In the past half century, India has made rapid strides in economic development. This, coupled with demographic pressures, a gigantic middle-class known to be the largest market in the world, and the free entry of global players into the Indian consumer market have changed the consumer scene completely. A new consumer culture of disposability, over-consumption, and wanton disregard for the environment has become the norm in the Indian society. 

Rapid and unplanned urbanization has created an enormous population of urban poor. This group consists of unskilled laborers that have been pressured out of their traditional habitats by environmental, social and economic changes. Their traditional lifestyles evolved out of responsible use of natural resources and, as a result, sustainable practices have been in circulation for centuries. Their lifestyles, though dependent on the environment, never sought to damage or deplete it in any far-reaching way. Mutual nurturing was the subtext of this human/nature relationship. 

The culture that emerged from this dual dependence is under severe stress in a new urban milieu that is a poor copy of the Northern pattern of living. The present Indian urban scenario seeks to replicate lifestyles alien to its context, without necessary infrastructural support. As a result, all service sectors in Indian cities are under tremendous stress. While the markets overflow with glitzy new products, and advertisers have a field day selling incongruous cultural icons and lifestyles to Indian consumers, the Indian consumer culture is rapidly undergoing behavioral shifts that adversely impact the environment. 

Middle class Indian homes have become gadget junkyards. Cars sales in Indian cities are on the upward swing, but there are no roads to run these cars on. Fuel prices keep spiralling, as does the resultant pollution from these consumption patterns. While Northern cultures embrace organic food and alternative healing, Indians satiate themselves with colas and burgers; while the U.S. scrambles to patent India’s biodiversity, Indians are glued to their TV sets. Sitting in Delhi, with telephones that don’t work, PCs on the blink because of erratic power supplies, postal strikes and polluted rivers, activists in consumer and environmental organizations have their task cut out for them. 

THE NEW-AGE REALITY

It is not just the quantity of consumption and spending that has undergone a change but also the attitude of consumers towards consumption and the reasons to consume. Advertising strategies have effectively influenced consumers to accept products without questioning their use or viability. Health scares, safety, and beauty-consciousness are just some of the tactics used to encourage sales. From tap water to bottled mineral water, from herbal options to international cosmetics brands, and from clay pots and cups to plastics, the change has been far too obvious to ignore. 

In 1998, a dropsy epidemic gripped the Indian capital. Over 2000 people were affected and 41 deaths were reported. The consumption of common mustard oil was held responsible and overnight the much-used traditional oil was put out of use. Mustard oil is used for cooking purposes, skin care, in local crafts, as a preservative, as a fuel, and for therapy. Mustard is grown all over North India and many individual homes in rural areas extract mustard oil on their own and remain self-sufficient all year round. But all of this changed after the dropsy epidemic. Mustard oil was poured down the drain (ending up in rivers, polluting them with a virtual ‘oil slick’) and replaced by the market alternative — packaged edible oils. These oils are subject to little quality control and the consumer has no way of determining what’s in them. And yet, they are readily accepted as being safe and of superior quality due to clever advertising. 

The Indian cosmetic scene is also very active, thanks to the presence of brands like Revlon, Avon and Lakme, all jostling for attention on Indian market shelves and television. The cosmetic sector in India is now undoubtedly on a new plane, with slick advertising and the creation of new paradigms of beauty and celebration. Herbal remedies that were part of every Indian household have also acquired commercial overtones. Herbal medicines and beauty products are some of the most expensive brands in India and abroad today. 

CAN DEVELOPMENT AND TRADITION EXIST TOGETHER?

With globalization sweeping across the developing world, it is unlikely that there will be a turn around in the current trend of growing market influence. What, then, we need to focus on is making consumption and production patterns as sustainable as possible without sacrificing the present lifestyle or comforts. The Indian urban middle-class will have more and more disposable income in the future and it will be hard to put a cap on consumption. 

Assimilation and acceptance have been integral features of India’s development. Its cultural bonds are so strong that it is able to accommodate change with certain modifications to suit its needs. It is this resilience and flexibility that is needed today to control and redress environment degradation and social upheaval. Consumers need to hark back to traditional knowledge and absorb its good practices into their urban lives. 

by Dr. Roopa Vajpeyi 

(Roopa Vajpeyi teaches in the Department of English at the University of Delhi. She holds a Ph.D. in American Poetry. She travels, speaks, writes, publishes and conducts training workshops for teachers, students and grassroots women on a variety of topics. She also works for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in India.)

The broad agreed aim of the owners was to “live close to the land in an ethical and sustainable manner”

 
Van vasis: Guests prepare and savour food grown organically at Van Vadi. 

Surekha Kadapa-Bose

Van Vadi is a vast expanse of near-untouched forestland that allows people from all over the world to touch base with nature. Once the boundary fence is crossed, there are only foot tracks to lead you through the 64 acres of woodland.

“We were initially looking to buy about 10-15 acres for organic farming, mainly fruit and vegetables. This was to be divided among 3-4 of us. But with more ‘likeminded’ people joining, I began dreaming of an ‘alternative community’ of sorts… that would meet its varied needs in harmony with nature and fellow humans,” explains Bharat Mansata, one of the nearly 17-18 co-owners of this forest abode.

 
The pond used for bathing 

The likeminded group of friends includes lawyers, educationists, writers and architects among others.

Located on the foothills of the Sahayadri range of mountains in Maharashtra, Van Vadi is about 1.5 km from Vaara village, Raigad. State buses ply to the village from Neral, about 15 km away on the Mumbai-Pune route, but are not frequent.

Auto-rickshaws charge about Rs 12-50 to take you to the Vaara bus-stand and another Rs 25-30 to drop you at the gates of Van Vadi.

But the ‘road’ from the bus stand to the Vadi gate is not recommended for those with back problems.

On the other hand, it is great fun walking along the narrow lanes lined on both sides by small houses. Women busy with their household chores glance up briefly to catch a glimpse of the city folk heading this way for a slice of their everyday life.

Far, far from the urban 

Entering through the small, creaky gate of Van Vadi, the deafening silence — interspersed by only the sound of chirping birds, fluttering butterflies, rustling leaves — and the sight of an endless expanse of trees can disconcert any urbanite used only to the 24×7 cacophony of city noise.

The broad agreed aim of the owners was to “live close to the land in an ethical and sustainable manner to benefit ourselves, the land and, perhaps, the local people as well”. Progressive self-reliance in basics such as food remains an important goal even today.

The food cooked on site uses completely organic ingredients; white sugar isn’t used at all. Gur(jaggery) is used as sweetener even in the preparation of herbal tea.

Initially about 24 people had pooled money to buy the land from the previous owners about a decade ago. Later, some of them gave up their ownership of the land as they found it difficult to travel all the way from Mumbai and other places.

Tending to the land 

 
Bharat and Vinita Mansata, co-owners of Van Vadi, with their tribal help Bua. 

“We agreed that at least half the land should remain under tree cover; agrochemicals prohibited; water usage conservative; extensive monocultures shunned and biodiversity aided through integration of various edible and locally useful species, particularly indigenous varieties suited to existing conditions,” says Bharat.

With help from local tribals, over 115 endemic and traditionally useful species were identified on the land. Even the animal kingdom is well represented.

Earlier, the place was famous for leopard hunting, but the big cats don’t come here any more. Besides a range of earthworms, ants, snakes and crabs, the woods are alive with several kinds of spiders, colourful butterflies, dragonflies, fireflies, bees, and birds.

The area receives copious rainfall each year but most of the water tended to drain away in the absence of reservoirs. To remedy this, two check dams were built a few years ago.

An open well was dug near the main (seasonal) stream, and today even the adivasis in neighbouring areas draw water from this during summer.

Sharing the bounty 

Within time the land began yielding a bounty and the group decided to share it with others in the form of a ‘Vanutsav’. The first Vanutsav was held in October 2005 with the theme of ‘Sharing Creativity, Celebrating Community’. It attracted over 60 people, including nearly 15 children.

In 2006, the Vanutsav was hosted by Sadhana Forest, Auroville, in Puducherri down south and attracted over a hundred participants. In October 2007, the Vanutsav returned to Van Vadi in the form of a ‘mini Van-Shram-Utsav’, integrating community labour as well.

The recently held Vanutsav attracted nearly 60 participants from places such as Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Goa, Sri Lanka, Australia and, of course, Mumbai.

A day in the forest 

And what was it like for the visitors? To begin with, there are no toilets or bathrooms and nature’s calls have to be answered in the open, under the cover of trees and bushes. For bathing, there are two sweet water pools — one slightly deeper than the other. The soft, dark mud of the pool is used as soap.

As for food, there is a community kitchen built using mud and thatch; firewood is used for cooking in a mud choolah (stove). The vegetables come from the forestland and visitors bring in rice, dal,gur, poha and other condiments. Fruits such as banana and muskmelon make up the dessert.

For entertainment, visitors came equipped with several musical instruments such as sarangi, Australian aboriginal blowpipes and flutes. There is lots of reading sessions and discussions too. And, of course, one can always walk around and discover new trees, insects, streams, pathways and other delights of the forest.

To top it all, the place even has a small waterfall! There is no fee charged but visitors can contribute towards the upkeep of the adivasi family of three that helps take care of the huge place.

Bua, the head of this family, has learnt Hindi and can understand even a bit of English. His teenaged son loves to explore the forest, find new ways to protect it, and spread the word among the other adivasis on the importance of holding on to their land and way of life.

Visitors’ notes 

Sujata Guha, a geneticist who had come to Van Vadi along with her professor husband and three young children, said, “This is one way of sustaining wildlife. And contrary to the belief that present-day kids can’t live without TV, mobile phones etc, my kids enjoy this kind of living with nature.”

Tilu, a 14-year-old boy from Goa, loves to catch snakes. “Last year I had caught a 10-ft long snake. This year there haven’t been any such long snakes,” he said. He catches them only if they come anywhere near the human dwelling and leaves them deeper in the forest.

Vinita Mansata, who looks after her family’s publishing house in Kolkata, told us about an elderly guest from Mumbai who was traumatised by current events like bomb blasts and other violence in the country. “After two days, he told me that he had never slept so peacefully in years without taking any medicines. That is the kind of tranquillity nature gives to people,” she said.

Trouble in paradise 

But even this tiny oasis of peace is facing problems… in the form of builder groups from various cities. “We are struggling against tough odds to protect the local ecosystem, with our own land threatened by ‘modern development’ (on two sides) by city builders… they have caused heart-wrenching ecological destruction in neighbouring land by totally denuding it of all vegetation; uprooting and turning the soil,” says Bharat Mansata agitatedly.

He hopes that more people will join the community and the place will attract more visitors in the days to come. He also hopes to convince the villagers about the need to resist the influence of land sharks.

“Visitors at Van Vadi can, in turn, make a difference by trying to conserve forestland wherever they live. This would be a small way to ensure the survival of our planet,” he signs off.

Bhutan puts the happiness of its people before development.

Landlocked in the eastern Himalayas, the tiny country of Bhutan seems almost untouched by globalisation. Its icy peaks, deep green gorges, sparkling rivers and quaint buildings with multi-tiered sloping roofs strengthen the feeling of a country disconnected from the chaos of megacities and concrete jungles.

This pristine impression is partly due to Bhutan’s strong commitment to environmental preservation. Bhutan’s laws reserve 70 per cent of its land for ‘green’ cover, of which 60 per cent should be forests.

Bhutan is one of the few countries to employ the concept of gross national happiness — that social and economic development should promote happiness as its primary value.

Conservation of the environment and sustainable and equitable socioeconomic development are the two pillars of gross national happiness, which was declared more important than gross national product by Bhutan’s then king, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, in 1972.

But today, the country is facing change. Global warming is melting many of its glaciers, while its need for economic development and quest to export hydropower to neighbouring India may harm its fragile terrain. Bhutan is grappling with the dilemma of conservation versus development.

Development taking its toll

A growing population — up from 452,000 in 1984 to 750,000 in 2006 — as well as an increase in urbanisation and infrastructure is taking its toll on Bhutan’s environment.

Analysis by the National Environment Commission (NEC), an inter-ministerial body that develops policies on sustainable development, shows that about 25,000 acres of land have been used for development projects, while land and water pollution is an emerging environment problem in and around urban and industrial areas.

Development projects such as roads and power lines, NEC warns, could impact biodiversity by cutting through natural habitats and destablising fragile mountain slopes if they are not built in an environmentally sensitive manner.

Urban areas — along with some rural areas of southern and eastern Bhutan — are already witnessing localised deforestation, says the Bhutan office of the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

And a steady increase in vehicles — the number of cars rose by 11–17 per cent each year from 1985 to 2003 — is harming Bhutan’s air quality, once considered among the best in South Asia.

Bhutan’s development of hydropower plants could also impact the environment. Hydropower potential in Bhutan is estimated at over 30,000 megawatts, 16,000 megawatts of which could be provided safely by exploitable water resources like river run-offs. Only three per cent of this has been tapped, estimates the NEC, with domestic consumption in 2005 only 105 megawatts, and the country hopes to export some of this energy at a profit to neighbouring India.

Global warming at its door

Meanwhile, Bhutan is facing up to the impact of global warming. The country has a fragile mountain ecosystem, and climate change is a serious challenge to sustainable development and the livelihood of the Bhutanese people, says Nado Rinchen, deputy minister for environment.

Despite this, Bhutan’s glaciers have been retreating over the last few decades at about 20–30 metres every year due to global warming, creating many moraine dammed lakes — lakes clogged by accumulated debris, which prevent meltwater from escaping — that are swelling rapidly.

Floods of these lakes — glacial lake outburst floods — are a serious concern. Bhutan has already experienced several of these floods and has 24 potentially dangerous glacial lakes, according to ICIMOD (the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development) in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Bhutan’s National Adaptation Programme of Action, released in 2006, warns of changes in water flows, increased sedimentation of water reservoirs and networks, and reduced capacity of water catchment areas, all affecting hydropower electricity production.

Higher rainfall in areas without proper drainage systems can destabilise the soil, leading to landslides and more floods. Rinchen says Bhutan urgently needs to map its hazard zones as it is also prone to destructive landslides, mudslides and floods.

Bhutan has no proper weather or climate forecasting capabilities and its climate data and information is sparse, points out Doley Tshering, program officer for energy, environment and disaster, at UNDP’s Bhutan office.

Conservation at stake

NEC officials fear that climate change and the consequent rise in temperature and forest fires, along with changing rainfall patterns, could affect the country’s extensive forest cover, rich biodiversity and clean water resources.

Bhutan’s biodiversity is one of the richest in the world. It ranks among the top ten countries with the highest number of species per unit area, contains three of the World Wildlife Fund’s ecoregions of great biological wealth, and many of its plants have medicinal value.

Unsurprisingly, conservation is central to Bhutan’s 1998 National Environment Strategy, which aims to balance economic development and environmental conservation. 

The core of Bhutan’s conservation strategy is a system of national parks and protected areas that form 26 per cent of its land. An additional nine per cent is designated as ‘biological corridors’ or ‘wildlife highways’ that link protected areas to allow free movement of animals.

Yet much of Bhutan’s biological wealth remains unexplored by scientists. There is no baseline data to help scientists document and monitor changes in vegetation, wildlife and forests.

Some efforts have been initiated, with NEC due to sign an agreement with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) this year to set up the Bhutan Integrated Biodiversity Information System to gather, interpret and document biodiversity information from both protected and other areas.

Putting the environment into development

Rinchen says Bhutan’s tenth national five-year plan, to be launched in 2008, will allocate ten per cent of all funds to programmes for environment activities, while the UNDP and UNEP are helping NEC to develop guidelines for incorporating environment into development plans and policies.

A National Environment Protection Act (NEPA), approved by Bhutan’s national assembly in June 2007, states the people and the government should “strive to consider and adopt its development policies and plans in harmony with the various environment principles”.

The act states that to promote environment-friendly technologies, codes of practice and eco-labelling, the government will provide financial incentives for environment protection and compliance.

These will include tax incentives for environmental services, manufacture of environment-friendly products and reduced customs duties on environmentally friendly technologies.

Bhutan also aims to reduce the dependency of national park residents on national park resources, such as firewood, timber, roofing material and other forest products.

It hopes to reduce deforestation through use of alternate technologies include the introduction of electric cookers to substitute traditional fuel wood cookers and using corrugated iron sheets instead of wooden shingles for roofs.

Instead, the government will establish programmes to improve mule tracks and foot bridges, build community centres, supply solar panels and even offer scholarships to poor students so that they do not rely on forest produce for their livelihoods. Community-based ecotourism is also being promoted as an alternative means of livelihood.

Transboundary conservation projects are helping Bhutan come out of its isolation. ICIMOD’s Kanchenjunga project, involving Bhutan, India and Nepal, is helping to identify corridors needed to maintain biodiversity links and promote conservation-linked micro-enterprises and ecotourism in the region.

Bhutan is at a crossroads today, charting a course for its future. For many developing countries, this isolated Himalayan country could be an example of how to reconcile conservation and national happiness within the global trading framework.

by T. V. Padma

If you search for the term on Google, the Internet throws up around 64,000 links. Out of these as many as 23,200 links are related to India in one way or another.

Citizens can harvest rain right in their own homes by making use of a dried up bore-well, a row of soak-pits or tanks hidden below the ground, or even a traditional well from which water is drawn. Open spaces, like rooftops and ground, can be used as the catchment surface – to catch the rain. Costs vary; but rainwater harvesting does not require major construction work.

The New Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has worked on this for many years. “Our ancestors harvested rain just as naturally as they tilled the ground to grow crops,” CSE says. “We lost touch with these local solutions. But now, as the taps dry up, more and more people are reviving this age-old system and practicing it very successfully.”

In a country like India, where life is dependent on rainfall in large parts of the country, a lot of work is being done to raise public awareness of rainwater harvesting. Centers have been set up in places like Meerut and Chennai, formerly known as Madras.

Marches have been held around dry desert regions like Jodhpur to promote awareness of the importance of water. Pioneers who protected traditional water harvesting systems have been given recognition and respect. Seminars have been held on rainwater harvesting. Rainwater harvesting is also studied in urban housing apartments. rainwater harvesting traditions from diverse parts of the country are studied and appreciated.

New tools are being used to augment ancient skills. The Internet is proving to be a great place to spread and build awareness over rainwater harvesting.

People can go to www.rainwaterharvesting.org and calculate the “runoff” for specific localities in India – the water they could save if rainwater harvesting was in place.

India, like other countries in the Third World, is facing a serious water crisis. In Delhi, the groundwater level has fallen as much as 32 feet in the last decade. In North Gujarat, it has gone down down 1,500 feet; in Saurashtra western India it is 500 feet.

Six of India’s federal states face severe drought. Even Cherrapunji – the spot in northeastern India, once called the wettest place in the world – with its annual 12,000 millimeters of rain – faces an acute water problem in summer.

The Malnad areas in South India with 3,000 mm have started experiencing drinking water problems. A study by the Sri Lanka based International Water Management Institute (IWMI) states that South India will be among the worst hit areas for water shortage by 2025.

Water-starved Chennai city is one of India’s four metropolitan areas. The city’s recent building boom, together with a growing dependence on the centralized water supply system and poor rainfall, has lead to repeated drinking water crises. In the past, the city depended on groundwater for much of its needs. Overexploitation has ruined much of groundwater resources. But now, this is one area where rainwater harvesting is catching on.

Another damaging factor has been the increasing demand for land. Innumerable water bodies have been filled to construct multi-story structures. Over a 1,000 ponds have vanished in the Meerut district alone.

The problem of fluoride, nitrite and salinity are off-shoots of acute groundwater depletion. Private tankers that carry and sell water to those who can pay the price, are making a roaring business. Now, it is not important as to how much rain a particular area gets; what is important is what arrangements it has to catch the rain.

Rainwater harvesting needs people’s participation. It cannot be built on the basis of taking huge loans from institutions like the World Bank, or the Asian Development Bank.

In June 2002, a prestigious Rain Centre was opened on the initiative of local rainwater harvesting activists and the Centre for Science and Environment to implement the idea in that New Delhi, which perennially suffers from water shortages.

Padmanabhanagar, a colony with 64 houses, saw some 55 houses equipped with rainwater harvesting in just three months.

In Chennai, Dr. Sekhar Raghavan has made a case for supporting some 100 charitable institutions – like orphanages and old age homes – with rainwater harvesting strategies. This would ensure they don’t suffer from acute water shortages for five months out of a year.

Dr. Raghavan says, “I’ve depended on groundwater all my life and I wanted to devote the rest of my life to sustain the source via rainwater harvesting. This project gives me a chance to help the economically weak sustain theirs.”

Roofs are the biggest catchment opportunity for a city dweller, and roof-water harvesting can be deployed in urban areas.

A rural farmer has many other areas where he can harvest water. He can even afford to ignore the roof-water. But in smaller rural towns, houses or poor people’s colonies, roofs are major sources for harvesting.

In villages, large numbers of people have joined hands to build such systems.

In cities, rainwater harvesting takes other forms.

A skilled mason or a plumber could do the job for a household within 10 days. “It’s simple, but you still need someone who has experience in the principles of rainwater harvesting,” cautions the Centre for Science and Environment.

Rainwater harvesting benefits both you and your neighbors, since groundwater moves. To get the best results, it makes sense if all neighbours become rainwater harvesters.

Rainwater harvesting also requires that the water is kept pure, and not contaminated with sewage or other dirt flowing into recharge-pits. Water from the rooftops is considered to be the cleanest. Filters help keep out some dirt.

Rain can be harvested for storage in containers either above or below the ground, or for re-charging groundwater levels. Rainwater can be harvested from rooftops, paved or unpaved areas, open fields, parks, storm-water drains, roads and pavements, or from water bodies such as tanks, lakes and ponds.

Convincing people to go in for rainwater harvesting is not always easy. This solution is also beyond the reach of the urban poor. So a lot more remains to be done; above all, awareness building. If people knew that there was such a simple solution, many more might have implemented it.

On the success of such ventures depends some part of the future of countries like India.

From the farm to the pen. That’s the story of Shree Padre. He calls himself a farmer by profession, and journalist by obsession. He has authored five books on the subject of rainwater harvesting. Most are in the regional language of Kannada, while one is in English, “Rainwater Harvesting,” Altermedia, Kerala, 2002.

For the last six years, Padre has been collecting success stories and information on rainwater harvesting from around the world. “Rainwater harvesting now is knocking out so much of my creative time that my farming gets a blow,” he half-complains.

Before that, he worked to set up “Adike Patrike,” a popular farm magazine that he edited for 12 years. This means Padre has become a pioneer in coastal South India for spreading farm-journalism, or farmer-to-farmer communication.

His slogan is “pen to the farmers.” Through many workshops, his team has helped farmers to write for their fellow-farmers.

Padre has been instrumental in showing ordinary men a simple way by which they can increase their water supply. Using this information, hundreds of farmers in six districts of South India have been harvesting the rain.

Padre has built up a collection of slides and photographs, and has put up some 200 slideshows on rainwater harvesting, mainly for farmers and students.

He has done studies on surangas, man-made caves for water, a unique traditional water harvesting system of Kasaragod in South India’s Kerala state. He has studied madakas, traditional percolation ponds, of coastal Karnataka and Kasaragod, which have by now almost vanished.

He emphasizes in-situ, low-cost methods of harvesting rain that can be implemented even without subsidies and external help. For example, in an urban house, if there is a dug well, the groundwater can be re-charged using the service well. Or even a dry, abandoned well,” he says.

Over the years, Padre says has been able to use his communication skills in fighting the aerial spraying of endosulfan pesticides that foul water supplies.

“Farmers, city-dwellers and people from all walks of life have been experiencing worsening water shortages year after year,” says Padre. “We, at the farm magazine ‘Adike Patrike,’ put the subject of rainwater harvesting on top priority in 1995.”

From September 1996, they started a feature series in the subject. “Once we got in touch with the nongovernment sector, the small groups and messiahs of rainwater harvesting, we were lucky to gather a mountain of information,” says Padre.

He believes in catering to the “information-needy.” He points to experiments from across India undertaken by “rainwater harvesting achievers” like Shyamjibhai Antala and Rajender Singh from remote North India.

Rainwater harvesting is possible in most areas. “The principle is the same everywhere,” says Padre. “But the methodology has to be applied to studying local geographical situations, soil type, rainfall, slope of land and many other aspects.”

One of the best sites explaining what rainwater harvesting is all about is located at: http://www.rainwater-harvesting.org

The neem is evergreen. It grows fast and in any kind of soil, good or bad. It can soar 25 metres high and can live for 200 to 300 years – that is if it is not cut down. It is one of the most tolerant trees. It is not scared of heat, less rainfall or even drought. The only thing about nature that is scary for a neem tree is frost in winter. There are about 20 million neem trees in India today, according to the Academy for Mountain Environics. The Academy is an organisation based in Dehradun, in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

The Many Uses of Neem: 

It has been used as a toothpaste and brush rolled into one. As an antiseptic, it prevents infection of wounds. Children with chicken pox and measles are bathed in water with neem leaves in it. 

New born babies are bathed in water that has been boiled with neem leaves because of its medicinal and refreshing qualities. 

Its fresh leaves are chewed to put an end to tension. The neem’s powdered seeds have cured many of headaches when applied on the forehead. Neem can get rid of lice. It can also be used to clean the stomach of worms. 

Women in south India light lamps with neem oil to keep insects away. Seeing this quality, for hundreds of years people in rural India have used neem to protect their stored grains against insects and rodents. Others have used it to protect winter clothes from insects and books from termites. 

A neem plant near your home can reduce pollution, repel mosquitoes and even lower the temperature in the hot months. This is one reason why in many places people continue to hang a neem twig on their doorways.

For thousands of years, the neem tree has been a familiar friend to the people of India. A native of India and Burma, every part of this tree, from its root to bark, leaves and seed, has been used for medicinal purposes. It has been used to cure illnesses. It has also been used for preventing infection, or repelling insects that attack grains or people, like mosquitoes. 

It is very interesting that the neem’s botanical name, Azadirachtc Indica, has come from a Persian description of the tree. They called the neem azad darakht-i-Hindil, which literally meant “the free tree of India”. 

The greedy company

The story of neem took an interesting twist some years ago. An American company announced that it had made a fungicide out of neem seeds. A fungicide has the power to kill fungus that infects plants and destroys them. 

The company then decided that it wanted to be the only company to make this product. So it applied for a patent. A patent is an official document which recognises that a person or company has indeed created or invented a new product. Thus the person or company has the sole right to make and sell that product. 

It was very strange. An American company was trying to make sure that the “free tree” became its slave. The company filed an application for a patent on the neem fungicide at the European Patent Office at Munich in Germany. 

Victory at last

It took some time for the government of India to get into action. And then, scientists started collecting proof of the fact that Indians have used neem seeds as a fungicide for thousands of years. And this knowledge has been available for anyone and everyone. 

The case took a long time. The good news came last week and the newspapers wrote about it on their front pages. The European Patent Office had rejected the claim of the American company that it had created a new fungicide from new seeds. 

The four-member panel of judges also had a name for the action of the US company. They called it bio-piracy. What it meant was that the company had tried to steal people’s knowledge of plants for its own profit by pretending that it was the company’s own creation. 

What is bio-piracy?

In the countries of Asia and Africa, people still have a very valuable collection of knowledge about trees and plants and their medicinal qualities. Most of the forests that have these trees are also to be found in these continents. This knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation. And its benefits have been shared by all. 

For some time now, Western countries have been wanting to make full use of this knowledge for their own profit. And they have been trying to get patents by claiming that they have made something new! 

Foreign companies from America, Japan, Canada, Germany and England have tried to patent almost 100 Indian plants, including the karela, or bitter gourd. They have patented the common weed Gokhru. The flour of Gokhru is the poor man’s food. 

Companies from these countries have even got patents for products from wild trees such as Arjun. In rural areas, the Arjun is used for making agricultural tools as well as carts. The dried fruit of the Harra tree has been a favourite Grandma’s cure for stomach problems. That too has been patented by a foreign company.

Nature Police

The Sundarbans, a tangle of unforgiving islands at the mouth of the Ganges River, are home to perhaps the world’s largest population of wild tigers — as well as millions of the poorest people in India andBangladesh. Despite decades of attempts to keep the tigers at bay, they still kill about two dozen people every year.

“But,without the tiger,” said Bish Tarafdar, a fisherman who was mauled last year, “there would be no jungle.”

He’s almost certainly right. As India industrializes, it is facing serious deforestation problems elsewhere.

As India booms, its many irrigation and hydropower projects have also reduced the flow of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers which feed the Sundarbans. That means less fresh water in the tidal basin.

The changes have made watermelons, once an attractive crop, impossible to grow. Rice paddies, the backbone of both the village diet and its economy, are producing less. Harvest season comes earlier every year.

The tigers are suffering from the changes, too. Once more commonly spotted in the south, where no humans live, they have been increasingly seen in northern woods, closer to the inhabited islands.

“It’s certainly become more inhospitable than it used to be,” said Anurag Danda, senior program coordinator of WWF India Sundarbans. “Of course people are scared, but that sense of fear has always been there.”

Despite the fear, the villagers also prize the tigers because they know the beasts are all that’s keeping the crowded world outside, from encroaching on their homes.

“In India, where processes driving the tiger toward extinction were

quite similar to those in the Malay world, colonizer and colonized took on

different roles. There, the British acted much as China’s Manchu rulers did,

organizing hunts and using their abilities to kill tigers to consolidate their

rule. “Big game hunting represented the striving and victory of civilized

man over the darker primeval and untamed forces still at work in the world,”

John MacKenzie wrote about hunting and the British empire. “It was as

though the virile imperialist and the lion—in India the tiger—were locked in

deadly combat for control of the natural world. But unlike the colonized

in the Malay world, at least some in India then identified with the tiger in the

anti-colonial struggle. Not just Tippu Sultan, “the tiger of Mysore,” but the

Muslim League too in the 1930s, adopted the tiger as its symbol of

resistance.”

Sustainable growth, even distribution of opportunities and inclusive development are the viable options to curb rural urban migration.
Then the physical appearance of our urban landscapes would not get any worse.

This is what the western media says:

“India has always been a difficult place to do business – excessive bureaucracy, endemic corruption and poor infrastructure are the most common problems – but now it seems Hindu gods must be added to the list. Plans for what would have been India’s first international ski resort in the Himalayan foothills have come unstuck after a group of Hindu gods ruled that it was environmentally unsound.”

The communities of villages in Kullu and environement action groups in Himachal Pradesh have been opposing the Himalayan Ski Village project in Kullu since 2005.

This is what they say:

Likely impacts of the Project -

1. Ecological and environmental concerns – links to community access to natural resources and livelihoods.
2. Cultural and Spiritual Concerns.
3. Issues of procedure, transparency, rights of communities & lack of information in the public domain.

Based on the facts mentioned below, this 300 million dollar project which could indeed be the most ecologically harmful project executed in Himachal till date (excluding the construction of dams). 

1. A considerable area under consideration for construction falls under temperate forests of Cedar, Fir, Rhododendron, Birch and alpine grasslands. Construction on these slopes will not only lead to ecological disturbance but can also initiate landslides. These Alpine medows are home to many medicinal plants and wildlife like the Monal Pheasant, Goral, Musk Deer and EVEN SOME SNOW LEOPARDS.

2. Ski toruism is increasingly coming under regulatory scanner in Europe and America. A recent publication by The Guardian: The final call; in search of the true cost we pay for our Holidays by Leo hickman provides evidence of the extremely disturbing trends of winter tourism.

3. In a city which is overburdened by the water, land and electricity demands of the tourist population, this project involves the construction of 166 acres (approx.) of Apartments, hotels, entertainment and shopping complexes, etc; and cafes in Himachal and that too upstream of Kullu where a project of such magnitude cannot be executed without large scale deforestation. 

4. Tourism and related construction activities are likely to cause soil erosion, slope destablization, flooding and landslides.

5. Deforestation of hill slopes will impact the livelihood of thousands of villagers who depend upon these slopes for their livelihood including fodder, fuelwood, grazing and herbs.

6. The 2 nallahs which this project is likely to tap are the source of drinking and irrigation water for downstream villages.

7. Creation of flat surfaces for construction and formation of ski slopes will not only lead to slow disappearance of springs which feed the rivers in the region but will also lead to reduced water entering the soil leading to slope instability and landslides.

8. The DPR of the Project is not available to the Stakeholders.

9. The project requires 1200 KLD (Kilo Litre/day) water (equivalent to water consumed by approx. 8,000 people in a day) and 22MW power; which is nearly 10 times the average use. One wonders if this project in itself might initiate the need for yet another dam in Himachal. 

10. The Project gives rights to the Company and its invitees water rights in the project area, including tapping of unused nallas/ground water and for building retention ponds for snow making and supply to resort village.

11. To those who care about the forests and ecology of Himachal, this project is certainly not good news as it would bring 6,000 acres of pristine forests under tourist influence. 

12. And to top it all Acrylic would be used to create artificial snow which is known to pollute water sources. This will impact not only Himachalis but also the people in the plains because the main rivers in North India originate in the Himalayas. 

13. In terms of land, the project would impact the hinterland of 60 villages which depend on these slopes for fodder, herd grazing and fuel; thereby, impacting nearly 39,000 Himachalis.

14. Water and power required to create artificial snow will severely impact local irrigation and needs of local population and though the local NGOs have opposed it since the very beginning, not much seems to have impacted the Environmental Clearance panel for the project which is still considering the matter. 

15. The Project provides exemption to owners of Ski Village to sell land to Non Himachalis (something which is not permitted anywhere else in the State).

We express deep concern over the Ski village project which is currently under study for environmental clearance and request that such a project be banned from disturbing the peace and equilibrium of the Himalayan State.

And, this is what the promoters of the project say:

“Set new social and environmental standards for 21^st century responsible tourism.”

“Build prosperity through sustainable tourism in the Himalaya.”

“No industrial or tourism project in India has ever submitted themselves to such a rigorous environmental study, which we have undertaken for setting up the proposed ski village project in the heights of Manali ”.

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Discover India magazine declared the village as the cleanest in Asia in 2003.

A dustbin made out of bamboo is found all along the village. Every one makes it a point that dirt and waste are not thrown everywhere. All the waste from the dustbin is collected and kept in a pit, which the villagers use as manure. The villagers are now on a mission to ban plastic. The village with cent per cent literacy is conscious and they are spreading the message of conservation and protection of the forest. Locals plant trees to ensure that the virgin forest is kept intact and also replenished.

If we compare Mawlynnong with hustling bustling of the fashion and education capital of Northeast like Shillong, Guwahati, Imphal or Dimapur, where the residents are sophisticated, educated and environment conscious, we would find that Mawlynnong is the cleanest of all. What do we have to say about the rest of them? In these cities, there has been several government sponsored cleanliness drives meant to keep the surrounding clean.

Yet, the rivers and streams in these areas are polluted to the level of having become unfit for use by humans.

Mawlynnong’s fame is now drawing an endless stream of guests from across the country and abroad. Although residential facilities are still scarce and are in the process of being developed, the existing one constructed from bamboo and thatch is quite hospitable and restful. Mawlynnong is an artist’s delight and the sort of getaway that would titillate creative writers and poets.

No wonder, with such high degree of cleanliness and environment friendliness, the people of the village are all healthy and sprightly.

Shouldn’t the rest of India learn from these simple villagers?

Jadugoda, Jharkhand is a place which has been serving India’s Uranium needs for last thirty years as country’s only underground uranium mines exist here. Jadugoda and surrounding areas are home to around 40,000 tribals and adivasis.

It first came into prominence when uranium deposits were discovered in the area in late 60s. For the last thirty years, the radioactive wastes have been just dumped into the rice fields of the Adivasis. The complete neglect of the authorities to radioactive waste management rules wreaks havoc in the daily lives of the villagers and children with genetic deformities become quite common.

The government agency (UCIL) mining the uranium makes no attempt to protect the lives of the people and environment of the area. The unsafe mining of uranium has resulted in excessive radiation which has led to genetic mutations and slow deaths. Medical reports reveal that the impact of radiation on the health of tribal peoples has already been devastating.

Local people are paying for India’s nuclear capabilities with their lives.