Environment

Conservation

• Killing Animals For Sport

  in Conservation: Some years ago, at one of those mind-numbing but inescapble dinner events, a well-built man then in his forties was holding court, extolling to his fawning audience the many pleasures of hunting animals. He spoke of tracking porcupine in Old Mahabaleshwar, driving through the night with a harsh spotlight mounted on the roof of a 4x4, sitting on the hood with a rifle in his hands; and how, on seeing one, he and his companions needed to be so very precise and skilled in killing it. He described with relish the death of the creature, the use of a knife, the dangers of the quills. Sickened, I commisserated him on whatever inadequacy it was that drove him to compensate in this fashion. We haven’t spoken since. It seems a small price to pay. » continue reading
  
  

• The Curious Case Of The Gujarati Lion

  in Conservation: Newspaper reports would have us believe that this was a political tussle between the neighbouring states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, dumbing down an serious issue to something infantile, like two children squabbling over a plaything. It is anything but. Whether some lions from Gujarat’s Gir forest should be translocated to another site in Madhya Pradesh raises several difficult questions about viable wildlife conservation strategies and environmental law.  » continue reading
  
  

• Walking The Tiger Tightrope

  in Conservation: On 24 July, the Supreme Court passed an order which, according to almost every newspaper, banned tourism in the core areas of the country’s tiger reserves. The eco-tourism versus inviolate-areas debate is already sharply polarized; the reactions to the news were, therefore, predictably vociferous. Few bothered to read the fine print. » continue reading
  
  

Wildlife

• Animal Rights, Human Wrongs

  in Wildlife: My cousin, Aniruddh, a senior fellow at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego has an ongoing love affair—with a sulfur-crested cockatoo. Aniruddh studies music, language and the brain. Two years ago, Aniruddh’s colleague introduced him to Snowball. He—Snowball—isn’t your garden-variety cockatoo. He has a very specific like, and it is, quite improbably, the Backstreet Boys’ song, Everybody. He dances to it. In an interview in June with the New York Times, Aniruddh spoke about his work (all cutting edge) and, specifically, Snowball. Throughout that interview, Aniruddh referred to Snowball by name, or as “the bird” or “he”. Never “it”. » continue reading
  
  

C

• Castles In The Sand in Environment: Once upon a time in a land that now seems far, far away, India had a Prime Minister of a very different hue. In fact, Indira Gandhi had so many hues she was entirely different things to different people. To environmentalists, she was very nearly a patron saint, at least from the time of her address to the 1972 UN Stockholm Conference. Her November 1981 letter to the chief ministers of India’s states demanding protection for India’s coastline and the maintenance of a 500-metre strip to be “clear of all activities” was seen as a re-affirmation of her—and therefore India’s—commitment to environmental protection. This letter (often called a ‘directive’, and sometimes even capitalized as if that lends it some sanctity) was always of the most dubious legal effect but as a piece of posturing, especially one designed to catch the eye of the international political community, it was magnificent; and if there was one thing that Mrs Gandhi was acutely sensitive about, it was the world’s perception of her as an enlightened leader. A few years earlier, it was she who had plunged India into a seemingly bottomless democratic abyss and it was only a miscalculation on her part that brought us out of it. During that time, her stock on the international stage had plummeted. » continue reading
  
  

E

• Environmental Impact Amusements in Environment: At Devprayag in the Garhwal Himalaya, the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi slam into each other and become the Ganga. Once, both were mighty. The Bhagirathi’s waters poured at nearly 29000 litres per second. Today, it is a trickle: just 56 litres per second. » continue reading
  
  

F

• From Myth To Mandamus in Environment: It is a scheme unlike any other: four times the capacity of China’s Three Gorges dam, five times the capacity of similar projects in America, six times that of existing projects in India. This is the Indian river interlinking project, one that four weeks ago received judicial benediction from the Supreme Court. » continue reading
  
  

L

• Looking Tokyo, Going Jaitapur in Environment: It can’t be easy being a nuclear scientist these days. Following the Fukushima power plant accident, people have become allergic to nuclear power, seeing it as Satan’s work-in-progress. Images are conjured up of mushroom clouds, the Manhattan Project and Oppenheimer’s famous quote from the Bhagvad Gita. Comparisons are drawn between nuclear energy and nuclear weapons (the kind they didn’t find in Iraq), between Fukushima and Hiroshima (distinguished, it seems, only by a brace of consonants and another of vowels). The comparisons are inaccurate and misleading. » continue reading
  
  

T

• The Big Bright Green Deception Machine in Environment: Not so long ago, Jairam Ramesh and his Ministry of Environment and Forests were being pilloried by industrialists and the business establishment while being cheered by environmentalists. Finally, it seemed, there was someone unafraid of consequences and determined to do what his portfolio demands. There was action on the Niyamgiri issue, on POSCO, on mining near forest areas, on tiger conservation, on Adarsh and Lavasa and, briefly, even Jaitapur. Business satraps howled that he was choking development and consigning India to perennial poverty. The environmental lobby retaliated, repeatedly pointing out that savaging the environment could not possibly lead to ‘development’. » continue reading
  
  
• The Embattled Forest in Environment: At 107 sq kms, it is 34 times the size of Manhattan’s Central Park. There is nothing ornamental here. This is an old-growth forest, the home of 274 bird species, 150 species of butterflies and 42 mammals — including the leopard. This is Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) and it is probably the only biosphere reserve within local municipal limits anywhere on the planet. » continue reading
  
  
• The Environment Is Not The Enemy in Environment: In the midst of the several incisive comments he made during a recent Walk the Talk interview with Shekhar Gupta (the video is available on the NDTV website), HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh made one profoundly distressing comment. He said, “… environment issues are coming in the way of development. Now, we want the environment to be protected, we want ecological improvements, but somewhere, we have to draw a balance. Do we want growth, and if we want growth, we have to make some sacrifices or take precautions. But you cannot say that you cannot give permissions. There is a disconnect between the industry ministry and the environment ministry. My personal view is, look at the existing industries that are creating all the pollution, emissions. They are going scot-free. Why can’t you try and clean the existing ones? I think you should have a responsibility to improve the existing industries. Don’t block a new entrant.” » continue reading
  
  
• The Plane Untruth in Environment: Pity Jairam Ramesh. The spirited Minister of State for Environment and Forests finds himself fighting a lonely battle against the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) project. The Aviation Minister lashed out at him in public. Now others — the editors of the Indian Express; the Governor of Maharashtra; and the young (and clueless) Turks of Indian politics — have also waded in against him. They accuse Ramesh of kowtowing to a knee-jerk, maudlin, impractical and fundamentally brainless “green” lobby, an amorphous group that conveniently excludes local citizens opposing the project. Environmentalists are afflicted by the BANANA (“Build Almost Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone”) syndrome; the local population is ignored altogether. Both green and brown must be sacrificed for the greater good of the airborne.  » continue reading
  
  
• The Sands Of Time in Environment: For over a quarter of a century, the husband-wife team of Dereck and Beverly Joubert from Botswana have been filming, photographing and documenting African wildlife. Their work is astonishing: 22 films, 10 books, scientific papers, articles and photographs (Beverly Joubert’s) in National Geographic magazine. The awards are many, and include six Emmys, a Peabody, the World Ecology Award and induction into the American Academy of Achievement. » continue reading
  
  
• This Fragile Land in Environment: On a cold December day this year, a tigress was killed in Kaziranga. She was riddled with bullets from an AK-47. The autopsy reported ten. There was confusion about who fired the weapon, a forest guard or an Assam policeman. An enquiry has been ordered. » continue reading
  
  

W

• What Water’s Worth in Environment: He was nothing like I expected. A serving municipal officer in charge of the water department of a local ward, he was soft-spoken and urbane, with uncommon empathy. He showed a map of the ward. » continue reading
  
  
• Who’s Afraid Of Jairam Ramesh? in Environment: The only reason our Congress-led coalition government, fondly named UPA-II like some yet to be test-fired rocket missile, hasn’t collapsed is because its opponents are in such complete disarray. What UPA-II offers is a party that is, with the sole exception of its in-house hyperbolic serial interrupter Manish Tewari, either preternaturally reticent on almost every issue of consequence or given to mouthing platitudes which do not translate into practice. It claims to be solidly against corruption. Our Queen Mum says our moral universe is shrinking. How would she know?  » continue reading