Published on Dwarka Express on 19.5.24

During the last week, 1000s of grown-up trees have fallen in Bangalore. No surprise! After 6 months of dry spell, the sky tore off to devastate Bangalore with heavy downpour. Bangalore is not just an isolated case. Climate activists from Delhi were active in social media, lamenting over the uprooting of large number of trees during recent rains. Mumbai’s hailstorm is devastating. When we open dailies, we invariably come across on or other grumbling and showing deep concern over the uprooting of trees.  Trees falling during heavy downpour is not a big deal. It is happening all over India. If one examines the reason, he will realize that it is mostly due to concretization or digging. People dig the ground for cabling purposes and roots get damaged extensively. Most of the trees which were planted long back lose their roots due to road expansion and construction activities in their proximity. It is essential to know how much efforts we have taken to save existing trees. At the same time, we also need to accept that there is no need to nurture the grown-up trees.

One glaring reality is that the urbanization has taken its toll. The saplings planted on road sides are hard hit. Either they are felled to give way for road expansion or the roots are cut due to cabling works done. India sees a hell lot of cabling work, sometimes for telephone lines, or electrification or otherwise roads are dug for laying huge sewerage pipelines. For instance, the Airport metro of Delhi is an engineering marvel, but if one travels from airport to New Delhi Railway station in this rapid metro, he will be passing through the central ridge which is at the verge of Aravalli range. One can see the pristine for forests which remained untouched for centuries have been split into two halves to give way for the tunnel as well as pillars. Underground aquifers and roots of old trees were the causalities in the making of the state-of-the-art metro rail. A deep-dive into the background that leads to the fall of trees in Bangalore gave us an idea that the uprooting of the trees is either due to heavy downpour or gusty winds. The municipal or forest authorities are not showing much interest in re-erecting the uprooted trees, for the obvious reason that they must take extra load to bring a JCB or horticulture workers and engage them for the whole day. Secondly, they are also apprehensive that such storms and heavy rains would repeat again and the volume of work might become multifold. It is apparent that the uprooting of trees is mostly due to man-made changes to the soil around the tree. Only a negligible percentage of trees fall due to aging. Given the scene, it is essential for responsible citizens to identify the trees in danger zone and make timely intervention by giving them clinical support such as investigating the vulnerability of trees to natural disasters and taking up with authorities to prevent uprooting of trees due to such disasters.

Prevention is better than cure! (photo courtesy: Social media post)

Published in Dwarka Express on 12.5.24

In most of the court cases related to environment versus development, initially courts observe as if they are very friendly to ecology and have deep concern for environment. But when the judgment comes, in many cases the decision favours the developmental activity only. For instance, in tree felling cases, courts permit felling of trees and allow infrastructure development. In South Delhi, during redevelopment of areas, felling of trees were strongly protested by environmentalists in 2018 by staging a CHIPCO. Several NGOs have filed PIL but the redevelopment work never stopped. Trees were felled. In Dwarka Expressway opposite to Shiv Murti statue, large number of trees were felled for a road expansion project. It is beyond comprehension whether the resistance from the protagonists of development is hard-hitting or the arguments in favour of environment are frail. Even when court advocates transplantation or compensatory plantation, such moves are never monitored. Many a time, the transplanted trees wither.

India has lost 6.7 lac hectares of forests between 2015 and 2020 according to a report. Many petitions in protest have since been dismissed by various courts.  India has 500 plus environment laws including 17 state laws to control crimes related to pollution and destruction of natural resources.  The directive principle under Article 48A of the Indian constitution speaks of environmental protection and safeguarding of forests and wildlife. Though laws are there to protect environment, the experience shows that the enforcement of the laws and punishment of the criminals are not felt. Further the meddling of political parties and bureaucracy is daunting. People also do not raise to the occasion, cutting across the party affiliations for fear of victimization. Besides, if someone is having a blind faith in some political party, he or she gets mellowed down resulting in compromising the stand.

History has shown us that in blackbuck hunting case, influential people could go scot-free. Even if proved guilty the punishment is always minimal. Recently in a power plant case in Bangalore, in a knee jerk reaction, thousands have thronged the social media to protest against the gas leakage and noise pollution. But the police took a stringent action against the admins who sought their permission to conduct a peaceful dharna. In the last minute the proposed dharna was dropped as difference of opinion brewed up. Ultimately people’s voice gave way to the noise pollution and gas release. There is no equity in punishing the poor and leaving the rich in environmental cases. We come across large scale violations all over the country either in the form of forest land encroachment or infra construction in pristine forest areas. Single use plastic was banned by Government from July 1, 2022. Still, we see free use of SUP everywhere.

A law without enforcement is a tiger without teeth!

Published in Dwarka Express on 5.5.24

Election fever is climaxing all over India. It is very hot both in the country’s temperature as well as campaigning. We are in the midst of India’s largest democratic exercise which will continue till May 2024 end. While the temperature definitely comes across the robustness of the campaigning, yet parties are on their Do or Die mission to push their ideologies. Lot of documents in the form of manifestos are being circulated by leading political parties. Though it is difficult to go through the detailed manifestos, we had a glimpse of the highlights. We are doubtful whether common man goes through the manifesto in detail in reality. All said and done, releasing a manifesto has become an inevitable formality. At best, we believe that the panelists and star campaigners as well may be going through the same meticulously at least to counter the opponents.

For one, every one of us may have our own justification for choosing the most preferred political parties, when we stand before the EVM and gaze at VVPAT. Further it is a matter of beliefs. Most of us vote on this premise that the chosen candidate or the party is the best. In broader standpoint, voting is the paramount democratic duty and we have no second opinion about this. In general, the common parameters for decision making are employment, inflation, security and the way people’s representatives respond to the local issues. Political parties just make a mention somewhere in a corner about the status of environment, sustainable development and availability of natural resources like pure water, clean air and hygienic living conditions. People also comfortably forget that the environment must be the top priority in election manifestos. The raising temperature appears formidable. At this rate, in 22^nd century, there will not be life on earth.

• Why don’t we consider environmental conservation as the main agenda for the elections?
• Why don’t candidates promise a target of planting 10 crore trees each?
• Why don’t candidates promise a garbage free city, if voted to power?  
• Why don’t parties ensure AQI of <100 if voted to power?
• Why don’t parties promise sustainable development initiatives?
• Why don’t parties assure time bound lake rejuvenations?
• Why don’t parties promise non polluting industries?
• Why don’t parties assure target specific climate tech startups?
• Why don’t parties commit a timeline to meet the net zero emissions as per Paris accord?

Published in Dwarka Express on 28.4.24

Could you challenge nature? Scientists may dare to say, YES.  In fact, we can quote many examples to prove that most of the human activities are performed against nature, rather artificially. However, certain acts take a heavy toll against human lives. Disasters happen when we construct a big dam, causing induced earthquakes. In Himalayas, few tunnels constructed, using dynamite blasts, have shaken the rocks and resulted in landslides. Silkyara tunnel mishap in Uttarakhand where 41 workers were trapped inside the tunnel was due to such massive construction defects. Another classic example is that we do not get rain due to the felling of trees and destruction of waterbodies. The recent cloud seeding action in Dubai seems to have evoked controversy. Cloud seeding is an artificial weather modification technique that aims to improve a cloud’s ability to produce rain or snow by introducing tiny ice nuclei (silver iodide) into certain types of cold clouds. Recently I met an IT guy who flew from Dubai. He said that the current turmoil in Dubai was not due to cloud seeding. He added of course that in Dubai, nothing is transparent, but still general impression is that cloud seeding is not responsible for the recent havoc. He also confirmed that such cloud seedings are common in Dubai, but the rains this time was unprecedented and appeared that it was due to climate change. Whether climate change or cloud seeding, the fact was that Dubai floated.

254 millimeters of rainfall was recorded in one Dubai town which is the highest amount of rainfall recorded there. According to a report, the low-pressure systems in the upper atmosphere and surface-level pressure fluctuations created conditions which resulted in the formation of intense thunderstorms. However, if we look into the cloud seeding. According to www.earth.org, cloud seeding cannot have a massive impact. Cloud seeding can only change certain clouds and does not affect the complex patterns of big-scale weather and climate events. Certainly, it helps right away with water and soil, but looking deeper suggests a complicated relationship with possible effects on local ecosystem. The silver iodide particles are injected into the atmosphere, triggers other pollutants. It is a potential health mess, all while trying to control the weather. Therefore, we can say with confidence that cloud seeding is not a perfect solution for combating drought. Further it is feared that human exposure in cloud seeding will lead to threat of iodism, which means skin rashes and digestive issues. Such pitfalls will result due to tampering of nature by artificial method. Cloud seeding on the whole may not be a wise decision according to the above-mentioned website.

‘Why don’t we resort to cloud seeding in Bangalore?’ someone wondered in WhatsApp group, as Bangalore was dry for six months. ‘Where is the cloud for seeding?’ replied another guy spontaneously. True, clouds are almost forgotten in Bangalore.

A WhatsApp warrior was chatting and forwarding a lot in the group on non-issues and irrelevant content. When the admin asked WHY, prompt came the reply. ‘Social media is just for making your presence felt. For that you need to MAKE NOISE, that’s all’. And of late it has become so easy to nudge. Yeah, you guessed it right. You have ChatGPT or any other AI tool handy.  Artificial Intelligence has created revolution, may it be genuine or concocted. Future of AI regime appears daunting. This apart, if used in social media rationally, it can bring a change. In social media, voice is important, not noise. Here I am examining the impact of genuine VOICE against NOISE. Let me take a real NOISE pollution incident as an example.

Recently in North Bangalore, a gas power plant was commissioned at Puttenahalli, Yelahanka on a trial basis and is expected to be operational immediately. The plant is polluting heavily and the locals are the worst affected. Besides air pollution, they expected noise pollution also. The issue of air pollution due to the power plant is not a new one, but has been there for quite some time, as the plant is situated in residential area. There is a litigation in the Supreme Court highlighting the harm done to the residents as well as the nearby bird reserve. Interestingly the bird reserve is within 500 meters of the gas power plant run by Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd (KPCL). Besides, the plant is just a stone’s throw away from many residential apartments like Heritage Estates. How can a polluting plant be situated near residential area, fumes the residents. Karnataka State Pollution Control Board asserts that the pollution level is within the set norms. Though this problem is there for more than six or seven years, people wake up (literally also) only when there is something to disturb their sleep. When residents spent sleepless night due to huge noise from the plant in the first week of March 24, nothing could stop the people from organizing a protest. Within 3 days, 1000 members joined the WhatsApp group, followed by a surge of myriad messages. Noise pollution has exceeded the permissible decibels, fume the residents. The organisers, planned a peaceful protest on 10.3.24. Sensing trouble, Police disallowed the protest and issued notices to the organisers/ admins, warning arrests. Some admins were changed and some murmurs in the group were also heard. Finally, the organisers called off the proposed peaceful protest. Further efforts are on, it appears

The noise pollution from the plant triggered people’s voice and ended in social media noise. A WhatsApp group is a ‘free for all’ platform, which tends to see knee jerk reactions and quick-fix solutions, including some bizarre mind voices too. Bengalurians would not have forgotten the recent Sankey protest for saving a lake and trees that ended with charge sheets to each and every protester. In an era of technology and changing lifestyle, it is not that easy to successfully stage even a peaceful protest. There are many game spoilers for a genuine and voluntary people’s movement. For one reason, creating noise in social media may backfire. Sometimes, vested interests and political interference may disrupt. Thirdly, the impulsive leadership in such cases may lack conviction and determination. A movement, to be successful, needs patience, sacrifice, diplomacy, consistency and dynamic leadership. Raise your voice (not noise), it counts and can be heard too. The movement will then only gain momentum.

Suddenly there was some noise in the bird cage in my next balcony. I was watching the caged exotic birds sympathetically. How much energy these cute little birds must have? So inhumane to keep them under a small cage! As I was mulling over the fate of those colourful and energetic birds, suddenly I saw a bird escaping through a hole in the grill of the cage. Yes, the bird flew away to some unfamiliar destination. It will not survive for long as neither the predators will allow nor the habitat will suit its survival. How do Indian homes keep exotic birds in their cages? While going through the schedules of Wildlife Act, it was found that the Act does not have any mention about exotic birds. This is the reason that we see many lovebirds of Australia and other countries kept at home in cages. Indian species are not kept inside cages, else it will be a violation of law of the land.

Recently I visited a friend of mine. A small exotic bird at his home was freely flying within the home. It often sat on the shoulder of my friend’s wife. After taking its food it flies back to its cage of its own and feels happy to get caged again. Incidentally it sat on my lap also for sometimes. Being a bird enthusiast, I love to see birds in their natural habitat. But somehow, the exotic bird seen at my friend’s house did not disturb me much as the bird was freely moving inside the house like any other pets. In fact, these exotic birds are not adoptable to the climatic conditions in India. Somehow, due to better feeding, they survive for long. Incidentally my friend also is a birder. So he takes care of the bird as his family member. A migratory swallow as little as a sparrow flies from England or western Europe to India, in record time of 15 to 45 days which clearly explains the level of energy in birds. When a bird with such enormous energy is caged, it affects its life cycle. It is inhumane to cage them, which may be similar to the Andaman concentration cells where freedom fighters were dumped to die. 

Union Ministry of Environment has come out with a notification for exotic birds on Feb 28, 2024. As per notification, all persons possessing a living specimen of any of the listed animal species are required to apply for registrations of such possession within a period of six months from the date of commencement of these rules and thereafter within 30 of coming into possession of such animal species to the concerned State Chief Wildlife Warden, through the PARIVESH 2.0 portal. Though this amendment regularizes illegal trafficking of exotic animals, what is needed is specification of moving space needed for caged birds and animals. Many pet owners think that they are animal lovers. A real animal lover must understand that the exotic species also have right to live in its natural habitat. A visitor to Singapore Jurong bird park might have realized this right. Even this park is closed in 2023 and shifted to a brand new state of the art spacious bird park featuring eight walkthrough aviaries. The environment is designed to mimic different ecologies to have a best experience not only to visitors but also to birds There, all birds do have better natural living conditions. Singaporeans realize the value of peaceful coexistence.  One can see the varieties of bird species living in enough space. Next time when anyone comes across pet owners of exotic animals and birds, it is pertinent to remind them to register in Parivesh 2.0 portal as this is going to be a legal duty. What is more important is to give the birds their right to live in spacious enclosures. Hopefully the spacing specifications will follow the Govt notification (Photo Courtesy: Karthikeyan, Naturalist, Bangalore)

Published in Dwarka Express on 24.2.24

Can an elephant can solve an arithmetic calculation? Can it even dance to the tune of its trainer? Yes, it is all possible in an animal show in Singapore or Thailand. Or perhaps, a temple elephant in Tamil Nadu temple may bless you, when you give some banana or money. It is simply a myth that elephant remembers anyone who attacks it even after several years and would take revenge. Or a trained elephant in Thevar film in 70s (Tamil Nadu) may even shed tears when the owner is ill. But in reality, these things never happen. Research has established that elephants also have family life and show affection to its calf. They move in team and have a set established behaviour of course.

If an elephant ‘trespasses’ its jurisdiction, the well-established understanding is that such behaviour is in search of food or water. But if such behaviour is condemnable, then human behaviour to crazily going behind money, power or worldly pleasures is also unacceptable. It is understandable that forest officials are expected to keep a vigil on the animal movement. The wild animals invade the human establishments quite frequently and it is a cause for concern undoubtedly. Every alternate day, there is a news item in papers. Elephant menace has become the order of the day. On Monday, 26.2.24, one man was killed and two were injured in Munnar, Kerala and various political parties were protesting against the incident. Blame game and mutual mudslinging followed. This is not an isolated case. Within last 2 months four persons were killed in Munnar region. In Anuppur district in Madya Pradesh, villagers clashed with forest officials after a young man was killed by an elephant. It was sequel to the chasing away the elephant by villagers after the pachyderm destroyed the crops in Jaithari forest range. In yet another case, the kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan ordered a high-level Ministerial meeting in Wayanad to chaclk out strategies for confronting man-animal conflicts effectively since three people were killed in the near past. Rather inter-state conflict between Karnataka and Kerala brewed up as a result of a rogue elephant migrating from Karnataka to Kerala. The State Government released Rs 15 lac to the Kerala victim, which ended in a conflict with opposition expressing dissatisfaction with the Government’s action of releasing tax money to other state.

Such conflicts and unrest amidst people are not without logic. Undoubtedly, human life is very important and precious too. However, the question arises. ‘Who will raise their voices for the voiceless?’ The animals lack the sixth sense and they never know whether they are going out of the forest jurisdiction. Let us not forget that rampant deforestation on one hand and wildlife preservation efforts go hand in hand. Our forest policies have undergone sea change of late. In the interest of creating infra structures like roads and mines, we comfortably forget the need for conservation of forests. Destruction of forests is bound to affect the existence of the dependent wild life and such incidents are bound to happens unless we give a serious thought to a comprehensive, all-pervasive forest policy keeping in mind the basic tenets of sustainable development goals. There is no point in simply grumbling over climate change, monsoon failure and resultant drought.

Published on 17.2.24 in Dwarka Express

Those were days when people used spare straps for a Hawaii chappal. Repairing and reusing a worn out chappal was not below our dignity, but was the order of the day. A plastic bucket or drum was never thrown just because there was a hole. There used to be a repair-wala usually seen in the streets. A cobbler made his livelihood on repairing the shoes. Nowadays, we are not hearing the call of umbrella repair man. (When rain is also rare, how can be find a umbrella man?). Similarly, the repair of old utensils and kitchenware was a very common activity. Seldom we see repairer roaming around the streets to replace a handle for a mixer or juicer. Certain spare parts are not available in the market. Slowly the spare part culture is vanishing. In fact, it has become a matter of status when we retain the broken utensils or old gadgets. The smart phones are seldom repaired. Even if it demands a small repair, consumers prefer going for a new one. In some cases, the shopkeepers advise condemning certain electronic gadgets even with a reparable part.

Another important example of reuse is old books. We still remember 60’s and 70’s when school books were reused without any inhibition. Students were seen selling their books in good condition to the successors. There were a lot of pavement shops which were seen buzzing with activity when schools reopen. In fact, there used to more crowd in second hand book shops rather than the new bookshops. Even though this practice is slowly disappearing, we still may see it in some pockets of the towns. In small towns and villages, certain repair and reuse activities are seen in some quarters. We cannot say that the repair activity has disappeared completely.

In automobile Industry the changes of wear and tear are abundant, but that does not mean that we should discard the parts which are not used much. One of the most heard repair markets is in automobile industry, but most of the spare parts are replaced without exploring the way the discorded items could be repaired and reused. Actually, the spare part market is said to be a USD 22 Bn market that is expected to extend the longevity of the capital assets. While spare parts must be used sparingly, lack of technical expertise and race for unrealistic sales targets have made the ‘repair and reuse’ paradigm a mockery of sorts. However, there is a lot of scope in automobile industry for repair and reuse activities namely tyre retreading, denting, painting and puncture fixing.  Yet another industry is electronics, where volatility is faster. Electronic gadgets become obsolete so faster that many computer and laptop versions do not have any repair or replacement. Warranty is also not much helpful when the consumer actually lacks technical knowledge. E Waste is a fast-growing industry with large potential for reuse of the components of discarded items. In a scrapped laptop, there are 12 metals which could be reused. Reducing carbon footprints is a mammoth work. Every little effort could go a long way to save the environment from degradation.