This is what nature wants to say to us

Some are destroyers and some are saviors

This Royal Bengal pregnant tigress was saved from agitated and scared villagers in the Sundarbans, by the Forest Department personnel. The cat had inadvertently strayed into a West Bengal village. There perhaps she attacked the cattle and the villagers tried to stone her to death. It’s amazing how fast the Forest Department people reached the spot and rescued the traumatized animal.

Source

In The Pioneer (our newspaper) there was scathing editorial terming the villagers as barbarians. Even the previous day there was a screaming headline on the first page. Although such news is sensational and encourages us to further stereotype the tribals and the villagers living around jungles I think they are the least responsible for the destruction of plants and animals the world over. Take for instance this case, if a tigress enters your village and attacks your cattle and your loved once are you going to worry about tiger conservation and animal cruelty at that time? Hardly. By all means you will try to kill the animal. Don’t we try to chase away and if that is not possible kill the insects that enter our houses lest they sting someone?

It’s people living in the cities who are actually responsible for the destruction of flora and fauna because they have least regard for the environment. They indiscriminately use products made of scarce natural resources and they pollute the air with their vehicles and other appliances. New settlements and colonies are constantly being set up on the areas cleared of jungles. The ever-increasing population puts constant pressure on the supply of food and consequently more forest area has to be cleared.

Anyway we are constantly criticizing the people working in the Forest Department. This time they showed an exemplary courage by saving the animal, getting it properly treated and then releasing it back into its original habitat. They deserve lots of praise.

Technorati Tags: royal bengal tiger, sundarbans, west bengal

100-year-old tortoise becomes mother to a baby hippo

Read the story here.

Ram Does Not Exist — O Ram, Where Art Tho?

Gandhiji uttered “Hai Ram” thrice before the three bullets pumped in by Nathuram Godse drained life out of him. The expression still adorns his samadhi at Raj Ghat. To highlight that the historical significance of the of the Ramsetu bridge is nothing but a mythical illusion, the Indian central government has told the Supreme Court that there is no proof of Lord Ram ever existing, or for that matter of all the sundry characters existing in the epic Ramayana. So has the government turned anti-Gandhi all of a sudden? If the Mahatma had the word Ram on his lips while he breathed his last breath, did he die uttering a false god?

With the nuclear deal controversy not showing signs of abating due to the churlishly intransigent Left (and the BJP) some say snap polls are imminent, and the Congress is surely preparing for that eventuality by playing the ultimate communal card. By denying one of the mightiest of Hindu gods it’s anybody’s guess whom the Congress is trying to please. Not Rawan, surely, because he becomes false too.

It’ll be stupid to believe that the center wants to demolish the Ramsetu bridge simply for economics because the scientists have said time and again that the environmental costs of the Sethusamudram project will be immeasurable, from inviting tsunamis to destroying the pre-historical coral reef (it’s a PDF). The central agenda of Congress (who is in power at the center right now) is to appease the minorities by showing that it doesn’t give two hoots to the majority’s (Hindus) sentiments. And of course there is lots of money to be made by the politicians, the builders and the contractors.

The response from the BJP and the VHP has been predictable. But sadly, this is the only kind of response that mostly works in our country these days. As we were discussing yesterday at home, in our country where more than 70% of population survives on Rs. 20 per day, who is bothered about the environment, but yes, Ram heats up the emotions. So if the bridge can be saved using the plank of religion, then be it.

What do I think about the existence of Ram? I’ll write about it in another post, in the meantime, let’s have a poll on Ram.

Technorati Tags: ramsetu bridge, Sethusamudram project, ram, environment

Happy Independence Day

A very happy independence day to all my readers. I know this post comes a bit late but I purposely didn’t write the day-before-yesterday because first, I thought everybody would be writing about it and second, after a long time I took a day off (this means, I didn’t open my laptop or check my email or respond to queries, etc.). Third, I’m suffering with a bad bout of tonsillitis. But I read a lot.

Our newspaper was filled with articles written by various columnists talking about what’s been achieved and what’s been lost in the past 60 years of India’s, some even called it illusory, independence. With so much misery, poverty, backwardness, corruption, fall of ethos, rampant hatred and intolerance, are we really free? Does freedom merely mean kicking out the foreign rulers? Look out in the street: doesn’t the common man look like a loser, totally defeated and devoid of dignity? Does a free nation look like this?

I agree with the thought but we are a lot better off than we were during the British, or even the Mughal rule. Whatever mess we create here, it is our own mess. We are always free to clear this mess, whether ideological, economic or social, whenever we feel like it (it’s another thing we don’t feel like it). Despite our politicians and destructive policy makers some of us have made things better. Whether one agrees or not, the working conditions are far better than what they used to be. The progress is in certain, limited quarters, but this is how progress starts — it gradually spreads.

The past always seems romantic and quixotic, but every age has its dark side. Chandan Mitra of the Pioneer in a recent article evoked the 60-year journey of the Hindi film music. We’re seeing the worst phase these days, but the golden phase of the Hindi film music survived with the backdrop of the Chinese invasion, political uncertainty, abysmal poverty, industrial strife and a slew of natural calamities. Poetic and all is fine, but if you don’t have food to eat or clothes to wear, you cannot simply survive on melodies (some did actually).

I think the present is the best time to live, whether in India (I’m talking about the functioning, civilized world, and not about communities that are still living in the 700 AD world) or anywhere else. We are at the threshold of a civilizational shift. Technology and new thinking is helping us do things better, faster, and it is also wrecking havoc on our environment, which needs to be tackled with the greatest urgency. The poverty is galling, but we have the means, but not enough will, to eradicate it. We have conquered most of the diseases and ailments (at least those who can afford) and the natural disasters become untenable only because as a society, as a nation, we don’t prepare for them, or we create ripe ground for them by exploiting the ecology and the environment indiscriminately. For example, the floods in Bihar are being caused due to large-scale deforestation.

I don’t prefer the past because the reins of our destiny were not in our hands. Today they are. We can steer our own paths and the opportunities allude only those who don’t seek them sincerely. All around me I see people wallowing in miseries but in 99.99% of the cases it’s their own doing. The India of today is in the driving seat. If we don’t have the roads, we have the ability to lay them. This is the greatest difference between the past and the present.

Technorati Tags: india, independence days, indian independence day

Tree-nation.com

Tree-nation.com is a website dedicated to planting 8 million trees in the Sahara desert to fight desertification. The link was sent to me via email by Jeremiah who works with Tree-nation.com. According to the website:

Tree-Nation is an ecological project with a focused objective: To plant 8 million trees in the Sahara to fight desertification! Large-scale plantation of trees will increase the land’s productivity and re-generate the soil.

Tree-nation is an online community in which you can buy your own tree and become the guardian of a real and happy tree that we will plant in our park in Niger.

Technorati Tags: plant trees, desertification, deforestation

A great video on global warming

Technorati Tags: global warming

The Environmental Concerns and the naysayers

I just stumbled upon (not through StumbleUpon) this post on Cafe Hayek where the author comments, referring to a movie he has just watched,

One of these activists insisted that poor people really don’t want better housing, better nutrition, and better education.  Instead, says the well-housed, well-fed, highly educated “environmentalist,” poor people really prefer their quaint, traditional ways of life.

The author is referring to the documentary Mine Your Business in which they have, sort of, “exposed” the environmentalists. I haven’t seen the documentary, and I’m not even interested in seeing it, but I wonder why it surprises people if they are told that not everybody seeks the so-called development; quaint, traditional ways of life ARE healthy and feasible, given we have the required will and enough sense.

Read the rest of this entry »

America sets global greenhouse gases emission goals for 2008

Nobody believes George Bush when he urges the various nations to set goals to tap the greenhouse gasses emission by 2008 but I think it is a good development. At least he is acknowledging that there is a problem with the globe and the temperatures are rising. Whether you like it or not, he heads one of the strongest nations of the world and again, whether you like it or not, his opinions do matter.

The USA still refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol though, and this issue raises legitimate doubts amidst those who are really concerned about global warming and are not satisfied by political rhetoric. Understandably, people are skeptical:

National Environmental Trust president Philip Clapp said, “This is a transparent effort to divert attention from the president’s refusal to accept any emissions reductions proposals at next week’s G-8 summit. After sitting out talks on global warming for years, the Bush administration doesn’t have very much credibility with other governments on the issue.”

Bush said:

“The United States takes this issue seriously,” Bush said in a speech on his agenda for the summit. “My proposal is this: By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases.”

“To help develop this goal, the United States will convene a series of meetings of nations that produce most greenhouse gas emissions, including nations with rapidly growing economies like India and China,” he added.

Well, everybody knows how seriously the United States takes global warming. They are more concerned with their GDP and how many cokes and pizzas they can consume and how many gas-guzzling automobiles they can drive. Global warming? Duh!

Technorati Tags: g8 summit, global warming, greenhouse gas goals, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, george bush, usa, america

Do They Really Care for the country, or for the world

Like the USA, India too has decided to reject the upper limit on the greenhouse gases emission at a summit meeting of the world’s leading economies next month because stricter limits would affect its GDP. I wonder who comes up with such arguments. Global warming is a serious issue and no vote bank politics is going to shoo it away. It is not something we can sweep under the carpet. For instance, Mumbai is India is financial capital. Where will our GDP goes if Mumbai goes under water in the next 30 years.

I think the best way to tackle this problem is that people living in the areas prone to submergence should put immense pressure upon their respective governments. For instance, the citizens of Mumbai should make it a priority that no economic activity takes place at the cost of their city.

Technorati Tags: greenhouse gases, global warming, pollution, india, mumbai