Serving as the voice of the nascent climate movement in India, “What’s with the Climate?” is attempting to provide an open forum for the discussion of climate change in the Indian as well as the global context. More?
I was going through some relatively old files today and found this interesting report by some interns who were working with us this summer. More information about mountain cleaners and the inspiring Jodie at http://www.mountaincleaners.org/
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Before leaving all of us had a lot of expectations from the trip to Dharmashala and in fact we were more than satisfied from our experience. We got on the night bus to dharmashala from ISBT at Kashmere gate, it takes about 12 hours on a bumpy road from New Delhi to Dharmashala and was surprising to see the amount of activity throughout the night on the highway road.
We arrived at dharmashala bus station at eight in the morning and were welcomed with a cool mountain breeze far away from the delhi loo and a Israeli stranger who suggested us to live in Bhagsu because of the quietness of the area, we followed her advice blindly just to find the opposite. Bhagsu is a small town 20 minutes uphill from Dharmashala and we took a taxi to reach this tiny little hill top. Our arrival in Bhagsu was unexpectedly unpleasant as we were expecting a clean and a noise free place as was told to us. Our first couple of hours in Dharmashala were spent searching for a guest house, again contrary to our belief as wewere told that it was very easy to find accommodation in Bhagsu, so we decided to give up and feed our starving stomachs. As luck would have it we ended up staying at the same place where we had eaten. After all of rested and freshened up we met with Jody – the lady who heads the group ‘The Mountain Cleaners’ and whom we had come to dharmashala to help. Jody welcomed us very warmly and started off by giving an introduction to the work she has been doing in Dharmashala for the past year, she went on to
explain the problems she was facing currently and then to tell us about our soon to be trek up to the
mountain.
In simple words, every Monday the mountain cleaners climb up to one mountain top which a number of tourists visit. There are a number of chai shops on the way and on the mountain top which provide basic eating and drinking items to the tourists who come to visit the mountain and thereby they produce alot of garbage mainly plastic bottles and Glass bottles and with alot of non-recyclable waste items like chips and biscuits wrappers. Earlier, these chai shops were not separating their waste and everything use to come down the mountain as it is all together and then the burden use to be on the lady who manages the dump at Bhagsu to separate the waste. The mountain cleaners decided to make a difference and help the lady at the dump. The chai shops have been provided with three bags from the mountain cleaners to separate their waste, one for plastic bottles the second for recyclable waste and the third for non-recyclable waste, unfortunately even then they don’t.
The next morning, bags packed shoes tied at nine in the morning we started our trek. Climbing the winding path we headed towards the forestry department at the top of the mountain. The forestry department does all but their work, it was highly saddening to see this. As we finished the first stage of our trek we came by the first chai shop where we learned what to do. The bags provided to the chai shop were bought and the waste was put into correct bags. After separation all the bags were tied and left at the chai shop for the donkeys to take back to the valley. We performed the same task at 3 consecutive chai shops till we finally reached the mountain top.
We rested for a couple of hours before; we started our work for the day. Continuing the same task of segregation and tying the bags to be taken down to the valley. There are three chai shops at the mountain top and all of them produce a huge amount of waste which needs to be separated. Once the work at the chai shops was completed we started collecting garbage which was sadly scattered around the whole area. It was surprising to see how people could throw their waste at such a naturally beautiful mountain side. We finished our work by evening and then again rested
for sometime enjoying the beautiful view all around. At night we enjoyed a warm Indian dinner comfortably tucked inside a shack, watching the rain pour outside. We slept comfortably with the rain pouring heavily through the whole night.
The next morning, after having chai for breakfast, we continued our work, trying not to be stopped by the pouring rain. Our task was preparing the boxes for the glass bottles to be carried down to the valley by the donkeys. Unfortunately, a storm came along, so it was impossible for us to take the way back to Bhagsu, but we could enjoy a very good lunch at a chai shop, waiting for the storm to pass by.
Finally we could pick up the bags and put our feet on the path back, leaving that beautiful scenario behind our shoulders. The trek down to the valley was as hard as the trek up was easy because of the continuous rain which made descending very slippery and dangerous.
Finally we reached Bhagsu, after a tiresome descent. We left the bags that we were carrying at the dump-yard and paced up to our guesthouse to crash as it is. We got up only next morning, bought the tickets back to New Delhi and and the boarded the bus in the evening with heavy bags of clothes and thoughts.
Malhaan is a 3 hour walk from Dadahu, a small town in the Sirmaur District of Southern Himachal Pradesh. No roads go to Malhaan and the nearest bus stop is a 1.5 hour walk. Despite the distance from a road, this neatly tucked away village is a thriving alternative to large scale economic development. Farmers in Malhan are earning neat sums of money from cash crops like ginger and tomatoes, while maintaining a healthy diet that depends on traditionally organic and home grown vegetables, grains, and dals. I don’t intend to romanticize peoples’ lives in Malhaan because that is not an “objective” point of view, according to some academics, but Malhaan’s share of troubles don’t include Dengue epidemics, or contaminated water. Does this ring a bell at all, Delhi?
Malhaan also has a variety of fruit trees in bloom every season, from mango to guava and jamun to pomegranate. Fields in Malhaan are ancestrally irrigated with water channeled from natural mountain sources. Further, as is the case in several other parts of India, Malhaan maintains traditional water powered mills (chakkis of a different kind) that grind all kinds of grain without using any electricity, depending instead on the energy of flowing water. These are only some of the wonderfully sustainable features of Malhaan. As a Dilliwala who has visited Malhaan twice I will stress this: don’t be surprised that we walked 3 hours to get to Malhaan, but the family I stayed with has a refrigerator for cold water as well as a DVD player.
Though, I have heard very few complaints about life from the people of Malhaan, one in particular shocks me. Roads and government dispensaries are what Kanta Devi and others in Malhaan demand, but instead they stand outraged because their survival is threatened by a dam reservoir that will submerge them along with 33 similar villages in the Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh. I am outraged; I think we should all be. The Renukaji Dam project has been threatening to become a dam just outside Dadahu, Himachal Pradesh. It will create a reservoir of water in the Giri river to send 23 cubic meters per second of water to Delhi for 9 months of the year, once it is build. Construction of the dam has not begun but land acquisition has, and several villages remain under article 17(4) of the Land Acquisition act, the Urgency Clause. (more…)
“Farming today has been taken away from the hands of Indian farmers. There is no easy solution in sight for us. While newer ideas are put forth such as Green Revolution in Eastern India or Second Green Revolution (like we heard from the Prime Minister recently), these are in reality attempts to create markets for corporations and do not have any real solutions for farmers. It is very clear that government is not able to reach farmers, to improve their situation and these announcements are only political moves. Real and lasting solutions will emerge only if we bring back the culture and the way of life associated with Indian farming and look at agriculture differently”: Shri Vijay Jardhari of Beej Bachao Andolan.
Shri Anupam Mishra of Gandhi Marg: “So far, we have seen people who are trying to convert agriculture into business opportunities unleash different kinds of weapons – amongst them, chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides were prominent. Now, these business houses have begun eyeing Seed as a means of profiteering. Natural characteristics of Seed are being modified wherein various business possibilities are being inserted into the seed itself for larger markets. It has to be noted by farmers that wherever they buy and sow such seeds, the business interests of these corporations will take roots, flower and expand. We should all collectively decide what we will do with such Seed and whether we will let the control go away from the hands of farmers – this is one of the main issues that the Kisan Swaraj Yatra will raise for debate”.
“It is time to say loud and clear and in many diverse voices that India’s agriculture and farming community should not only survive but thrive, that it should find its own unique path and not simply follow in the disastrous footsteps of American agriculture. It is time to highlight the many solutions already proven at the field level, and the many solutions we are proposing at the policy level – and to formulate and proclaim all these in terms of a larger vision for agriculture to effectively counter the anti-farmer consensus among the powerful elite in Delhi and elsewhere. Even though some governments have come forward to promote organic farming, a word of caution needs to be sounded here: the same governments are also getting into partnerships with corporations like Monsanto and encouraging GM seeds. These two visions and systems cannot just co-exist”: Shri Kapil Shah of Jatan, Gujarat.
New Delhi, August 25th 2010: The Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA), a new network of individuals and organizations across the country has announced that a “Kisan Swaraj Yatra” would set off from Sabarmati Ashram on October 2nd 2010, to remind all Indians of our hard-won independence and the insidious ways in which agri-business corporations, supported by the State are taking this independence and sovereignty away, especially with regard to our food and farming. This Yatra is a call for joining forces to save Indian farming and farmers mired in deep distress and to forge a sustainable path forward for Indian farming.
In the last few weeks, two issues have dominated our public conscience – the rotting of grains in FCI’s holds, and the firing on farmers protesting inadequate compensation for land acquisition. As on 1 January 2010, there were 10.6 lakh tones of grains lying waste under FCI, on which the Supreme Court suggested that these be distributed free to the poor rather than be allowed to rot. In what has become his typical attitude and stand, the Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar glibly rejected the suggestion. In Aligarh, on Independence Day, the police opened fire on farmers demanding better compensation (at par with that given to farmers in NOIDA) for their land acquired for the Yamuna Expressway, killing at least four people. (more…)
Midnight, August 6, 2010: “Link, wake up! Water is coming in from the roof!” My mother and I were in Leh, Ladakh, staying at “Eco-Homestay,” the house of Mr. Sonam Gyatso and family, in Lower Sankar. The house was made in a hybrid of traditional and modern construction techniques: the main hall in the house was concrete, while rooms surrounding it were made of sun-dried mud bricks, and roofed with Poplar beams, a mesh of willow branches, and a thick pad of fine clay-like mud. The house incorporated passive solar building techniques, such as a direct-gain room, and a Trombe wall, and had solar-powered lighting. It had been raining since evening, and by midnight the clay roof was saturated and began to leak.
We were in Leh for the express purpose of meeting with Helena Norberg-Hodge, the founder of the International Society for Ecology and Culture [http://www.isec.org.uk/], co-founder of the International Forum on Globalization [http://www.ifg.org/], founder of the Ladakh Ecological Development Group [http://ledeg.org/], and founder of the Women’s Alliance, Ladakh. We had learned of her online, seeing an article of hers in CounterCurrents.org, and watching her video “Ancient Futures.” She is the only person who has critically witnessed the “development” of Ladakh, from complete self-sufficiency in an exceedingly fragile eco-system, to the disaster under which it writhes today. She has seen how “development” pulls people into a money economy, increases the distance between production and consumption, brings reliance on fossil fuels (especially apparent in Leh where fuel and commodities are trucked in over a hazardous two-day journey from lower altitudes), results in urbanization and rural-urban migration, and brings psychological impoverishment to the people it is inflicted upon. For 35 years, she has been working to bring safe, stable, and ecologically sound development to the region through her organizations. Her work today, no longer limited to Ladakh, is focussed on spreading economic literacy among people throughout the planet, educating about the deeper impacts of globalization and today’s consumer mono-culture. Garnered from her years of observation and research, she has an important message for humanity today, which is what prompted us to go and meet her.
Rain is more or less foreign and new to Ladakh, as are tourists. People there say that it never rained in Ladakh, though records show an insignificant average annual rainfall of less than 3.5 inches. Villages exist like oases around rivers and tributaries, the only green in the otherwise rocky, arid landscape. Geographically, Ladakh is situated in the rain shadow of the Lower Himalayan mountains. Water for drinking and irrigation in Ladakh comes from glacier melt, which was historically replenished every year by winter snowfall. Today, anyone in Ladakh — even children — can tell you their memories of large glaciers, now only tiny silver slivers on the tops of massive black mountains in the distance. Going and gone are the pure waters that came from those glaciers. Each generation, and now each year, looks toward the mountains apprehensively, watching their water supply — their life-blood — melt away.
Before bed, Stanzin Tashi, Mr. Gyatso’s son, had been playing with my camera, trying to take pictures of the lightening. It was a ferocious storm, with constant, menacing thunder, and an incessant volley of lightening up and down the valley. The whole family was a little nervous, since they had never seen such a storm before. Mom and I weren’t particularly worried, having experienced tropical storms in Kerala. Only later did we realize that tropical storms belong in the tropics, not the highest mountain desert of the world.
Ladakh, at an altitude of 3,500 meters, is geographically considered to be part of the Tibetan Plateau. They do have violent storms there, usually very brief and very destructive hailstorms, which come few and far-between. In the winter, there is lots of snow, and it is so cold that the schools give a three month holiday. People cluster around little stoves in the center of each room, burning wood and dung to keep warm. As shown in Helena Norberg-Hodge’s book “Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh,” (watch the movie online for free at: http://bit.ly/bIOl2B) traditional Ladakh had a completely sustainable life-style. The people were self-sufficient in all their needs: food, water, and warmth. For thousands of years, life had continued there more or less undisturbed by foreign cultures, even though the valley was a focal point for traders travelling the Silk Route, and traders from Tibet and China. Everything about life in Ladakh had a view toward the future generations; resources were shared and balanced, ensuring that they were never depleted, and the population was self-regulated to ensure enough for everyone. There were no squalid poor, no filthy rich. The people were strong, honest, and trustworthy. Only recently has all of this changed, as “modern world culture” invades and converts people to it’s individual-centric, greedy, consumerist ways.
As I awoke, I noticed water pouring down the walls, and saw that the storm was still in full force. Mr. Gyatso and I went up to the roof and started bailing with a dustpan and a bucket. Gradually the rain died down, and we removed most of the standing water. By around 3 AM, the rain had subsided, the storm had moved farther down the valley, and the roof was no longer dripping; we went to sleep.
Prayer Wheels near the Leh Gate.
Two nights previous, Nubra (a nearby town) had suffered significant damage from a cloud burst, and radio had reported some 12 deaths. On the morning of the 6th, the radio was silent and phones unresponsive, so Mr. Gyatso went out to take stock of the situation. When he came back, he was in shock. ”The BSNL office, the Bus Stand, the Hospital, everything below the [entrance to Leh] gate… all gone.” That’s all he could say. He had never seen anything like it, nor had anyone else in living memory. (The entrance to Leh is grandly decorated by a colorful and ornate Buddhist gate over the road, with prayer wheels and chortens on either side.) Apparently, a cloud-burst had happened in a ravine above the Leh Gate, causing a huge torrent of water to rush down the ravine into the road, picking up stones, mud, bricks, cars, people, and houses as it went. All communication channels were taken out — no electricity, no telephone, no radio, no internet.
The remains of the BSNL office. I'm told that it was quite a large building. All communications were knocked out.
Many of the fatalities have been blamed on poor planning: due to the mad influx of “development” to the region, many houses were built in places where, traditionally, no building should stand. We call it “tradition” and scoff at it, but in truth we are mocking a set of codes that have been developed and refined for thousands of years. A Ladakhi saying goes to the effect that “Water must have it’s way,” essentially, that the flow of water must not be blocked. Had this simple command been heeded, much of the destruction could have been avoided, but today’s globalization pattern eschews and destroys anything and everything that doesn’t fit the consumer mono-culture — it ignores the Earth upon which it stands.
A car smashed against a building destroyed in the flood. Helena Norberg-Hodge is visible in this photo.
Mom immediately swung into action, and she and I headed out by 9 AM with a shovel, some water, willing hearts, and two hands each. When we got to the gate, we saw unbelivable devastation. The flood had left behind mud about a story deep, buried houses, toppled steel-and-concrete structures four stories high, crunched cars… it was much like the Tsunami of 2004 in South East Asia. Numb with shock, a crowd of people were helping a JCB (backhoe) dig at the top of the pile, looking for survivors. We helped there a bit, then continued down the hill towards the hospital. The destruction became more and more massive as we went. The air was dry, causing passing vehicles to raise clouds of dust from the now-dry mud.
We later heard opinions expressed that the traditional mud-brick construction of the majority of the houses which were destroyed was responsible for the deaths; had it been modern cement and steel, they say, the houses would have remained. On the ground, however, next to a four story cement and steel structure that had half toppled over, was a single story mud-brick house that had received the full brunt of the flow but was still standing. Not that it made a difference: people in both structures died in the deep flow of mud, but the difference in structural integrity was astonishing, and is worth taking note.
This building is two or three stories tall (not sure because I haven't seen it before this), and the mud surrounding it is up to the top story.
As we continued down the path that the water had taken (we were walking on the mud left behind, between four and six feet above normal ground level) we went past the municipal buildings, the location of the destroyed BSNL office, and down towards the hospital. The destructive power of fast-flowing water is amazing: bulldozers and road rollers had been piled up against a fence; four buses were smashed into the back of a building; a water tanker was driven up a satellite dish; the bus stand was cleared; Innovas, Santros, Qualis’s, Sumos, all were strewn around the landscape, crushed sometimes beyond recognition; houses were wiped out without a trace. We are sure that every time we walked on that mud, we were walking over dead bodies.
Reaching the new hospital building, we joined the people working there. The construction of this three story building had been just finished, it’s plumbing and electrical was almost done, and miraculously, it had survived the flood. The ground floor was full of mud about two feet deep, and patients were already being brought in from the old, single-story, mud-filled hospital. Mom went up to see what she could do in the wards, while I joined some people clearing the mud for streachers and other equipment. Another major miracle: the hospital’s drug and equipment store room had been untouched, as had the only petrol pump in Leh, about 100 meters farther down.
This is the new hospital building. Note the height of the mud on the sides: over one story high.
A fire truck was positioned near the hospital, and supplied water to wash off the various pieces of equipment that were salvaged from the old wards: oxygen and nitrogen tanks, suction machines, X-Ray machines, beds, streachers, etc. Once washed, the equipment was dried and immediately put to use. After a bit, I too went to the wards, and got involved in dressing wounds. Most of the patients had full-body cuts and scrapes, about 90% of their skin scratched or missing, with head injuries, and many broken ribs.
Many of the patients were Bihari. Did you imagine that only tourists went to Ladakh? There are almost as many Bihari laborers in Leh as there are Ladakhis! Due to the economics of globalization, the poor Bihari has become the laborer for the rest of India, going to the most remote corners of the country, slaving for cash to send to his farming village, so that they can buy food that they can’t grow, as their fields are filled with mono crops meant for the export market. It continues to amaze me that farmers, who produce the only truly essential commodity, are taught to see their profession as backward, and are cheated into living in the money economy as poor, starved skeletons. Squeezing the rural poor is good for the GDP, however, since it creates a large, cheap labor pool, which encourages construction, which generates investment opportunities for the rich. ”To he that have shall be given, and from he that have not, shall be taken even that which he has.” The “poor” (”undeveloped”) had culture, now even that is being taken away by today’s globalized, greed-based corporatocracy.
Choglamsar, a town about 7 kilometers down the valley from Leh, was worst hit — reports said it was mostly wiped out. For several hours that morning, army lorries were bringing up loads of dead bodies every 10 minutes, and an unfinished shopping complex was turned into a temporary morgue, after the official one, and another hall, had filled up. The bridges and roads to other villages were completely wiped out, making the only escape for tourists in those parts a three day trek. A friend of ours who had gone trekking just before the disaster told us (when she finally made it back, days later) that the Ladakhi social fabric is still sufficiently intact, despite the onslaught of modernization, that families in the town she was in were opening their guesthouses free of charge for people whose homes were destroyed. Helena Norberg-Hodge, in a message she wrote to Ladakhis at this time observed that if such hospitality could be extended throughout the region, than the huge amounts of money that is usually spent for conventional emergency relief could be saved and put to better use. What better response than a community response? Low-cost, highly efficient, localized, and personal; that is the way of the future.
From Mrs. Norberg-Hodge, we learned that in Buddhism, as in Sanathana Dharma, there is an emphasis on accepting change, part of the reason that “development,” and the associated impoverishment of people has been readily accepted in Ladakh and throughout India. However, today’s change is not natural, evolutionary change, it is change that is actively brought about due to an economic structure that is destroying human civilization. Globalization is truly the spread of consumerism and an economically unsound mono-culture. In her film, “The Economics of Happines,” Helena Norberg-Hodge points to our common misconception of globalization, that it is about increasing international understanding and collaboration. Today’s globalized economies import and export about the same amount of each commodity, creating a needless increase in transportation. Need is manufactured, and products created to fill that need, leading to a gigantic, senseless waste of resources. Helena showed us how apples in the UK were flown to South Africa for washing and waxing, and then flown back for sales. The recent shutdown due to volcanic ash in Europe demonstrated the perilous aspects of the global economy. Consumerism is exported and expounded to all parts of the planet, impoverishing truly rich, though “undeveloped” people. All of this leads to an increase in the usage (wastage?) of energy worldwide, heating our Earth, polluting our water, killing our soil. When we speak of the world’s regions most vulnerable to climate change, islands and beaches top the list, but this experience in Ladakh convinces me that all places on Mother Earth are equally, and extremely, endangered.
The next two nights, the Government issued a warning, telling all people to leave their houses and congregate at higher ground, and many people went to the tops of nearby ridges. As it was, people were jumpy and nervous; several times during the day, on mere rumors, people ran up the mountainsides fearing more flooding. The shock and grief of everyone in Leh was palpable. We met many people who told us that their whole family had been washed away… The family we were staying with climbed up to the Shanti Stupa, which is built on a small rocky hillock. Both nights we got back from the hospital, they were already gone, and we had no idea that this warning was issued, so we slept in our beds, somewhat nervous, but not knowing what else to do. By God’s Grace there was nothing more than mild rain!
Since all roads were damaged (sections washed away, blocked by mudslides, bridges gone), the only way out was the airport. Airlines were operating extra flights out of the Leh Airport, and everyone who could was trying to get out. The embassies of various countries had requested all their people to evacuate. Any ticket was valid for any flight (if you waited in line for a free seat). As our seats were confirmed for the 12th, we decided to wait and help in the hospitals until we left. We were grateful to be useful at such a time. We took photos of the patients to show Holy Mother Amma for her blessing when we got back, and she saw them on the night of the 13th.
A picture of the Candlelight Procession.
Ladakh has been an interesting case-in-point since it was opened to “modernization” in 1975. It is a microcosm of what happens to a people, culture, and ecology, when the consumer mono-culture and globalization hits it without consideration of ancient wisdoms for living with Mother Earth, and regulated intelligent development. The crises that has now hit Ladakh will, most unfortunately, hit again and again, and is not necessarily confined to Ladakh. If humankind does not learn from the increasing incidence of natural and man-made disasters, we have nothing to look forward to but mass extinction. If we seek to change our ways, the only real way to look is towards Localization — the bringing together of producer and consumer, and the creation of ethically-oriented communities, not to be confused with backwardness and isolationism. We need to think globally, and live locally, if we seek genuine development —true globalization.
Candles at the end of the procession.
On the 11th night, the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA) organized a candle light march from the petrol pump at the bottom of the hill to the LBA grounds in the Leh Market, in prayerful support of the people affected. Vehicles were stopped to limit the dust, but the wind blasted everyone with it anyway. Going down to the hospital before it started, clouds were gathering quite menacingly at the head of the valley, and it looked as if it was raining heavily in the next valley over, causing no slight misgivings among all the people! We bid farewell to all our friends in the hospital, and joined the march by the Leh gate. Angmo-le, Mr. Gyatso’s wife, was with us and sang a beautiful Buddhist chant as we went, as did many other groups. The procession culminated at the top of Market Road, placing all the candles in a circle, with everyone’s collective prayers for peace and harmony.
Video of the Candlelight Procession.
The following morning we flew out of the valley, over the majestic mountains, and down into Delhi. Personally, I was quite sad to leave the mountains; they are so beautiful and make easy a constant recall of the great power of God.
The tremendous loss of life in Ladakh is clearly a direct result of climate change, which in turn, is a direct result of the spread of economic globalization and with it the energy-intensive human and agricultural monoculture. As we are all aware, the floods that started in Ladakh continued down the Indus River, now displacing 13 million people in Pakistan. Submerging much of the Sindh area, it has become the biggest natural disaster in recent history. We were grateful to be able to render practical support and service to the great people of Ladakh, and pray that humans return to a loving and respectful relationship to each other and to Mother Earth, before it is too late.
It’s good not to be a tourist, it’s much more real to be family.
Credits: Much of the information in this article has been gained from our interactions with Helena Norberg-Hodge. See also: “Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh” by Helena Norberg-Hodge, and www.TheEconomicsOfHappiness.org
On August 6th, the Climate Change Group (CCG) of Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, in association with Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) organized a plantation activity in collaboration with the District Forest Office, Ludhiana. 585 students planted saplings individually in the campus of Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College with the message, “Plant a TREE: Join Your Hands to Make GNE Carbon Free!”
Dr. MS Saini (Director), Dr. HS Rai (Dean – Testing & Consultancy), Dr. JN Jha (HOD – Civil) and Pr. YS Brar (Dean – Student’s Welfare) inaugrated the drive by planting a sapling. Dr. HS Rai – Chairman, CCG, elaborated on the effects of global warming and motivated the young entrants to professional college to play its role in countering global warming.
Students of the Climate Change Group at GNEC planting a sapling
Event coordinator Gurmehar Singh on behalf of CCG & IYCN discussed the importance of “youth participation to combat climate change.” Students joined hands with great enthusiasm to make GNEDC green by planting 585 saplings at various locations in the campus. “Our GNDEC already has a large green belt, this will be certainly a great addition to it,” said one of the first year students. The Climate Change Group also promised to organise such activities in and around Ludhiana in near future.
LEH cloudburst was an impact of global warming, feel scientists at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune. They said extreme events have been increasing in monsoon season due to warming.
“The normal average temperature of the Northern Hemisphere is 15 degrees Celsius. However, it has been observed that it has gone up to 15.7 degrees Celsius. The low pressure areas shifted to North-West due to warming that helped the monsoon winds reach Leh area, which generally gets very low rainfall even compared to dry places in Rajasthan,” said Nityanand Singh, a senior scientist at IITM.
He said the mixing of cool dry continental polar air from north and warm moist meritime tropical monsoon air from south resulted in the cloudburst. “Such phenomenon were observed during Mahabharat era when the average temperature of the hemisphere had gone up to 16 degree Celsius,” he said.
Singh said this year Pakistan, China, Tibet, Manchuria and most of the North West countries have been experiencing such extreme phenomena. “This is the impact of global warming on monsoon rainfall in South-East Asia,” he said.
Another senior scientist at IITM, J R Kulkarni, also said it has been observed that extreme events have been increasing in monsoon season. “We will study the Leh cloudburst at IITM as it was a rare phenomenon,” he said.
Kulkarni said when the cloudburst occurred in Leh, easterly winds were blowing in the area. “Convective system was formed over the region which started the rainfall. The clouds may have been 10 to 15 km in the depth that caused intense rains,” said Kulkarni.
He said such phenomenon occurs in deserts too.
When it was raining heavily in old Leh city, the Leh air force station only a few km away received only 12 mm rainfall. “The rain gauge at Leh air force station recorded only 12 mm rainfall. Since cloudburst is a localised event, it can happen.
However, we do not have the exact figures of rainfall since there was no rain gauge in that area,” said Kulkarni.
He said in mountain areas such as Leh installing network of automatic weather stations and radars is necessary. “Radars can observe the development of clouds every six minutes and warn of any calamity at least three hours before it happens. It can minimise the losses,” he said.
The Chhattisgarh team in the IYCN Office, New Delhi
Nature Bodies had started as a vibrant eco-group of young people studying in schools of Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. They invest their time and soul in what they do best – maintaining the fragile ecological balance and restoring the natural beauty lost to urbanisation and modernisation (in their localities). Nature Bodies has earned a many accolades and much appreciation in India and abroad for their innovative projects which include solving the traffic chaos in their city, cleaning up the lake of water hyacinth using an insect, vermi-composting, starting a medicinal garden in a school, and conducting tree plantation drives among many other things. As a closely bonded group full of enthusiasm, they have been well-mentored by their environmental studies teacher, Mr. Panu Halder. He has been running this group since 1999 against all odds. Under his valuable and creative guidance, several students have been a part of nature bodies and still continue to be.
In June 2010, Nature Bodies decided to scale up their activities in Chhattisgarh using the larger platform of IYCN and joined the network. An IYCN Chhattisgarh Advisory Council has been established with students represented from nearby towns such as Pendra, Raipur, Bhilai, etc. The group began with a massive membership drive and organised a launch event for the IYCN Chhattisgarh Advisory Council on Friday July 30, 2010. The event was attended by over 250 students from different parts of Chhattisgarh as well as teachers. The RJ of radio station 94.3 “My FM” Bilaspur, Mr. Anupam, was the chief guest. His message to the gathering was to organize more environmental activities and for a call unity in efforts.
Friendship Day with Trees, Chhattisgarh
Since June the team has organised a whole set of activites including most recently, celebrating Friendship Day with the trees. Banners were made by hand and were tied to the trees symbolically saying, “trees are our friends” calling for their care just like they care for us. Moving forward, a state-wide “green transport campaign” has been planned on the eve of independence day (August 15) in which everyone in the state, from ministers and senior government officials to teachers and students, will be using bicycles to commute.
Corruption runs deep as the lush wetland region of Srikakulam was cited as a “wasteland” in a detailed project report (DPR) for the construction of a mega power plant in the area. India is signatory to an international treaty called the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands which seeks to preserve these dwindling habitats rich in biodiversity and extremely important for a host of ecological services that they provide. How does one classify a wetland as a wasteland? This is no simple mistake. The fact that this project has advanced as far as it has, is a tragedy for India. 2,500 inland fishermen are without jobs as a result of bunds being created and wetlands being filled in. They are turning to begging. Is this the future we want?
“There is nothing wrong with being helped to go on living. And that is what this[climate change] issue is all about,” stated a senior official from the Environmental Protection Authority of Ethiopia. I am at a ministerial gathering of 28 nations of the Cartagena Group/Dialogue for Progressive Action convening in the beautiful island of Bandos in the Republic of Maldives. The participants are from Antigua & Barbuda, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Malawi, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Samoa, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Uruguay, UK and the European Commission. The Cartagena Group/Dialogue is an informal space, open to all countries that want ambitious and comprehensive outcomes in the UNFCCC, and that are committed, domestically to becoming or remaining low carbon. These are “forward looking” countries, willing to work positively and proactively together within and across regional and UNFCCC groups. The aim of the Group/Dialogue is to openly discuss the reasoning behind each other’s positions and to explore areas where convergence and enhanced joint action could emerge. That is precisely what I see happening.
A representative from an industrialized nation stated clearly, “don’t push us, [to be even more ambitious] or you are not going to like it.” While the words may seem a little jarring, that was not the intent. The purpose was to make clear that negotiators and country representatives sent to UNFCCC talks can only do so much as they are at the mercy of the political winds of the countries they represent and might suffer backlash from voters. It reaffirms that if large industrialized (and rapidly emerging) economies are to take strong action, it requires the majority of the citizens of those countries to have the will. And while we witnessed the lack of political will to pass through climate and energy legislation before the congressional mid-term elections in the United States this week, countries small and large gathered at Cartagena have provided a glimmer of hope, giving a breath of life to the stale atmosphere that lingers within the UNFCCC post Copenhagen. The truth is that the stiff negotiating environment of the UNFCCC rarely allows for a common space for understanding country positions and barriers to creating a comprehensive agreement. This is especially true given such forums are reduced to a debate over choice of words in what is essentially a legal contract. This is the second meeting of the Cartagena Group/Dialogue with regular meetings planned in the future. The arrival of this group is also important as Copenhagen revealed that even large groupings such as the G-77 are beginning to fracture due to the rise of BASIC. The latter’s demands conflict with many Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developing Countries (LDCs) who are calling for a 350 ppm or 1.5 degree Celsius warming target. It remains unclear what future groupings could be like within the UNFCCC and there is no formal “Cartagena Group.” The current impasse in the UNFCCC requires new alliances and I suspect with time, a “G-X” will emerge to break the deadlock.
Ethiopia, a nation that is often recalled for chilling images of the devastation from the droughts and famines of the mid-1980s, has announced its commitment at this event to become carbon neutral by 2025. The nation, which can be considered a cradle of humanity’s agricultural experimentation and development had only 5% of its original forest cover remaining in tact by the early 20th century has seen that percentage grow to approximately 30% today. Last year, it planted 7 billion saplings, second only to China. Joining it in this commitment was the small pacific island of Samoa which pledged to become carbon neutral by 2020. The Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda pledged that the tiny Caribbean island nation would slash its emissions 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. Costa Rica and the Maldives also reaffirmed their commitments to go carbon neutral by 2021 and 2020 respectively. And while no industrialized country has yet made such a commitment, Norway is developing its own carbon neutral plan for the year 2030.
The Cartagena Group/Dialogue will continue to discuss ways to deepen and enhance access to carbon markets for all nations, leverage the finance commitments from Copenhagen, and tackle MRV structuring (the measuring, reporting and verification component of mitigation commitments). All of this is in hopes that Cancun can pave the way for a breakthrough at the Earth Summit in South Africa in 2012. “While expectations for Cancun might not be high, we certainly cannot lower ambition.” The Cartagena Group gathered here in one of the most vulnerable nations to climate change impacts made that clear.
Repeat of devastation of Sindhu Valley Civilization
By Umendra Dutt
About two years ago my friend the famous singer Rabbi Shergill in one of his Punjabi article says “There is no doubt that it was just because of a major environmental change that the great civilization of Indus valley had completely vanished. The same reasons, in the same form are today existed before us. The only difference between the both situations is this that in those times it was a natural disaster but this time it is of man made”. Rabbi equated present situation of Punjab with Sindh valley which destroyed because of water scarcity.
Rabbi concluded his article by saying ‘Sindh ghaatti aj fir maran nu tyaar hai’ which means Sindh valley is again prepared to die “Will this really happen?” I asked my co-passengers “Of course, it is a degrading environment and a dying civilization in Punjab; a whole community has been put to slow death” affirmed Dr Amar Singh Azad, my senior colleague in Kheti Virasat Mission. “It is a crime committed against humanity and nature by our own governments, that too in the name of Development”, I said, endorsing his observation. All of us were very upset and angry after visiting villages near Dhakansu drain and Ghaghar River in Patiala and Sangrur districts.
This was our third visit to a river or drain area to educate ourselves on environmental toxicity and its multiple impacts. About eight years ago, I did a padayatra along the Jayanti River in Ropar district. I found several similarities between the disappearance of Jayanti and Ghaghar rivers. Both rivers have lost their relevance after society forgot and neglected the significance of these rivers. The river eco-system was ruined at both places by the developmental activities carried out by “modern society”. Our latest Yatra was a field visit to learn more on the crisis of water, environmental toxicity, condition of agriculture, biodiversity, the unfolding health crisis and the socio- economic fallout of this ecological disaster.
The entire picture is extremely frightening. There has been a lot of debate on the severe health and water tragedy apparent in the districts of Malwa region. But we should correct our view point – it is the whole of Punjab that seems to be under deadly devastation now. Some of our well-wishers ask us again and again that – “Why are you activists bent on such scare-mongering around these things?” I would like to repeat the words of Dr Azad here – “Yes, we want to create a scare, because the situation is far more destructive and scary than our government and people can ever imagine.
It is a life and death question for Punjab; it is clearly evident that Punjab is a dying civilization. Several people may find this offending, ugly and uncalled for. However, the indications that we are getting from across Punjab point to a death sentence written for the whole eco-system in this part of the country and particularly for this brave community.
‘Villages up for sale’ are a unique symbol of distress and devastation in Punjab. It was a first-of-its-kind protest in India at that time. In March 2002, Harkishanpura of Bathinda district put itself up for sale and then Mal Singh Wala of Mansa district followed in 2005. Both of these villages are situated in cotton belt of Malwa. Both have a common reason -– the Water crisis. It was a desperate step that was taken by the villagers. Now, this water distress has engulfed the villages of the apparently ‘eco-prosperous’ area of Puadh. A village in Patiala district near Chandigarh – Mirzapur Sandharsi is contemplating putting itself up for sale. The reason is the same “waterlessness” that has now become a nightmare for this village too. After reading reports in the media, we visited this village – what was bluntly visible and extremely disturbing to find is that Punjab is fast turning into a waterless region. It can be Harkishanpura, Mandi Khurd or MalSingh Wala or Teja Rohella, Dona Nanka near Fazilka or Mirzapur Sandharsi – villages after villages are caught in the grip of a severe water crisis. (more…)
350 Global Day of Action, October 24, 2009, Charminar, Hyderabad
This June, the IYCN chapter in Hyderabad turned one! One year of climate campaigns and workshops and an immense amount of learning for any and every member of IYCN in the city! Hyderabad is labelled a lazy city for many reasons but when the need arises to address an issue that is close to the heart of the city, one will not find more passion and concern than in Hyderabadis.This is not intended to be a progress report for the IYCN Hyd chapter and its activities but rather an opportunity for us to narrate our experiences that the Hyderabad team enjoyed last year and what lies in the year ahead.
From the first Hyderabad Youth Summit on Climate in June 2009, that proved to be the launchpad for kicking off IYCN’s activities in the city, it has been a rollercoaster ride for many of the members. Andhra Pradesh has seen a recent flurry of organizations and activities that are addressing different environmental issues. Besides the veterans like WWF, CSA, Greenpeace, DDS, APNGC et al, new bodies and networks like the Andhra Pradesh Environment Connect, Lets unite for a greener tomorrow, SOUL, Planet 3 protection alliance and a multitude of small environment clubs across schools, colleges and corporate campuses have added to the variety and diversity to the people and the ways deployed to tackle the environmental crises. This is evidence enough of growing awareness and people taking up action irrespective of any support from the Govt. or otherwise.
The campaigns and workshops we organized brought us closer to organizations and individuals from various backgrounds and it is always wonderful to recollect the fact that a majority of the people out there are concerned about the issues we fight for and are only waiting for the push that will come through mobilization and/or being an example of change ourselves. This aspect runs across the country and is one of the major reasons for IYCN to begin engaging people beyond campaigns and get into projects and influencing policy at different levels of Govt. operation. It is always easy to convert the cynicism that proliferates the status quo into a element of motivation and encouragement when we work in a team and look at the examples of change that people are busy creating around us. Often quoted examples of Pragati Nagar in the city that banned plastic in the entire colony or the first green commercial (CII-GBC) and residential green building from Hyderabad remain positive influences for many young groups which need to see and understand the possibilities out there. (more…)
Disregarding Supreme Court’s order, unmindful of the adverse order of the Delhi High Court and the fact that the matter is sub-judice and ignoring the concerns of the residents, Sheila Dikshit, Delhi’s Chief Minister laid the foundation stone for a polluting waste to energy plant today in the national capital to produce electricity from wastes.
In an open letter (attached) to the Chief Minister which has also been sent to the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Union Ministry of Environment & Forests, the residents said, “This plant will emit large quantities of hazardous and toxic emissions (such as dioxins and furans) due to burning of Municipal Solid Waste, and will profoundly affect the health of the people living in the surrounding areas and environment for all times to come in future.”
Scientists investigating the effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam have found that people living in the areas where USA had used it as a chemical weapon have the highest blood levels of its poisonous chemical dioxin ever recorded in the country. Agent Orange, which has the dioxin (TCDD – short for 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) as one of its constituents, was last used in 1973. Scientists from the US led by Prof. Arnold Schecter of the University of Texas published his findings wherein he observed that Dioxins causes cancers and problems with reproductive development, the nervous and immune systems. (more…)
A long awaited and perhaps much needed realignment of national petroleum product prices with the international markets was announced today. The cost of petrol will increase by Rs. 3.75 per litre, kerosene by Rs. 3 a litre, and LPG costs will rise by Rs. 35 per cylinder. While petroleum prices are freed, diesel prices are to rise by Rs. 2 per litre and it remains to be seen when if at all, its prices will also be freed to align with international markets.
This has caused some tension within the UPA government and many are claiming that the “common man” will suffer the most. Watching the news tonight, I could not help but notice that all the people being interviewed on television were residents of urban metro areas (namely Delhi). Most of them seemed to be quite well to do and were filling up their tanks at petrol pumps while being interviewed. While many of them complained of the price hike and took the side of the “common man,” some were in support of the increase, citing that the government is overburdened by the subsidies (the burden it is to be relieved of is approximately Rs. 24,000 crore annually in petroleum product subsidies).
BRT Corridor, New Delhi
While watching the dialog, I had a bit of deja vu. In 2008, when the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) corridor opened up in Delhi for trial runs, there was a great outcry from this same class of the people, highlighted in the mainstream media. Not enough attention was given to the “common man’s” benefit from a more efficient, extensive, and properly planned public transportation system. In an independent survey conducted by a coalition of civil society groups, it was revealed that many “common” citizens (those who did not own private vehicles but instead rode on buses, walked, or used bicycles) were actually in support of the BRT. It is unfair to say that the middle class will not be impacted and that the price of commodities and services will not rise in the near future due to their reliance on petroleum for transport and processing. Yet, we must find within this decision, the opportunities to free our nation from the hydrocarbon-trap. The government simply cannot keep subsidizing these fuels.
We must look at this subsidy removal in three ways: 1) its potential to spur investment in, and the greater use of public transportation and 2) the potential of private industries to seek renewable energy solutions to meet their needs (thereby increasing investment in the renewable energy sector) and 3) an opportunity rapidly deploy decentralized energy systems for rural areas and the “common man” which is dependent on kerosene for cooking and most importantly, for lighting.
Railways transport and urban mass transit systems are poised to gain from this hike in prices. Should our cities focus on integrated transportation plans with seamless connectivity (i.e., between a metro and a BRT) and comfort, it might allow for the capturing of more commuters who currently use private vehicles. Companies like Infosys in Bangalore have already had a hand in shaping their cities transit plans and seek to gain from the improved productivity of their employees through decreased and hassle free commuting time. It is hoped that this subsidy removal coupled with the steady signals from the central government on climate and energy policy, will help strengthen private investments in the renewable energy sector.
Biogas plant in Kerala, photo credit: Bob Spicer, Open University
Finally, we arrive to the plight of the “common man” in the form of LPG and kerosene use. With approximately 400 million people in the countryside still living without access to electricity, the monthly ration of 3 to 4 litres of kerosene goes a long way in providing for lighting needs. It has been argued for some time, that the subsidy for kerosene could perhaps be switched for solar lanterns, or solar home lighting systems–thereby switching to a cleaner more sustainable fuel. Why not use this opportunity to strengthen research and development in the solar industry and scale up deployment of solar lighting systems for those villages and hamlets where grid extension will never be feasible? Similarly, research and development of family-type biogas plants stopped in the 1970’s with the last innovation being a modified Chinese technology called the Deenbhandhu model. Is the hike in LPG and kerosene (where it is used for cooking) also not an opportunity to renew our efforts in maximizing the vast bio-energy potential of the country?
There is a lot to be said. Let the debating begin!
The deafening silence of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) so far in the matter of industrial disaster of Bhopal and Gulf of Mexico was intriguing. Now that it has spoken out with a press release, it has revealed itself as a lobby group which is callous towards victims of Bhopal and public interest and ignores the lessons to be learnt from oil spill disaster in Gulf of Mexico. Its views are an expression blind obsession with unsound profit alone. All its views on safety, health and environment appear to be an insincere expression and a mere lip-service.
It took the mild sentencing of Keshub Mahindra in the Bhopal Gas tragedy case for CII to react, not the disaster or the plight of the victims and pollution due to hazardous industries. CII’s request to the government “to treat non executive members of the Board including Non Executive Chairmen, differently when it comes to Directors’ liabilities” is misplaced. The Companies Act 1956 is right in not differentiating between different categories of directors in terms of liabilities. It rightly envisages trial for non-executive directors as well. They too should be made to undergo the ordeal of a trial for offence of non-compliance with a statutory provision. CII’s lobbying to ensure exemption from vicarious criminal liability under the applicable statutes for non-executive directors is motivated and must be rejected.
If there is indeed rule of law that governs both natural and artificial persons like companies, the proposed Companies Bill 2009 must ensure that non-executive directors remain liable for vicarious criminal liability for offences committed by the company. Independent directors are duty-bound to raise the red flag when he/she spots an inherent issue which the others could not do merely because they possess a non-independent status. Had Keshub Mahindra done so, the disaster in Bhopal could have been prevented? Is there anything on record to show that Mahindra or anyone in other corporate scandals documented their dissent? The limited liability clause in the Companies Act under which subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation was formed must be re-examined.
With regard to Board of Directors of UCC’s Board of Directors and their role, the circumstances of their historic industrial betrayal must be probed along with those of its subsidiary. Absence of rigorous liability regime for hazardous chemicals, asbestos and nuclear industries during their entire life span reveals that nothing has changed despite the disaster. How is it that Dow owns the asbestos liabilities of Union Carbide and Government of India has far failed to make it liable for Bhopal’s legacy?
Unmindful of a confidential 13 page safety audit report (attached) of Union Carbide Corporation (now owned by Dow Chemicals), Indira Gandhi government was prevailed upon to grant industrial license for a plant that led to disaster in December 1984.
There is a need to review The Registration and Licensing of Industrial Undertakings Rules, 1952 under which the license was granted on 31st October 1975. An application for the registration of the plant was made Eduardo Munoz, headed the South and East Asia divisions, Agricultural Products Division (APD), Union Carbide Corporation on 1st January 1970 to the Ministry of Industry (formerly to Ministry of Industrial Development), Government of India. The Ministry of Industry’s Committee that recommended the issuance of industrial license to Union Carbide must be made public. The very fact that application for industrial license was made by Munoz establishes the liability of Dow Chemicals owned Union Carbide Corporation (UCC).
Notably, foreign investors were limited to 40% ownership of equity in Indian companies, but Indira Gandhi government waived this requirement in the case of UCC. In pursuance of an agreement between in 1966, to begin with Union Carbide’s India plant built in 1969 was to import 1,200 tons of Sevin from the parent company in the US for manufacturing pesticides and UCC was to build a factory in India to produce Sevin within five years. Although Eduardo Munoz, the Argentinean agronomic engineer objected to the location of the factory because it was residential area and sought to stop storage of huge quantity of Methyl Isocynate (MIC) but he was overruled by the UCC officials saying, “You have absolutely no need to worry, dear Eduardo Munoz. Your Bhopal plant will be as inoffensive as a chocolate factory.” The agreement between Government of India and Union Carbide that led to the setting of the plant too must be made public. (more…)
On August 6th, the Climate Change Group (CCG) of Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, in association with Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) organized a plantation activity in collaboration with the District Forest Office, Ludhiana. 585 students planted saplings individually in the campus of Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College with the message, “Plant a TREE: Join Your Hands to Make GNE Carbon Free!”
