SC ALLOWS MINING IN FARIDABAD UNDER STRICT MONITORING
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
MINOR MINERALS AND CONSTRUCTION MATTERS IN HARYANA MINING:
I.A Nos.839, 840, 850, 853-854, 855-856, 866-868, 869-870, 871-872, 873-874, 875-876, 877-878, 879-880, 881-882, 891-892, 900, 905, 1276-1277, 1590, 1612-1613, 1700-1703, 2007-2008, 1488, 2138-2139 in 891-892, 2205, 2445, 2567, 2574 in 875-876, 2536,2636 in 879- 880,265802659 in 828, 2719 IN 1488 IN 891-92 in 828 and in
WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO(s). 202 OF 1995
T.N. GODAVARMAN THIRUMULPAD Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
UNION OF INDIA & ORS Respondent(s)
AND I.A.No.2198 @ Conmt.Pet.No.125/2006 vide Court’s order
dt.25.10.2007
WITH I.A.No.2269 in W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
AND I.A.No.2393 IN I.A.NO.2269 in I.A.NO.1785 in
W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
AND I.A.No.2270 IN I.A.NO.1785 in W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
AND C.P.(C)No.186/2003 in W.P.(C)NO.4677/1985
AND I.A.No.1866 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.Nos.1858-1859 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.No.1886 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.No.1888 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.Nos.1891 to 1893 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.No.1895 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.No.1896 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.NO.1906 in W.P.(C)NO.4677/1985
WITH I.A.Nos.1907-1908 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.Nos.1911-1912 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.NO.1937 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.NO.1938 in W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.Nos.2306-2307 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.Nos.2308-2309 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.Nos.2310 in I.A.2269 in 1785 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.No.1968 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.Nos.2334-2335 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.No.2336 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.No.D.58737 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
AND I.A.Nos.2374-2376 in IA 1785 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.Nos.2377-2380 in IA 1785 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.Nos.2381, 2382, 2383, 2384 in IA 1785 IN
W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.Nos.2386-2387 in IA 1785 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.No.2390 in IA 1785 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.No.2392 IN IA 1785 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.No.2415 in I.A. 1785 IN W.P.(C)No.4677/1985
WITH I.A.NO.2103 in W.P.(C)NO.4677/1985
WITH W.P.(C)No.624/2002
W.P.(C)No.661/2002
W.P.(C)No.428/2002
WITH CONMT.PET.(C)No.568/2002 in W.P.(C)NO.428/2002
WITH CONMT.PET.(C)NO.542/2004 IN W.P.(C)NO.428/2002
O R D E R
Heard both sides.
The Aravalli Hill Range has been subjected to widespread mining activities in recent times. About 1500 ha. of land was given for mining operations in Gurgaon and Mewat areas. Most of the mines were for excavating major minerals but we are told that what the mine operators extracted from the leased area were mostly minor minerals. Vast areas were thus reduced to ditches, some of them going down to a depth below the water level. The C.E.C. has filed a report showing the extent of damage caused by the mining operations in this area. With the help of the National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad, Department of Space, Govt. of India, maps of these areas are prepared by using satellite imagery system. Photocopies of the maps of these areas are produced before us from which it appears that as a result of the mining operations, the entire area has become highly devastated. The C.E.C. has also filed its report indicating the extent of damage caused to this area. There were discussions between the C.E.C. and the State of Haryana as to what steps need be taken in regard to the mining activities in these areas.
All mining operations in these hills were suspended by this Court vide order dated 8th May, 2009. Now it is stated on behalf of the State of Haryana that a complete ban on mining minerals there would cause scarcity of building materials and the construction of roads and buildings and other developmental activities would be seriously affected. It was suggested that about 600 ha. of land be set apart for extraction of minor minerals in the district of Faridabad, including Palwal. The State Government is also facing a problem caused by mining operations carried on in the past over an area 1500 ha. of land in Gurgaon and Mewat. These mine operators did not carry out any reclamation or rehabilitation work though they were legally bound to do so under Rule 27 of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 read with Form-K of the Mineral Concession Rules. Most of these places have been simply abandoned. These areas have to be reclaimed and extensive afforestation work needs to be carried out in these areas.
Some of the mining operators, having existing licenses that have not so far expired, raised a contention that due to suspension of all mining operations by this Court they were not able to conduct any mining even though they had not violated any rules or guidelines and hence, they should be allowed to do the mining operations in terms of the lease granted to them, more so as the State of Haryana is proposing a Scheme for setting aside about 600 ha. of land in Faridabad for excavation of minor minerals. We do not think it is feasible or in the larger interest to allow those mining operators to carry out any mining activities on the basis of the earlier licenses. Of course, they would be at liberty to participate in the auction in respect of the 600 ha. of land in Faridabad which would be made available for mining activities.
The C.E.C. and the State of Haryana held a meeting on 7.1.2009 and a report dated 15.1.2009 has been filed before this Court. On the basis of the report, any mining activity in the 600 ha. of land to be identified and earmarked in Faridabad shall be based on the following decisions taken in this meeting :
i) The State shall issue a Notification laying down the guidelines and the procedure for giving licence/lease. The State shall also establish an Aravali Rehabilitation Fund and a Monitoring Committee. In issuing the Notification for allowing mining operations in an area upto 600 ha. in the District of Faridabad, including Palwal, the State must strictly adhere to all the conditions enumerated in the Minutes of the Meeting held on 7.1.2009 between the C.E.C., State of Haryana and the Forest Survey of India regarding mining, colonisation and related issues in Aravali hills. It is hoped and expected that the Notification will be issued by the State Government within a period of three months.
ii) The State of Haryana will take immediate steps for preparation and implementation of Reclamation and Rehabilitation Plan for the area degraded as a result of the mining activities in that part. The rehabilitation of those areas shall be done by the respective leaseholders. The State would also be at liberty to hold the respective leaseholders who had not carried out the rehabilitation work as per Rule 27 of the Mineral Concession Rules read with Form-K of the said rules as liable for the rehabilitation of those areas. The State shall take all reparatory and compensatory steps in this regard.
iii) The actual mining operation in the 600 ha. of land in Faridabad shall commence on submission of the rehabilitation and reclamation plan by the State and its approval by this Court. It shall be done at the earliest and preferably within a period of six months.
iv) The C.E.C. shall submit quarterly reports to this Court in regard to the commencement of the mining activities and its effect on the surrounding areas as also in regard to the progress of the reclamation work in the areas of Aravali range degraded by the past mining operations.
Before any mining operations commence, the leaseholders shall obtain all statutory clearances including environmental clearance in terms of MoEF Notification dated 14.9.2006 and also the approval under the Forest Conservation Act.
The Principal Secretary, Department of Mines, State of Haryana will be responsible to ensure strict compliance of this order. The Chief Secretary of the State shall have supervisory control over the matter. As regards the permission for mining activities in the 1500 ha. of land in Gurgaon and Mewat, the same will be taken up separately considering the progress made in the rehabilitation work to be carried out by the State in the 600 ha. of land.
In case of violation of any of these directions or failure of the rehabilitation and reclamation process to make satisfactory progress, this Court would consider closure of the mining activities which are hereby permitted by this Court.
In case of any such failure, the C.E.C. may file a report as and when required. The State would revoke all licenses in respect for major minerals both in Faridabad and Gurgaon districts.
All I.A.s, writ petitions and contempt petitions relating to minor minerals are disposed of. Consequently, all applications for intervention and impleadment are also disposed of.
List the Construction matters on 11.12.2009.
………………CJI
(K.G. BALAKRISHNAN)
……………….J.
(S.H. KAPADIA)
……………….J.
(AFTAB ALAM)
NEW DELHI;
8TH OCTOBER, 2009
SC nod to mining on 600 hectares of Aravalis
SC nod to mining on 600 hectares of Aravalis
Area under mining may go up in Palwal and Fbd
Aravalli mining can go on: SC
Apex court allows limited mining in Aravali ranges
RAPE OF BELLARY
READ A ON THE IMPACT OF MINING ON BELLARY
Rape of Bellary
When the rains fail
IN THE ECONOMIST
RAINFALL last month encouraged Haniya, a middle-aged member of the Lambada tribe of southern Andhra Pradesh (AP), to inspect his one-acre (0.4-hectare) field. Some speckles of green, to show the red earth had held enough water for weeds to shoot, would have tempted him to sow cotton. But, towards the end of AP’s monsoon rainy season, the field was parched and bare. If it rains again, Haniya may sow. If not? He gave the reply of peasant farmers in India and poor, dry places everywhere: “Only God knows.”
THE FAILING MONSOON
Back in his village of Veeralapalam, light-skinned Lambadi farmers gathered. Most had scattered some cotton or lentil seed after the rain. But it had better rain again: none had access to irrigation from a dozen wells sunk 90 metres into central India’s lava bedrock by richer high-caste Hindu farmers. A few expected to buy a dousing or two of costly piped water, brought by the same neighbours from a nearby storm-creek. Even if affordable, said Saidanayak, this would not sustain his hoped-for acre of cotton. Without more rain, it will fail, adding to his 125,000-rupee ($2,500) debt—a big sum, when the dowry for a Lambada bride is $1,200.
With no crop, no money and three daughters to marry off, he would join the only reliable flood in AP in these drought days: of thousands of tough, skinny peasants into Hyderabad, the state capital, in search of a day-wage. Asked what he would do there, Saidayanak pushed out his fists and shifted from foot to foot, as if cycling a rickshaw—and laughter diluted the gloom.
Many Indians share his worries. Around 450m live off rain-fed agriculture, and this year’s monsoon rains, which between June and September provide 80% of India’s precipitation, have been the scantiest in decades. Almost half India’s 604 districts are affected by drought, especially in the poorest and most populous states—such as Bihar, which has declared drought in 26 of its 38 districts. Uttar Pradesh (UP), home to 185m, expects its main rice harvest to be down by 60%. The outlook for the winter wheat crop is also poor, with India’s main reservoirs, a source for irrigation canals, one-third below their seasonal average. That also means less water for thirsty cities, including Delhi, where 18m people live and the water board meets around half their demand in a good year.
Belated cloudbursts in AP and other states have brought relief. But late sowing tends to produce a thin harvest. AP counted some 20 farmer suicides last month, and there will be more. A short drive from Hyderabad, Koteswara Rao watched as four Hindu outcasts and two blue-horned bullocks ploughed his 16 acres (14 of them leased) for cotton. If it fails he will be left with a $4,000 debt and, being of lofty caste, he said, he could never sweat it out as a labourer. “Suicide would be easier.”
No one should starve, at least. None of India’s previous five big post-independence droughts caused famine. And after two bumper years, the government says it has enough wheat and rice in store to prevent serious food-grain price inflation. With agriculture accounting for only 18% of GDP, compared with 30% in 1990, the drought will in fact cause relatively little damage to India’s economy; it should still grow by over 5% this year. Lavish spending on rural welfare since 2004, when the Congress party won power in Delhi, will also help. Almost 30m people have benefited from the government’s chief public-works project, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
Yet the drought underlines a grim truth. India’s extremes of hydrology, poverty and population present vast difficulties for water management which it has never mastered. And they are growing. Increasingly frequent droughts may be a sign of this—if, as some think, climate change is to blame. It will accentuate India’s problems, with the monsoon rains, which supply over 50% of much of India’s annual precipitation in just 15 days, predicted to become even more contracted and unpredictable. At the same time, the rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers promises to deprive the great rivers of the Indian sub-continent, the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra, of their summertime source. This threatens a triple whammy: of longer dry seasons, in which these rivers do not flow, and more violent wet seasons. That would mean more bad news for flood-prone eastern India, including Bihar, where over 3m were displaced last year when the Kosi river burst a crumbling embankment.
India’s water future was worrying even without climate change. Despite daunting seasonal and regional variations, it should have ample water for agricultural, industrial and household use. But most of it falls, in a remarkably short time, in the wrong places. India’s vast task is therefore to trap and store enough water; to channel it to where it is most needed; and, above all, to use it there as efficiently as possible. And on all three counts, India fares badly. Without huge improvements, according to a decade-old official estimate, by 2050, when its population will be a shade under 1.7 billion, India will run short of water.
There are already signs of the conflict this would cause. Having bickered for decades over their rights to the Krishna river, AP and upstream Maharashtra and Karnataka are now furiously building dams and diversions that the river might not support even in flood. In Orissa 30,000 farmers—for whom over 80% of India’s water is reserved—laid siege to a reservoir in 2007 to try to stop factories using its waters. The desert state of Rajasthan has seen similar protests against the diversion of water to its growing cities. In one, five farmers were shot dead by police.
The government is worried: “2050 is a very frightening sort of a picture,” says A.K. Bajaj, chairman of India’s central water commission, which provides technical support to the state governments who control India’s water. Its main solution is to build more large dams (390 are under construction), and river diversions, including a long-mooted extravaganza of 30 linkages which would unite most of India’s river basins. Indeed, India needs more water storage: it has 200 cubic metres per person, compared with 1,000 cubic metres in China. But given the decrepitude of much of its existing water infrastructure, and its profligate ways with water, its more urgent priorities are to repair and reform.
Worshipping old gods
Famine-prone for most of its history, India’s attachment to dams is understandable. Its ability to feed itself owes much to a splurge on big dams and canal projects in the 1950s-70s—for example, the colossal Bhakra dam in Himachal Pradesh, completed in 1963 and described by the then prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, as a “new temple” of India. The Bhakra brought 7m hectares of north-west India, chiefly Punjab and Haryana, under irrigation. This prepared the way for the Green Revolution of the 1960s, when the introduction of new seeds and chemical fertilisers hugely boosted farm yields in those states and in the coastal region of AP—which was irrigated in the 19th century by a British engineer, Sir Arthur Cotton, who is still worshipped there as a god.
But, the world over, without expensive maintenance to prevent siltation in reservoirs and leakage from canals, grand dams and irrigation schemes tend to be as inefficient as they are environmentally destructive. And India’s corrupt, underfunded and overmanned state irrigation departments—UP’s, for example, employs over 100,000 people—often provide no maintenance at all. As a result, each year India is estimated to lose the equivalent of two-thirds of the new storage it builds to siltation. Bad planning, often as a result of inter-state rivalries, causes more waste. Thus, between 1992 and 2004 India built 200 large and medium-sized irrigation projects—and the area irrigated by such schemes shrank by 3.2m hectares.
The village of Veeralapalam offers a snapshot of this, and of the losers in a political economy where water is the main currency. From the early 1960s it received occasional water in a small canal, at the tail-end of a system off the Krishna river. But this has been dry since 1985 because of leakage up-channel and, the Lambadi farmers say, illegal tapping by members of a more favoured community. The canal was re-dug last year under the NREGS, but seems unlikely to get any water.
A few miles up-channel in Ulisaipalam, a village dominated by high-caste Hindus, there is water, but more problems. Wading shin-deep, P. Venkat Reddy transplants dark green paddy into his two acres of irrigated, but undrained, land. When there is water in the canal, for around four months each year, it is waterlogged, fit only for paddy. But in recent years the canal has held insufficient water for a full paddy crop—forcing Mr Reddy to supplement it with groundwater. He pumps this, with electricity given free to farmers in AP, from a borehole drilled 45 metres into his land.
THE FAILING MONSOON
Since the 1970s, when affordable water pumps became available and electricity reached many more places, millions have done the same. India is the world’s biggest user of groundwater, with some 20m bore-holes providing water for over 60% of its irrigated area. Being entirely in farmers’ hands, this is up to three times more productive than canal irrigation. In 2002, by a conservative estimate, it was worth $8 billion a year to the Indian economy—more than four times what the central and state governments spend on irrigation schemes.
Groundwater irrigation has transformed the lives of millions. It has also rectified problems, of water-logging and salination, caused by canals. But in many places, including productive Punjab and Haryana, whose rather well-off farmers also get free or cut-price electricity, the rate of groundwater extraction is unsustainable. Nearly a third of India’s groundwater blocks were defined in 2004 as “critical, semi-critical or over-exploited”. The World Bank reckons that 15% of India’s food is produced by “mining”—or unrenewable extraction of—groundwater, including in 18 of Punjab’s 20 districts. Satellite maps released by America’s NASA last month showed that north-western India’s aquifers had fallen by a foot a year between 2002 and 2008: a loss of 109 cubic km (26 cubic miles) of water, or three times the volume of America’s biggest man-made reservoir.
This is storing up trouble. As bore-holes run dry, as those over the hardrock aquifers of southern-central India do on a monthly basis, many poor people may be deprived of safe drinking water. Currently, 220m Indians lack this. Not all India’s groundwater is potable anyway; in places, it is getting seriously polluted. And India’s groundwater reserves will be especially missed when climate change makes surface-water sources even more sporadic. Their depletion will accentuate this, with springs, which could have provided a trickle of run-off during the extended dry seasons, increasingly failing.
Pump and be damned
Some excuse this resolute destruction by saying that India’s farmers do not understand groundwater. But they know when it is running out, as an impromptu conclave in the Punjabi village of Lubana Teku showed. “Punjab will become a desert, like Rajasthan,” said Jarnail Singh, a stately, orange-turbaned grower of rice. When Mr Singh began pumping groundwater in 1973, turning his 14 acres from cotton to paddy, it took a three-horsepower engine to bring it up from 1.5 metres. Now the groundwater is 20 metres down, and he requires a 15-horsepower pump to sluice his green paddy-fields. “We know the water is going,” said Mr Singh. “But we’re not going to change our ways unless the government makes us.”
Rather, it encourages him to keep pumping. Besides paying nothing for his water or electricity—seven hours of it a day—Mr Singh knows the government will buy all the rice he can grow, at a pre-ordained “minimum support price”. Set against this package, Punjab’s efforts to conserve its groundwater, mainly by telling farmers not to transplant paddy before the monsoon rains, are rather puny.
State governments know that this is madness. Over a quarter of India’s electricity is given free or cut-price to farmers. As a result, the state power utilities are bust. Understandably, however, politicians balk at reform. Two chief ministers recently tried charging farmers for electricity, in AP and Madhya Pradesh, and were kicked out of office. The Congress party chief minister of Haryana, which is going to the polls in October, will not make that mistake. He is demanding $200m from India’s Congress-led central government as a contribution to Haryana’s agricultural-power subsidy.
The subsidy raj is not confined to farmers. Many municipal governments price water well below cost, and therefore struggle to supply it. Delhi, where the water board’s revenues cover only 40% of its operating costs, should have plenty of water. It draws 220 litres per citizen, more than Paris. But half of it disappears from leaky pipes. To mend these, workmen, having no underground maps, must dig up and sift through a tangled mass of pipes and cables, like untrained surgeons manhandling intestines.
THE FAILING MONSOONS
Predictably, for a couple of hundred rupees a month, posh south Delhi gets the best water supply. When its taps run dry, the locals, including India’s political and bureaucratic elite, pump groundwater—often illegally. By one estimate, bore-holes provide 40% of the capital’s water; and south Delhi’s groundwater, which underlies the offices of India’s Central Groundwater Authority, is being depleted by up to three metres a year. But tube-wells, which cost around $600, are no option for Delhi’s poor, including 4m slum-dwellers. To augment their supply they must buy water, of dubious quality and at extortionate prices, from a well-connected water mafia.
In fiery June residents of Sangam Vihar, a poor suburb of south Delhi, rioted after getting no water for two weeks. In normal times, according to Vishnu Sharma, a 36-year-old resident, he and his family receive, at unpredictable times, around an hour and a half of muddy piped water each week. They pay $2 for this, he said—and another $20, or a quarter of his factory wage, to private water-sellers in cahoots with corrupt water-board officials. “So why bother complaining?” he said angrily.
Who could deny that rich Delhiites must pay more for water, so the city’s poor can get more? The rich, of course. In 2005 a World Bank-sponsored effort to reform the water board was shot down by local NGOs. As well as worrying, reasonably, about the bidding process for contracts, they were outraged to discover that, in return for round-the-clock clean water, the targeted households would be charged about $20 a month—or what Mr Sharma pays his local water don.
Pay more, use less
To make farmers use less water, they must pay, or pay more, for electricity. The longer state governments wait to institute this, the higher the cost of pumping groundwater will go—and the more difficult reform becomes. Nor is pricing alone a panacea. According to a World Bank study, farmers are already paying rather a lot for subsidised but poor-quality electricity. In Haryana, farmers with electricity spent 25% of their incomes on it and on repairing burnt-out pump-engines; those without electricity spent 31% of their incomes on diesel. To charge farmers more for electricity, utilities will have to improve supply. And farmers must learn to use water more efficiently.
Selling groundwater to cities, as farmers outside Chennai have done, is one possible answer. Another, to keep up India’s food production, is to spread the use of modern seeds and other technologies—such as an improved system of paddy cultivation that uses half as much water and has boosted yields in Tamil Nadu and AP. Ideally, commercial cultivation of thirsty sugar-cane and paddy should also be shifted eastwards, to the poor and sodden parts of Bihar and West Bengal. For now, alas, the political trade-offs and mammoth infrastructure development this would require make it seem unimaginable.
Farmers on arid, rain-fed land need help of other sorts. Even if they had electricity—which 400m Indians do not—they could hardly pay for it. Nor would it be altogether desirable for them to pump groundwater unless they could be enjoined to sow appropriate crops, such as pulses and millet, and water them wisely. In dry areas, where profligate water-use by one farmer can make many wells run dry, farmers have been persuaded to share information on rainfall, groundwater levels and cropping, and so collectively regulate themselves. One attempt at this in central AP involves 25,000 farmers.
And India must have more dams. These need not be large; indeed, given problems of maintenance and resettlement, it would be better if they were not. For these and other reasons, most experts also seem to want the ambitious river-basin-linkage idea to be scrapped. In most places, urban and rural, India’s state governments would do better to concentrate on building and restoring millions of small water storages, tanks and mini-reservoirs, and put local governments in charge of them. There is no simple solution to India’s complicated water crisis. But if prayers are necessary, let them be offered in small shrines, not vast concrete temples.
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14401149
India’s environmental situation alarming: PM
The “multiple environmental crises that confront our country have created an alarming situation”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in New Delhi on Tuesday, while asking state governments to curtail pollution, clean rivers and fight climate change.Opening a daylong conference of environment ministers from all state governments, Manmohan Singh said: “Climate change is threatening our ecosystems, water scarcity is becoming a way of life and pollution is endangering our health.”
“We have to make fundamental choices about our lifestyles,” the prime minister said, assuring his audience that the “challenges are not insurmountable”.Describing climate change as a “major global challenge”, he said India was conscious of its “responsibility to present and future generations” and would ensure the “ecological sustainability of its development path”.
Manmohan Singh sought the cooperation of all state governments to implement the eight missions that the centre has outlined under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. He asked the assembled ministers to have state level action plans in concordance with the national plan. The prime minister also called upon state governments to modernise their forest departments and to fill up vacant posts, pointing out that many states would now get huge funding for compensatory afforestation projects, as the Supreme Court has recently unfrozen over Rs 9,000 crore meant for this. The money was lying in escrow accounts for over seven years
Welcoming the prime minister, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said the first tranche of these funds, Rs 400 crore, had been transferred to 10 states on Tuesday morning, and Rs 1,000 crore would be transferred “in the next few days”.
Manmohan Singh underlined the “need to ensure that local communities benefit from forest conservation. Tribals have guarded our forests for centuries. Their wisdom and experience should be utilised for conservation rather than turning them into environmental refugees”.
He said the Tribal Rights Act was the best way to guarantee these rights.
The prime minister expressed concern that rivers all over India were still being degraded. He referred to the increased allocation in this year’s national budget to clean rivers, and asked state pollution control boards to curtail release of industrial effluents into waterways, “which account for 25 per cent of total pollution in rivers”.
Manmohan Singh felt that India’s mandatory environmental clearance rules had led to a “licence raj” and had become “a source of corruption”. But he expressed confidence that the National Green Tribunal bill would change this by setting up an independent regulator. The bill was introduced in parliament during the last session.
“India’s energy needs will increase sharply,” the prime minister pointed out. “We have to ensure we meet this demand in an environment-friendly way.” He sought more investments in green technologies and a boost to research and development in this field.
“Environmental degradation threatens our economic security and our well-being,” Manmohan Singh warned the assembled ministeRs
While welcoming the prime minister, Ramesh appealed for more money for river and lake conservation and to set up joint effluent treatment plants in industrial estates.
The minister referred to an anomaly in the rules, due to which states had to transfer the water cess they collected to the centre, which then sent 80 per cent of the amount back to the states. It would make more sense for the state to simply send 20 per cent of cess to the centre, he pointed out.
Ramesh also sought “special bonuses” for states that maintained their green cover, and wanted this institutionalised through the Finance Commission or the Planning Commission.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=eba16eae-30a5-4100-a7e9-a89553b8ddb5
INDIA LAW RESOURSCE CAUTIONS:
MR PRIME MINISTER ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION IS NEVER A CONCERN OF YOU POLITICIANS. YOU ALL WANT TO MAKE MONEY AND THAT IS WHY THE CORRUPTION IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARNCE. IF YOU ARE VERY SERIOUS ON THESE ISSUES DONT MAKE ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCE EASIER.MAKE IT TOUGHER.
MAKE THE AGENCIES WHICH GRANT THESE LICENSES STRONGER WITH MORE PARTICIPATION OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY.MAKE IT TRANSPARENT.
ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION IS A SERIOUS ISSUE STATE GOVT CARE A DAMN ABOUT ENVIRONMENT. MONEY PAID TO THE STATES WILL GO INTO THE HOMES OF FAT BUREAUCRATS AND MEGALOMANIAC POLITICIANS WHO CUT 30000 TREES TO HAVE A PARK TO INSTALL THERE STATUES.
THE SUPREME COURT SHOULD NOT HAVE CLEARED THE FUNDS FOR SUCH USE.
THE CENTRAL GOVT NEEDS TO MAKE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION A CENTRAL SUBJECT. STATES WILL EAT AWAY THE MONEY.
WE DONT NEED PROGRESS AT THE COST OF ENVIRONMENT. IF YOU WILL NOT PAY HEED TODAY NATURE WILL GIVE YOU ALL A RESOUNDING REPLY.
PLANET IS GETTING HOTTER . THE MONSOON ARE GETTING WEAKER EVERY YEAR. IT IS YOU ALL POLITICIANS WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE AND A HANDFUL OF INDUSTRIALISTS AND MONEYED PEOPLE WHO RAPE THE ENVIRONMENT TO GAIN MONEY AND THEMSELVES STAY IN COOLER PARTS OF THE WORLD.
A CLARION CALL NEEDS TO BE GIVEN FOR PROTECTION OF INDIAS ENEVIRONMENTAL HERITAGE.THE PRIME MINISTER AND HIS ENVIRONMENT MINISTER NEED TO FIRST THROUGH OUT VEDANTA WHO ARE HELL BENT TO RAPE NIYAMGIRI MOUNTAINS IN ORISSA.
EVEN THE SUPREME COURT GREEN BENCH PROVIDES JUSTICE TO ONLY INDUSTRAIALISTS AS THEY ONLY CAN HIRE THE MONEYED LAWYERS. THE SUPREME COURT DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE VOICES OF THE ENVIRONMETALISTS. MANY SENIOR ADVOCATES ARE HAND IN GLOVES WITH INDUSTRAILISTS AND GET PAID MILLIONS OF RUPEES FOR GETTING THE CLEARNCE FROM THE GREEN BENCH.
THE WHOLE SYSTEM STINKS.
PEOPLE WHO RAPE THE ENVIRONMENT SHOULD BE GIVEN THE DEATH PENALTY AS THEY OVER THE YEARS KILL THE RIGHT TO LIFE OF FUTURE GENERATIONS TO COME.
Groundwater vanishing in North India, says NASA
Staff Reporter
BANGALORE: Groundwater levels in Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi are falling dramatically — by one foot a year — a trend that could lead to “extensive socio-economic stresses” for the region’s 114 million residents, says a scientific paper based on the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s satellite imagery.
A staggering 109 cubic km of groundwater has been lost in just six years (2002-08) — a figure twice the capacity of India’s largest surface reservoir Upper Wainganga and “much more” than the government’s estimation, says the paper published in the latest issue of international journal Nature.
The depletion is caused entirely by human activity such as irrigation, and not natural climatic variability, concludes the study co-authored by Matthew Rodell, a hydrologist with NASA. Groundwater is being pumped out faster than it is being replenished.
The finding is based on images from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), a pair of satellites that sense changes in Earth’s gravity field and associated mass distribution, including water masses stored above or below the Earth’s surface.
Between August 2002 and October 2008, the region lost 109 cubic km of groundwater, almost triple the capacity of the largest man-made reservoir in the U.S., Lake Mead. If measures are not taken to ensure sustainable groundwater use, consequences may include collapse of agricultural output and severe shortages of potable water, said Professor Rodell.
Depletion is likely to continue until effective measures are taken to curb groundwater demand which could propel severe shortages of potable water, reduced agricultural productivity, conflict and suffering, the research paper added. Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi are semi-arid or arid. The region has benefited from the Green Revolution “fuelled largely by increased production of groundwater for irrigation.”
http://www.hindu.com/2009/08/14/stories/2009081461071200.htm
A walk in the clouds
PUBLISHED IN THE FRONTLINE ON AUGUST 2009
http://www.frontline.in/stories/20090814261606400.htm
TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHS BY A.J.T. JOHNSINGH
| A memorable trek across a rough but scenic terrain – from Bangitapal to Sairandhiri in the Western Ghats. |
THE KUNTHIPUZHA VALLEY enveloped in mist.
Ten of us wildlifers were on a trekking expedition from Bangitapal (2,281 m) in the Mukurthi National Park to Sairandhiri (1,100 m) in the Silent Valley National Park. The mission: to evaluate the importance of the two national parks in the conservation planning for large mammals in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
THE morning’s first golden rays lit the Mukurthi peak (2,554 metres) and tinged the dry grasslands on the slopes in a warm shade of red. Next to it, the Nilgiri peak (2,474 m) was still shrouded in the dim light of dawn. From a vantage point atop the Kundah mountain range, I could see the Karulai range of the South Nilambur Forest Division. The steep mountain slopes towards the north were densely forested and the Nilambur valley, with its many patches of teak plantations, was clearly visible. Beyond Nilambur rose the Meppadi mountains (2,000 m).
SHOLA PATCHES AND a fire line on the undulating hills at Sispara.
Mukurthi (78 square kilometres), a dumb-bell shaped protected area in the south-western end of the Upper Nilgiri plateau, was established as a wildlife sanctuary in 1986 – mainly to conserve the Nilgiri tahr – and declared a national park in 2001. The Gudalur Forest Division and the Nilgiri South Forest Division lie to its north, the latter bordering it on the east as well. On the west is the South Nilambur Forest Division and to the south is Silent Valley. Mukurthi is part of both the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and the 6,000-sq km Nilgiri sub-cluster, which has been recommended to UNESCO for inclusion in the World Heritage Site list.
The British used the Bangitapal-Sispara route as the shortcut for mail between Udhagamandalam (Ootacamund, or Ooty) and Kozhikode. Until the early 1960s, the Mukurthi landscape was a hunting ground where, besides grey jungle fowl, hare and wild pigs, a stipulated number of tigers, sambar stags with a minimum hard antler length of 36 inches (90 cm) and saddleback tahr (adult males with white saddles) could be shot every year. Cloud-capped mountains, misty valleys, beautiful streams, grasslands that change colour from season to season and evergreen sholas (high-altitude evergreen forests in valley habitats) make the park extremely scenic. It is home to the only population of the Nilgiri tahr (nearly 200 animals) left on the Upper Niligiri plateau. In the 1800s, several tahr herds occurred all over the plateau. The tahr shares its mountain home with the mouse deer, the barking deer, the sambar, the dhole, the leopard and the tiger.
KALYAN VARMA
Aerides ringens, a colourful orchid growing in the shelter of the sholas.
Elephants migrate to the park, largely from Silent Valley, between June and December when the two monsoons bring nearly 5,000 mm of rain. Numerous little streams drain the plateau, with the vast majority flowing into either the Moyar or the Bhavani river. The Moyar itself finally flows into the Bhavani at Peerkadavu on the Coimbatore plains; both rivers irrigate an enormous area in the three Tamil Nadu districts of Erode, Tiruchi and Tanjavur.
In the distant past, when climatic conditions were much cooler, Himalayan species of plants and animals were widely distributed along the peninsula. A few of these survive in the plateau where a temperate climate prevails. Prominent among these are the tahr and the rarely seen Nilgiri marten, both closely related to their Himalayan counterparts, the Himalayan tahr and the Himalayan yellow-throated marten. Among the many plants with a Himalayan connection, Rhododendron nilagirica and Mahonia leschenaultia, are the easiest to recognise. There are many native plants, too. A colourful orchid (Aerides ringens) growing in the shelter of the sholas caught my eye.
In most places the monotony of the forest floor covered with leaf litter is broken by the blood-red fallen leaves of Elaeocarpus munronii.
Before the arrival of the British, the major communities that lived on the plateau were the Todas and the Badagas. The former grazed buffaloes in the grasslands and the latter were agriculturists. Both obtained their firewood and timber from the sholas. This and the arrival of the British in the 1800s eventually led to the destruction of many sholas. The British, settling in places such as Udhagamandalam, Coonoor and Wellington, planted many species native to England to re-create a mini-England here. They also planted many other exotic species such as the wattle, the pine and the eucalyptus in the grasslands. The narrow Sispara Pass marks the entry from the Mukurthi National Park into Silent Valley. The path descends through dense, damp, evergreen forests frequented by the elephant, the gaur and the tiger. The credit for bringing to light one of the last bits of fairly intact evergreen forest in the Western Ghats goes to the British. In 1847, Robert Wight, a Scottish surgeon and botanist, collected plants around the Kunthipuzha (the Kunthi river), which flows through a deep valley. The river owes it name to Kunthi, mother of the legendary Pandavas who were supposed to have resided in these forests during their 13-year exile.
It is said that the Kunthipuzha never turns brown even during heavy rains because of its fairly intact catchment. The river rises at an altitude of 2,200 m, tumbles down a deep gorge, flows for 15 km through the length of the valley and finally joins the Bharathapuzha. Wight named it Silent Valley because of the perceived absence of cicadas, a plant bug, males of which sing loudly. The forests were declared a reserve forest in 1914, and portions of it were subjected to forestry operations between 1927 and 1976.
In 1973, the valley became the focal point of “Save Silent Valley”, India’s fiercest environmental debate of that decade, when the Kerala State Electricity Board decided to implement the Silent Valley Hydro Electric Project centred on a dam across the Kunthipuzha at Sairandhiri. The resulting reservoir would have flooded 8.3 sq km of the rainforest habitat, home to a large number of lion-tailed macaques, among numerous other endangered life forms. Eventually, conservationists won the battle and the Silent Valley forests were declared a national park in 1984. In 2007, a 148-sq km buffer zone (109 sq km from the Mannarkad Forest Division and 39 sq km from the Nilambur South Forest Division) was added to the park.
THE HYPERICUM NILAGIRICA, a food plant of the tahr.
The buffer is reported to have four tribal groups (Kattunaikan, Kurumba, Irula and Muduga) settled in 10 tribal hamlets. The park harbours over 200 bird species (14 of them endemic to the Western Ghats), 128 butterfly species (nine exclusive to the Western Ghats) and other charismatic species such as the king cobra, the Nilgiri langur, the gaur, the elephant, the dhole, the leopard and the tiger.
BANGITAPAL TO SAIRANDHIRI
It was drizzling when we started our journey from Udhagamandalam on March 12. On the way to Bangitapal we saw a sambar stag in magnificent hard antlers emerging out of the Avalanche shola and walking along a very steep trail, a feat, among large ungulates, only certain species like the sambar can effortlessly accomplish. The stag, and many other sambar we observed later on this trip, did not have a sore patch (a large patch at the base of the neck on the ventral side which is devoid of hair, flesh-coloured during the rutting season and black during the non-breeding season). It had been my conviction that all sambar in South India have the sore patch, based on my observations of animals in Mundanthurai, Periyar, Anamalais, Mudumalai and Bandipur. One explanation suggested for the occurrence of the sore patch is that it may have a function in scent marking; but its absence in individuals in other regions, such as Corbett Tiger Reserve, does not support this hypothesis.
RHODODENDRON NILAGIRICA IN the Mukurthi landscape.
The drizzle turned into a torrential downpour as we spent the night in the Bangitapal forest bungalow. It did not augur well for our upcoming three-day, 50-km walk across a terrain that was as rough as it was scenic. The following morning was still overcast, but the eastern horizon was cloudless. A few Nilgiri langurs stirred out of their roost in the shola behind the nearly 80-year-old bungalow and a Malabar whistling thrush whistled its melody. We made an early start to avoid the late afternoon rain.
The first 13 km of the trekking path from Bangitapal traverses the Mukurthi National Park over an undulating terrain across grasslands, along a trail well maintained by the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, and through large and small sholas. From the Kundah mountain, to the south-west towards Sispara, I could see sections of our meandering trek path over these undulating hills and shola patches. The calls of the Indian scimitar babbler and the Nilgiri laughing thrush can instantly cheer a weary trekker, and I realised that it is the cool atmosphere of these forests that condense water out of the clouds pregnant with rain. If global warming reduces this capability of the sholas, the human population that depends on the water from these mountains will suffer terribly.
Our trail was used frequently by the tiger and the elephant. In spite of the recent rains the smell of tiger spray was discernible in many sholas. Tigers have a habit of marking their ranges by spraying on objects like bushes and trees on their trails. To me, the spray (a mixture of urine and pheromones) smells like ammonia.
The flight distances of large mammals are supposed to indicate the level of disturbance, particularly the poaching pressure they face. In one large, dark shola my approach alarmed a group of Nilgiri langurs. While the rest of the langurs scurried deep into the shola, an adult male grunted and watched me from a distance of just 15 m. The Nilgiri langur is one of the large mammal species heavily poached in the Western Ghats because of the alleged medicinal properties of its flesh. Their abundance here could be indicative of the protection they receive.
Watching the bold langur, my thoughts went back to my visit to Sispara in 1978 in the company of John Joseph, the then Wildlife Warden of the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary and later the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Tamil Nadu. Also with us on that visit was Major Richard Radcliffe, who was an active member of the Nilgiri Wildlife and Environment Association. Major Radcliffe, a British hunter-turned-conservationist, did yeoman service for conservation in the Nilgiris for 30 years until his death at the age of 82. Thirty years on, I still had the clearest memory of having trekked from Bangitapal to Sispara looking for tahr poachers. We walked four to five hours from Bangitapal, while Sispara was a mere two-hour climb for poachers. Over a rock face, we saw a ropeway of canes used by them to complete the last phase of the climb from the valley. We dismantled it.
At the entrance to Silent Valley we heard sounds of large-bodied animals moving and saw the vegetation close to our path swaying. There was fresh dung on the trail. The staff from the national park awaiting our arrival at the boundary said that they had just seen a herd of four elephants go past. Entering Silent Valley, we saw gaur signs for the first time on the trek.
A SAMBAR STAG in Korakundah Organic Tea Estate near the Mukurthi National Park. Sambar, which is a prey for the tiger, is abundant here.
As we approached the spacious Walakkad anti-poaching camp, the camping site for the day, we saw the remains of a porcupine that had been killed by a leopard. The Walakkad camp had a well-maintained elephant-proof trench around it, and the camp was kept remarkably clean. The next day we took the shortcut to the Poochipara camp. The route took us past a 70-cm-wide Bischofia javanica tree clawed by tigers, forced us to cross the Kunthipuzha several times, climb out from a deep valley and, after numerous elephant signs, brought us finally close to a solitary elephant which was unwilling to budge an inch in spite of the efforts (noises) we made. Yet, amidst the dense undergrowth, we could only see the back of the elephant when it retreated.
In most places the monotony of the forest floor covered with leaf litter was broken by the blood-red fallen leaves of Elaeocarpus munronii. We saw sambar tracks all along the way, and the Silent Valley staff said that occasionally tigers with one or two cubs were seen. We had our only sighting of a lion-tailed macaque when we were closer to Poochipara. The Poochipara camp overlooks the densely forested Kunthipuzha valley, while the Poochipara mountain (1,310 m) rises behind the camp like a sentinel. Black eagles soared over the valley.
THE GAUR IS staging a comeback in the Upper Nilgiris.
The third day of the walk was a deep descent to cross the Kunthipuzha and the equally steep climb up to reach Sairandhiri.
ENSURING THE FUTURE
In the southern and south-western portions of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (Palakkad, Coimbatore, Mannarkad, Nilambur and a part of South Wayanad Forest Divisions, 2,000 sq km), the Mukurthi-Silent Valley parks and the adjoining forest ranges (for example, Korakundah) in the Nilgiri South Forest Division (200 sq km) together form an extremely crucial habitat block. It is fairly inviolate and has prey such as the sambar, the wild pig, the gaur and the Nilgiri langur; it may be the only area in this landscape where tigers still breed.
While it is crucial to protect this breeding habitat, we should endeavour to establish two more tiger-breeding habitats in this landscape. One of the areas for this could be the habitat east of Silent Valley, which can be called the Siruvani Conservation Reserve (CR), encompassing a minimum area of 600 sq km and located around the Siruvani reservoir. This reservoir provides water to Coimbatore city, with a little over one million people. The connectivity between the Siruvani CR and the Silent Valley National Park should be cleared of all the encroachments that have come up in recent years.
THE KUNTHIPUZHA, ON which a hydroelectric project was planned. In 1973, it became the focal point of “Save Silent Valley”, a fierce environmental debate.
The other area could be the 500-sq km Nilambur CR in the west, which is well connected to both the Silent Valley and Mukurthi National Parks. With sufficient prey, these two CRs together can easily support a minimum population of 30 adult tigers, which can add to the existing single population of minimum 200 adult tigers, presumably the largest in Asia, north of the suggested conservation reserves. •
A.J.T. Johnsingh is a wildlife biologist with Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, and WWF-India.
http://www.frontline.in/stories/20090814261606400.htm
Delhi and its river
BHASKAR GHOSE IN THE FRONTLINE
| The national capital gets ready for the Commonwealth Games but nothing is being done to improve its drainage system and to clean up the Yamuna. |
SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
Garbage on the banks of the Yamuna river. Crores of rupees have been spent on cleaning the river but it continues to be as filthy as a drain.
THIS is about Delhi for only one reason – next year it will be hosting the Commonwealth Games, for which great event the city, or at least, some parts of it, is being transformed.
The point is not so much the Games themselves; it is difficult to say just how many will go to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium or the Indoor Stadium or the other venues to watch the track and field events and other sports such as cycling, boxing and swimming.
It would be a truly optimistic person who would declare with confidence that the venues will be full, that all of a sudden a city that has never shown any interest in athletics, swimming, cycling and other such sports will suddenly become so interested as to fill the stadiums and become excited supporters of these events.
No, the point is not the Games themselves. It is what Delhi will be left with afterwards – several flyovers, broader and better roads that are well-lit, more power, better buses and some other benefits such as wider pavements, and, perhaps, the most significant of them all, a much-expanded Metro network that will change the way people travel in the city.
Adequate power – they say surplus, but one can take that statement with a pinch of salt – and the Metro will be the two features from the Games that will improve conditions in the city in a fundamental manner. If all goes well, there may even be adequate water.
So far, there are few signs of there being any major improvement in the amount of water the city will get. This is not surprising as a lot depends on water being made available by neighbouring States. Political considerations are sure to play a role in how much water the city actually gets from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and how much comes through Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, even though the last mentioned State and Delhi are ruled by the same party.
An important factor will be the water in the Yamuna river when it reaches Delhi after passing through a number of States, in terms of what the city can draw from the river and, more importantly, what it puts into it.
Despite all the great improvements going on for the Games – one account says that the rise in the SPM (suspended particulate matter) count in Delhi’s atmosphere is because of the enormous amount of building activity going on both for the Commonwealth Games and by builders in Delhi and its satellite cities of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida and Ghaziabad – nothing of note is being done to improve the drainage of the city, and, more to the point, to clean up the Jamuna.
Crores of rupees – the exact figure is of little interest, but it is in excess of Rs.60 crore – have been spent over the past few years to clean up the Yamuna, but Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has admitted that nothing much has happened as a result. This is only too true, as those who have to cross the river know.
The stench is putrid and intense and hangs over the river and its surroundings like a miasma. Drains, big and small, discharge directly into the river – “raw sewage” – a convenient term to disguise what is actually large amounts of excreta and decomposing flesh laced with chemical and other waste liquids.
What those crores went into no one really knows. Ask the local government and its most likely response would be to set up an inquiry committee comprising retired officers, which would take years to prepare a report so large that no one would ever read it. The facts are brutally simple: crores of public money have been spent on cleaning the Yamuna but it continues to be as filthy as a drain.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India recently produced some frank reports on the Army buying golf carts with money meant for purchasing emergency material and equipment and buying dud shells from Russia for the Bofors guns.
Oddly enough, one has not heard of a report from it on how the money meant to clean up the Yamuna was used. If it has indeed examined this “utilisation” of public funds, the report has been kept very quiet indeed.
Work in progress at the Commonwealth Games Village in New Delhi.
There was a report some time last year of a comment made by the chief of the Delhi Metro, E. Sreedharan, that, while it was not his field of expertise, it seemed to him that a big sewer parallel to the river would be able to collect all the effluents released into the Yamuna, and this could then be treated and the cleaned water discharged into the river. It sounds simple enough; simple enough, actually, to work. And it may have cost less than the crores already spent on the schemes to clean the river.
One can only wonder how much of that money has gone into building some of the beautiful apartments and houses that have come up in different parts of the city, and how much into the green acres of “farmland” that surround Delhi. They can, of course, be seen as one aspect of the conversion of the capital city into a more attractive place, and therefore qualify as a public service.
Nonetheless, people can be forgiven for wanting to know just how those crores were spent, who spent it and, what action has been taken against those responsible for spending the money.
One thing needs to be made clear: no one knows just who is really responsible for cleaning the Yamuna. The almost comic structure to govern Delhi, which the Government of India has zealously preserved, has reached epic proportions – if something comic can also be epic – and the CAG will have his work cut out finding his way through the maze of the Delhi Development Authority, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Government of Delhi, the Ministry of Urban Development and perhaps a number of other agencies one is not aware of, such as the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Indian Space Research Organisation or the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
The CAG must necessarily take up this task, if it has not done so already. The people of Delhi need the answers, and they need a coherent, responsible body that actually can and does clean up the Yamuna.The River Thames used to stink in the 19th century until an engineer, Joseph Bazalgette, devised a plan to lay a set of sewers and embankments, which was carried out.In the mid-20th century the Thames Water Authority planned and executed the cleaning of the river, and today there are fish in the Thames and the water is clean.Several officials and dignitaries from Delhi, both from the Delhi government and the Central government, have visited London to “study” the Thames Water Authority and its work; surely some of those “study tours” have had some effect. Can the CAG ask them about that, too? People will be interested in knowing about those trips.•
http://www.frontline.in/stories/20090814261608200.htm
Plant deodars, save Shimla
Shimla owes its beauty to the deodar trees planted 140 years ago. The pace of
development has reduced the forest cover and resulted in changes in the soil strata
and water regime. We need to plant deodar trees on a large scale to preserve
the pristine glory of the queen of hills, writes Harsh Mitter
THE TRIBUNE ON SUNDAY 2 AUGUST 2009
WE have come of age. We try to develop and strive for a better living. In the rat race, our ethical values and strengths are lost as unimportant, not conforming to our objective of making a quick buck. Hence, we are no further concerned about the environment we are living in. When sparrows left our homes in the plains below, we did not even notice. When the species reduced in Shimla, people did not know. Good riddance from their chirping or stubborn behaviour to nest in verandahs. May be concrete has replaced the wooden beams and arches.
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Many of us argue, “but it will save wood`85″ without even realising what that means. Having said that, I do not mean that jungles be wiped out of existence. I will make an attempt to explain. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing, owing to enhanced human activity, an effort for better living where “better” is still unqualified. Who is more competent to define better in this context than contemporary society?
The easiest and simplest way of reducing carbon dioxide from atmosphere is to plant more trees, shrubs and herbs. The green colour or chlorophyll will fix carbon dioxide into sugars, which will ultimately get converted into wood. The yield of sugar will be high in direct sunrays and reduce with the reduced intensity. The consumptive plants and their parts will put the carbon back into the cyclic process and may sooner or later again get released into atmosphere. The wood formed, if left to nature, deteriorates or burns, will again release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
However, if the wood cut is preserved for a fairly long period, and the area is again planted with high wood-yielding species, the carbon fixed is not released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This will reduce the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere. Having accepted the above, the question arises how to maximise carbon dioxide fixation per unit area when the limiting factors are chlorophyll amount and intensity of light. We cannot do much about the intensity of sunlight but chlorophyll can be greatly enhanced in a multi-storey forest. The taller the trees, more could be the yield of wood.
The efficiency of a living system (in the form of linear growth) operates in a typical growth curve, which keeps on increasing to a maximum. This leads to an increase in the length of trees. The maximum length attained in a year is called current annual increment (CAI). This keeps on increasing year after year, and after a maximum, starts reducing. The mean annual increment (MAI) for all years is more than the decreasing CAI for the last year. It is time when the tree has sufficiently reduced fixing of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and it also is time to harvest and use its timber.
In deodar trees, when the terminal growth ceases, they sort of flatten off from the top—called in common parlance as “Table Top.” The majority crop of deodar in and around Shimla is at this stage. This queen of hill stations owes its beauty to these natural and man-made deodar trees planted some 120 to 140 years back. The pace of development in and around these forests has resulted in changes in the soil strata, water regime and consequentially ground flora under these forests. Most of these trees are heading towards their end. We need to plant trees on every opening created by the falling of a tree during rains, or landslides, or for any other reason. The vacant area has to be filled up with nothing but deodar trees, irrespective of the fact whether the tree was standing on government, municipality or private land. We, the residents of Shimla and dwellers of Shimla hills, must understand it as our responsibility to preserve this queen of hills for ourselves and for our posterity.
The excessive cutting of trees for roads and other construction purposes in Shimla has led to a situation where the soil is unable to hold the moisture for longer periods. The 2008 winter did not bring sufficient precipitation. As a result of a long dry spell after the monsoon of 2008, when the temperature again started rising in February, 2009, deodars showed signs of water stress. The oozing out of sugary substance resulted in increase in aphid population. Fortunately, the situation reversed with the first spell of rains in March, 2009. Fire does a lot of harm to the forests. It not only burns the fallen needles but also wipes out a range of ground floral species of grasses, herbs and shrubs. Eggs of birds, toads, lizards and snakes and young ones of many animal species get roasted. The Forest Department is maintaining the jungles for the people. A few handful of staff members cannot extinguish fires until and unless people join hands with the forest staff.
I appeal to you not to put jungles on fire, and help the department fight fires. This will greatly help check global warming due to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Forest fires add a substantial quantity of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The resultant Green House impact leads to global warming. To check this, it is important that tall coniferous forests of fir are raised so that coolness is maintained at the soil surface level. This will also help to prevent soil erosion.
Let us not leave the responsibility of maintaining these forests and the resultant beauty of this hill station alone on the shoulders of the Forest Department, but join hands and plant deodar trees in our vicinity.
— The writer is Chief Conservator of Forests (Eco tourism), Khalini, Shimla
For a greener India
| By Malvika Singh in The Telegraph ,Kolkatta |
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Newspaper reports tell us that the prime minister is impatient to give the go-ahead to the projects that are pending for want of environmental clearances because he believes such ‘delays’ are the primary hurdles to ‘growth’ and therefore he has directed the new minister for environment and forests to fast-track the approvals. However, many experts and environmentalists believe that to hit the ground running is fine but to be rash in doing such things is dangerous. We have been privy to the silence from this same government over the last five years on many environmental concerns because the coalition partner, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, needed to be handled with kid gloves and allowed, quite wrongly, to tamper with important concerns detrimental to the future of the natural resources of this country. Now that the Congress is in control of this critical ministry, the ministers and bureaucrats in the Prime Minister’s Office, the Planning Commission and suchlike must analyse the realities that confront them and tread with care to ensure zero damage to the environment and thereby trigger planned growth that will not destroy the habitat. It is time to do away with the mess that envelops the state of our environment and forests, where all manner of groups with vested interests represented by strutting dalals in the corridors of the government, trying to circumvent probity and regulation, misinterpret laws and earlier acts of the parliament put in place by astute prime ministers such as Indira and Rajiv Gandhi who understood well, as did international leaders like Al Gore, the desperate need to both conserve and protect as well as to develop and grow. Conservation, protection, growth and development need to be delicately balanced by the minister and his colleagues. Right path They will have to make sure that the path they choose to walk down is right and not defined by the short-term demands of corporate houses and industrialists, and the percentage-targets of annual growth that the government may want to ‘show’ at the cost of long-term degradation. Stringent legal procedures will have to rule, and the government will have to be accountable to us as also to the future generations of Indians. To bury the contribution made by past prime ministers in this particular realm would be fatal. Instead of dismantling norms and laws that were crafted to protect our natural wealth, the government should first try to streamline procedures and mechanisms that have corroded the foundation upon which the edifice of governance rests and which have, over the decades, resulted in the faulty, corrupt administration of India. First, cleanse and restructure the system for growth and development without bribery and corruption; unblock the arteries of delivery that have been clogged for decades with fresh, ‘fast-track’, unencumbered norms and rules administered honestly by officers who do not delay, blackmail or ask for bribes to do their clearly specified jobs; put in place simple procedures that leave no room for endless interpretations; then enforce ‘fast-track’ clearances with integrity and accountability. Surely, that is the first legitimate step towards progress. A concentrated blueprint for this transformation could be forced into place within the first hundred days of this government. The order of priority is of supreme importance if this government intends to set a fresh standard defined by integrity. An acceleration of growth, a spurt of short-term economic gain within a mal-functioning system will bring insurmountable problems in future. The advanced western world is regretting the thoughtless growth that brought disease and degradation in its wake. We must learn from their mistakes and walk the right path. |
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