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GET A GRIP ON THE SUBJECT OF LAND. ITS USE AND ABUSE. AND THE STRUGGLE FOR IT.
E D I T O R S PA G E
Himalayan blunders
he floods in the Himalayas have been ferocious and deadly. Fears are that the final body count could run into several thousands. There is no clear estimate of the number of villages wiped out, property destroyed, roads washed away and hydropower projects damaged in the mountain state of Uttarakhand. The mountains are bleeding and its people have been left battered, bruised and dead. We know that the Himalayas are the worlds youngest mountain range, prone to landslide and flash floods. But what we do not easily comprehend is that two factors have made the already vulnerable region more hazardous. One, climate change-related extreme weather events; Indian monsoon has become more intense. Studies show extreme rain events are becoming more frequent as compared to moderate rain events. Rainfall is also becoming variable and unseasonal. This is what happened in Uttarakhand on that fateful June 16. It rained without a break; some 200 mm came down within hours at a few places like Kedarnath. It brought down the mighty Himalayas. Rain was also unseasonal. June is still not considered the beginning of the monsoon season, so pilgrims and tourists thronging the region were caught unawares. What really compounded the disastermade it truly man-madeis the scale of development intervention in the past decade or so. This Himalayan region has seen unchecked construction activity, illegal and legal mining, unscientific road building and, of course, hydropower projects built next to each other. In Kedarnath large-scale construction has been done on the land evacuated by glacier in the past few years. It is small wonder that the water, moraine and stones came crashing down and took all with it. Many human lives were lost that morning and families shattered. This is the deadly and painful cost of environmental mismanagement. Will we learn from this? Will we learn how to live with the excesses and shortages of water, particularly in the fragile Himalayan ecosystem? Will we learn that extreme rain conditions will require us to build a new water culture? In 1991, environmentalist Anil Agarwal, after months of research for the publication, Flood, Flood Plains and Environmental Myths, brought to attention facts, which were then considered inconvenient. He wanted to understand why floods occurred, with greater intensity, in the plains of India. The common perception was deforestation in the Himalayas caused floods in the plains. Planting trees upstream would fix the problem. His research showed that the Himalayas were geologically dynamic, prone to landslides, which would in turn block rivers and create natural dams. The bursting of these dams made of rubble, stone and silt, would wreak havoc downstream. He then
went on to argue that we needed to consider a Himalayan policy that took into account the fragility and vulnerability of the region. By then, road activity had started to scar the hills and landslides were increasing. This, in turn, was making it more dangerous for people to live there. His message was tough: stop blaming the people living in the Himalayas for the floods in the Indo-Gangetic plains. Instead, focus on building a management system to live with floods; to harvest the excess water in ponds, tanks and groundwater recharge systems. It was the willful destruction of the flood plains through unchecked construction of buildings and drainage systems that had exacerbated floods. The Himalayas, he said, would remain vulnerable to landslides and flash floods and development would not work if it did not take into account the true nature of the region. Learn, therefore, to live with the hazards of the Himalayas. The bottom line is that we need to learn to live with nature and not have the temerity to think that we can overcome it. He had another message a few years later on how we could optimise use of natures bounty. In 1997, he published, once again, a seminal volume, Dying Wisdom: Rise, fall and potential of Indias traditional water harvesting system. It taught us how every region had traditionally devised a unique system of water management, which harvested rainwater and adapted to both scarcity and excess of it. The principle was catch rain where it falls. This system was different from how water bureaucracies functioned by centralising water storage and making its distribution through canals and pipelines the responsibility of the irrigation and water agencies. Agarwal argued, against conventional thinking, that this centralised system would not serve India in the future. We needed to rebuild our water systems of the past and in doing so use modern science and technology to improve it. As we sadly witness the devastation and loss of lives, Agarwals messages hit home. The future will be even more uncertain and riskier because of extreme weather events and mismanagement of resources. The way ahead is to respect the vulnerability of the region. It cannot be anybodys contention that the Himalayan region must not see development. The question to consider is how it should develop: by building roads and hydropower projects or local economies based on tourism, which do not work against nature. It is also a fact that changing monsoon pattern will require us to optimise use of every drop and not allow rain to become devastating flood. Only then will the Himalayan tragedy not be repeated. This is our agenda for survival. Lets learn it fast. Sunita Narain
July 1-15, 2013 Down To Earth 3
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CONTENTS
DownToEarth
JULY 1-15, 2013
FEATURES EDITOR: Kaushik Das Gupta SCIENCE EDITOR: Vibha Varshney NEWS EDITOR: Arnab Pratim Dutta CHIEF COPY EDITOR: Archana Yadav SENIOR EDITORS: Latha Jishnu Richard Mahapatra ASSISTANT ART EDITOR: Anirban Bora REPORTING TEAM: Aparna Pallavi [Nagpur] M Suchitra [Hyderabad] Sayantan Bera [Kolkata] Alok Gupta [Patna] Ankur Paliwal Jyotika Sood Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava Anupam Chakravartty COPY DESK: Aruna P Sharma Sonalika Sinha Snigdha Das Pooja Singh Smita Pandey DESIGN TEAM: Chaitanya Chandan Shri Krishan PHOTO LIBRARY: Anil Kumar WEB TEAM: Allan Lyngdoh Rajendra Rawat Jaidev Sharma PRODUCTION: Rakesh Shrivastava Gundhar Das CONSULTING EDITORS: Chandra Bhushan Anumita Roychowdhury Aditya Batra
VOL 22, NO 4; Total No of pages 80
22 COVER STORY
In waters way
The deaths and devastation caused by rains in Uttarakhand are not just a natural calamity but also reflect human folly. A report on how the disaster unfolded and why the Himalayan region is becoming even more vulnerable
FRONTPAGE
09
Wolf to guard the sheep?
Government proposes private investment in gramin banks to make them viable
Editorial, subscriptions and advertisements: Society for Environmental Communications, 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110 062, Phone: 91-1129955124, 29956110, 29956394, 29956399 Fax: 91-11-29955879. Email: downtoearth@downtoearth.org.in 2005 Society for Environmental Communications. All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. Printed and published by Sunita Narain on behalf of Society for Environmental Communications. Printed at International Print-o-Pac Limited, B-204, 205, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase I, New Delhi-110020 INDIA and published at 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110 062. FOR ADVERTISEMENT CONTACT: Jyoti Ghosh jghosh@cseindia.org FOR SUBSCRIPTION CONTACT: K C R Raja raja@cseindia.org
SPECIAL REPORT 14
Exotic worry
Indian middle class preference for foreign food is pushing up import cost and raising health concern
DOWN TO EARTH EDITORIAL DOES NOT ENDORSE THE CONTENT OF ADVERTISEMENTS PRINTED IN THE MAGAZINE
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Special Feature
Quick Takes
Short news reports from ground zero as the disaster unfolded
Photo Gallery
Images of devastation and the fight for survival from flood-affected regions of Uttarakhand
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LETTERS
FARMS
FLUID
This is with reference to the cover story, Veggies delight (April 1-15, 2013). It is heartening to note that India has become the second largest producer of vegetables in recent years. There is one farming technique that has the potential to increase vegetable production in India further: hydroponics. It is a soil-less method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions. Though some Indian agricultural scientists showed interest in the practice a few years ago it has largely remained unexplored by Indian farmers. The method is popular in western countries for growing vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and broccoli. Hydroponics involves growing plants by suspending only their roots in a nutrient solution or in nutrients mixed in an inert medium like perlite, gravel, mineral wool, expanded clay or coconut husk. Today, hydroponics is being adapted around the world as it lowers irrigation and nutrition costs and nutrient pollution. There is also lesser incidence of pests and diseases in hydroponically grown plants. Results from various countries show it has definite advantages over conventional horticulture methods. The technique can be a boon for Indian farmers as it needs just 5 per cent of the water required by a conventional farm to produce the same amount of vegetables. The environment in a hydroponics greenhouse can be tightly controlled for maximum efficiency. The soil-less, controlledenvironment farming technique can help us grow food crops regardless of temperature, season and water availability. A JAGADEESH anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com
ciently mined only from the surface to keep mining costs minimum. Why is no one talking about it? Where are the regulatory norms that can easily be put in place, considering the enormous revenue generated from the resources and technological advances in satellite imagery? Every cubic feet of mining resource extracted can be monitored at a very reasonable cost by using this technology if there is a political will. It is the Ministry of Environment and Forests that has to educate itself and adopt global best practices without political bias. SANDIP ecothrust@gmail.com
LETTERS
tant as many of these species may offer us options when climate change wipes out a good part of the biodiversity VINAY TANDON vtandy@gmail.com
The article, Become iron woman, eat veggies (May 16-31, 2013), focuses on a very important issue of dietary deficiencies. In my childhood crop diversity
during Kharif season in Vidarbha, where I grew up, used to be quite wide, ranging between 10 and 13 crops. It was a common practice to maintain special crop alleys called pata in the farms, where a variety of vegetables were grown. Weeds also formed an important part of our diet. This wide biodiversity of vegetables, whether wild or cultivated, keep the diet nutritionally rich. The crop diversity completely disappeared with the adoption of green
NOTICE BOARD
Prakriya
Green Wisdom School
Sahyadri School
Bangalore
is looking for
Learner Facilitators
who are fired by the process of inquiry, people who would enjoy the rigour of engaging with and stimulating young minds. Prakriya offers a vibrant learning space which is committed to continuously asking the fundamental question What is education for? Prakriya offers the ICSE and IGCSE curriculum. We require teachers for Physics and Maths for High School as well as a Green Co-ordinator. Please send in your resume to prakgreen@gmail.com
You are invited to a learning opportunity at Sahyadri School. We strive to cultivate the childs natural intelligence and physical fitness. The wider intent is to discover right living and right relationship with the earth. Sahyadri, a fully residential, coeducational, ICSE school is situated amidst great natural beauty in the Western Ghats. The school provides a balanced vegetarian diet. Students may apply for admission in classes 4 to 7. A limited number of seats may also be available for class 8. Positions are available in teaching as well as other areas. For information: Call: 02135-306100, 288442/3 Email: sahyadrischool@gmail.com Website: www.sahyadrischool.org
The Bhoomi Bhoom mi C College ollege g for S Sustainability ust tainabilit a ty S Studies tudies
Offers a 1 year Po Post ost Graduate Pr Programme ogramme (August 2013 - Ju June une 2014)
F For or students students who wish ht to ot take ake up green green careers careers or t take ake a Gap Y Year. ear. in Bangalore months months 5 mon ths of sessions i n the Bang alore Bhoomi Campus and 5 mon t of ths 'd 'd ^<^ ^<^ s^<^ s^ <^
Science and Management M Manag ement for for Sustainable Sustainable Living Liv ving
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LETTERS
revolution technologies that emphasised on a few cash crops. In middle and western Vidarabha only three crops cotton, soya bean and pigeon peanow cover 85 to 95 per cent of the total cultivated area. TARAK KATE vernal.tarak@gmail.com
and north-east India as well. It is called dhekia saag in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, while in Himachal Pradesh it is known as lingadi. People in north-east India prefer it boiled or with only a little spices, while in Himachal Pradesh people prepare a wonderful pickle out of it. NIVEDITA KHANDEKAR nivedita_him@rediffmail.com This is one of the favourite green vegetables found in local vegetable markets of Assam, Bangladesh, and West Bengal. Also known as dhekia, it is added to both vegetarian and non-vegetarian preparations. It grows in floodplains, gardens and on roadsides. Kachu-dhekia (yam-fern) also regularly appears in Assamese literary works. ARUPJYOTI arupjyotisaikia@gmail.com
given hope to millions of women suffering from ovarian or breast cancer in India, which tops the list of cervical cancer deaths according to a May 2013 report by Cervical Cancer-Free Coalition. MAHESH KUMAR maheshkumar0909@gmail.com
Down To Earth welcomes letters, responses and other contributions from readers. Send to Sunita Narain, Editor, Down To Earth, 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi - 110 062. Email: editor@downtoearth.org.in
NOTICE BOARD
INDUS INDUS T R E E
SHOLAI SCHOOL
Located in the campus of the Centre for Learning, Organic Agriculture and Appropriate Technology, in a beautiful sylvan valley of the Palani Hills, we are a non-conventional, 70 acre residential School registered with the University of Cambridge International Examinations (IN499). The students take IGCSE (Xth standard) and A level exams. Having a teacher : student ratio of 1:6 we are able to explore learning well beyond the confines of syllabi. Comprehension of conditioning and its limiting effect on the mind and reflecting on responsibility and sensitivity in relationships are some of the themes explored between students and teachers. Send for brochure to: Sholai School, P.O.Box 57, Kodaikanal - 624 101. Telephone-04542-230393/297/487 Email: cloaat@yahoo.com Website: sholaicloaat.org
EnviroXpressions/INDUS/02/2010
F R O N T PA G E
another attempt to save regional rural banks from collapse, the government intends to take private parties on board. In the recently concluded budget session of Parliament, the finance ministry tabled a Bill that allows regional rural banks (RRB), also known as gramin banks, to raise capital from private sources. Analysts are skeptical. They say private shareholding may ensure financial stability but would distract RRBs from their objective of strengthening rural economy. RRBs were set up in 1975 to ensure banking and institutional credit facility to those engaged in the agriculture sector and cottage industries. It is jointly owned by the Centre, the state government and some designated commercial banks, called sponsor banks, who fund its capital base in the proportion of 50
IN YET
per cent, 15 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively. But RRB could never become a profitable venture. In fact, most RRBs were saddled with bad loan within five years of inception. The Regional Rural Banks Amendment Bill, 2013, aims to infuse vigour into RRBs by increasing their capital base from `5 crore to `500 crore. But the capital would no longer be entirely borne by the Centre, concerned state government and sponsor bank. Their shareholdings would be limited to 51 per cent and the rest would be raised from private investors, according to the bill draft (see Proposed amendments). If this provision sails through Parliament, it will push RRBs towards privatisation, alleges Sayeed Khan, general secretary of All India Regional Rural Bank Employee Association. Khan questions the need for private investment at a time when the government
has already taken measures to revive the banks, though after 25 long years.
Kashi Gomti Samyut Gramin Bank is one of the remaining 10 regional rural banks in Uttar Pradesh
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS
Capital base of RRBs be increased from `5 crore to `500 crore Shareholdings of the Centre, state and sponsor banks be limited to 51 per cent. Rest of the fund be raised from private soures Change financial year end of RRBs from December 31 to March 31 The term of non-official directors should be fixed for two years
F R O N T PA G E
deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, the government increased the capital inflow of 40 loss-making RRBs. Chakrabarty panel had recommended that the Centre, the state governments and sponsor banks should release `2,200 crore to bail out these banks. The impact of this capital infusion has begun showing on the ground. The latest RBI report shows there have been improvements in credit flow to rural areas. In 2010, the loans disbursed for agriculture, including crop loans, agriculture and allied activities, was `46,282 crore. The loan amount increased to `55,067 crore in 2011. The disbursement of non-agriculture loans increased from `36,537 crore to `45,231 during the period. Going by the performance, is there still need for private investment?
been serving since inception, they act as competitors. Sponsor banks also do not share the profit generated through loan interest, which affects RRBs financial conditions, he adds. Khan demands that RRBs be placed under an independent body like National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) where they do not have to face competition. In 1998, M Narsimhan, former governor of RBI, had pointed out that RRBs had not been able to earn much profit because of limited operation area and target groups. The salary structure of RRB staff is not motivating enough, points out B K Swain, head of the Centre for Rural Credit and Development Banking at the National Institute of Rural Development in Hyderabad. The long list of defaulters shows lack of commercial orientation of RRBs, he adds. Swain, however, favours private investment. Even after consolidations, there are 40 RRBs which are considered weak, he says. N K Thingalaya, economist and former managing director of Syndicate Bank, says RRBs can be made viable without private investment. Syndicate Bank is a prominent sponsor bank of RRB s. Instead of raising finance from private sources, the staff of RRBs should be encouraged to become shareholders of their respective banks, he suggests. Y C Nanda, former chairperson of NABARD, says consolidation of RRBs has affected its local feel and role. Private shareholding would lead to further exclusion of rural beneficiaries. I am aware of the poor performance of RRBs. But the point is we are going away from the objectives for which RRBs were established, he adds.
...States with high rural population now have less number of regional rural banks
10
NEWS
Residents of Anantpur village wait for their turn for the hearing of their first RTI appeal at the Jawhar taluka headquarters
tially or entirely rejected the claim of an applicant. Kutade and other applicants started receiving answers to their RTI queries in the last week of April. But the answer was the same for all: Sub-divisional and district-level committees have cleared all land claims made. Appeals against the decision are filed with the district-level committee. However, your application for an (FRA) appeal was not found in our records. Milind Thatte, founder of Vayam, a non-profit working with the tribals, says
While people had specific queries about their claims, the authoritys response was same for all
claim over 9 ha. Ganpat Janu Pawar, chief of Hateri FRC, says, The authorities should have approved the claim because our recommendation was based on the survey conducted by the revenue department itself. Kutade had filed RTI queries to know why he was allotted such a small parcel of land. Under the FRA amendment rules of 2012, the authority must disclose why it has parthe authoritys response is ambiguous. People had specific queries about information regarding pending claims or incompletely processed claims. What is the point of saying that no appeal under FRA is found when an FRA appeal has never been made for a single claim? Datta Bhadakawad, additional resident collector (revenue) of Jawhar, who is hearing the first RTI appeals at the
taluka level, told Down To Earth that some people feel their claims have not been cleared adequately. So, we are hearing them out. The tribals are, however, not happy with the way the hearing is being conducted. They allege that Bhadakawad refused to provide minutes of the hearing and intimidated the unlettered applicants by asking them to choose between land titles and information under RTI. They plan to the make a second RTI appealthe third step under the RTI Act to get the information requestedwith the state information commission. In their appeal, which will be submitted in the first week of July, they have also sought penal action against Bhadakawad. Shailesh Gandhi, former chief information commissioner and prominent RTI activist, who was present at one of the hearings says, I have seen people filing 100 RTIs about the same query, but never come across a campaign of such a magnitude. I feel proud to see the most disempowered people assert their rights. Gandhi says the tribals will find a positive feedback from the state commission.
July 1-15, 2013 Down To Earth 11
NEWS
has released guidelines for use of a new medicine to treat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) (see box). Issued on June 13, the interim policy guidance provides advice on including bedaquiline in combination therapy for the dreaded from of tuberculosis in accordance with existing WHO guidelines. Bedaquiline is the first MDR-TB drug for adults to be approved in 50 years. All drugs get registered only after Phase-III trials carried out on humans. But bedaquiline was granted accelerated approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2012 only after two Phase-II trials owing to an urgent need for a treatment for drugresistant tuberculosis. Waiting for Phase-III trial could have kept the drug from being released in the market until 2022, says a document by the Global TB Community Advisory Board of New York-based Treatment Action Group. The FDA approval allows for Janssen pharmaceuticals (a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson) to market the drug in the US while carrying out PhaseIII trials to confirm its efficacy and safety. WHO strongly recommends acceleration of the trials to generate a more comprehensive evidence to inform future policy on bedaquiline. The newly issued guidelines highlight an urgent need for the medicine in a country like India. Every year, 1,800,000 Indians develop the disease and until recently 1,000 people died of TB every day, according to TBC India, the official website of Directorate General of Health Services. Over 3 per cent of new cases and 20 per cent patients previously treated for TB develop multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. MDR-TB refers to tuberculosis resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin, the most powerful first-line drugs for the disease. India, China, Russia and South Africa have almost 60 per cent of the worlds total MDR-TB cases. Despite the dismal statistics, bedaquiline is yet to be registered in India. Johnson and Johnson spokesperWHO
Rules of treatment
Five conditions that must be in place for bedaquiline use
Treatment
to be closely monitored for effectiveness and safety, using protocols approved by relevant national authorities when used in elderly and HIVinfected people. Not to be given to pregnant women and children
son informs the firm has already made a regulatory submission for bedaquiline to Drug Controller General of India in May. But no initiative in this regard has been taken as yet by the policy makers. Resistance risk At present, the government follows Direct Observed Therapy (DOT) to treat TB. However, the medicines are available over the counter too. The treatment relies on antibiotics developed long time back. Several of these drugs have severe side effects like nausea, deafness and psy-
12
NEWS
SOUTH
ASIA
Efficient scrubber
The floating treatment wetland mimics an artificial wetland ecosystem. It is created by using a perforated floating mat for supporting the vegetation, a frame constructed by PVC pipes, coconut coir pith for growing the vegetation and anchors to keep the wetland in tact. University of Peradeniya researchers chose two native aquatic plantsTypha angustifolia and Canna iridiflora for the purpose. They first allowed the plants to grow in potable water for a week so that they develop roots, and then placed the wetland units in the lake next to the out-
RONALD SAUNDERS
(Top) Floating treatment wetland that cleans up Kandy lake while enhancing its beauty; (Left) The lake surrounded by housing colonies, hotels
13
SPECIAL REPORT
he colours, flavours and aroma of what India is eating these days have changedand dramatically in some ways. Imported food items, both fresh and processed, are filling shopping bags in cities and towns as the global food trade zeroes in on India as a prime market. Many items of regular, if not daily, consumption, from Washington apples to the Vietnamese basa fish, have insinuated themselves into the palate of Indians, most of whom appear to be unaware of their growing dependence on foreign food. Almost unnoticed, imported foods have been proliferating and growing in
volume, their rising graph reflecting growth of the Indian economy and emergence of a new consuming class. The class that the trade likes to describe as the modern Indian consumer: a trendy, health conscious eater aware of global consumption patterns and ready to splurge that extra bit on foods seen as nutritious and of better quality. While shops in affluent enclaves might have a profusion of imported foodstuffs from specialty cheeses to canned meats, the neighbourhood kirana store, too, is giving increasing shelf space to a number of imported items such as almonds and confectionery. In fact, the most substantive food imports are items of mass consumption: pulses and edible
oils. Imports of these items are vital to keep Indian kitchens running as demand far outstrips domestic production. In case of edible oils, import dependence has soared from just about 3 per cent in 1992-93 to 50 per cent now, although India is one of the largest oilseeds producers in the world. Massive inflows of cooking oils, mostly crude palm oil and palm olein from Malaysia and Indonesia, have helped raise their per capita availability from 5.8 kg in 1992-93 to 14.5 kg in 2010-11. But this has come at a huge cost. The tab for imports of over 10 million tonnes was `46,255 crore during 2011-12, but is set to cross `60,000 crore for 2012-13, an escalating figure that is
14
SPECIAL REPORT
framework to switch over to a food inspection and sampling process to handle increasing volumes effectively. The other challenge is to ensure food safety at locations where FSSAI is not operating as Custom staff are ill-equipped for this task. But it is apparent that FSSAI is finding it tough to cope with the mounting pressure of imports. Among other problems, consumer organisations have been complaining about incomplete or misleading labelling on a host of products. Quite often the information on the contents are in a foreign language such as Arabic since many consignments destined for the Gulf states are diverted or re-exported to India. At other times, products carry only the best before date and not the date of manufacture although the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations of 2011 require complete information on the label. The biggest lacuna, points out Raj Kumar Bhatia, member-secretary of Azadpur Mandi, the giant wholesale market in Delhi, is the lack of standards like the European Unions EUROGAPS for fresh produce coming into the country. As a consequence, the imported fruits could be substandard. The problem, he says, is that our focus is on exports for which we have strict norms governed by APEDA but none for imports.
far from sustainable, according to economists. Pulses are the other item that punches a big hole in foreign exchange outflows with imports for 11 months of 2012-13 being 3.53 million tonnes against the previous years 3.19 million tonnes. The bill so far: `11,758 crore. All this is a huge source of concern for several reasons, warns Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University. India is potentially a big country in world trade for all of its food import items, that is to say, it affects global prices by its entry/exit. We are already far too affected by global prices that have been extremely volatile, often for reasons unrelated to actual demand and supply but because of financial speculation, etc. To expose the country to import vulnerability is, therefore, insane and even criminal. But is any country self-sufficient in
FRUITS
` 10,051.33
PULSES
CRORE
` 2,476.25
` 11,758.31
CRORE
CRORE
CRORE
2005-06
2011-12
2005-06
Source: DGCIS, Ministry of Commerce
2012-13
15
SPECIAL REPORT
DAIRY PRODUCTS*
` 182.52
CRORE
2005-06
2012-13
*include birds eggs & honey Source: Export Import Data Bank, Ministry of Commerce
food or does it need to be, asks Sumit Saran, director of SCS Group, an agribusiness consulting firm that represents several US crop associations, such as the Pear Bureau Northwest and the US Apple Export Council, in the Indian subcontinent. We should be looking at two distinct categories, that of supplementary and complementary foods. In the first category are those that India needs to import to meet the demands of its one billion plus population. Products like cereals, pulses, edible oil and sugar fall in this category. Complementary foods are those that are imported to cater to the demands of a burgeoning Indian middle class and its aspirations to be a part of the global consuming family. And what is this class eating? Tons of
SEA FOOD
` 490.93
CRORE
27,502.34 Tonnes
` 99.06
CRORE
pasta, exotic fruits from a diverse range of countries, some fancy vegetables, premium cheeses and dairy products, among others. According to various trade reports, the market for imported complementary foods is estimated to be close to $1.5 billion. Fresh fruits, dry fruits and nuts, olive oil and processed foods, like confectionery items, beverages and pasta products, etc., are the fastest growing items in this category. There appears to be a certain inevitability to food imports, given the size of the Indian market and its projected growth. Its $330 billion food market is expected to expand to $900 billion by 2020 while the current market for processed foods of $40 billion will increase to $300 billion in the next seven years. These are the figures that have left the global food industry salivating. The projection is that India, which is now the worlds 12th largest food market, will zoom ahead to the fifth place by 2025. In the nineties, when India was forced to lift its quantitative restrictions on imports of most food items, these products were mostly for the well-heeled elite class with high incomes. Retailers of these products were few and availability was erratic. Now, with more widespread affluence and a sizable chunk of professionals boasting disposable income in a comparatively young consuming population, the market dynamics have changed dramatically. Todays consumers are demanding similar diets and products that are available in London, Toronto or Sydneyand getting those as the suppliers, the medium and the market make it so much easier. While imports of spices, dried fruits and nuts are skyrocketing, products like ginger and garlic are making a dramatic appearance on the import charts. Nuts, in particular, are big ticket item since India produces insignificant quantities of pistachios, almonds and cashews to meet the burgeoning demand. Raw cashew imports between April 2012 and February 2013 accounted for a steep outgo of `5,085 crore. The trick of the trade is to look for a health angle and make it the selling point. One reason imported fruits have become popular in a price-conscious market like India is that these are reputed to be more wholesome, whereas Indian vegetables and fruits are known to be sprayed heavily with pesticides that lead
Is any country self-sufficient in food or does it need to be? We should be looking at two distinct categories: supplementary foods that are essential and complementary foods catering for the needs of a burgeoning middle class
SUMIT SARAN
` 3,466.70
Crore
` 783.88
2005-06
2012-13
to health problems. Tarun Arora of Mumbai-based IG International, a leading importer of fruits and vegetables, says, The niche is an entire set of people who are health conscious and it cuts across class and other barriers. It has helped our company turnover to increase by 20 per cent annually in the last five years. For instance, Kiwi, which was an unknown fruit to most Indians, is now selling well even at `200/kg merely because it is reputed to fight dengue. The nutritional pitch has been most successful with imported apples, which have broken the seasonality barrier. Apples, imported from China, Chile, US, New Zealand, Italy and Germany are available all the year round on practically every street of Indian metros and bigger cities. Thanks to the health benefits it is supposed to confer, consumers across the
16
PASTA
` 14.10
` 5.11 CRORE
country are happily paying `10-20 more per kg for the imported fruit. But although the import trade and consultants are pushing the health and nutrition angle, there are questions about the quality of foodstuffs that come into the country. For one, many of the processed foods and items carry labels showing date of packaging and expiry affixed by the importing agency and not that set by the manufacturer. For many a consumer this undermines the credibility and quality of the product, and retailers admit there is customer reluctance and suspicion about such labelling. Who monitors the quality of imported foodstuff? All such imports come under the scrutiny of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Its rules and regulations under the Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006 are detailed and, according to trade sources, onerous. But, oddly, since September 2010, FSSAI is regulating imports made only through Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata. Prior to this, foodstuff required a certification from the port health authorities that the product conformed to the standards and regulations of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA) of 1954 and its rules of 1955, which were designed to keep out impure, unsafe and fraudulently-labelled foods. However, as the trade itself concedes, certification is, even today, based mostly on visual inspection and records of past imports as most ports have very limited testing facilities. This leaves a loophole for the food trade. FSSAIs Vinod Kotwal, director CODEX, told Down To Earth that with the
In any case, olive oil whose nutritional benefits are accepted universally, has been the front runner in the league of healthy oils. In India, its presence has grown sharply over the past five years with imports, from Spain and Italy, growing at a smart clip of 30 per cent annually. The growth rate is expected to double in the wake of a focused campaign by the inter-governmental International Olive Oil Council (IOOC) on a series of events involving the media, the hospitality industry and schools. The three-year, 1 million (` 7.9 crore) campaign by Madrid-based IOOC is also promoting a number of food festivals across the country along with an awareness campaign on the health benefits of olive oil. Imports in 2010-11 touched 42,000 tonnes valued at ` 110 crore with extra virgin olive oil accounting for nearly 90 per cent of the value. Sumit Sarans agribusiness consultancy SCS Group has been involved in the promotion and he believes the high growth rates reflect a structural change in the way the affluent middle class is changing its cooking and eating patterns.
CASHEW NUTS
quantity and value of food imports increasing over the years, the authority is ` 5,084.97 CRORE facing some tough challenges as its func` 2,089 tioning gets more and more circum0.85 scribed (see Who is manning the gates). CRORE Million Tonnes The other shortcoming is that no stan0.54 dards have been prescribed for fresh Million Tonnes fruits and vegetables. With exports having been seen for long as the priority for the economy, the focus has been on meeting the standards abroad and not vice versa. As a result, imports appear to have found the entry barriers not insurmountable, specially since the average 2005-06 2012-13 consumer typically assumes that all that comes from abroad is of superior quality. Source: DGCIS, Ministry of Commerce Several factors make it appear that
July 1-15, 2013 Down To Earth 17
food revolution will be irreversible. Right now it involves just the creamy layer of society, the 250 million affluent Indians, who make up the global consuming class. However, the remaining 900 million will be added soon, declares an optimistic food consultant. For one, there is the accelerated urbanisation and the resulting demand for processed, packaged, branded and value-added food and beverage products; more cosmopolitan tastes and a new breed of working women and young mothers who have neither the time nor inclination to cook. Most high-value imported foods are sold in metros and Tier-I cities, points out Saran. But some products like apples that are comparatively less temperature-sensitive and are able to maintain crispness even in ambient temperatures for five to seven days are making it to Tier-II and Tier-III cities. His contention is that there are no rich or poor cities. Each city, each area, has its share of rich and poor. So there always are discerning Indian consumers, who can afford imported produce and are willing to pay a higher price for better quality. The rule of thumb with fruit consumption across the globe is that fruits are produced seasonally but consumed all the year round and India is no longer an exception. The irony is that even Mother Dairy, a fully owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board, is offering imported fruits at its Safal outlets. Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable (MDFV) was set up to provide a market for Indian farmers through the cooperative framework and help them get the right price for their produce. But Pradipta Sahoo, horticulture business head at MDFV, sees no conflict of interest in Safal hawking imported apples, pears, kiwi and other such exotica. Please note that we are in a modern retail business running 400 booths/stores. Therefore, we need to provide consumers the choice of assortment of fruits. Such compulsions mean imported fruits, mostly apples, are on sale to take advantage of the seasonal window advantage, which products from the US, New Zealand, China and Chile offer. Besides, MDFV does not have enough storage facility for home-grown apples. But there can be serious repercussions on domestic growers as India becomes one of the top 20 fruit importers in the world. Take for instance what hap-
We are already far too affected by extremely volatile global prices, often for reasons unrelated to actual demand and supply. To expose the country to import vulnerability is, therefore, insane
JAYATI GHOSH
Crore
2005-06
Source: DGCIS, Ministry of Commerce
2012-13
pened to apples in 2012. While domestic production was 2.2 million tonnes, consumption was 1.9 million tonnes inclusive of imports of 188,071 tonnes. With a retail market size of $4.9 billion, it is little wonder that agri-marketing companies representing foreign corporations are stepping up their promotions. While Ghosh disagrees with the view that pasta, confectionery and such are elitist in nature unless we subscribe to the view that masses of the country do not deserve to have a diversified or balanced diet, she says there are other worries. Sugar and fruit imports reflect not just free trade agreements and other trade liberalisation measures that are making imports cheaper but also increasing corporate control over food distribution. India will soon find itself in a cleft stick over the increasing tide of food imports.
18
SPECIAL REPORT
Premature scheme
Gujarats plan to increase institutional deliveries among expecting mothers has fallen flat
JYOTSNA SINGH Valsad
Poor show
Deliveries under the scheme
Normal
wenty-four-year-old Usha Ben, a tribal living in Santrampur tehsil of Panchmahal district, delivered a baby at a private clinic in the absence of a doctor. The baby was delivered by a nurse in the clinic. The doctor stopped attending to her as soon as she was told that Usha Ben was a beneficiary of the Gujarat governments Chiranjeevi Yojana. Soon after the delivery she was sent home without the essential postdelivery checkup. The state governments financing scheme that aims to reduce maternal and infant mortality rate among tribal and below poverty line (BPL) women by promoting institutional deliveries is in a shambles. The scheme was launched in November 2005, a few months after the Central government launched the Janani Suraksha Yojana under the National Rural Health Mission, which, too, aims to improve maternal and child health. Problems in Chiranjeevi Yojana abound as women restrain from availing benefits of the scheme. Four months ago, Geeta Rathwa, a slumdweller in Vadodara, chose Jamnabai Civil Hospital, a government tertiary care hospital, over private hospitals for her delivery.
760,226 54,953
Caesarian
Complicated
43,718
Total
858,897
Downward trend
Number of accredited doctors 2010
824
2009
833
2011
646
Chiranjeevi Yojana aims to reduce maternal and infant mortality rate among the poor by promoting institutional deliveries
2013
475
Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
19
SPECIAL REPORT
Doctors ask for too many documents if we want to avail the schemes benefits, she says. Worse, they discriminate between us and those who pay for the services. Initially, I had gone for my ante-natal checkup to a private hospital, but the doctor there made me wait till the end, she says. The scheme was launched in November 2005 as a one-year pilot project in five most vulnerable districts Banaskantha, Dahod, Kuchchh, Panchmahal and Sabarkantha. Later, it was extended to the entire state. Nonincome tax paying women belonging to above poverty line group were also incorporated in the scheme. As per the scheme, the government signs agreements with private hospitals and pays them a fixed amount of `2,80,000 for a package of 100 deliveries, be they normal, caesarean or complicated. To arrive at a uniform 100 deliveries fee package, the state government had consulted experts, SEWA Rural (a non-profit providing health services in south Gujarat) and representatives of Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India. Eight years down the line, doctors avoid the scheme as much as the beneficiaries. The number of doctors affiliated with the scheme has dropped from 833 in 2009 to 475, health ministrys latest data shows (see infograph on p21).
has brought the number of caesarian deliveries down, says Dileep Mavalankar, director of IIPH and lead author of the study. However, it is also possible that the doctors chose only those patients who needed normal delivery, he says.
Doctors complain that remuneration under the scheme is too little and the verification procedure tedious
stringent. We do not have the expertise to verify documents from anganwadis or district officials which can prove that the patient, indeed, is BPL or a tribal, says the doctor in Vadodara. The state government made the process of documentation stringent after cases of financial fraud by doctors started pouring in. An auxiliary nurse and midwife (ANM) at Umargaon village in Valsad got a pregnant woman registered under the scheme at a private hospital. But when the woman went to the hospital for delivery, the doctor asked her to pay `10,000. The hospital staff was angry and misbehaved with her when she refused, says the ANM, requesting anonymity. The hospital wanted money from the government as well as the patient, she adds. The Valsad health department has ordered closure of three such private clinics. A 2012 study on the impact of the scheme indicates that doctors do avoid treating the beneficiaries. The Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH), Gandhinagar, compared the number of caesarean deliveries among beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in private hospitals in Sabarkantha. The researchers interviewed 224 mothers from 23 Chiranjeevi Yojana-accredited hospitals and 372 from 43 other facilities. They found the rate of caesarean deliveries among the schemes beneficiaries was 6 per cent compared to 18 per cent among non-beneficiaries. Introduction of the scheme, which gives a fixed amount for all deliveries,
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CATCH RAINWATER
COVER STORY
HEAVENS RAGE
BEFORE
KEDARNATH TEMPLE
SURVIVORS OF THE UTTARAKHAND FLASH FLOODS SHARE HAIR-RAISING TALES OF THEIR ORDEAL AND YET-TOBE-EXPLAINED FREAK WALLS OF WATER GUSHING DOWN HILL SLOPES. SOMA BASU REPORTS FROM GROUND ZERO HOW THE TRAGEDY UNFOLDED
AFTER
KEDARNATH TEMPLE
2,052
147 bridges
collapsed
1,307 roads
destroyed
SANJAY SEMWAL
22
t 7.18 pm on June 16, Ram Singh heard the loudest crack in 45 years of his life. It was the deafening roar of a disaster. I felt as if the sky had been torn asunder. Within seconds, a massive wall of water gushed towards Kedarnath Temple. Huge boulders flung into the sky like an explosion. In less than 15 minutes, thousands of people were swept away, he recalls lying at the Rudraprayag district hospital. Singh was on the Char Dham yatra with 17 people from his hometown Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. He is returning with only five. The rest are missing. The group had gone to see aarti at the temple. Singh says his daughter, brother, sister-in-law and 70-year-old uncle must have been ambling around the market after the aarti when disaster
struck. My son wanted to see the hills, so I took him along. My wife followed us, he says. That is how we survived. I have no clue where the rest are. Six kilometres below, Rambara village is a resting point for devotees going to Kedarnath Temple. Its 43-year-old resident Sankar Gosai shudders to recount the sight of the enormous amount of water gushing down the mountain. In no time, long stretches of a road and houses were swept away. It had been raining nonstop since June 14. Fearing flood, we had climbed up the hill. But we never imagined that such a huge amount of water could swoop down all so suddenly, he says. Gosai walked down the precarious mountain for two full days till he reached Rudraprayag town. Rakesh Singh, 36, had a miraculous
escape because he climbed the temple roof. He came to Kedarnath with 12 family members. He does not know where the others are. It all started at Chorabari glacier, say people who have managed to return. The glacier lies on the slope of the 6,940metre Kedarnath peak of the Himalaya. The glacier is 7 km in length, its basin area is 38 sq km and the ice cover is 5.9 sq km. It has two snoutsone is the source of the Mandakini (at 3,865 metres) and the other becomes the Chorabari Lake (at 3,835 metres). People recall that on June 16 the lake exploded when clouds burst over it. The lake is 6 km from the temple upstream the Alaknanda. Ensuing rains cut off the hilly districts of Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Pithoragarh from the mainland and battered the
ROHIT DIMRI
23
COVER STORY
land till it crumbled. Pithoragarh faced the disaster twiceon June 16 and on June 22, says Naresh Ram, resident of Kholi village. There, the lake of Miliam glacier burst when clouds burst over it leading to overflow of two rivers which emerge from the glacierthe Goriganga and the Kaliganga. The lake still holds a lot of water, so the district may witness a similar disaster soon, he warns. I have never seen anything like this. It was as if someone was throwing water from under the ground, says Vivek Rawat, 27, who worked at a hotel in Gaurikund, about 15 km from Kedarnath. Almost everything in Gaurikund is demolished, he says. Eyewitnesses have similar stories from Kedarnath Temple and Hemkunt Sahib. Nobody is yet sure of the reason. On June 18, Sushil Singh, resident of Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, ran down from Gaurikund to Gaurigaon to save his life. There is no trace of the 14 people he came with, he says. Around 5,000 people like him reached the village. But most were ill. They had swallowed mud that had flowed with the water. Many died of it at Gaurigaon. The rest waited beside the bodies, to be rescued. On June 19, as the army was battling against time to rescue people, there was utter chaos in the administration. Bureaucrats, sitting inside expensive hotels, were screaming on their mobile phones. At the Rudraprayag police control room, no one knew what action to take. It took Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to come down to Uttarakhand to admit that there was no coordination among government agen-
I have never seen anything like this. It was as if someone was throwing water from under the ground
VIVEK RAWAT
AKHILESH SRIVASTAVA
RESCUED FROM HEMKUNT SAHIB
Around 5,000 people had reached Gaurigaon to be rescued. Some had so much mud inside their body that they died there itself
SUSHIL SINGH
RESCUED FROM GAURIGAON
cies, which was hampering rescue operations. The only piece of information that seemed to make sense was an 11-page report that the district information officer was quoting to journalists. The report, prepared by the State Disaster Management Control Room in Dehradun, gave an assessment of the scale of the disaster. At 5 pm, Rudraprayag town welcomed the first batch of people from Badrinath, Govindghat, Pandukeshwar and Gaurikund who came in 11 vehicles. The Army and the state govern-
ment had managed to link the upper hills to the town. As the buses and private taxis stopped, people ran towards water, food stalls and the medical desk where the Rudraprayag Vyapar Mandal had organised free service for victims. Akhilesh Srivastava of Jhansi wept on seeing food. His family was stranded at Hemkunt Sahib near the Valley of Flowers. Army personnel helped them walk down to Govindghat in Chamoli district, from where they were taken to Joshimath. They trekked till Rudraprayag because they had run out of money. Private taxis were charging double the fare and the private helicopters were demanding `50,000 per person to reach us to safety, he says. During the trek, they sucked their wet clothes when thirsty. His six-year-old son chewed grass in the night when he could not withstand hunger pangs. On June 20, when Down To Earth reached Kedarnath, it was clear that the State Disaster Management Control Room had presented only 10 per cent of the real picture. The temple town was stinking of rotting bodies. The ground level had risen by about two metres and bodies could be seen stuck in the debris at about every 10 metres. The lanes were strewn with crumbled tin sheets and broken pieces of wood. Kedarnath is now haunted, says Rakesh Singh, waiting at Rudraprayag to be airlifted by an Army sortie.
Colossal loss
Every year, Uttarakhands Garhwal region receives pilgrims in thousands for Chhota Char Dham yatraGangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. It also receives heavy rains and suffers floods. But the loss the region has suffered this time is horrifying. According to the Char Dham control room records, there were 26,000 people in Kedar Valley on June 16. This is where the temple is located. Records also show that 39,000 people had left the valley that day for Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri and Hemkunt Sahib. The governments figure of about 800 total deaths is too conservative. The number, clearly, is in many thousands. The raging Bhagirathi, Alaknanda and Mandakini have swollen like never before and swept away whatever came in their way. As many as 2,052 houses have been wiped out, 147 bridges have
ROHIT DIMRI
Kedarnath is now haunted, say people. A picture of the temples doorstep shows why
collapsed and 1,307 roads destroyed, says Rakesh Sharma, state infrastructure development commissioner. The upper reaches of Uttarakhand look as if the region has travelled a hundred years back in time. The Gangotri and Yamunotri highways are damaged at several places. The rivers have damaged the 36-km stretch from Uttarkashi to Bhatwari at six places. Higher up, roads are damaged due to landslides. The stretch of road between Matli to Maneri in Uttarkashi is so badly damaged that one cannot tell when it can be repaired, says Sharma. Three drinking water projects have got washed away in Garur block, while 71 streams and 40 canals have been damaged. As per preliminary estimates, says Sharma, the disaster has cost Uttarakhand `50,000 crore in infrastructural loss. Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited has suffered loss of `77 crore apart from the `50 crore lost in power generation.
says Harish Rawat, a BSc student in Bhatwari region. Heavy machines plying every day on kuchcha roads have weakened it, he says. Now we suffer landslides more often. Rawat lost his home to a landslide in 2010, which wiped out 25 houses and 28 shops. Ram Prasad Tomar, a driver at Uttarkashi, agrees. Contractors come from urban areas and do not understand the mountain. They cut it open, which causes landslides. Then, they go bankrupt clearing the debris. Near Silli village, 17 km from Rudraprayag, the Mandakini has shifted course and washed away all the structures along its banks, says Prakash Thapliyal, who lost his house. The river shifted course because of Larsen and Toubros Singholi-Bhatwari hydropower project. All the debris was dumped on the riverbed, he says. In Srinagar, the training centre of Sashastra Seema Bal was damaged apart from several houses in low-lying areas. The deluge was the result of the dam at Srinagar. Its floodgates were opened without warning. The water carried all the debris at the dam site and brought it here, says resident Arun Negi. In August 2012, when flash floods occurred in Uttarkashi, the Uttarakhand Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre had recommended strict regulation of developmental initiatives near streams and rivers. No heed was paid to it. In Rudraprayag, no structure is allowed within 100 metres from the
rivers banks. The flood widened the rivers course by 15 metres and caused damage worth crores of rupees. What else does one expect from the mountain if there is heavy tourist rush at vulnerable areas. The Himalaya is a young mountain and you dynamite it to build roads. Landslides are bound to happen, says Anand Sharma, executive director of Dehradun Meteorological Centre. In the wake of the disaster, Jayanthi Natarajan, minister of environment and forests, issued a statement that the National Ganga River Basin Authority had notified 130 km stretch from Gaumukh to Uttarkashi as an ecosensitive zone on December 18, 2012. The notification, thus, prohibits activities such as setting up of hydroelectric power plants of more than 25 MW, extraction of river water for new industrial purposes, mining except for domestic needs, stone quarrying, deforestation, burning of solid waste. Natarajan, however, did not mention that the area near the Alaknanda and the Mandakini has not been notified. This is where stone quarrying is done most. Tell me one place in the Himalaya that is not ecosensitive, says Anil Prakash Joshi, former teacher and founder of non-profit Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation. Till when will we play with nature? With inputs from photographer Soumik Mukherjee
July 1-15, 2013 Down To Earth 25
COVER STORY
Caught unprepared
POOR COORDINATION BETWEEN DISASTER MANAGEMENT AGENCIES AMPLIFIED THE IMPACT
JYOTSNA SINGH and KUMAR SAMBHAV SHRIVASTAVA
ho is to be blamed for the burgeoning number of deaths in Uttarakhand? Ten days after gargantuan amount of water rolled down the Himalayas, weather scientists are still trying to understand what went wrong. The prognosis may still take some time, but as the tragedy unfolded, it was clear that different state government agencies have a lot of blood on their cuffs.
Despite warnings from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the state machinery could not crank itself up to meet the challenge. On June 13, IMD s Delhi centre, which serves weather-related needs of seven north Indian states, issued a warning that the state would receive rather heavy rainfall. The term denotes precipitation between 35.6 millimetres (mm) and 65.4 mm within 24 hours. The forecast was elevated to heavy rainfall (64.5 mm to 124.4 mm) on June 15. On June 16 and 17, IMD warned of
extremely heavy rainfall (244.5 mm and above). But the state government found its feet stuck in the mud even before the rains had arrived. At 9 a.m. on June 15, IMDs Dehradun centre issued a bulletin to the state government that five places in the stateJoshimath, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri would receive rather heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in the next 72 hours. The forecast was sent to executive director of the state management and mitigation centre, inspector general
26
Representative image
CHORABARI GLACIER
NEW CHANNEL
KEDARNATH
Satellite explanation
Glaciologists say a small, temporary lake breached and added to the storm water, which caused the deluge
ing the water levels in rivers and streams. Snow melts faster when it comes in contact with water than air. Thus, heavy precipitation, which happened this time for days together, led to faster rate of snow melting. All these factors came together to produce such a large amount of water within two to three days. Glaciologist Anil Kulkarni, who is a visiting scientist at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, adds a bit more. Kedarnath received 120 mm rainfall in 24 hours before the flash flood on June 16. There is evidence that a small lake was formed during these rains above the Kedarnath town (see satellite image). The 1-hectare lake contained 10 million litre water. The lake must have lasted a small duration and its water must have come down along with the water from the glacier. The lake burst due to a breach in the blockade. Coupled with heavy rains in the area, this caused flash floods. Because of the lake there was excessive stream run-off and a third channel emerged. Gopal Singh Rawat, senior scientist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, compares satellite images of Kedarnath taken before and after the event. It shows a rightward shift of the extreme left water channel. The stream, along with other streams, flowed towards the main habitation, leading to the disaster. JS
of police (intelligence), inspector general of Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Doordarshan and local media. IMD advised pilgrims to cancel their travel up
the hills. The State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) was also intimated but did not know what to do. The state is among five in the coun-
try to have Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre (DMMC), an autonomous body for disaster management. Once SDMA and DMMC receive the
July 1-15, 2013 Down To Earth 27
COVER STORY
warning, they should relay it to district magistrates. Every district should have a district disaster management authority (DDMA), which should comprise people who can interpret IMD data. On June 16, state government officials did nothing more than issue an advisory about open and blocked roads. Soon, heavy downpour caused floods and landslides. Mud and debris from hill slopes cut off vital road linkages within the state. Twelve bridges crumbled. On June 17, the state government finally shook off its inertia. The chief secretary held a meeting with the state disaster management team and issued an alert that rescue operations should begin on June 18. But by this time most of the damage had been done. Paper tigers The shoddy relief and rescue work was because the authorities have nothing to guide them. The Disaster Management Act of 2005, under which the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the SDMAs were set up, gives broad guidelines for disaster management. Every state has to frame its own disaster management Act keeping local conditions and dangers in mind. The Uttarakhand government failed to do so. Since there is no such Act, district magistrates do not know the standard operating procedure, say senior SDMA officials. There are limited number of roads that connect villages in Uttarkashi and Chamoli, says NDMA member Jyoti Kumar Sinha. We had suggested to the state authorities that they identify locations on roads where food stock and supplies could be stored for trekkers. At least the food shortage that many pilgrims faced in disconnected areas could have been averted to an extent, he says. SDMA was formed in 2007. But five years later, it is yet to frame a disaster management plan, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, which audited SDMA, stated in its report. CAG also pointed out that only 66 of the 117 sanctioned posts in the state authority have been filled up. In May and June 2011, NDMA had conducted mock drills in Dehradun, Haridwar and Tehri Garhwal to test disaster preparedness in Uttarakhand. The result of the drill was not made public, but it was clear that there were commu28 Down To Earth July 1-15, 2013
EVERY STATE HAS TO FRAME A DISASTER MANAGEMENT ACT KEEPING IN MIND ITS LOCAL CONDITIONS AND DANGERS. UTTARAKHAND FAILED TO DO SO
nication gaps between government agencies. It also noted that coordination between agencies at state and district levels was better than at the local level. This, in effect, meant that practical implementation of disaster management would have gaping holes. NDMA indicted NDMA was constituted in 2006 to lay down policies and guidelines for effective management, risk mitigation and prevention of disasters in the country. It is headed by the prime minister. Its performance in the last seven years has been anything but sterling. The authority is accused of taking up projects and leaving them incomplete. In 2008, NDMA initiated a nationwide project on floods and landslide mitigation. These projects have either been junked or have gone back to the drawing board midway. Similarly, a project to prepare a vulnerability atlas of landslides, floods and earthquakes started five years ago. It is still incomplete. In April 2013, CAG placed a report in Parliament pointing out that NDMA is not properly informed about the disaster management work in states. Projects that were initiated for disaster preparedness and mitigation have not been properly implemented, it states. Worse, since 2010 the authority has been functioning without a core advisory committee of experts that advises it on different aspects of disaster management. According to the Disaster Management Act of 2004, NDMA should have an advisory committee of experts for disaster management at the national, state and district levels. In 2007, it constituted its first advisory committee for two years. The committees term was extended for a year. After its end, setting up of a new committee was delayed because many ministries failed to nominate experts, say NDMA officials. At present, the names are being reviewed by the Prime Ministers Office, they say. The CAG report states that NDMA has not performed the functions as prescribed in the Disaster Management Act. These include recommending provision of funds for the purpose of mitigation and recommending relief in repayment of loans or for grant of fresh loans. Besides, several critical posts in NDMA are vacant and consultants were used for day-to-day working.
COVER STORY
SOUMIK MUKHERJEE / CSE
Floodgates of the 330-MW Srinagar Dam in Pauri were opened on the night of June 16, which inundated many areas
ver since Uttarakhand was created in 2000, the state government, be it of the Congress or the BJP, has been working with one agendaexploit natural resources of water, forests and minerals to develop infrastructure, without caring for its consequences on nature. The development is triggered mostly by the deluge of pilgrims who visit the holy places in the state annually. In the past decade, the number of tourists has risen by 155 per cent, the states tourism department data shows. Last year, 28.4 million tourists visited the state between May and November. The states population is 14 million. There is hardly any place to accommodate the visitors. A survey done by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations in 2006 states that there are an average of 102.5 hotels per million tourists in the state. Shortage of dwelling units has led to mushrooming of illegal structures, some right on the
riverbanks. The state governments 2000 notification to prohibit construction within 200 metres from the riverbanks was not adhered to. In 2011, Dinesh Bhardwaj, a resident of Roorkee, filed a public interest petition in the Uttarakhand High Court and identified several illegal structures along the banks of the Ganga, Song, Bhagirathi, Alaknanda and the Mandakini. The Bench comprising Chief Justice Barin Ghose and Justice Alok Singh ordered the state government to demolish all structures along the banks. But the state government did not act, says Bhardwaj. Floods have brought down hundreds of small hotels on the riverbanks. The main indicator of a thriving real estate business are the Himalaya itself, hollowed down for boulders, pebbles, sand and gravel. Statistics of the forest department show that between 2000 and 2010, as many as 3,903.24 hectares (ha) forestland was diverted for mining projects (see infograph on p30, 31). To protest indiscriminate mining on the Ganga by a local quarrying and
sand mining company, Swami Nigamanand fasted for 68 days and finally died on June 13, 2011. The then environment minister Jairam Ramesh wrote to the then chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal demanding an end to illegal mining. No action was taken. What the state government did was form a new mining policy which facilitates auctioning of sites identified by the department of mining and geology. Forest officials favoured passage of the policy and stated that it would help the state government realise a profit of `300-`350 crore. When Vijay Bahuguna became the chief minister in 2012, tenders were floated for mining, diverting additional 1,608 ha for mining. Unscientific mining helped rivers increase their width and change course this time. As per mining guidelines, not more than 0.9 metre should be dug, but private mining companies go as far down as 9 metres. Y P Sundriyal, professor of geology at Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Srinagar, Uttarakhand, explains the
July 1-15, 2013 Down To Earth 29
COVER STORY
HIMALAYAN FOOTPRINT
YAMUNOTRI 240% increase of tourists from 2001 to 2012 GANGOTRI 250% increase of tourists from 2001 to 2012 KEDARNATH 378% increase of tourists from 2001 to 2012
323,867
pilgrims in 2013 till June 20
209,753
pilgrims in 2013 till June 20
252,783
pilgrims in 2013 till June 20
489,924
pilgrims in 2013 till June 20
12
Barkot Yamuna
Sonprayag
5
Dehradun
10
11
Srinagar Rudraprayag
Hemkunt Sahib
Gauchar
6
Haridwar
Rishikesh
4 2
9
Goriganga
Kaliganga
8
Ramganga
7 13
/ RA BO AN B IR AN
E CS
Worst-affected areas
Map not to scale
30
COVER STORY DEVELOPMENT IN UTTARAKHAND IS MUCH MORE THAN THE ECOLOGICALLY FRAGILE REGION CAN HANDLE, SHOWS DATA
2
BAGESHWAR HYDEL PROJECTS
3
CHAMPAWAT HYDEL PROJECTS
4
CHAMOLI HYDEL PROJECTS
5
DEHRADUN HYDEL PROJECTS
6
HARIDWAR HYDEL PROJECTS
7
NAINITAL HYDEL PROJECTS
1
RIVERBED MINING 59.6 ha FOREST DIVERTED 598.4 ha
13
RIVERBED MINING 13.87 ha FOREST DIVERTED 478.3 ha
2
RIVERBED MINING 182.8 ha FOREST DIVERTED 308.5 ha
51
RIVERBED MINING 115.8 ha FOREST DIVERTED 1,766.7 ha
11
RIVERBED MINING 63.51 ha FOREST DIVERTED 1,203.1 ha
2
RIVERBED MINING
4
RIVERBED MINING 123.83 ha FOREST DIVERTED 1,104.7 ha
8
PAURI HYDEL PROJECTS
9
PITHORAGARH HYDEL PROJECTS
10
RUDRAPRAYAG HYDEL PROJECTS
11
TEHRI GARHWAL HYDEL PROJECTS
12
UTTARKASHI HYDEL PROJECTS
13
UDHAM SINGH NAGAR HYDEL PROJECTS TOTAL HYDEL PROJECTS
13
RIVERBED MINING 67.91 ha FOREST DIVERTED 610.7 ha
62
RIVERBED MINING 34.08 ha FOREST DIVERTED 1,281.6 ha
19
RIVERBED MINING 51.38 ha FOREST DIVERTED 299 ha
23
RIVERBED MINING 29.56 ha FOREST DIVERTED 1,522 ha
42
RIVERBED MINING 141.84 ha FOREST DIVERTED 577.5 ha
244
1
RIVERBED MINING 724.69 ha FOREST DIVERTED 145.1 ha
Note: 1. The number of hydropower projects includes operational and proposed projects 2. Data for forest diversions is from 2000 to 2010 Sources: Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited, Uttarakhand government
aftermath. During monsoon, when the river swells, it tilts towards the dug up area, not only changing its course but also putting roads and houses along the riverbank at a high risk, he says. In the last decade, the state government has diverted 15,072 ha forestland for roads, irrigation, power transmission and hydel projects.
Destruction by dams
The website of Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL) shows that 45 hydropower projects with a total capac-
ity of 3,164 MW are operational in Uttarakhand. The state plans to build 199 big and small projects. In the Alaknanda-Bhagirathi basin alone, 69 hydropower projects are built or proposed, states a report prepared in April 2013 by the environment ministrys Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) formed to consider environmental flows and hydropower projects on the Ganga and its tributaries. Dams, no doubt, are essential for meeting energy requirements. But it is equally essential that the state government assesses how much hydropower it actually needs. Dam construction involves blasting, excavation, debris dumping, movement of heavy machinery, diversion of forests and rivers. This has a huge cumulative impact on Himalayan ecology. The need is to make sustainable use of resources
with minimal disturbance to ecology. The way projects are being executed is disastrous, says Vimal Bhai of Haridwar-based non-profit Matu Jan Sangathan. The 69 projects, when implemented, would affect 81 per cent of the Bhagirathi and 65 per cent of the Alaknanda. Most of these are small projects which would reroute rivers water through tunnels cut through the mountain, leaving long stretches of the rivers dry. Worse, the project proponents do not leave enough space between two projects for the river to regenerate. Two projects should be at least 3-5 km from each other, Delhi non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has submitted in the IMG report. The problem aggravates because small projects do not require environment impact assessment (EIA). The
31
COVER STORY
PUSHKAR RAWAT
cumulative impact of so many dams on a river can be horrendous. But there is no legal requirement to cumulatively assess the impact of a series of dams on a river during the EIA process. In view of a Central Water Commission report that reservoirs on some rivers like the Ramganga are overflowing with water 440 per cent above the normal mark, scientists say there is a need to review dam building concepts such as Design Flood. This ensures that the dam can hold enough water to avert even a disastrous flood that may occur once in a hundred years. But the Indian standard for fixing criteria for design flood for safety of dams does not directly incorporate the concept of hazard, states a study by N K Mathur and Bhopal Singh of Central Water Commission in 2012. G P Patel, managing director of UJVNL, believes there is no link between dams and the recent floods. Had dams like Tehri not been there, devastation would have been manifold. The entire western Uttar Pradesh would have been washed out, he says. On June 16, when the Bhagirathi was swelling, the water level in the Tehri reservoir reached 775
32 Down To Earth July 1-15, 2013
metres from 750 metres. The reservoir can accommodate water up to 830 metres from the mean sea level. An engineer at Tehri Hydropower Development Corporation, who did not wish to be named, says the dam was able to avert the disaster because rains came in June, when the water level was low. Had a similar situation occurred in October, devastation would have been greater, he says. Officials fear if there is more rainfall in the coming days, Tehris floodgates may have to be opened. The situation aggravated this time because of indiscriminate dumping of debris and muck along the riverbanks. This increases the erosive capacity of the river, which increases the rivers water level, says Sundriyal. This causes extensive destruction in the downstream, he adds. Environment ministrys guidelines say sites to dispose of debris should be identified in advance. Unplanned construction of hydropower projects also affects rivers ecological flow, or the minimum water a river requires for its ecosystem and human needs. IMG recommended that between November and April, at least 30 per cent water of the rivers flow
should be maintained. Between May and October, the monsoon season, the ecological flow should be 20 per cent. As many environmentalists submitted a dissent note to this, CSE gave an alternative after studying hydrological data of 24 hydropower projects. It found that in winters, rivers flow was less than 10 per cent of the high monsoon flow in almost all 24 projects. If less than 50 per cent water is left in the river, it will be reduced to a trickle in these months. CSE suggested 50 per cent flow for six months during winters and 30 per cent flow in the remaining six months. Based on this analysis, it stated that it is possible to build hydropower projects on a river and still allow ecological flow. The Himalayas are the worlds youngest mountain range. They are prone to erosion and landslides. Seismic activity and rainstorms lash the region. Mindless development on this ecologically fragile mountain is one of the biggest reasons the floods have been so devastating in Uttarakhand this time. Nature has spoken, and more loudly this time, says Joshi. We cannot afford not to listen to it any longer.
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SPECIAL REPORT
Clearance rush
Environment ministry clears projects, even those rejected earlier, at an unprecedented rate
SRESTHA BANERJEE
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) seems to be in a rush to give clearances to development projects. Since January this year, MoEF has given green signal for forestland diversion at an unprecedented rate. It has even diluted some provisions of the law to clear proposals that were earlier denied clearance. As per an analysis by Delhi NGO Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the rate of granting clearances has increased by 42 per cent compared to last year. Since the start of this year to April, MoEF has allowed diversion of 12,571 hectares (ha) of forestland. It had cleared 26,595 ha of forestland in the entire last year (see Forests cleared). Of the forest area diverted in 2013, 42 per cent was for mining, 22 per cent for irrigation projects, 10.5 per cent for roads, 8 per cent for drinking water schemes, 6.5 per cent for hydro power projects and the rest for defence, transmission lines, pipelines, wind power and railways. In addition to the fast pace of granting clearances, the rate of rejecting projects has nosediveda mere 3.5 per cent for the period (January 2013 to April), almost half the rejection rate for forest clearance since 1981, according to CSE. MoEFs forest advisory committee (FAC), which decides on the clearances, has kept pending one-fourth of the proposals owing to the need for additional information from the states or proponents (see Project tally).
were denied clearance earlier. For instance, in Chhattisgarhs Hasdeo-Arand Coalfield 1,988 ha has been considered for diversion in favour of the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Limited. FAC had rejected this diversion in 2010, saying the area falls in the no-go zone. In another controversial decision this year, FAC approved diversion of 1,000 ha in Maharashtras Raigad forest division following a request by the chief minister. The diversion will pave the way for a drinking water supply project on the Kalu river proposed by the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation. The project was rejected in 2012 on grounds that the proponent had neither furnished an environmental assessment report nor a rehabilitation plan; the project lay within seven kilometres from a wildlife sanctuary and ecologically sensitive areas of the Western Ghats and; breach of contract by the state of not taking any new project in the area. While granting the clearance in January, FAC expressed concern over the overall impact of the project but also justified it using Maharashtras stand: given the rapid urbanisation and subsequent increase in demand for drinking water, the Kalu river project is necessary. Such decisions by FAC of overlooking the cumulative impact of projects owing to the pressure from the Central and state authorities is fast becoming a trend. Take the Tawang Hydropower Project Stage II in Arunachal Pradesh that involves 117 ha of forestland. During its earlier meetings last year, FAC had set aside the project for want of a comprehensive study to assess its cumulative impact in the Tawang basin. Later FAC was informed that in a meeting between the Ministry of Power and MoEF it was suggested that the forests ministry may not insist on cumulative impact assessment while considering the proposal of very first project in the Tawang River Basin. FAC in its January 2013 meeting cleared the project noting that demand from the Centre and states was mounting.
34
SPECIAL REPORT
Forests cleared
2011
Projects cleared Area Monthly diverted (ha) diversion (ha) Projects cleared
2012
Area Monthly diverted (ha) diversion (ha)
1,714
27,189.76
2,266
859
26,594.5
2,216
63
12,571.4
3,143
Project tally
It is not just ecology that has been ignored. Wildlife too has taken a backseat at instances of granting clearances. In December last year, clearance was granted for 778 ha to Rohne Coal Company for mining in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. A report by a FAC subcommittee in September 2012 noted the western part of the mining area, between Hazaribagh Sanctuary and Palamau Tiger Reserve, is a significant wildlife corridor, especially for elephants. Following the observation, FAC said the mining project will be considered further only after submission of a wildlife management plan by the state. But in December when the project was considered for clearance, no plan was prepared or produced. Another instance where wildlife has been undermined is in Jharkhands Saranda forest division. In its January meeting this year, FAC allowed diversion of 1,000 ha for mining activities in favour of JSW Steel Limited. During the same meeting, 512 ha was also granted in the same division for iron ore mining by Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. Saranda forest is an important habitat for elephants. Diversion of forestland and subsequent mining activities in the area will lead to fragmentation of the forest, a fact highlighted in a site inspection report of the chief conservator of forests. Besides dilution of clauses, violation of regulations are also being played down while granting of clearances. FAC had allowed Mahanadi Coalfields Limited to mine in 1,300 ha in Odisha despite knowing the company was violating the Forest Conservation Act. FAC itself noted the company had undertaken mining activities in 586 ha without obtaining an approval. It has also illegally allowed Power Grid Corporation of India Limited and
FAC Total meeting proposals Jan-13 Feb-13 Apr-13 Total 31 31 26 88 Projects cleared 23 24 16 63 Rejected To be considered later 7 5 10 22
1
2 3
Source: CSE analysis based on Union Ministry of Environment and Forests records Note: no meeting was held in March 2013
Odisha Power Generation Corporation Limited to use part of its mine lease area for non-forest activities. Whats more, the company did not provide any evidence on settlement of rights of forest dwellers. Still in December last year FAC granted clearance to the company, saying it is a public service unit. From the way MoEF is granting approvals, it seems it is under dual pressure from the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) and industry. CCI, headed by the prime minister, is envisaged as a way to deal with bureaucratic red tape that may harm growth of the economy. It has the authority to approve any project, which no other ministry or government department can contradict or overrule. Since its inception in December 2012, CCI has been instrumental in putting pressure on MoEF for giving clearance to big ticket projects. And this trend is clear from the number of clearances granted since January 2013.
35
SPECIAL REPORT
Diwakar Bodda Telandi shows the way to the wild buffaloes habitat
Pawns in conservation
Maharashtra forest departments conservation model puts Madia tribals in Naxals line of fire
APARNA PALLAVI GADCHIROLI
iwakar Bodda Telandi is tremulous as he poses for photographs for Down To Earth (DTE). This wont get us into trouble, would it? he asks. We have no one to protect us, so we have to keep both the sides happy. The two sides Telandi is referring to are the state forest department and the Naxals who live in the Kamlapur forest range adjoining his village Chitveli. The forest range is in the southern part of Maharashtras Gadchiroli district. About 180 square kilometres in and around the forest, which include seven villages, is home to about 15 genetically pure Asian wild buffaloes. The area is contiguous with the Indravati Tiger Reserve in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, and is considered the most Naxal-infested in the state. The forest department
has notified it as Kolamarka Conservation Reserve as per its plan to protect the highly endangered buffaloes with participation of Madia tribals. All, it would appear, is well. But for the Madia tribals, safety is at stake. The forest department cannot save us from the Naxals if something goes wrong, says Bandu Sidam of Chitveli. They come in the night, slit throats and cross the river to Chhattisgarh. The forest department denies there could be safety issues, though its own patrolling staff does not stay in the quarters provided for the purpose in the forest range, leave alone venturing into the forest.
and wildlife administration, told DTE the Kamlapur gat (group) gram panchayat had passed a resolution in favour of conservation reserve in December 2011. The group consent is meaningless considering that the Panchayats Extension to the Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act demands consent from each individual in the gram sabha. As Sinha admits, the resolution does not mention names of the villages which comprise the gat gram panchayat, questioning the authenticity of the document. Despite repeated requests, DTE was not given a copy of the resolution. People say they were never a part of any consent-taking process. Chitveli was first told about the conservation reserve in September 2012, says Telandi. Tonder village, among the seven villages identified for conservation work, received only verbal intimation. No consent was taken, says village headman Malu Kusram. In fact, people are not even aware that their consent is required for the endeavour. This apart, the conservation plan is being prepared by a committee that comprises senior forest officials, conservationists and four tribals. Madias, the poorest and the most isolated tribals in the state, have literacy rate of two per cent. Obviously, they are only show pieces in the committee, says Ajay Dolke of non-profit Srujan, which
36
SPECIAL REPORT
Departments staff does not live in the houses provided in the forest because of safety issues; (right) Bande Kusram, a Madia tribal of Chitveli village
works with Madia tribals in Naxal-affected Bhamragadh tehsil in Gadchiroli. Despite the participatory label, the modus operandi of conservation work does not have space for community participation or decision-making. The actual conservation work, says Mahendra Chouhan, honorary wildlife warden in Gadchiroli, will not be done by the community as a whole, but by about 50 tribals chosen by the department. They will be kept in camps and trained to track and record movement of the buffaloes, prevent influx of cattle, poaching and felling, he says. Those employed as guards would be paid remuneration of `6,700 and supervisors would get `8,000 per month. Such a system is patently wrong and dangerous, say observers. PESA and the Biodiversity Act provide for community participation and employment of peoples traditional systems of management in participatory conservation, says Dolke. Hand-picking individuals will split the community into artificial categories like government supporters and Naxal supporters, he says. Bande Kusrams son was not recruited at the forest and says jobs should be given to all. Mohan Hirabai Hiralal, forest rights activist at Mendha Lekha village in Gadchiroli, agrees, Cash compensation to a few individuals will create discontent and rift within the highly impoverished community. This is not participatory but proxy conservation; using tribal youths to do the work that forest staff are unwilling to do. If participatory conservation is, in fact, the aim, the forest department should first settle communitys rights under Forest Rights Act (FRA) and give decision-making powers to community as a whole, say activists.
regarding Naxals will be passed to the police by either the people or the officials doing conservation work. Sinha concurs with the strategy. If people tell us that Naxals want us to stop work for a day we will stop work, he says. But this is not enough, say people. Lalsu Nogoti, the first Madia law graduate and a forest rights activist with Srujan, who lives in naxal-affected Bhamragadh, says, The arrangement smacks of Salwa Judum, pitting community members against each other. The forest department is expecting people to act as go-betweens. They will be in danger of incurring Naxals wrath as they will be doing the actual conservation work. Kanna Madawi, the first Madia medical practitioner based in Aheri tehsil, says, Too much trust is being placed on word-of-mouth arrangement. This makes the entire situation unviable.
EVOLUTION
Tiny ancestor
Palaeontologists have discovered what they believe is the worlds oldest known fossil of a primate in an ancient lake bed in China. The new species, named Archicebus achilles, lived about 55 million years ago and was even smaller than todays smallest primate, the pygmy mouse lemur. It appears to have been a tree-dweller that used a leap-and-grasp motion. The skeleton is about 7 million years older than the oldest fossil primate skeletons known till date. It belongs to an entirely separate branch of the primate evolutionary tree from those specimens, lying much closer to the lineage leading to modern monkeys, apes and humans. The discovery provides insight into the earliest phases of primate evolution and bolsters a theory that early primates first developed in Asia. Nature, June 5 (online)
Flood frequency
Increase Decrease
CLIMATE SCIENCES
Flood alert
By 2100 global warming will boost the frequency of extreme flood events in 42 per cent of the earths land, including humid areas of India, Southeast Asia and Africa. Flood incidence is, however, projected to decrease in most of Europe except the UK and northern France. This is the conclusion of a comparative analysis of 11 models for the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on 29 river basins across the globe. The analysis shows that if warming progresses without effective countermeasures, many of the worlds 29 major rivers would see massive floods, which currently occur once a century, at an increased frequency of every 10 to 50 years. Nature Climate Change, June 9 (online)
HEALTH SCIENCES
Hidden layer
A new part has been discovered in the eye. Till now it was thought that cornea, the transparent, circular part at the front of the eye, has five layers. But it has now been found that a sixth one, named Duas layer after the scientist who found it, exists at the back of the cornea. The new-found body part is a skinny but tough structure of 15 microns. Researchers believe that a tear in this layer is the cause of keratoconus, an eye disease where the cornea bulges and becomes cone-shaped. The finding would help advance understanding of a number of diseases of the cornea. Ophthalmology, May 28 (online)
CAS / XIJUN NI
TECHNOLOGY
Battery booster
A new electrode material can make batteries run for longer. Negative electrodes of present day batteries are made of graphite, whose layers can store one lithium ion per carbon atom. The new material, lithium borosilicide, consists of boron and silicon atoms connected tetrahedrally, like carbon atoms in graphite. But unlike graphite it has channels within the tetrahedral structure. These channels provide 10times more sites for lithium ion storage than conventional graphite layer does and, thus, highly increase the chargestoring capacity of lithium ion batteries. This could pave the way for laptops and mobile phones that run for days on a single charge.
Angewandte Chemie, June 3
ANIRBAN BORA / CSE
MATERIAL SCIENCES
Scabby bandage
Commonly used bandages control bleeding and reduce infection risk but are of no help in healing the wound. Taking inspiration from human scab a new type of bandage material has now been developed that can speed up healing. It consists of flexible nano-scale membrane of polyurethane plastic woven into a pattern that mimics the underside of scabs, which have tiny fibers arranged in the same direction like velvet. These fibres help repair open wounds by attracting new cells from the bloodstream that speed up the natural healing process. ACS Applied Materials &
Interfaces, June 12
38
ASTROPHYSICS
BIOLOGY
Cradle of dust
Discovery of a dust trap around a distant star has given clues to solve the long-standing mystery of how planets form. Computer models show that clumps of dust orbiting a star would either become large enough to smash into other clumps or drift too close to their parent star, breaking apart in both cases. They, thus, cannot survive long enough to form anything as large as a planet. New image of a region around a young star in Ophiuchus constellation has now shown a cashewshaped dust cloud rather than the expected dust ring. This unusual structure could possibly work as a protective cocoon, which traps large dust grains and keeps them safe during the critical early steps of planet, asteroid and comet formation. Science, June 7
ZOOLOGY
Quack code
The genome of wild duck has been mapped. The bird is the principal natural host of bird flu viruses but is a silent carrier and seldom develops flu symptoms. The genome analysis provides insights into how ducks immune system responds to bird flu infections. It reveals genetic factors that protect wild ducks from harmful effects of bird flu. An understanding of these factors can help develop treatments for bird flu in humans, which has become a major health concern in the past decade.
Nature Genetics, June 9 (online)
DEREK KEATS
HEALTH SCIENCES
Pricey drag
Your smoke break costs your employer `537,208 a year. A first of its kind study has shown that an employee who smokes costs companies more than one who has never smoked. On average the employer loses `1,82,681 due to smoke breaks, `30,694 due to absenteeism, `27,428 due to lose of productivity related to nicotine addiction and `1,22,064 in extra health care costs. But pension costs are slightly less for smokers `18,000 less per year compared to non-smokersas they tend to die younger. The finding may help employers formulate better-informed tobacco-related policies. Tobacco Control,
June 3 (online)
Sniff gene
Mosquitoes that spread deadly human diseases like malaria, dengue and chikungunya generally distinguish humans from other animals using body odour. Thus altering a gene that helps mosquitoes sniff out humans can help keep the pesky insect off. Experiments on a genetically modified mosquito have shown that a specific gene called orco makes the insects prefer humans over other mammals. While a mutant mosquito with orco gene shut off might land on a human it flies off without biting just as it would do with a guinea pig. Given the ubiquity of orca gene in the insect world, it can be of significant help in development of life-saving repellants. Nature, May 29
HUGO QUINTERO
EARTH SCIENCES
Sound alert
Sounds from undersea earthquakes can predict if a massive tsunami is on its way. When earthquakes shake the ocean floor, they can trigger big killer waves and produce sound waves that move 10 times faster than ocean waves. Through computer modelling of acoustic data from the 2011 Japan tsunami, scientists have found that these sound waves are very sensitive to vertical sea floor uplift associated with a tsunami. The sonic signature, if captured in real time, could give scientists an idea about the height of the waves and provide 15 to 20 minutes of advance notice before a tsunami hits. The Bulletin of the Seismological Society
of America, May 3
ESCHIPUL
39
MANUPRIYA
WE HAVE
all heard about food chains and food webs. In school they tell us how an ecosystem is as simple as who eats who. Grass is eaten by grasshopper, which in turn is eaten by frogs. A frog is then consumed by a snake, which becomes food for an eagle. Grass is also eaten by large herbivores like rabbits and deer that are consumed by top carnivores like cats, lions and humans. But this simple explanation misses out on a very important component of the web: parasites. These are organisms that live on or in plant and animal hosts and depend on them for food. But its only in the last decade that scientists have begun to bother about how parasites fit into the average food chain. Some studies aiming to rid parasites of this under-representation have shown that including them can alter the existing structure of food webs. An international team of scientists has now, in a first, tried to examine if these alterations are due to unique roles played by parasites or simply due to an enhanced complexity owing to an addition of more members (parasites in this case) in a food web. The study shows that including parasites alters the struc40 Down To Earth July 1-15, 2013
ture of food webs but most of the changes are due to increase in diversity and complexity and not due to unique characteristics of parasites. Apart from the generic changes, the researchers also noticed that parasites were altering the food web in two unique ways: first by inadvertently becoming food to the predators when they eat the hosts the parasites live in or on and secondly in their role as consumers. In their complex life cycles, parasites often depend on several kinds of hosts for food and sustenance. Its common to see parasites hop from one species to another unlike the free-living species who tend to feed on prey that are more similar to each other. For their study, published in PLoS Biology on June 11, the scientists examined seven highly resolved marine food webs, including estuaries, salt marshes, tidal basins and mudflats. Three versions of each web were analysed. First included parasites but did not consider
Including parasites and their links in food webs has a similar effect on the web organisation as adding any other new species
for linkages that they may have with organisms other than its host. Second, included parasites and all possible linkages, direct and indirect, that it may have with all organisms in a food web, like its linkage with predators of its host organism that inadvertently feeds on the parasite while feeding on its prey. The third and the last version of food web did not include parasites at all. Our findings are significant because there was conventional wisdom emerging that if you include parasites in food webs, they must alter food web structure in a way that upsets the last decade of food web theory, says one of the authors, Jennifer Dunne, who is a professor and chair of faculty for Science at Santa Fe Institute in the US. Our study shows that this is not accurate, instead in most cases adding parasites and their links has the same effects of food web organization as adding any types of species and links, adds Dunne. Maria Thaker, assistant professor at the Centre for Environmental Studies of Indian Institute of Science, in Bengaluru, says this is the first study to very clearly test the common assertion that parasites alter food web structure. While the authors find that parasites change food web structure in ways that any other species would, they also find that because parasites are small, closely linked to their hosts and have complex life cycles, they strengthen certain species connections, says Thaker. We dont need to throw out everything we know about food webs, weve just added more to our understanding of why some food chains are tighter than others. Parasites link them. Dunne and her team members say all of their comprehensive food web data on parasites is currently from aquatic systems and they are now looking to extend their analysis to terrestrial systems with parasites.
Jumbo alert
SMS-based alert system can drastically cut human-elephant conflicts
MEGHA PRAKASH
fire crackers, drum beats, powerful spotlights and electric fencing are commonly deployed to track the movement of elephants in villages and to chase them away. Still elephant-human conflict is on the rise and nearly 500,000 families get affected every year. Researchers from Coimbatore Institute of Technology and SSN College of Engineering in Chennai have now developed an elephant alert system that uses SMS and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology to warn villagers of approaching jumbos. Their study was published in Current Science on June 10. The researchers have taken inspiration for their work from a paper published in 2011 in International Journal of Conservation that described use of mobile phones to control human-elephant conflict in Laikipia County, Kenya. The study is unique. Elephant movement is unpredictable and often villagers are too scared to come out of their houses to urinate, says Surendra Varma, wildlife biologist and conservationist at Asian Nature Conservation Foundation, Bengaluru. Use of SMS may help alert officials and villagers and could help mitigate human-
RADIO COLLARS,
elephant conflicts, says Varma. The device design and function is simple. Geophones convert vibrations from elephant footfall into an electrical signal, which generates a digital analogue code zero or one. One indicates presence of an elephant. This information then gets forwarded to forest officials as an SMS, explains S J Sugumar, lead author of the study. To deploy the new system, researchers analysed 20 years (1990-2010) of elephant migratory data to understand the pachyderms behaviour in three areas of high elephant-human conflict in Tamil Nadu Nanjundapuram, Periya Thagadam and Anaikatti. This helped identify from where the elephants entered human settlements. To distinguish elephant footfall from others, the researchers classified footfall outputs for humans, lion and gemsbok as well. Each geophone covers a range of 120 square metre and five are enough to track the study area. However, Andre Pittet, chief project advisor to the department of electronics systems engineering at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, suggests it would be interesting to find out if sound of cars and trucks may affect the system and how the system would behave with water content variation in soil as this may affect sound transmission.
PHOTO : ARRANET
BIOLOGY : biofuels
Tiny inspiration
Enzymes from leafcutter ant colonies to aid biofuel research
LEAFCUTTER ants are fungus farmers. They collect leaves, chew them and store the pulp to grow a garden of fungi and bacteria. The fungi act as their food and energy source. A study has now found that enzymes present in these gardens could be refined for biofuel applications. For the study, published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology on June 15, scientists used genome sequencing to
CLINTON & CHARLES ROBERTSON
identify the enzymes present in the ant gardens that convert plant biomass into energy and understand how they do it. They found that certain bacterial
enzymes break down leaf polymers and help release leaf cellulose. One symbiotic fungus, Leucoagaricus gongylophorous, produces enzymes that break this cellulose into glucose subunits. These glucose subunits are consumed by the fungus to grow and produce fruiting bodies rich in fat and nutrients. It is these fruiting bodies that leafcutter ants feed on. Genome sequencing showed that the enzymes identified by the researchers are similar to known enzymes but are completely new and had never been characterised till date. The researchers believe a better understanding of these enzymes could help develop comparable methods for processing raw materials, such as corn stalks and grasses, for bioenergy production.
July 1-15, 2013 Down To Earth 41
As good as real
Bioengineered kidneys can eliminate need for human donors
The kidney was able to produce urine in lab as well as when transplanted in rats
KUNDAN PANDEY
SABA and Farah, 17-year-old conjoined twins from Patna, can never be separated surgically. The reason: presence of just one kidney between their two bodies joint at the head. Even if an operation to separate them is performed, one of the girls will not survive due to the subsequent absence of a kidney in her body. Thousands others in India and
worldwide die of renal failure. This is because kidney transplants require a natural kidney obtained from a living donor or a dead body immediately after death. Finding a person willing to part with one of his two kidneys is difficult. Now bioengineered rat kidneys developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have given fresh hope for those suffering from kidney disorders. The researchers developed the
replacement kidneys by stripping living cells from donor kidneys and allowing another rats own skin cells to regenerate kidney tissue onto them. The cell-stripped kidney provides a natural scaffold of collagen and extracellular matrix for skin cells to grow into a new kidney and helps retain natural shape and structure of the organ. Bio-artificial hearts, lungs and livers have previously been developed by employing a similar approach. What is unique about this approach is that the native organs architecture is preserved, so that the resulting graft can be transplanted just like a donor kidney and connected to recipients vascular and urinary systems, says Harald Ott, senior author of the article and principal investigator at the Center for Regenerative Medicine of MGH. The artificial kidneys were able to produce urine in a laboratory apparatus as well as after being transplanted into live rats. The study was published online in Nature Medicine on April 14. Bioengineered kidneys can someday eliminate the need for human donors by paving the way for developing kidneys for humans using animal kidneys stripped of cells, says Ott. The cell-free kidneys would act as a frame on which human kidneys can be grown using patients own skin cells. Sanjay Agrawal, head of the nephrology department at AIIMS, says it is good information and could prove helpful for many people suffering from kidney disorders but if such a kidney would be accepted by the body or not remains a concern. It is not so simple. There are many more issues associated with kidney problems, says Agrawal.
Arsenic trap
Silver nanoparticles caged in aluminium can rid water of arsenic
INDU M S
DESPITE an abundance of water filters in the market, access to safe drinking water remains a challenge for India and other developing countries. According to WHO, Every year there are 2 million diarrhoeal deaths related to unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene. The vast majority of them
are children under five. IIT Chennai researchers have invented a cheap water filter, which they claim could be helpful in achieving the United Nations millennium development goal of sustainable access to safe drinking water. The filter, described in PNAS on May 6, uses nanomaterial to remove diseasecausing microorganisms and toxic
heavy metals from water. It works by constantly releasing silver ions, which are an effective disinfectant, into the water. Several silver-based anti-microbial devices have been designed in the past but have not been viable. One of the reasons being presence of organic and inorganic impurities in water that cling onto nanoparticle surface and hamper sustained release of silver, say the researchers. To find a way around this technical constraint, the researchers formulated a cage-like nano-composite of aluminium oxyhydroxidechitosan with silver particles embedded in it. This composite ensures sustained release of silver ions
42
into the water in an amount significantly less than the permissible limit set by the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA). This eliminates a need for secondary filtrations to remove excess silver ions, say the researchers. Silver nanoparticles remain intact as the aluminium cage reduces their contact with chemicals that might anchor on them. What we have is a complete purifier. This takes care of all contaminants in watermicrobial, heavy metal, organics. All of this is done with advanced materials. There is no solution of this kind anywhere, says T Pradeep, corresponding author of the study. The device is efficient in the sense that it provides clean water as per EPA standards. It costs just 6-7 paise/litre for microbially as well as chemically safe water. However, Ashok Gadgil, division director and faculty senior scientist at Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US says, The arsenic removal in the PNAS paper was reportedly tested in arsenic-spiked tap-water. In our experience, Indian tap water has
HEALTH SCIENCES : obesity
IIT Chennai researchers show a prototype of the new filter they have developed
pretty low phosphate ion concentration. However, these ions appear in high concentrations in groundwater and compete for the same sites that are intended to capture and remove arsenic. So, the performance and affordability of the system for removing arsenic from real
groundwater would be different from that with spiked tap-water, and those results are not presented in the paper. Another issue left unexplored in the study is the fate of the arsenic-laden sludge formed after removing arsenic from water, adds Gadgil.
Fatal formula
How infant formula leads to obesity in adulthood
AVIMUKTESH BHARDWAJ
IT IS
common knowledge that breast milk is the best diet for newborns. Several studies have even linked infant formula with chronic diseases such as obesity and type II diabetes in adulthood. The basis of this link has, howev-
er, been unclear. Researchers from University of California, Davis and Fonterra Ingredients Innovation, New Zealand, have found that feeding formula causes metabolic stress in infants and this causes complications later in life. The researchers used rhesus monkey infants as human stand-ins for the study published in Journal of Proteome Research on June 5. Two groups of five monkeys each were given two different dietary treatments. One group was fed standard infant formula and other breast milk since birth. All the monkeys had same weight at birth but after three months it was found that formula-fed
ETANSIVAD
infants had grown faster than the ones fed with breast milk. The study explains that a higher rate of growth at this stage leads to adult obesity. Formula feeding may lead to other complications as well. The study notes that higher growth rate in infants has also been linked with insulin resistance in adults. The results confirmed higher insulin levels in serum of formula-fed individuals, which could set stage for insulin resistance. Formula-fed infants also showed pro-inflammatory responses that are immune systems reaction to injury or pathogens. This supports the hypothesis that formula feeding affects the immune system of infants, too. Lactose level in excreta of formulafed infants was also found to be higher than that of breast-fed ones. This, the study explains, could be indicative of damage to the intestinal lining. Arun Gupta, national coordinator of Delhi-based Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India believes such studies should influence policies, thus extending support to women. Common belief is breastfeeding happens naturally but in reality women need support at each level for it, he says.
July 1-15, 2013 Down To Earth 43
FOOD
any people in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, particularly in remote valleys, depend on a variety of wild plants for food. While some pick them from forests and alpine meadows, others cultivate them in kitchen gardens. One such leafy plant favourite among the residents is puyanu or Himalayan Peony (Paeonia emodi). Endemic to the Indian Himalayan region, puyanu grows in alpine pastures and moist areas of forests. This perennial herb with its white flowers grows luxuriously under the canopy of walnut, maple and chestnut. Women collect its leaves and tender shoots while fetching fuelwood and fodder. February-April is the best season to collect puyanu; leaves are not collected once flowering starts. The leaves and shoots of puyanu make for a healthy vegetable but taste bitter. Bitter taste accounts for most of the medicinal property of the plant, says Surma Butola of Suraithota village
RECIPE
in Niti valley where puyanu is called chandra. In Kedarnath valley, people sell pickle prepared from puyanu or dhandru (local name) twigs during the religious Kedarnath yatra season from May to October. Tourists really like the taste and buy bottles for their homes, says a resident. The puyanu proves to be a saviour during winters when snowfall disrupts daily life. Its leaves are chopped, boiled, sundried and stored in the form of leaf cakes, locally called suksu, for those chilling days. In some villages of Garhwal, people enjoy dried fermented suksu vegeatble with hot finger millet chapattis, fried red chillies and dollops of butter. The list of medicinal benefits of puyanu does not end here. According to Wealth of India, a publication on Indias plant resources by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the rhizomes of puyanu are used as a tonic to cure backbone ache, dropsy, epilepsy,
eye disease, vomiting, while its seeds are purgative. Locally, extract of fresh puyanu leaves and shoots is given to children suffering from stomach ache. Every household has a bottle filled with the extract of puyanu leaves and shoots, says Asha Semwal of Shersi village in Kedarnath valley. People use roots of the plant for curing headache, dizziness, vomiting and uterine disease. An infusion of dried flowers of puyanu is considered useful for curing diarrhoea. Small wonder, people of Garhwal relish puyanu despite its bitter taste. Shalini Dhyani is project scientist at the Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology
STIR FRIED Ingredients: Fresh puyanu leaves with twigs - 500 gm Jakhiya (cleome) seeds or mustard and cumin seeds - half teaspoon Chopped onion (optional) - one Dry red chillies - two Crushed garlic clove - two to three Mustard oil - one tablespoon Salt to taste Method Heat oil in a wok and splutter cleome seeds. Add red chillies and fry for a minute. Then add onion and garlic; fry till brown. Add the leaves and mix well. Cover and cook on a low flame, stir occasionally. Remove from flame when moisture has dried. Serve hot.
STIR FRIED MIXED LEAVES Ingredients: Fresh puyanu leaves - 100 gm Fresh spinach leaves - 100 gm Fresh mustard leaves - 100 gm Fresh potato leaves - 100 gm Fresh cabbage leaves - four to five Jakhiya (cleome) seeds or mustard and cumin seeds- half teaspoon Chopped onion - one Dry red chillies - two Crushed garlic clove - two to three Mustard oil - one tablespoon Salt to taste Method Follow same steps as in stir fried; add all the leaves along with puyanu. Serve hot.
44
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INTERVIEW
When did you meet Laurie Baker? It was in 1984 when I was doing fieldwork for my final year thesis. Baker was visting one of the sites. I walked up to him and started a discussion at the end of which I asked, Can I work with you for two or three months? He said, I do not take assistants. Why should I waste an assistants time to do a draft? He wasnt sure if he could pay me because that would add to the construction cost. I said I was not interested in payment and would simply like to learn. How did the experience of working with him impact your architectural sense and general perception? I was able to learn by just watching him work. He was open and explained whatever he knew in simple language. Nobody does that now. Baker once said that not everyone in India had access to architecture. What were his reasons? He strongly believed that the profession had a responsibility of
How did he handle all aspects of design and construction? Baker had a thorough knowledge and was very committed. Neither did he seek publicity nor did he care about critics. Some critics said his buildings would not last for more than 10 years but they are still standing. There is a belief that if an architect supervises construction of buildings, he or she can do only a small number of structures. But Baker had designed and constructed more than 1,000 buildings in and around Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, by 1985. This was in addition to the large number of buildings he designed outside the state. What was his take on making appropriate choices for building materials? Since most of his buildings were in Thiruvananthapuram, the walls were made of country burnt bricks. For roofs, he mostly used filler slab which had rejected mangalore tiles as the filler. In places where stone was available in plenty, he used stone. He also made a lot of buildings in Gujarat. There, he used clay pots as a filler material. You completed DakshinaChitra in Chennai which Baker had designed. Do you think your additions keep Bakers vision intact? He had made a master plan for DakshinaChitra, a centre for the living traditions of art, craft and architecture of south India. After his demise, I was entrusted with the task of completing the project. At that time changes had to be made to the site plan because the transplanted vernacular houses were different from those in the master plan. For the sites public buildings like the main building, restaurant, library and guesthouse which were designed by me, I tried to remain true to Bakers principles. Are Bakers ethics and principles relevant today? It is important for the present generation to ensure that the principles Baker stood for are taken further. As Baker once said, We should be thinking and designing as Indians for Indians in India.
48 Down To Earth July 1-15, 2013
1948 Married Elizabeth Jacob, a doctor from Kerala. Moved to Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand 1948-63 While in Pithoragarh, helped his wife run a hospital, and made schools 1949 Experimented with vernacular architecture and local materials like laterite, mud walls, and problems like termites and monsoons 1950s Designed and built the Lucknow Psychiatric Centre at Noor Manzil 1956 Designed Saksharata Niketan in Lucknow for Welthy Fisher, founder of World Education 1963 Moved to Vakamon, Kerala 1967 Approached to design Centre for Research in Applied Economics in Ulloor,
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I N I T I AT I V E
his is a school where both students and teachers are adults. Books and regular classes are not part of the curriculum and the pupils are practising farmers. Welcome to Climate Field School in Chhampi village of Nepals Lalitpur district which imparts practical lessons on climate change. As one descends into Chhampi using a mountain road, a small fenced structure in the middle of farmland emerges. This is the place from where the village fights erratic weather, informs Uttam Bhandari, a teacher at the school where lessons are given just before the students take the most important decision of their lives: when to start or harvest their life-saving crop. Of the 1,000 residents, 80 per cent depend on agriculture. The fenced land hosts three vital instruments: a thermometer, a rain gauge instrument and a meter to measure the moisture and pH levels of the soil. Bhandari records temperature and rainfall twice a day. Once in a while in the middle of a crop cycle, he takes the device to record moisture and pH to peoples farms. These recordings are stored in a data card which is sent for analysis to the meteorological department in Kathmandu, he informs. The
Lalitpur Nepal
analysis and the field recording help farmers decide the time for irrigating and protecting crops. Before and during a crop cycle, students attend the school to learn about weather and soil conditions. Bhandari has a cell phone that receives daily alerts of national forecast which he shares with his students. Thanks to the efforts of the school, the village has mapped its own weather conditions. Now we know when a calamity will strike. We are prepared well in advance to save our crops, says Krishna Bahadur Ghimire, the only seed farmer in Chhampi where people lose up to 30 per cent of their crops because of hazards like hailstorms and erratic rains. Thats not all. Moisture reading has prepared people to manage water well. The villages only stream is no longer perennial, says Ghimire.
The birth
The Climate Field School is a response to the villages long drawn fight against erratic weather. After months-long dis-
cussions, the village development council, Nepals local government, zeroed in on two things that could save the crops: a mechanism that alerts people of impending hazards and assessment of soil and water. Since the local crops need specific inputs, the national forecast was of no use and the local forecasting system had vanished by then. There was no way we could prepare ourselves to protect our crops, says Bhandari. It was then that The Lutheran World Federation-Nepal, an international charity organisation, floated the idea of a climate field school that was already being explored in Indonesia with some success. In October 2011, the idea was discussed during a village meeting. Those with big landholdings were the first to become members of the school since they had suffered the most, says Subhadra Thapa, president of a local self-help group. After a series of meetings, 16 residents, of whom 12 were women, stepped forward to enroll as students. They agreed to give a patch of their land to host the weather laboratory and convinced a local school to spare a classroom when needed. To start the process, the Lutheran World Federation agreed to pay for the instruments and one year salary of the local youth who would work as the facilitator. After one year, students would have to pay. A manual on changing climate and its impacts on local crops was created after a year of consultations with farmers, scientists and meteorologists in Kathmandu. We sought the help of a local science teacher to train a youth selected by the village on basic knowledge of instruments and the science of climate, says Gopal Dahal, manager with the federation. This youth was Bhandari. It has been eight months since the school was inaugurated and residents are already raving about it. This year it started raining early due to the cyclone that hit Bangladesh in May, says Thapa. Due to advance warning and better monitoring, we covered our standing crops with twigs and saved our crops, says Thapa while measuring moisture in the soil with Bhandari. Does early rain mean early paddy? Without the instruments in our village I wouldnt have taken the risk of early transplantation, she says. Arguably, this is what the school is meant for.
50
COLUMN
PATENTLY ABSURD / LATHA JISHNU
here are good Taliban and bad Taliban, according to the current US administration. Its willing to do business with the good Taliban because that is the only way Washington can deal with complexities of Afghanistans realpolitik. How it defines the good and separates them from their bad ideological brethren is a tough one to crack but the US might have a strategic explanation for this. Likewise, there are good gene patents and bad gene patents, according to the US Supreme Court, based on some curious logic. In its much-awaited decision in the Myriad Genetics case, the court held that a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and cannot be eligible for patenting merely because it has been isolated. However, cDNA, which does not have the noncoding regions found in genomic DNA, is patent-eligible. Their lordships explanation: cDNA is synthesised and, therefore, patentable because it is an invention and not a naturally occurring product. In short, patenting full sequences of the DNA is out, but patenting the abridged bits is kosher. The lawsuit filed against Myriad by the Public Patent Foundation and the American Civil Liberties relates to the companys patents on BRCA1 and BRCA 2 genesnaturally occurring genes which, when mutated, can significantly increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Myriads principal contribution, says the Supreme Court, was uncovering the precise location and genetic sequence of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Myriad did not create or alter either the genetic information encoded in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes or the genetic structure of the DNA. It found an important and useful gene, but groundbreaking, innovative, or even brilliant discovery does not by itself satisfy the (Section) 101 inquiry. It is difficult to understand how the work of the lab technician who detached the genes from the rest is different from the work of the technician who eliminates part of the DNA to create the cDNA since the sequence of chemicals of both the DNA and the c DNA are determined by nature. Although the petitioners contended that cDNA is not patent eligible because the nucleotide sequence of cDNA is dictated by nature, not by the lab technician, the court disagreed. That may be so, conceded the Supreme Court judges. But the lab technician unquestionably creates something new when cDNA is made. cDNA retains the naturally occurring exons of DNA, but it is dis-
tinct from the DNA from which it was derived. As a result, cDNA is not a product of nature and is patent-eligible under Section 101, except insofar as very short series of DNA may have no intervening introns to remove when creating cDNA. In that situation, a short strand of cDNA may be indistinguishable from natural DNA. In other words, the judges were saying that not all of cDNA is patentable either. Given the overdose of scientific hair-splitting involved in the judgement, there is a refreshing confession from one of the judges. Antonin Scalia declared that he could not personally stand behind the fine details of molecular technology cited by his colleagues because I am unable to affirm those details on my own knowlANIRBAN BORA / CSE edge or even my own belief! There have been regular twists and turns in the litigation over Myriads patents. Earlier, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had held exactly the opposite view by declaring that isolated DNA could be patented. This in turn was a reversal of the district courts verdict which had stated: DNAs existence in an isolated form alters neither this fundamental quality of DNA as it exists in the body nor the information it encodes. Therefore, the patents at issue directed to isolated DNA containing sequences found in nature are unsustainable as a matter of law and are deemed unpatentable under 35 USC 101. In other words, one courts view on gene patenting is diametrically opposed to anothers. As for the US Patent Office, it has been generously doling out patents, about 40,000 of them which cover close to 25 per cent of our genes. Adding to the confusion for the rest of the world is the fact that both Myriad and the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) that had filed the lawsuit are claiming the Supreme Court verdict is a victory for them. While the companys share values shot up 10 per cent in the aftermath of the June 13 verdict, AMP looked forward to future advancements in clinical diagnostics and therapeutics. Analysts say the explanation lies in the rationale offered by Judge Clarence Thomas for the courts decision. As we have recognized before, patent protection strikes a delicate balance between creating incentives that lead to creation, invention, and discovery and impede the flow of information that might permit, indeed spur, invention. Thats the realpolitik of biotechnology.
July 1-15, 2013 Down To Earth 51
CROSSCURRENTS
DIVYA KARNAD
rabhanand Dabholkars daily routine involves weighing the fish being lifted from his boat. His immediate concern is quickly sorting the fish into piles that will end up at different places and be sold to different people for distinct uses. I make a good living from this, he says while swatting away flies. Will you come and see my new house? It is not far from here. As Dabholkar plies us with a nutritious breakfast of upma, he tells us more about his rise in fortune. Much of what I have now is thanks to the use of a new range of fishing technology, including SONAR fish finders and GPS. My father was a fisher too, but we only used a wooden rowing boat then. We also had to depend on knowledgeable people to predict where the fish would be. Adept fish finders were like a bumper catch, he says, few and far between. Dabholkar uses the technologies to catch a novel suite of marine species. No longer are king fish, mackerels and pomfrets his staple, although they form the bulk of his catch. Species like ribbonfish grab most of his attention now.
CROSSCURRENTS
A fisher s identity no longer lies in the skills developed over a lifetime, but in his ability to read SONAR map and in the capacity of the net
The catch from his fishing boats goes to Dapoli town in Maharashtras Ratnagiri district. They also travel to Mumbai and southward to feed sunkissed tourists in Goa. Significantly, a large part of what he catches ends up in Fujian Province in China, selling for `100 to `250 per kilogram. When asked if there is a difference between feeding consumers in Dapoli, near his village, and those in China, Dabholkar replies that it is simply a matter of getting better price: sending fish to China means sending his children to better schools. I do not want my children to fish, he says. The life of a fisherfolk is too hard, too variable and too risky. This is an oft-repeated sentiment among the fishers who have made it big, be it in Maharashtra or Tamil Nadu. I wonder if people like Dabholkar ever feel any cultural legacy for an occupation that has sustained them for generations. Or, could it be that fishing was just a job to them? A conversation with Paul, a worker on a trawl boat in Kerala, begins to clarify the issue. I used to be the person standing at the helm of the kattumaram (traditional catamaran), telling people where to go, where they could find the fish, he says. Now I work on a trawl boat like anyone else. Pauls nephew and cousin vouch for his expertise and say they still come to him sometimes for advice on where to steer the boat. But Paul brushes their praise aside, saying, They have the new-fangled devices these days. What is the use of all my hard-earned knowledge? Pauls disillusionment in the whole enterprise of fishing seems to stem not from his earnings, which have risen, but from a lack of respect for his knowledge in fishery. There is a growing disconnect between fisherfolk and what they catch. Knowing the breeding cycles, movement patterns and other biological rhythms of different species of fish are no longer essential for making big catches. While such knowledge might still be important, what is more important today is the capacity of the net, its ability to withstand force as it is dragged through the water to catch whatever comes in its path, and the boatmans ability to read SONAR map. A fishers identity no longer lies in the skills developed over a lifetime. Paul chose a lack of respect over an entirely new profession. What respect could I earn in a new line of work with no experience at my age, anyway? he asks. Far from romantic ideals about traditional livelihoods and identities, fisherfolk today are infused with a strong
sense of practicality. The way we fish these days, lets painters and politicians call themselves fishermen, complains Arumugam, a fisherman from Tamil Nadu. The whole profession is changing, right from the way we fish to people involved in the profession. How can we possibly conceive of a future in this line of work, if we do not know whether we can keep up? Both the people benefitting from fishing and those making losses feel the same way and are looking for alternative career paths for their children. This perhaps indicates that the economic trickle-down of alternative occupations is actually happening in rural India. Perhaps the fisherfolk were simply locked into their professions for lack of anything better to do. But this seemingly simplistic explanation also has something to say about interference in fishery by policymakers, sitting in a room faraway, never having gotten their fingers wet. How well do agricultural economists really know the system that they are trying to streamline? An alternative explanation is that the occupation is just becoming too mechanicaland as a consequence, easy. There is an increase in fishing boats which means newcomerswho do not require traditional skills can now make a living from fishing. But this also means competition for traditional fisherfolk who are reporting declining catches. The trend of moving away from fishing as a livelihood option coincides with advances in fishing technologies, and might have come at a good time. Global concerns about overexploitation of fish are echoing among fishing communities in India. Joel Salatin, a famous organic and eco-friendly farmer in the US, said, We are wasting too much time working out how to do things (more economically efficiently). Nobody is stepping back to ask why (are we doing these things)? The answer may be obvious to the economists in the room but economic efficiency always comes at a price that is ignored. Is the new blood in the fishing industry equipped to develop a sense of responsibility and ownership of the fishery and its fish? Only time will tell. Divya Karnad is a conservation scientist
July 1-15, 2013 Down To Earth 53
CROSSCURRENTS
t is difficult to comprehend the motivation that drives hundreds of thousands of people to travel to the Western Ghats and camp deep inside the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) for 11 days during Adiamavasya. The festival is celebrated at the Lord Sorimuthu Iyyanar temple every year in the Tamil month of Adi (mid-July to mid-August). For many, a deep religious sentiment brings them here, year after year. Some pilgrims walk for more than 50 kilometres to the temple carrying a hereditary spear to seek blessings of Lord Sorimuthu Iyyanar. After the festival, they keep the spear, called Valayam, in their village temple until the visit next year. Another event is a ritualistic performance by descendents of warriors in front of the former zamindar in a customary durbar. One of the performers told us that once he did not take part in the festival, and he lost someone in the family that year. Since then he has not missed performing at the festival. But we found it difficult to fathom that faith can be the sole driving force behind such a large congregation inside a tiger reserve. Being part of a team of mostly biologists, we were trying to understand the adverse impact of such a gathering on the fragile dry evergreen forest ecosystem as well as on people living downstream. Although popular for the Hindu deity, we observed that people from other religions were also attending the festival. Over 76 per cent of the people we interviewed said they took part in other recreational activities like cruising in the dam reservoir during their camping days. We realised that for many low54 Down To Earth July 1-15, 2013
ALLWIN JESUDASAN
The figures presented in the article are of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bengaluru
RAJKAMAL GOSWAMI
Camp sites along the Karayar river; (Left) Pilgrims carry religious spears to Sorimuthu Iyyanar temple to seek the Lords blessings
ing the Tamirabarani. Chemicals in soaps and detergents used by the pilgrims, polythene, garbage and slaughter waste resulting from the sacrifice of thousands of animals, ranging from sheep to goats to hens, add to the pollution. Not to mention the animal hazards caused by the movement of such a large number of visitors (see Impacts of...). Ivenge oru vaaram sondosamaa thangittu povaange. Naange aaru maasam kashte paduvvom (They stay here happy for a week and we struggle for six months), rues Ramesh, a Kani tribal who lives in the Agasthymalai Kani Kudiirruppu, a small tribal village few metres downstream the temple. The Kanis originally lived deep inside the forest and were resettled to their current settlement. Their tolerance to pollution is low. Every year, soon after the festival the Kanis struggle for survival for months. In the absence of any other source of clean water, they depend on the polluted Tamirabarani, which results in outbreaks of dysentery, skin rashes and food poisoning. The river takes months to heal. Most Kanis are unhappy with the way the festival is celebrated. For some, however, the festival is an opportunity to earn some cash, otherwise hard to come by, through setting up small shops. Numerous petty
traders from the plains join the Kanis and sell articles like bangles, snacks and toys while others sell services such as soothsaying and tattoos. Rights to set up big shops, however, remain with big businessmen from towns. To get a perspective on the economic turnover, we estimated that the camping pilgrims alone spent more than `1 crore in 2010. The figure would double or triple if we include the number of visitors who returned without camping. Like most festivities, Adi-amavasya too has its share of booze and waste. In 2009, the police confiscated over 350 kg of polythene and 450 litres of liquor from the visitors in two days of frisking. Collections from our post-festival clean-up drives suggest that many times more of what is confiscated gets smuggled inside despite the gargantuan measures of the local police, the forest department and local NGOs. A heartening fact is that some NGOs have joined hands to address the concerns. In 2010, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court passed an order asking the forest department to ensure that no one camps beyond the temple premises. Despite the order, the camping and clearing of forest continued, perhaps because it was an issue too sensitive and sentimental to be tackled by
the department alone. Any action thus has to be taken up jointly by all stakeholders such as the temple authorities, forest department, district administration, pilgrims and civil society. The environmental damage caused due to large pilgrimages is a serious issue and our empirical evidence of the annual environmental and ecological damage caused due to the pilgrimage of the Sorimuthu Iyyanar temple at KMTR represents just the tip of the iceberg. Examples abound at Sabarimala in Periyar Tiger Reserve, Belladukuppai in Bandipur Tiger Reserve and Ganesh temple inside Ranthambore. However, our KMTR experience shows it might be presumptuous to view religious pilgrimages in or beyond forest areas as solely religious and pilgrimage. At such a large scale, it represents a far deeper and complicated fabric than what has been popularly perceived and portrayed. Since our responses to problems tend to be devised by our perceptions of them, we urgently need to refine and enrich our engagement with not only our last remaining abodes of biodiversity but also the sacred ones. Allwin Jesudasan & Rajkamal Goswami are with Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bengaluru
July 1-15, 2013 Down To Earth 55
MEDIA
African connection
t is a device designed for Africans by Africans. BRCK, a modem developed to deal with unreliable power supply in Africa, was
recently unveiled at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh. Brainchild of Kenyan tech firm Ushahidi, the device can connect up to
20 devices at a time and seamlessly switch between Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G and Ethernet connections automatically, depending on what signals are available. Users can also plug in a SIM card to offer a network anywhere within the reach of a mobile tower. Boasting an eight-hour battery life, BRCK also has cloud-based software which means that it can be accessed from anywhere to see how Wi-Fi and electricity are performing. For remote villages where mobile signals are hard to find, there is an antenna to boost signal strength. BRCK will go on sale in November with a price tag of US $199.
The UK
Enough of noise
smartphone application, or app, that can measure the impact of construction work on waterbirds in protected areas has been developed. A product by researchers at the UKs University of Hull, the software provides profiles of bird species and their susceptibility to noise disturbances. It also offers advice on how development projects can affect behaviour of birds. The software uses onphone noise and global
USHAHIDI
SNIPPETS
NEWS
Twister jam
n award-winning Oklahoma television meteorologist has been deemed irresponsible for telling viewers to get in their cars and flee approaching tornadoes. The advice given by Mike Morgan, chief meteorologist for Oklahoma City TV station KFOR and 11-time winner of weather broadcast award in the state, was in stark contrast to the common advice given in the event of a twister which is to seek refuge in cellars and
>> A New York-based production company has filed a lawsuit against Warner Music Group over its ownership rights on the song Happy Birthday. Good Morning to You, which is filming a docu on the songs origins, claims Warner is unlawfully claiming the copyright. It demanded the song be made freely available to the public and Warner return the licensing fees it has received so far. Warner gets $2 million in royalties every year. >> Indias state-owned telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is discontinuing its 160year-old telegram service because of falling business. The service, the last large-scale telegram service operating in the world, will cease on July 15, 2013.
other underground facilities. Viewers blamed Morgan for putting people in danger on clogged roads on June 7. Some people said they followed his advice and ended up stuck in traffic jams on highways as a storm bore down on the Oklahoma City area. Oklahoma Governor called the traffic situation on June 7 a nightmare after it was confirmed that some of the 20 deceased were found dead after being sucked out of cars by the storm.
KEVIN COLE
DVIDSHUB
positioning system (GPS) facilities to allow real-time characterisation of likely noise effects. It also allows contractors to measure noise levels on the site and offer advice on the degree of disturbance from their work. There is relativley little information on the impacts from disturbance events on waterbirds, in particular from noise, said Nick Cutts, deputy director of the universitys Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Studies.
56
MEDIA
USA
www.locusmag.com
FOR all those who love books, science fiction and fantasy, their search ends at Locus Online. The website focuses on news of the science fiction publishing field with reviews of books and magazines. Locus Online also offers weekly to monthly listings of new books and magazines; stories of publishers and
authors and; and a weekly compilation of genre books that appear on general bestseller lists. Interviews with well-known and upand-coming writers are also part of the website. Besides books, essays and commentary on new developments also feauture on the website which is produced from southern California in the US.
already drawn images of Manning at the defence table, and of Adrian Lamo, the former computer hacker who turned Manning in. The comic is scheduled for release in October.
Breaking ties
n the wake of growing protests against its collaboration with US agri-biotech giant Monsanto, NDTV has stopped its campaign Improving Lives. The protests saw people criticising the campaigns Facebook page launched on May 1. Two of the comments were Monsanto is known for its agenda to control food and farming as in the case of Bt cotton in India and; NDTV should choose a non-controversial,
REUTERS
Bradley Manning (right) is charged with the nations biggest leak of classified files
Greek tragedy
n a drastic move to meet its debt bailout obligations, Greece has shut down public broadcaster ERT, leaving nearly 2,700 people jobless. According to the government, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, or ERT, was a huge drain on public resources. It said the corporation will reopen as soon as possible with a
new, smaller workforce. The move has angered many. This is a blow to democracy, said an ERT newsreader at the end of the main TV
stations final broadcast. ERT, which began broadcasting in 1938, was funded by a direct payment of 4.30 euros added monthly to electricity bills. It ran three domestic TV channels, four national radio stations, regional radio stations and an external service. Athens has pledged to cut thousands of public-sector jobs as part of agreements under which it receives billions of euros in rescue loans from the EU and International Monetary Fund.
ethical partner. The channel, however, said the series was meant to highlight the state of infrastructure and development opportunities in India and had nothing to do with agriculture, seeds or geneticallymodified foodsomething for which Monsanto is often criticised. Greenpeace India, which set off a signature campaign against the partnership much before the Facebook page was launched, charged Monsanto of crime against nature, rights of farmers and consumers. Now it is trying to clean up its public image, said Anantha Sayanan of Greenpeace. More than 2,600 people had signed for Greenpeaces campaign till April.
57
LAST WORD
RIGHT TO DISSENT
LATHA JISHNU
he white mans burden never eases. Long after the sun set on colonial empires, the rich nations of the world who make the G8, the smallest and most powerful club of their group, are preparing for yet another onerous task. After redrawing regional boundaries, creating a host of new nations and bringing democracy to dark corners of the world in the last century in return for their treasury of natural resources, the new powers have launched a new crusade. This is to lift 50 million Africans out of poverty in the next decade, primarily by setting right their agriculture. Virtuously called The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, this neo-colonial enterprise is apparently all about G8s commitment to expand Africas potential for rapid and sustainable agricultural growth. Governments of these countriesthe US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russiawill provide funding of sorts to those African nations willing to join up but the true saviours will be private companies, many of them the multinationals who dominate the global seed and pesticides business or control the trade. Private companies are expected to pour in about $3.5 billion into countries where poverty and hunger are endemic. And among the line-up of companies that have signed the Private Sector Declaration of Support for African Agricultural Development are the usual suspects: Archer Daniel Midlands, Bayer CropScience, Cargill, DuPont, Monsanto, Syngenta and Yara of Norway. Close to four dozen companies are involved in this projectadmittedly not all are multinationals but include small companies from the developing worldand clearly they are looking for rich pickings. The New Alliance was set in motion in May 2012 at the last summit of G8 in Camp David, and its cheerleaders are Barack Obama and acolyte David Cameron of the UK who is seeking to cover himself with glory with his campaign to end hunger at the just-concluded G8 summit in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland. How different are the Lough Erne and the 2012 Camp David summits from the Berlin conference of 1884-5 when the great powers of that era thought up a similar project. Under the cloak of liberating the Dark Continent from slavery, the European empires (with the US going along) were in effect deciding the carve-up of Africa among themselves. It is a toss-up as to which of these is the more cynical exercise. In the 19th century, the big powers rushed to grab the resources and territory of Africa for their territorial
58 Down To Earth July 1-15, 2013
ambitions; in todays scramble for Africa it is about ensuring corporate control over land and resources in those very nations. The emphasis on private investment is the most troubling factor. African, European and US non-profits working towards sustainable agriculture systems have warned that hundreds of millions of hectares of arable African land will pass into the control of the food and agri-biotech giants. The partnership agreements that the alliance countries have signed do nothing to dispel these fears. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, an international advocacy for sustainable food, farm and trade policies, points out that corporations are not parties to the human rights covenants that oblige most governments to realize the universal human right to food. Another influential non-profit Oxfam says the New Alliance focuses too heavily on the role of the private sector to tackle the complex challenges of food insecurity in the developing world. And yet, there is a desperate readiness by African countries to sign up for the promised benefits. So far, nine countries, Nigeria, Benin, Malawi, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Tanzania, have joined the alliance with a simple price for entry. This is a commitment that they will ensure major changes in policy to facilitate investment opportunities and trade. Ivory Coast and Mozambique, for example, have agreed to pass legislation to promote partnerships that will facilitate access to land for smallholder farmers and private enterprises. Vast numbers of farmers in Mozambique have lost their land and in Ivory Coast, a huge displacement is expected with French, Swiss, Singaporean and Algerian companies signing deals for over 600,000 hectares. The most egregious example is Ethiopia which has already leased around 4 million hectares to foreign companies. The lives of hundreds of thousands of small farmers are at stake. But land alone is not the issue; these countries will also have to change their seed and food trade regulations. Mozambique has agreed to systematically cease distribution of free and unimproved seeds, paving the way for private companies to bring in their patented varieties once these country pass legislation granting intellectual property rights on seeds. In short, the conquering armies of the past have been replaced by subtler forms of appropriationthrough legislation and contracts signed by compliant regimes. That is the tragedy of Africa. History repeats itself.
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nvironmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an important tool to inform decision-makers, regulators and stakeholders, about the possible environmental, social and economic costs of the proposed project. To be effective, it requires the active involvement of all concerned stakeholders. There is a genuine need to develop the capacity of the state-level regulators and state level expert appraisal Committee (SEAC) to screen and scope the EIA process, to conduct transparent public consultations and to evaluate the EIA reports, especially after the new EIA notification. At the same time, there is a need among CBO, NGOs, academicians, and environment managers to review and interpret EIA report, as they are technical in nature. Centre for Science and Environment recognises this need and has developed a hands-on five-day training programme aimed at giving practical exposure to participants on EIA with specific reference to coal based power plant, cement, pharmaceutical, mining and others. After the programme, the participants shall have: 1. Exposure to all aspects of EIA, from its theory to the practical such as better understanding regarding What data is required, how this data should be collected and interpreted, and significance of the data Effectiveness of the assessment methods What issues should be addressed in the Terms of Reference (TOR) Tools and thumb rules available to evaluate the environmental impact of projects 2. Better understanding of the EIA process from screening, scoping, data collection to impact assessment as well as the role of public consultation 3. Better understanding of the environmental and social impacts of the industrial and developmental projects 4. Better ability to review EIA reports and identify its strengths and weaknesses 5. Increased ability to play active role in post-EIA monitoring.
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