Published in Dwarka Express on 27.7.24

Union Budgets may come and go, but the common man always looks at the sky for water and his pocket for money. This goes on for long and will continue as long as the planet exists, it appears. While all budgets in general will be aimed at growth and development, we always look for the sustainability of the development proposals placed by the Government. The greener side of the budget appears to be not so green. Urbanisation is one while resilience in natural agriculture is another priority of the 9 priorities of the Government as pointed out in the budget report

Some of the green proposals

Finance Minister has underlined that one Crore farmers will be drawn into natural farming. To discourage manufacture of plastic goods, custom duty on plastic has been increased by 25%. Certain northern states like Uttarakhand, Assam, Sikkim and Himachal Predesh have received good mitigation schemes Rooftop solar scheme have been proposed for 1 Crore households which is expected to give 300 free units of electricity per month. A policy paper on clean energy transfer pathways is indicated in the budget with a focus on clean technology for carbon mitigation. The focus will be shifted from energy efficiency target to emission target. Govt will promote Sewage treatment, Solid waste mgt projects for 100 large cities.

Grey areas of green initiatives

1. Organic farming: While dealing with natural agriculture, we look for more impetus in terms of budget allocation to organic farming.
2. Plastics: To curb their imports of PVC flex banners, Basic Customs Duty (BCD) has been increased from 10% to 25%, but domestic manufacturing of single use plastic does not stop even after 2 years of the ban. Either the ban should be firmly enforced or the plastic industries should be drastically disincentivized. Our recent survey showed that still the street vendors are using the polythene bags.
3. Flood Mitigation: Regarding flood mitigation sops, some states like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are ignored. We feel that the flood relief must be extended to all affected states impartially.
4. Deforestation: As per media reports, In the last five years, 95,724.99 ha of the forest land has been diverted for non-forestry use. Sustainable development must encompass a greening target to reach the global commitment of enhancing the present 24 % of forest to 33% in the next 5 years. This means there is a dire need for massive plantation but no incentive for green mission.
5. Urbanisation: The smart city initiative of 100 cities have been in cards for quite some time. But there is no perceptible moves barring a few focused redevelopment in a few towns. The exodus of rural population from villages migrating to the cities hoping to get better livelihood is never ending. Former President APJ Abdul Kalam’s dream for providing urban comforts in rural areas (PURA) seems to be completely forgotten. The mad rush to cities could have been stopped. One more glaring miss is allocation to Swacch Bharat Abhyaan, an initiative of PM Modi. The key issue in urban areas is mounting plastic trash. We are of the firm opinion that the focus should be on smart villages rather than smart cities (Picture courtesy: representative picture from internet)

Published in Dwarka Express on 20.7.24

Bangalore faced unprecedented drought from November 2023 to April 2024 and now it is raining cats and dogs. Bengalurians cursed the climate change as responsible for the drought and were impatiently waiting for the ‘welcome showers.’ The wait never deceived them. Now the monsoon is here again. The story is similar to many other cities. But unfortunately, when the rain was evasive during the first quarter of the year, the social media had so many forwards about the need for rain water harvesting, need for massive tree planting and digging of more borewells. The city saw the worst drought condition in the last 30-40 years, said the Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar. Out of the 13900 borewells in Bangalore, 6900 borewells have dried out, creating water shortage in the city, though it was also confirmed that the areas serviced by Cauvery water had no cause for concern. While the Dy CM promised redrilling of existing borewells, and drilling new borewells, we comfortably forget one important factor.

Water table is depleting and underground aquifers are going dry. Indiscriminate digging of more and more borewells is unscientific and will exert high pressure on ground water table, say the experts. One should not forget that the water table gets recharged only if there is rain. It is neither a magic to produce water underground. On the one hand, the lakes in Bangalore which have all along been rain water reservoirs, are slowly vanishing due to encroachment and mismanagement. With Supreme court imposing a cap of 24 TMC Cauvery water for Bangalore city, the river water is just possible to cater to the need of 60% of Bangalore as of now. The rest are depending on borewells and tanker water.

While days were passing dry, in April 2024, suddenly the city reported heavy rains and flooding. The lakes were overflowing, streets were flooded and roads witnessed traffic jams and construction works came to a grinding halt. Someone gets drowned, some roads cave in and some buildings collapse. At many places, trees get uprooted. Not just this. The hills report landslides and traffic blockade. Such headlines have become our routine. Floods or drought, the common man is put to hardship on both counts. Many a time it is reported that there is huge pilferage in the pipelines while bringing the Cauvery water from 100 KMs away. The pilferage is both natural and sometimes manmade also. Kempe Gowda (16^th Century), the architect of the city was a visionary who provided for a lot of keres (tanks, the man-made lakes) and connecting feeder canals. But the modern society, known for its shortsightedness, is losing the values and vision. What we witness today are nothing but a clear explication of such imprudence. We need professionalism in water management. Let people realize that lakes are not recreation centres but a main resource to recharge the ground water. Striking a balance between demand and supply of water alone can address the imbalances due to extremities. Bangalore is not an isolated case. Almost all major cities are under threat to the manmade nature’s fury.

Published in Dwarka Express on 13.7.24

‘Could anyone compensate the death of your dear and near ones?’ asked an emotionally charged social activist, on hearing that a large-scale felling of trees would be compensated by the compensatory plantation. When a 50-year-old tree is felled, how long it would take for the compensating sapling to give the benefit similar to that of the old tree? Could any architect make a 50-year-old tree in his workshop? In Bangalore, for example, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara (BBMP) has permitted Metro Rail Corporation (DMRCL) in 2020-21 to go for compensatory plantation of 10 tall and healthy saplings for felling one well grown tree to facilitate the Metro Rail construction. Undoubtedly, DMRCL carried out the compensatory plantation. The saplings so planted have grown to say 6/9 feet in 3 years. Eventually, one needs to wait for a decade or so to have full compensation for a 50-year-old tree. Bangalore was once lauded as garden city, but obviously the oldies witness the destruction with heavy heart and wet eyes now. Perhaps the GenNext may not even feel that pinch. The speed with which the trees are felled for road and metro rail expansion is formidable and appears that the compensation will nowhere match the destruction. Bangalore is not an isolated case. It is the order of the day. We curse the arid summer and the moment rain starts, we forget the past as a nightmare. Amnesia is our common disease!

Are we going to do justice? India has promised to increase its forest cover so as to absorb an ambitious volume of 2.5. to 3 billion tons of CO2 by 2030. But as per Climate Action Tracker, India’s climate action is rated overall as ‘highly insufficient’ and as for as forestry is considered, it is rated as ‘not significant’. Do you know why? India has a total forest land of 714 lac Sq KMs of forest cover (2021) as per Forest Survey of India website which is about one fourth of India’s land area. Going by the international standards, an estimated 6 lac Sq KMs of forest cover must be added to the existing forest cover of 714 lac Sq KMs. In simple terms, the existing forest cover of 24% (of total area of the country) must be raised to 32% by 2030. Our records show a different scene. In the last 10 years, an area similar to the total area of Delhi (roughly 1500 Sq KMs) has been given up to deforestation in India. When our forest cover is getting reduced year after year, to this extent where is the question of increasing 600000 Sq KMs? Shall we be able to achieve this target? Does our politicians and bureaucrats take cognizance of the bitter reality? As responsible citizens, to combat global warming and prevent climate change, what is our role? We had enough of seminars on climate change. It is time for action. Let us not miss the bus!

Published in Dwarka Express on 6.7.24

It is off season, say the locals, though it didn’t appear so! Recently some of us visited Sattal in Nainital for birding. While nature is still manifested in its original form, it is not all that good in this tourist spot. Tourism has taken its toll in one form or other. Heavy traffic near the lake exposed the lack of amenities. Parking space is limited while four wheelers entering the area are beyond tolerance level. Plastic bottles are thrown into the lake freely or left on the bunds which in due course reach the lake easily. Bird lovers gather here to capture the birds through their lens in the studio area.  Sometime back, there was an effort to convert this area into amusement park with food courts, and play areas. Local NGOs launched protests to save the lake. Tourists and photographers to this area leave the PET bottles back unlike local guides and shopkeepers who never do that. The least concern is shown by callous tourists who play loud music in the studio area which is known for bird photography and nature watch. Though locals try to keep the area clean, it was found that garbage dumps on roadsides were overflowing and stinking. When we pointed out to overflowing garbage dumps, the local shopkeepers literally became sad. In Sattal studio area, we spotted barking deer, yellow bellied martin and Himalayan langur but whether this valuable wildlife will be available for posterity?

All is not well in ecotourism. Sustainability of tourism to natural places depends on how we address the increased CO2 emissions, excessive water consumption, piling up garbage, landscape destruction and loss of biodiversity The sustainability of a tourist spot depends on how effective the authorities and locals are working together to manage the inflow of tourists. Once when we visited Dal Lake in Srinagar, the boatmen came to the spot where a child was about to urinate (near the lake) and directed the tourists to public toilets. Yes, locals are the beneficiaries both in monetary terms and ecological wellbeing. In Yercaud, a hill station near Salem in Tamil Nadu, the district collector has recently issued a strict order that the banned Single Use Plastics should not be allowed at any cost.  Any tourist vehicle entering into a hill station must be thoroughly checked for PET bottles and the same must be confiscated at the entry level. Tourists must be advised to bring reusable bottles. No one should be allowed to litter or play loud music. Strict vigil is possible if volunteers from civil societies and NGOs team together for this mission. Proper plastic disposal mechanism must be in place. The size of sustainable ecotourism industry is estimated to grow by 6 times in next 10 years.  Popular hill stations like Ooty, Kodaikanal, Mussoorie, Dehra Dun, Nainital, Kasauli, or Srinagar will lose the charm if immediate attention is not given. The hill stations survive due to tourism. To make tourism cent percent sustainable is a collective effort. Time is running out. There is a dire need to promote ecotourism, not tourism.

Published in Dwarka Express on 8.6.24

The world environment day comes and goes on 5^th June, every year, reminding us that we have to protect the environment on all 365 days. But how many of us take note? We will come back to the question later. First let us see the theme. This year the theme of World Environment Day is “Land restoration, desertification and drought resilience”. As per UN Convention to Combat Desertification, up to 40 per cent of the planet’s land is degraded, directly affecting half of the world’s population. Man depends on land. But the fact is that he pollutes, create climate chaos, and biodiversity decimation thus turning the fertile land into deserts, which ultimately destroys the ecosystems, agriculture, and communities. This results in starvation for resources like water, clean air and green cover. In turn, this means crop failures, depleting water table and resource scarcity. In fact, the poorest are hardest hit. Sustainable development is only on paper. Thus, we have landed in a vicious cycle.

Time has come to revisit the lifestyle that we are accustomed to. All countries of the world must work on restoring degraded ecosystems and land. All countries need to draft their national climate action plans to set out how they will halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. And United nations must drastically scale-up finance to support developing countries to adapt to violent weather, protect nature, and support sustainable development. At this crucial junction, keeping silent will prove to be costly. Quick action is the need of the hour. Every 100-rupee invested in ecosystem restoration will yield 30 times in economic benefits. Our generation in fact could be considered as restoration generation. If we miss the bus now, it will prove costlier.

South Express was talking to one of the environmental activists from Gujrat. He was highly critical of the celebration. Talking further to him, he said that he does not believe such one-day celebrations which are cosmetic and showbiz events. He is correct in a way. Non-Government Organisations and institutions just plant a few trees and leave it forever. Neither they water the saplings nor they are interested in remembering the species and whether the sapling is placed at the right place. Today the tree planting has become a mockery of the sorts. But we believe that such important days at global parlance are definitely a reminder for genuine activists to rededicate themselves as well as to identify new team to work for environment and the like. If out of 100 trees planted even if 10 trees withstand the weather conditions and survive, this will definitely help the environment. There is positive as well as negative side of every single activity undertaken by man. But what is to be seen is the positivity in everything

Published in 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.