been “hiding” extreme heat spikes.
Letters: Prevent farm waste
Business Standard | New
Delhi June 8, 2016
I found Surinder Sud's column,
"Ease of farming with mechanisation" (June 7), interesting. The
benefits that hiring out-of-farming equipment can usher in to the farming
economy through training programmes and maintenance devised in association with
manufacturers of various types of farm equipment are immense. Along with this,
a programme to prevent waste of agricultural and horticultural output should be
implemented.
Simultaneously, a programme to reduce waste of agricultural and horticultural output in a time-bound manner by augmenting pest-proof, and where needed, refrigerated storage facilities, should be pushed through.
The quantity of agricultural waste in India was estimated at 40 per cent of the output, or around $8.5 billion sometime ago, and could be worse now.
It is a sad commentary that in Punjab, a state where about Rs 25,000 crore of foodgrain can be stored in the godowns of Food Corporation of India alone, much of the harvest was stored in the open, by the roadside.
N Narasimhan, Bengaluru
Simultaneously, a programme to reduce waste of agricultural and horticultural output in a time-bound manner by augmenting pest-proof, and where needed, refrigerated storage facilities, should be pushed through.
The quantity of agricultural waste in India was estimated at 40 per cent of the output, or around $8.5 billion sometime ago, and could be worse now.
It is a sad commentary that in Punjab, a state where about Rs 25,000 crore of foodgrain can be stored in the godowns of Food Corporation of India alone, much of the harvest was stored in the open, by the roadside.
N Narasimhan, Bengaluru
Letters: Insidious effect of plastic
Business Standard | New
Delhi June 8, 2016
With reference to
Nitin Sethi's report, "About-turn: How govt went back on plastic ban"
(June 7), it is known that Bisphenol, a component in many food-grade plastic
products, is an endocrine disruptor. It is surprising the government is
rethinking its views on plastic and considers the scientific data unreliable.
About five years ago, scientists and the US Food and Drug Administration warned about Bisphenol A, commonly called BPA, a chemical used in plastic. Chemicals such as BPA leach into water and food and have pernicious effects on human health - from malformed genitals to premature puberty, obesity, diabetes and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Some countries and major retail chains in the US have banned or taken off baby feeding bottles that are not BPA-free. A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) said more research was urgently needed on the effect BPA has on rising rates of a range of diseases. The report stressed the WHO's concern about children's exposure to phthalates and other chemicals that seem to interfere with human hormones.
Taste, shelf life, ease of cleaning and no chemical leaching are among the reasons consumers prefer glass bottles. That's why wine and spirits are stored in glass containers because it preserves freshness and the purity of taste. It is not what you drink; it is what you drink it in.
It's time we went back to traditional glass or metal containers, which are environment-friendly. Plastic is leading to environmental and health concerns, as it is mostly not biodegradable. Our government has been slow to react to the insidious effects of plastic on human beings.
H N Ramakrishna, Bengaluru
About five years ago, scientists and the US Food and Drug Administration warned about Bisphenol A, commonly called BPA, a chemical used in plastic. Chemicals such as BPA leach into water and food and have pernicious effects on human health - from malformed genitals to premature puberty, obesity, diabetes and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Some countries and major retail chains in the US have banned or taken off baby feeding bottles that are not BPA-free. A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) said more research was urgently needed on the effect BPA has on rising rates of a range of diseases. The report stressed the WHO's concern about children's exposure to phthalates and other chemicals that seem to interfere with human hormones.
Taste, shelf life, ease of cleaning and no chemical leaching are among the reasons consumers prefer glass bottles. That's why wine and spirits are stored in glass containers because it preserves freshness and the purity of taste. It is not what you drink; it is what you drink it in.
It's time we went back to traditional glass or metal containers, which are environment-friendly. Plastic is leading to environmental and health concerns, as it is mostly not biodegradable. Our government has been slow to react to the insidious effects of plastic on human beings.
H N Ramakrishna, Bengaluru
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कृषि और किसानी
|
A publication on agroecology , 'How to leave industrial agriculture behind' by IPES-Food’s first major report, released on 2nd June: 'From Uniformity to
Diversity: A paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified
agroecological systems’.
The report asks three
key questions:
- What are the outcomes of industrial agriculture / diversified agroecological systems?
- What is keeping industrial agriculture in place?
- How can the balance be shifted?
"The Food and Agriculture Organization’s new book, Pulses, nutritious
seeds for a sustainable future takes us on a journey across varied
cultures"
Sustainable agriculture: A new Anand
cooperative model – this time, in solar farming
Six
farmers join hands to harness solar energy for watering their fields and
selling surplus power to the grid.
Six farmers join hands to harness
solar energy for watering their fields and selling surplus power to the grid.
Farmers of
the Dhundi solar pump irrigators’ cooperative.
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देशज ज्ञान और स्वस्थ
|
Eating from the Farm: the social, environmental, and
economic benefits of local food systems
This is definitely the week for
important publications! After the Urgenci major publication on CSA in Europe,
here is an analysis of some of the different parts of the new food system in
Europe by Friends of the Earth Europe. Including CSA of course, and with a
contribution from Urgenci.
Source: http://urgenci.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FOEE-Eating-from-the-Farm-Update-May-2016-FINAL.pdf
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विविध
|
The dark and dirty side of liberalisation
Ramachandra Guha; Jun 05, 2016
Chipko had urged that the spread
of conifers be stopped, and oak forests protected and enhanced instead — had
this been done, these recent fires in Uttarakhand would not have been so
devastating (PTI)
In recent months, three environmental
catastrophes have forced their way into the national consciousness. The fires
in Uttarakhand destroyed thousands of hectares of valuable forests. The ongoing
drought in Maharashtra, Bundelkhand and other parts of India, has deprived tens
of millions of farmers of irrigation and potable drinking water. The alarmingly
high levels of air pollution in our cities are taking a colossal toll on human
health. A study last year ranked Delhi the most polluted city in the world; a
more recent study put Delhi at number 11, but with four other Indian cities
among the five most polluted.
These catastrophes are also crimes, in that they
are entirely man-made, a direct consequence of the Central and state
governments having disregarded the scientific and social knowledge brought to
their attention over the years.
The environmental movement began in the 1970s,
with the Chipko Andolan, whose epicentre was the very hills so recently aflame.
(Chipko urged that the spread of conifers be stopped, and oak forests protected
and enhanced instead — had this been done, these recent fires would not have
been so devastating). Chipko was followed by movements around forest rights in
other parts of India, and by movements against destructive mining and dam
projects as well. Meanwhile, a group of admirably Gandhian constructive workers
organised rural communities in reforestation drives and water conservation
schemes across India.
Movements like Chipko challenged
the reigning economic belief — or superstition — that India was ‘too poor to be
green’. In fact, as these movements showed, sustainable management of water,
soil, pasture and forests was absolutely critical to the livelihoods of the
majority of Indians. These struggles led to the creation in 1980 of a
Department of Environment at the Centre (and in time in the States), and to new
laws and regulations to forestall environmental abuse by industries whether in
the public or private sector. These movements also energised the media, which
became extremely sympathetic to their concerns, concerns which were or should
have been shared by every Indian with a stake in the well-being of this
country.
Another by-product of the environmental movement
was the creation of quality scientific institutions. These included the Centre
of Ecological Sciences (CES) and the Ashoka Trust of Environment and Ecology
(ATREE), both based in Bangalore, both focused on forests and biodiversity.
Scientists at Delhi University, JNU, and Jadavpur University began research on
soil and water contamination, and air pollution. Other scientists such as AKN
Reddy in Bangalore and KR Datye in Mumbai did important work on sustainable
energy.
Then, in June 1991 — 25 years ago this month — PV
Narasimha Rao took over as prime minister, and the government’s economic policy
underwent a radical shift. The ‘licence-permit-quota-Raj’ began to be
dismantled, with a freer play given to market forces. This was mostly welcome,
for Indian entrepreneurs had been stifled by a bewilderingly complex web of
regulations. Economic liberalisation was both necessary and overdue. It
unleashed a surge of entrepreneurial energies, spurring economic growth,
reducing mass poverty, and solving our chronic foreign exchange problems.
But liberalisation has also had its darker side.
The regulations of the industry, commerce, textiles, and other such ministries
had to be dismantled — and they mostly were. But the regulations that popular
struggles had forced on what was now the ministry of environment and forests
remained even more important than before. For, as many studies have shown, it
is in the economic interests of private firms to pollute the environment.
Nature is an ‘externality’; owned not by the firm but by society at large. So,
in order to increase profits, it is perfectly ‘rational’ for entrepreneurs to
pollute rivers, destroy forests, damage soils, etc, in the process of producing
or marketing products for sale.
And that is precisely what they have done, aided
by successive Central and state governments. The environmental regulations so
painstakingly put in place in the 1980s remain, but politicians of all parties
have allowed them to be wilfully and ubiquitously violated. Meanwhile, newer
environmental problems, such as those associated with rapid urbanisation and
with climate change, have not generated the necessary legislative or
institutional response. So India today is a veritable environmental
basket-case; with alarmingly high rates of air and water pollution, the ongoing
depletion of aquifers and decimation of forests, and pervasive contamination of
the soil.
The guilty men of India’s multiple environmental
crises are corrupt politicians and amoral entrepreneurs — in that order. Yet
the media cannot escape censure. In the 1980s it did excellent work; from the
1990s, swayed by the prevailing winds, it succumbed to the canard, assiduously
promoted by industry lobbies, that environmental regulation was ‘setting India
back’. Some leading columnists, either out of ignorance or malevolence (or
possibly both), have carried on a vicious campaign against some of our most
courageous and public-spirited environmentalists.
Is it too much to hope that the catastrophes of
recent months will force a rethink? For in India today, no one is spared the
negative effects of environmental abuse — not even the rich. According to one
scholarly study, the economic costs of environmental degradation in India
amount to as much as $80 billion a year.
Ironically, even as the media has largely
abdicated its role as a watchdog, scientific research has developed
impressively. The CES, ATREE, Prayas in Pune, research departments at the
Jadavpur, Delhi, and other universities — all have excellent scientists whose
inputs can greatly help to mitigate these problems. Tragically, this reservoir
of scientific expertise has been shamefully neglected by our political class,
even though it is entirely Made in India. It is past time that our leaders look
to scientists rather than ideologues to forge a path of sustainable development
that can safeguard our future as a society, a nation, and a civilisation.
Ramachandra Guha’s most recent book is Gandhi Before India
A dumb primate?
The Hindu;
June 7, 2016
OUR EVOLUTION: “In
the Cincinnati zoo, an innocent gorilla was murdered from primordial dread. It
is not clear which of us is a dumb primate.” Picture shows a bronze statue of
gorillas outside Cincinnati zoo’s ‘Gorilla World’ exhibit.
It
is time our technologically desensitised ‘civilisation’ woke up from its
ecological idiocy before its follies wipe us all out.
“An old man can cry, too. He was a
special guy in my life… a gentle giant. Harambe was my heart. It’s like losing
a member of the family… I raised him from a baby, he was a sweet cute little
guy. He grew up to be a pretty, beautiful male. He was very intelligent. Very,
very intelligent.” — Jerry Stones, 74, from Texas, who raised 17-year-old
gorilla Harambe since birth.
Long decades ago, back in the third
quarter of the last century, the ecologically astute anthropologist, Gregory
Bateson, gently reminded his social-Darwinian colleagues across the reigning
sciences and humanities that the unit of survival is never an isolated
organism. It is always the organism plus its environment. “We are learning by
bitter experience that the organism which destroys its environment destroys
itself.”
A species that endangers other species
endangers itself. This simple lesson in interdependence is the first principle
of ecology, a commonsensical science of such far-reaching, enduring, and
contemporary significance as to merit a compulsory course at one stage of
education or another for all humans alive; for nothing is more perilous for
human destiny today than ecological illiteracy and myopia.
The opposite is also true. A species
that itself feels endangered endangers others in turn. This may be more a
principle of psychology than of ecology: we often react violently when we feel
threatened or besieged. This is particularly true of paranoid cultures like the
United States, especially today (Trump’s popularity being a symptom), when guns
have been allowed to proliferate in the name of security, profit, and, truth be
told, power. There are well over 300 million guns in the U.S., more than one
gun for every person alive. With this many guns freely roaming around (even
with students in universities in places like Texas) it is actually a surprise
that more murder and killing do not happen. Animals are, of course, helpless
victims.
This is the background to the murder
of Harambe, the silverback gorilla in the Cincinnati zoo who was shot dead by
authorities last week apparently in order to save the life of a four-year-old
child who had somehow fallen into water which was gorilla territory in the zoo.
A paranoid culture is unable to take pause to reflect. American gun culture,
justified by the need for self-defence since the days of Jefferson, permits its
members to take aim and shoot a living being dead before thinking. A little
pause for thought, and perhaps more maturity in the culture about the use of
weapons, might have indicated that the animal be tranquillised, instead of
killed, to defuse the situation. However, the seduction of guns at the ready is
too much to resist when so much of society endorses their use.
A close look at a video of the
incident shows that it is more than likely that the animal was being carefully
protective towards the child who had fallen into the water. Certainly, this
possibility cannot be ruled out, as media footage shows. Few have asked how the
four-year-old boy fell into the water to begin with. Surely, the authorities
who shot Harambe must be held responsible for this lapse too?
Furthermore, even fewer have asked if
Harambe had been consulted before his zoological incarceration, how zoos
themselves originated in the first place! Did they not emerge in the late 18th,
early 19th century Europe, much like Royal menageries, as emblems of colonial
superiority and prestige? The Jardin des Plantes in Paris dates from 1793, from
just after the famed revolution. The London zoo is from 1828. The one in Berlin
is from 1844. Did these zoos not signify the historical moment of a virtual
extinction of wild animals from European jungles, and an approaching extinction
from the forests of colonial lands? Why would you need to create zoos if the
jungles which have served as the home of so many animals for millennia are not
threatened with extinction?
The story is not too dissimilar to the
creation of museums, which typically emerge when living human cultures,
breathing under the open sky, are destroyed or threatened with destruction. In
each case, colonialism with its predatory addictions has much to answer for.
Nor should one falsely imagine that such colonialism is somehow, fortunately,
over. It has merely taken on more insidious and hideous forms in this beleaguered
21st century. No small part of the deeper and wider consequences of ongoing
colonialism and conquest is the planetary ecological crisis, climate change
being only the most devastating threat among hundreds of others.
Kinship with animals
In The Savage Mind, anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss drew attention to a belief of a tribe native to Hawaii which could as easily be shared by many Adivasis in India: “We know what animals do and what beaver and bears and salmon and other creatures need, because our men were married to them and they acquired this knowledge from their animal wives.” As a matter of fact, I was told a few years back by a village elder from a Raj Gond village in the Adilabad district of Telangana: “Bhed Dhangar ka Mama lagta hai (The sheep is the tribe Dhangar’s uncle)”.
In The Savage Mind, anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss drew attention to a belief of a tribe native to Hawaii which could as easily be shared by many Adivasis in India: “We know what animals do and what beaver and bears and salmon and other creatures need, because our men were married to them and they acquired this knowledge from their animal wives.” As a matter of fact, I was told a few years back by a village elder from a Raj Gond village in the Adilabad district of Telangana: “Bhed Dhangar ka Mama lagta hai (The sheep is the tribe Dhangar’s uncle)”.
Kinship with the animals is as old as
humanity. Like us, animals are born, they suffer, they die. We share our
sentience with them. Being biologically and psychologically nearest to
humanity, animals have been so much a part of human affairs historically that
it is impossible to write a decent history of human society from its earliest
days without taking the enormous contribution of animals into account. Even for
more recent times, it is impossible, for instance, to imagine aeroplanes
without birds, ships and submarines without fish, cars without victorias,
themselves modelled on quadrupeds. Such illustrations can be multiplied, but
the ones given are sufficient to establish the enormity of our debt to the
animal kingdom.
The hubristic industrial age —
especially the era of fossil fuels, which has falsely given educated humanity
the extended illusion that we are somehow, magically, exempt from the laws of
the natural world, that the technosphere is about to take the place of the
biosphere — has driven a sharp wedge not merely between humanity and nature
(animals being a specific case in point). It has drawn an equally sharp wedge
between human cultures, with the triumphant market’s marked indifference to
human communities. For this profound socio-ecological alienation, not only is
the entire gamut of non-human species paying a heavy price today, the laws of
ecology quietly whisper that our own species already is, and ultimately will
be, the just bearer of the weight of such sins. It is time that technologically
desensitised “civilisation” woke up from its ecological idiocy before its
follies wipe us all out.
In the Cincinnati zoo, an innocent
gorilla was murdered from primordial dread. It is not clear which of us is a
dumb primate. It is chilling that the four-year-old Isaiah, whose mishap last
week became world news, carries the name of a Hebrew prophet.
Aseem Shrivastava is a Delhi-based writer and ecological
economist.
United Nation- INTERNATIONAL
DAYS for 1-15 June
·
World Environment Day 5/6/2016
· World Oceans Day 8/6/2016 : Theme: Healthy oceans, healthy planet
( Vedio: http://www.un.org/en/events/oceansday/video.shtml; http://www.un.org/Depts/los/wod/index.html )
Vedio: Nuclear Science and Ocean Acidification
( https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=37&v=uZe7Tmi4NEo)
·
World Day Against Child Labour 12/6/2016
·
International Albinism Awareness Day 13/6/2016
·
World Blood Donor Day 14/6/2016
·
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 15/6/2016
(http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/events/world-elder-abuse-awareness-day-2016/)
A HISTORY OF THEMES: World
Environment Day
2015:
' Seven Billion Dreams; One Planet; Consume with Care”
2014: 'Small Islands and Climate Change'
2013: Think. Eat. Save
2012: Green Economy: Does it include you?
******
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