Category: 2020

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Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]When I was asked to edit a series of articles on climate change for Fundamatics, I couldn’t wait to say a ‘Yes’. I am an engineer who drifted from computational fluid dynamics into climate modeling and then into earth system and human impact. I am now quite familiar with the different views people bring to climate change and its impact, as well as solutions. The articles capture a kaleidoscopic range of views. As a climate scientist and a dabbling practitioner of sustainable water and agricultural methods, I can add a tiny bit of perspective to the set of articles.

Climate change has taken hold more broadly now as a descriptor, mostly as a reaction to the rage that ‘Global Warming’ seems to produce in some sections of humanity. But ‘change’ here is the keyword. Typically, sufficient sampling is needed to ensure that there is in fact a ‘change’. The story of vanishing birds on campus is an example. Once our antennas are up for ‘detecting’ climate change, we begin to see change everywhere.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]And yet, we need to be careful because the old adage is that nature makes the rules and biology finds the loopholes. Detection of change can then lead to some formal approaches to ‘attributing’ the changes to human actions. So detection and attribution are the Yin and Yang of climate change even though one is keenly aware that we are accelerating climate change, and there may not always be the luxury of waiting for change to be confirmed.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Detection and attribution are the Yin and Yang of climate change even though one is keenly aware that we are accelerating climate change, and there may not always be the luxury of waiting for change to be confirmed.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The story of change in Coorg brings up extremes of rainfall and dryness. This is observed clearly now, and action is underway. The one I watch carefully is the prediction and projection of weather, climate variability, and change under MoES and its institutions. It is really beginning to yield results in terms of more skilful predictions and better channels of communications of warnings. Evidence is emerging that timely action is saving lives during floods and cyclones. But drought management requires broader scale strategies like drought-resilient agricultural practices – agroforestry, rainwater harvesting, afforestation, drip irrigation, and such. Applications of weather and climate predictions to various sectors are growing in India. This should lead to better adaptive management of food, water, energy and health.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Coastal protection will need a recovery of mangrove forests and zoning laws for waterfront construction, protection of corals, wetlands, etc. India has over 7,000 kilometers of coastline when combined with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. While India has committed itself to afforestation as an additional sink for carbon under the Paris agreement, we should remember that forests in coastal waters can sequester three to ten times the carbon as land forests. And they clean up the water, enhance biodiversity, protect against storms and erosion, and make for amazing ecotourism.[/vc_column_text][vc_masonry_media_grid item=”mediaGrid_SimpleOverlay” grid_id=”vc_gid:1605277708774-ca3d5fe9-6cde-7″ include=”10552,10553,10550″][vc_column_text]

Murals at entrances to Juhu Beach, Mumbai. Photo Courtesy: Devesh Khatu.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]These also raise the issue of how we ‘battle’ climate change. But are words like ‘war’, ‘crisis’, and ‘battle’ even appropriate in the first place? If we are also the culprits then who are we battling? We can point fingers at politicians and energy companies and so on. Politicians tend to be held responsible for their decisions, while scientists and citizens may have the comfort of screaming for action without being responsible in any way. Frankly, we all must be part of the solution.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Youth is energised, and yet they are not aware that their parents are living perfectly normal energy-intensive lifestyles. The youth themselves may not be capable of the kind of behavioural changes needed, to play their part – like not rushing to buy the latest iPhone. Most, importantly, the philosophy of “the end justifies the means” in messaging climate change and attacking individuals or countries, or companies may cost us our credibility. People naturally take the words of politicians with a grain of salt but scientists and social activists must maintain their credibility at the highest level. It is best to look into the mirror, and accept that none of us are living a lifestyle that is minimal in terms of our environmental footprint.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”10551″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Mural near Girgaum Chowpatty. Photo Courtesy: Devesh Khatu.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]That then should lead us to discuss potential solutions. India needs to focus on food, water, energy and health when it comes to solutions, and driving research and innovation. Reducing the energy- intensity of the GDP, and the carbon intensity of energy production are the high-level drivers of everything under this broad umbrella. Energy production has to focus on de-carbonization, and leapfrogging the follies of the west, which grew rich with carbon-intensive fuels.  Agricultural practices have to be friendly to the soil and water as well as reduce emissions while ensuring food security for all. Transportation needs to be efficient and emission-free, and also provide accessible public transportation that reduces the unsustainable growth of personal vehicle ownership. Managing water resources sustainably must come with quality, quantity and access. India’s air and water quality have a long way to go in terms of reducing disease, morbidity, mortality and labour lost. Scalable solutions must come out of self-reliant innovation. For example, the demand for air conditioning will continue to grow exponentially but the replacement for HFCs may cost India an arm and a leg.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Green funds must then be incentivised to flow towards green technologies and solutions for food, water, energy and health. India exploited its investment in science and technology education when the outsourcing boom came along. Can it position itself for the green technology boom? It may have no choice but to strategise itself towards such a position, especially considering its current reliance on imported energy. Especially considering that the region is only going to get warmer, and the neighbourhood may not get any friendlier. The climate vulnerability of the countries around India, and the geopolitical machinations of countries near and far, pose severe national security threats to India. A micro scene is already playing out at the northern border and with the Rohingya issue.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Anecdotal evidence of a series of actions narrated in the Thekambattu story brings us back to what individuals can do. We have to be realistic about how such activities can be sustained and scaled up to make a difference. The inevitability of human tendencies to drift towards comfort which so far has come from energy-hogging lifestyles cannot be wished away. Can energy become completely carbon-free and allow us to lead a luxurious life without worrying about the future of the environment?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]To avoid the Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference of earth’s functioning, we will need exactly that. People shouldn’t feel like they are sacrificing themselves or doing something special by reducing the impact of their actions on the environment. The solutions have to be as easy as smartphones—convenient and simple to use; everybody wants one. Saving the environment is right now a luxury that only a few can afford. An environmentally friendly lifestyle should be affordable to all.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I am not convinced that putting up signs everywhere that say ‘NO’ to everything, will lead to a safer planet. Travelling has always been critical for cultural exchanges, food has always been good for cultural identity, and energy has always been good for exploring the universe while water makes everything beautiful. Good health comes from consuming mindfully. Not just food, but also energy and water.

I am optimistic that a game-changer will come along. I also wonder whether nature meant us to evolve to become so dissipative merely because everything in the universe dissipates energy. But that’s a thought for another day. Besides, do we really want our children to grow up thinking the world is coming to an end? I would rather have them dream about building rockets to go out into the solar system and beyond.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Illustrations by Frits Ahlefeldt

[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”An Indian Perspective” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left|color:%23dd9933″][vc_column_text]On 26 July 2005 Mumbai received well over 900 mm of rainfall, devastating the city and killing hundreds of people.  It brought into sharp focus the topic of climate change. We then had the “cloud burst” event in June 2013 in the mountains of Uttarakhand, and a lot of attention was on the devastation in the Kedarnath shrine area.  It is estimated that in addition to more than 5000 lives lost,  the damage to infrastructure was at least several thousand crore rupees, apart from ripping apart jobs and livelihoods linked to tourism and pilgrimage.  Subsequently we had the devastating floods in Chennai in November-December 2015, floods in Bihar and the Kerala floods in 2018.   And just a few days back we had the terrible flooding in Hyderabad city.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]India’s climate is warming and changing like elsewhere on the globe, but the complexity of the Indian Monsoon has been challenging for climate scientists to study. We have seen a decline in the overall Monsoon since the 1950s, and yet with an increase in the frequency and intensity of rains. But India is fortunate to have some of the best climate scientists in institutions such as our own IIT Bombay and IITM, Pune. We learn from them for example that the warming of the seas could be weakening the thermal contrast between the land-mass and the sea, a driver of the Monsoon. This could explain both the phenomena of a weakening Monsoon and rainfall falling in more intense spells with dry spells in between.  The observed decline was not predicted by many climate models and is now an active area of research as we need to get better forecasts of the future of our Monsoon system over the next few decades.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]India’s diverse ecosystems straddling the highest mountains in the world, the Himalayas, the forests of the Western Ghats and peninsular India to the coastal zones and estuaries and deltas are increasingly being stressed by climate change impacts. For example, emerging evidence from forests in the Himalayas suggests that they could be “greening”  in some places due to warming but “browning” elsewhere in response to warming and moisture stress in the post-Monsoon period due to decline in  winter and spring rains.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Our cities as we have seen from recent events are increasingly vulnerable due to loss of natural drainages, wetlands and the replacement of green areas with impermeable surfaces, a recipe for a climate-change-land-use time-bomb whose fuse is lit waiting for opportunities to manifest itself.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]One of the dangers of the climate change discourse by government and in civil society is that almost all disasters are being attributed to climate change and much less due to other drivers such as land-use change and the development pathways we have embraced in the way we plan and manage our cities, our water resources and our rivers and wetlands.  We know that climate change is indeed a big stressor that needs our attention, but often it is just the proverbial “last straw on the camel’s back.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As an example, the fragility of the tectonically active and unstable Himalayan ecosystems was already known to environmentally literate folks and scientists, and yet post the Kedarnath disaster the Char Dham road-building controversy and business-as-usual ecologically damaging projects such as several large dams are being pushed through in the Himalayas. Why is our memory so short?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]We now know from the scrutiny of some of the devastating floods in Kerala, Bihar and elsewhere that some of these are not just due to “heavy rain” but are human-caused due to the sudden releases from dams and reservoirs, and brave and bold engineers and activists are questioning the management mantras governing these reservoirs. So dams can, depending on how we manage them, cause or prevent floods.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]And now we are beginning to learn that the disruption of sediment movement in our rivers due to trapping by dams and barrages is another cause of floods and poses severe threats to our river ecosystems, aquatic biodiversity and fisheries, besides depriving our sinking deltas of badly needed sediment deposition to protect against sea-level rise and to sustain the productivity of the estuarine and coastal ecosystems. One recent study has estimated that sediment reaching our deltas and estuaries may reduce by over 50% if we implement the interlinking of rivers.  The removal of sand from rivers for our urbanization is a clear and present danger to the ecology of our rivers and deltas.  Meaning full regulation and alternatives will emerge only if we recognize the magnitude of these drivers.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”How can the government, citizens, and civil society respond?” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left|color:%23dd9933″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In this year’s budget, the Government of Karnataka introduced for the first time a Green Index by which projects and programmes would be rated in terms of their environmental impact.  Unfortunately, soon after it was announced the pandemic was upon us, and its fate in informing the choice and design of development projects is currently unknown.  Let us hope more state governments move towards such scrutiny of projects from the point of view of irreparable ecological damage.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Green Index was a welcome initiative, but will it be calculated based on a transparent mechanism that draws upon the best possible data and evidence and done by an independent body? The real test of this would be if large projects are dropped or redesigned if the multi-dimensional Green Index falls below a certain threshold in terms of irreparable ecological damage or poor climate change adaptation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]One of the features of an informed and concerned civil society is drawing the right lessons from disasters. We must take an urgent transparent approach to generation, monitoring and sharing of hydrologic and rainfall data to forge meaningful partnerships between government, academic and civil society to understand our climate and weather systems and implications for ecology, urban planning, food security agriculture.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”10849″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Installing automated and telemetered rain gauges and stream gauges in head water catchments  can give us advance warning of moisture buildup in remote locations in the head-waters of our rivers and reservoirs. We must salute the efforts of the Indian Meteorological Department and our weather and climate scientists which has now resulted in improvements in our short-term weather forecasts.  Feeding these forecasts and data from telemetered rain gauge and stream gauge sensors into data-based hydrologic models within an AI early-warning system could help improve the response of our dam operators or warn farmers and citizens in advance of emerging extreme events, but technology can only play a useful part if all the pieces of our development and land-use approaches and our priorities are aligned towards recognition that non-climatic drivers and stressors need to be managed and not shoved under the carpet of the climate change bandwagon.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Can we reduce the over-exploitation of our ground-water and question plans to divert our rivers?  This requires major efforts towards reducing water-use in agriculture by shifts to nutritious crops that consume less water. Fortunately, we have a rich agro-cultural and culinary tradition of millets in various parts of the country. These are now finding favor amongst many health-conscious folks in the cities.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”10857″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Promoting these in our railways, school meals and increasing awareness through social media could help, but policies that incentivize these crops are required. Cities and towns need citizens to push them towards the treatment and recycling of wastewater.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]However, reducing water use in agriculture, industry, or other sectors does not automatically imply recharge of our depleted groundwater and our rivers. Society often finds new uses for “saved water” and unless we decide that precious water-savings need to go to our depleted aquifers and our rivers through regulation and supportive policies it won’t happen.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]We need to mobilise all our knowledge, harness civil society and political will to rethink our definitions of prudent development pathways and land-use zoning in different parts of the country if we are truly committed to increasing the resilience of India’s ecological, water and climate change security.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The universe is made up of not only atoms but also stories. So when I was asked to write for the Climate Change issue of Fundamatics, I knew I would have to write our story, about our small bit of the universe, which would then become a small cog in our small bit of the universe.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Some years ago, we had a visitor, who asked us how we had managed to acquire Forest land. Had we just squatted on it? Or had we managed to acquire a patta of some sort?

It took us a while to convince him that the forest came after we did. And we realised that we ourselves hadn’t seen the wood for the trees.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

When Sonati and I moved here 20 years ago with a two-and-a-half-year-old Badri Baba, it was to grow our children up away from the city.

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The land was chosen (by both of us independently) almost whimsically: “What a lovely view!”

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The land was on a hill, grazed to death; and all the trees hacked for firewood. Where would the water come from? Didn’t daunt us.

Recklessnes? Youthful energy? Perhaps both; perhaps.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Otherwise, given the difficulties with water, the barrenness, the rockiness, no-one may have bought this piece of land.

The House in 2000

And since we did, the land has now become green, and treed-up. Various birds have moved in which we never saw here earlier.

The House in 2020

We have seen slender lorises (we hear them oftener than we see them), and a family of mongooses. (And Varun Baba, too moved in!)

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Various neighbours steal various things: Jackfruit, Guavas (though of late we have had a relentless stream of kids who actually come and ask for Guavas. The squirrels don’t ask), Firewood, Timber wood, the land itself by pushing boundaries.

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I seem to have moved to the end of the story so far, skipping over various intermediate stories. But that is just like a story; it takes on a life of its own.

Much like our land, which too seems to have a mind of its own.

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We tried so many things: We grew rice (rainfed), ragi (rainfed), dal (rainfed), til for oil (rainfed). The trouble was that our neighbours had started growing cash crops (tapioca: Salem is the tapioca capital of the world). The upshot: All the rats grazed on our tastier crops, and would leave the husk for us to estimate how much they had eaten. To add insult to injury, after we harvested our crops, the rats would start eating tapioca for want of anything else: And our neighbours would say, “Saar, your rats have come to our fields”

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So…

When the rats were consuming 80% of our crop before we could harvest it.

We had to give up growing rat food.

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Then we planted out trees: fruit trees, flowering trees, timber trees; and of course, the native trees which grew back from hacked stumps, since we stopped people grazing and collecting firewood on our land.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Our trees were also all rainfed: we had to plant at the right time and pray. We used to get two monsoons   (July to September is the short-rainy season, October-November is the long-rainy season) and also some January rains and some April rains, so we didn’t have to pray too much.

In the last four years, the rains have been pathetic. Not a drop of rain from end of November to the following July. And the monsoons too giving half our normal rainfall.

So we can say categorically that no tree amongst the thousands of our standing trees has been planted between 2015 to 2019. Not one of those survived.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

To take that a bit further, we need to say that growing trees needs help from the universe. Had we arrived here 15 years later than we did, we may have thought that this hillside was a dead loss. And a small bit of the universe would have stayed barren.

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This may seem anecdotal evidence for climate change. But now there are plenty of such stories, kilo-anecdotes if you will. We need to make the connections and alter our behaviour. After all, if a Pangolin’s sneeze can grind the whole (human) world to a halt, the universe is capable of taking corrective action with or without our help. Perhaps one of our favourite poems from Wendell Berry will sum it up:

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Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.

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Illustration by Derek Monteiro

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The fight against the pandemic has entered its eighth month and India has seen floods in West Bengal, Assam, Orissa, UP, Bihar and Kerala. It has affected over 125 million people, leaving over 500 people dead and over half a million uprooted from their homes. Right in the middle of one of the severest lockdowns the world has seen so far.  It has resulted in multi-billion-dollar devastation. And even then, the mainstream media is paying lip service to the most visible manifestation of climate change, alongside the equally visible zoonotic pandemic. It has chosen, among many inane issues, to “conduct a media trial” around the tragic suicide of an actor and narcotic drug abuse in the film industry. The Union government has been very busy too. It has tested opposition governments in different states, offered questionable economic recovery packages, inaugurated a temple site violating physical distancing norms, taken legal action on poets, writers, teachers, lawyers and activists, issued a controversial and arguably reckless EIA draft, announced a move to allot coal mines in pristine forests and biodiversity hot zones, run amok with irrational projects in Mollem National Park in the Western Ghats. The speed at which the government has chosen to approve projects in wildlife sensitive habitats has caused serious concern among the informed but has not yet entered the national consciousness. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Yet in the midst of all the chaos, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change received 1.7 million responses on the draft of Environment Impact Assessment 2020! After the ill-fated attempt to thwart an online campaign group with UAPA charges, an attempt which was later aborted. The uproar around the projects in Mollem, Goa from writers, poets, scientists, conservationists, ecologists, teachers led by some very imaginative student activism triggered the Supreme Court-appointed Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) to intervene and seek an explanation from the National Board of Wildlife on the clearances. The online and offline Save Mollem Campaign was so strong that it caused the Goa Chief Minister to suspect a foreign hand! And there was – the students and the youth created such a powerful campaign that it attracted solidarity and admiration from Europe, Africa and other parts of the world. Hardly surprising, given the allure of Goa as a tourist’s paradise! [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The active participation of students in the environment and climate change causes is a refreshing change. They see this as their fight, their own fight, sometimes, their solo fight – to secure their future. A fight where older generations, complacent in their affluent cocoons, are reluctant to upset the status quo. They see through the eyewash that the legislators fling on them in the guise of “sustainability and essential development”. The Work from Home scenario gives them more time on their hands. And that has also heightened their interest. Very appealing audio-visual memes are constantly pouring out. They are doing their job in multiplying the followers. The local/global networks that have been formed at There is No Earth B and Extinction Rebellion India are creating open repositories of information that can be used by any of the activist groups. Causes as diverse as Assam Floods, Vizag Mangroves, Save Aarey projects are covered here. Save Mollem Goa and My Mollem Goa groups, with active student participation, have brought together a diverse collective of scientists, artists, poets, illustrators and other creative people. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

The active participation of students in the environment and climate change causes is a refreshing change. They see this as their fight, their own fight, sometimes, their solo fight – to secure their future. A fight where older generations, complacent in their affluent cocoons, are reluctant to upset the status quo.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]All this has resulted in a breathtaking outpouring of creative content to save this pristine biodiversity hotspot in the Western Ghats. Fridays For Future India and Let India Breathe are playing similar roles. Let Me Breathe, powered almost entirely by youngsters, brings everyday sustainability and climate change stories from all over India. Using digital tools, it invites the youth to influence behavioural and policy level changes. Equally inspiring are emerging youth/teen voices  – such as Aarav Seth, who as a teen is rallying support for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); Licypriya Kangujam, a 9-year-old from Manipur, who addressed the United Nations Climate Change Conference of 2019 and takes pride in offering creative solutions to turn everyday waste into everyday usable items; Femin Johny, a Kerala teen who champions the cause of planting trees, and many others like Aditya Dubey and Ridhima Pandey who have added their voices to these causes. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The work initiated by Magsaysay awardee, P Sainath is no less noteworthy. His news portal, People’s Archive of Rural India, covers rural lives and livelihoods. They launched an initiative called PARI Education for schools. This initiative puts a human face on textbook concepts in everyday life in rural India. Driest topics like poverty, pollution, drought, farmer suicides and unsustainable livelihoods come alive through powerful storytelling by the people who face these daily. Kids for Tigers is another educational outreach programme from the Sanctuary Nature Foundation that touches the lives of rural kids living right next to the tiger and urban kids across the country. Going way beyond conservation education, the programme is dedicated to leaving kids with a better planet and leaving the planet with better kids.

It is a shame that the Environment and Climate Change causes have not attracted popular contemporary icons from society. Jairam Ramesh, an IIT Bombay alum himself, is perhaps the only politician who has made Environment and Climate change the cornerstone of his politics. Other than Dia Mirza, who is UN Goodwill Ambassador for Environment, there is hardly anyone from Indian Cinema or Cricket that has joined this movement. Amitav Ghosh and Arundhati Roy are perhaps the only globally known Indian celebrities from the literary world who have not only identified themselves with these causes but have also written critically acclaimed stories around these subjects. The young need new role models. They should be encouraged to explore the works of Vandana Shiva (Food sovereignty), Sunita Narain (Rural eco-regeneration), Medha Patkar (Narmada Bachao and other people’s movements), Prerna Singh Bindra (Conservation related journalism), young conservation and ecology scientists like Neha Sinha, Vidya Athreya, Jis Sebastian, Nandini Velho, Krithi Karanth, Purnima Burman, Prachi Mehta, Veena Srinivasan, cartoonist Rohan Chakravarty (Green Humour), Anushka Ravishankar (children’s books), Abhijit Prabhudesai  (Rainbow Warriors), legal luminaries in environment law and justice such as Ritwik Dutta, Claude Alvares and Norma Alwares; Shweta Wagh (Urban ecology, heritage conservation) among many others. Narsanna and Padma Koppula, Bharat Mansatta, Madhu Reddy, Malvikaa Solanki and others are paving the way in the field of agro-ecology, championing Permaculture – a way of natural, sustainable farming and a way of life. Recent films like Kiss the Ground and Planet of the Humans have captivated the attention of the youth and given them different perspectives. The former focused on Soil Regeneration and the latter on the controversies surrounding Green Energy. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The young need all our help and support. They don’t need adults trolling them, questioning their evolving knowledge or their motives. They don’t need experts shaming their biases or their passion. They do need gentle help in understanding the issues in-depth, the Science, the options with the latitude to dream freely. They do need monetary support to follow their passion. The privileged should not hesitate to dip into their pockets to support them. They should see this as an investment in Inter-Generational Equity and in character building. Bob Dylan once said, “Passion is a young man’s game.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

A healthy planet need not be a moonshot.

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Birding often throws up surprises. One such is this vibrant bird, the Indian Roller, which we have seen occasionally on the campus.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Every year, before the onset of monsoon, a bunch of Baya Weavers arrived at the campus to build their colony on one of the palm trees by the Gymkhana. Their intricately woven nests, true architectural marvels, hung suspended from the palm fronds high above the human eye. I wonder how many passing by the tree registered the yellow specks busily flashing past in the sky (the breeding male Baya assumes a yellow crown).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Baya Weavers are as small as House Sparrows. To an undiscerning eye, they even look similar. While they are not residents of the campus, they are found in good numbers at the next-door Bhandup Pumping Station. For breeding alone, they came to IITB. Typically, the males arrived first to build their elegant nests that resemble blown glass and win over the females. For those unfamiliar with the ways of the Baya, do read ornithologist Sálim Ali’s fascinating field observations of its nesting habits in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, available on the internet. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”10656″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]A male Baya Weaver inspects a Palm Tree adjacent to the Gymkhana in May 2016 before abandoning the idea to build its nest.  The tree hosted a Baya Weaver colony regularly until 2015. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In the year 2016, as the scrub skirting the gymkhana grounds made way for the new courts, the Bayas did arrive in the month of May, like clockwork. We noticed some of them on the palm fronds, as if on an inspection, but they never built their nests that year. Ever since, the Bayas have vanished from the campus unnoticed, unregistered.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Before I go on, I must add a disclaimer. This article is not about how birds have disappeared from the campus over time with development. I’m not an ornithologist nor a conservationist to reflect on such a serious matter. Nor is the article an assessment of the birds found in IITB or an investigation into its declining biodiversity. For the former, we have Dr. Goldin Quadros-led WWF study of IITB biodiversity though over ten years old, and for the latter, we have an in-depth article in March 2020 Insight by Ganesh Chelluboyina, who recently graduated from IITB.  In my story, I merely want to draw attention to the things we do not see and register. And how in our claim over everything nature has to offer— its space, air, or the privilege of a lake or a hill—we forget life works best in symbiosis. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Some ten years ago, the hypnotic effect of a big-eyed large grey, white and black bird that perched on the tree opposite my window at Staff Hostel every single day rendered me a birdwatcher. The bird, I discovered, was a Black-crowned Night-Heron. It was the beginning of a new bond that would soon make me realize I had lost over 30 years of my life not knowing such relationships existed. It connected me to a whole new world of books and people. Suddenly there was so much more to see and hear around me. The tree on which the heron sat turned out to be my Revelation Tree. It acquainted me with Spotted Owlet, Indian Grey Hornbill, Asian Emerald Dove, and many more. Some were loud, some bold, some super shy and secretive too. Like people, they came with varied personalities. The morning ‘exercise’ walks turned into an excuse to spot them and before I knew, I had become a student of ornithology where not just books but field experiences too mattered. [/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Seen around the campus” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left|color:%23dd9933″][vc_masonry_media_grid element_width=”3″ item=”masonryMedia_ScaleWithContentBlock” grid_id=”vc_gid:1606105209240-962d141b693df7d5ea509f493bdd3a93-8″ include=”10661,10660,10697,10733,10696,10694,10702,10736″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I have learnt (and am still learning) to recognize the different species, their calls and songs, the habitats they prefer, long-distance and local migrants, migrants that arrive during monsoon, migrants that leave just before peak summer. And like many regular birders on campus, I have witnessed a dead tree stub on the lakeside holding the Coppersmith Barbet’s painstakingly etched out nest hole make way for a ‘cleaner’ road; the visiting Red Avadavat suddenly disappear when its nest-in-progress at the grassy patch near the Boathouse was flattened in grass clearance; the Soneri Baug take a beating first when the silt from the guesthouse pond was dumped on it and then, more recently, when it was thrown off balance following the indiscriminate hacking of its woody climbers that connected trees with shrubs.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]There is enough material around us to show why birds matter, what insights they hold, how they are excellent indicators of the health of an ecosystem, how they contribute to our life’s equilibrium and warn us of dangers in store. There is even a saying ‘canary in a coal mine’, a harsh reminder to a practice prevalent in the British mining industry of taking canaries into mining pits. They knew that canaries being birds were sensitive to toxic air, so if they became ill or died, it was a warning for workers to evacuate. It finally took the invention of technology to wean humans from this predatory tradition that existed for 75 whole years! [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Recently I watched the first episode (Surveillance) of the gripping Netflix serial ‘Connected’, about the “connections between you, me and the world”. The story begins with the “elusive” songbirds of Newark in Delaware called veeries. The delightful science reporter Latif Nasser draws our gaze to the bird scientist Christopher Heckscher studying the seemingly ordinary-looking brown birds. Through ringing and GPS tracking, they find the birds migrating every winter to the southern Amazon Basin in Brazil some 4000 miles and back. They even find the “same bird singing in the same tree”. Of course, they go on to make an even more mind-boggling discovery— the bird’s prowess to predict the future.  It knew many months ahead how bad the hurricanes in its path of migration would be that year and timed its departure accordingly, sometimes even cutting short its nesting period. But the account of the bird going to the very same place every year and back at once filled me with awe and terrible sadness. There are so many changes around us that we don’t even register. We fail to see that climate change is not something out there, but has its foundations right here in what we do and don’t do.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]IITB, by its proximity to Sanjay Gandhi National Park and tucked between Powai lake and hillocks, boasts of a myriad of ecosystems. The marshy grassland by the lake is home to a variety of water birds like Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Grey-headed Swamphen, Indian Spot-billed Duck, Lesser Whistling-Ducks, Little Grebe and Purple Heron.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Seen around waterbodies” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left|color:%23dd9933″][vc_masonry_media_grid item=”masonryMedia_ScaleWithContentBlock” grid_id=”vc_gid:1606105209393-864cdb5fbfc57f6f57e92c2dd4b989db-0″ include=”10680,10803,10681,10687,10800,10804″][vc_column_text]The wooded habitats by the lake such as Soneri Baug hold gems like Rufous Woodpecker and White-browed Bulbul. On the hill, we encounter land birds like Yellow-throated Sparrow (famed to have converted the pastime hunter in Sálim Ali into a world-famous ornithologist and naturalist) and Rufous Treepie not usually seen by the lake. Then there are the less ubiquitous ones like the Sahyadri Sunbird and Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher that are found along lakeside and hillside, and the more ubiquitous ones like the House Crow, Large-billed Crow, Common Myna, White-throated Kingfisher and Oriental Magpie Robin that thrive in all habitats. As per eBird, an online database of bird sightings contributed by ordinary users, IITB holds over 190 species. There could be many more yet to be recorded. What needs highlighting here is that for some of these birds, their habitats mean everything. Like the skulker White-browed Bulbul who can never be caught outside the wooded areas. Or the Bronze-winged Jacana who can only be seen in the marshy grassland habitat.  When a wooded area like the one behind Staff Hostel or the Boathouse was laid almost bare late last year, what did it mean to the White-browed Bulbul or what would it entail for the warblers, some smaller than the size of our palm, who fly here from distant lands like Siberia during the winter? We miss asking these questions when we categorize them all under one single bracket — birds.  [/vc_column_text][vc_masonry_media_grid element_width=”6″ item=”masonryMedia_ScaleWithContentBlock” grid_id=”vc_gid:1606105209415-ab9b4fdc3589cec72e04f288055b8786-4″ include=”10717,10716″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]But this is not a sanctuary, it is an educational institution, one may argue! What use would any growth be if it does not evolve symbiotically? The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in its best practices for Urban Protected Areas, recognizes educational institutions, privileged in their access to the natural world, as potential protectors of biodiversity. Even as we stake claim to the empty spaces to meet our increasing demands, can we set aside designated pockets like Soneri Baug, Kol Dongri, Temple area (where, in the winter, the site transforms into a heronry of sorts), the thicket opposite the library and the hill area as Protected Areas?  Which merely means leaving the pockets as they are, untouched but monitored. In this respect, what IIT Mandi has drawn up for its new campus is truly inspiring. [/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Seen in scrub and wooded areas” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left|color:%23dd9933″][vc_masonry_media_grid item=”masonryMedia_ScaleWithContentBlock” grid_id=”vc_gid:1606105209478-292dea6f44e7b98c1d8590ffe15c47c8-4″ include=”10706,10707,10708″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Meanwhile, the winter migrants are here. I feel joyous when I hear the chuck chucking quick-moving hard-to-id warblers. And as I wait to hear the fleeting crisp rattle of the tiny Red-breasted Flycatcher, which probably flew miles and miles to reach here, I feel nervous that many of its haunts no longer remain.  But hope never ceases. This lockdown, when disturbances were far less, we saw a Black-winged Stilt raise her chicks, the increasingly elusive Pheasant-tailed Jacana forage in the marshes, Black-rumped Flameback make bold rounds of the campus even coming close to the residences, a Common Hawk-Cuckoo hunting at arm’s length, and a Cinnamon Bittern flash by. We ticked rare records for the campus like Western Reef-Heron and Watercock at the lakeside and Red-naped Ibis on the Gymkhana grounds. Surely, the little connections we make and the breathing spaces we restore or create are all that it takes for habitats to thrive and win over the birds. The result, believe me, can be therapeutic.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message]

All photographs in this article were clicked by Aniketa Kabir.

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Illustration by Derek Monteiro. This article has been republished from Sabrang.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As this is being written, the Supreme Leader has inaugurated a zoo in Gujarat. The Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change promptly tweeted that this will make people feel as if they are in a jungle. Ironically, the same minister has hastened the destruction of real, vibrant, bio-diverse jungles in the Western Ghats and in the Eastern Himalayas, in the name of development. Right in the middle of a pandemic, that is screaming out loud to anyone who cares to listen “Don’t mess with Nature”. This has certainly fallen on deaf ears in the state government of Goa.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The people of Goa are battling three linear intrusion projects in Ecologically Sensitive Areas and Protected Areas. These projects – doubling of a railway track, 4 laning of a major highway and installation of a 400 kV transmission line – will hack away 170 hectares of protected forest cover and 240 square kilometers of the Western Ghats, acknowledged as a global biodiversity hotspot. The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) reports of these three projects have raised several questions by scientists and concerned citizens:

1. Why are there three mega projects in protected areas? When did these areas lose their protection? How were those decisions taken? What was the involvement of the affected citizens of the state?
2. Why were Cumulative Impact Studies not conducted to assess impact on both the wildlife in the Mollem area as well as the human habitat around it?
3. Why were wildlife clearances for two of the projects provided during the pandemic through means that clearly subverted a robust audit and scrutiny?
4. Why is there an inadequate detail on environment costs and mitigation as also on compensation, penalty and compliance?
5. The scientific assessment also leaves a lot to be desired – why are several issues like methodology of baseline surveys, afforestation and protection methods, soil erosion and its impact, water and air assessment methods, assessment of insect and fish diversity, snowballing impact of change in microclimates, to name a few, given scant or no review?

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The proposed draft EIA 2020 notification had already raised a hue and cry earlier this year. It proposed, among several controversial changes, plans to set aside public consultation and introduce ex-post facto clearances for many projects. If such an EIA process is finally approved, one can reasonably assume safe passage of the three Goa projects, despite a flawed and inadequate EIA around them.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The ruling party’s own MLA, Alina Saldanha, has been vocal about the havoc these projects will cause to the people of the state. Alleging coal transportation as a key reason, she has expressed concern around the “destruction of the environment, coal dust pollution that will further lead to pulmonary disorders, destruction of people’s houses and Goa’s heritage”.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Has the country forgotten its obligations to the Climate Change goals as part of the Paris treaty? A quick reminder:

1. Reduce emissions by a third by 2030, from 2005 baseline
2. Increase share of the power generated by non-fossil fuels to 40 percent by 2030
3. Create an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 Gigatons of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) by 2030 – from enhanced tree and forest cover (this would need 25 million acres of new forests with five billion native trees – a 15 percent increase – roughly the size of 30 Goas in new forest cover)

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Any reasonable citizen would question the need to destroy forest land when one must enhance forest and tree cover. One would also question the need for investing in infrastructure to support coal and fossil fuels when the focus must be shifted to renewables. Why do so anyway in a power surplus state? Given the nature of Goa’s landscape, abundant sunshine and its typical Mangalore tile roof-based housing, every house in Goa could be generating its own solar energy and even offering the surplus to the grid, resulting in many micro industries around the same. Goa’s coast-based tourism is already saturated. Keeping its lush hinterland pristine and unspoilt would be the way to develop a premium nature-based tourism and revive the sector. More reason, why these projects will hinder Goa’s future.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Any reasonable citizen would question the need to destroy forest land when one must enhance forest and tree cover.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The State’s lack of transparency around the motivation of these projects, its relations, if any, with the project beneficiaries, the inadequate and hurried process surrounding the various environmental approvals and the lack of consultation with citizen groups has led to a public outpouring of peaceful, nonviolent protest uniting various cross-sections of society. Leading the struggle are citizen-led groups such as Goyant Kollso Naka, whose vigilant participation has exposed the facts around power usage in Goa. The name, meaning “Goa Does Not Want Coal” has now become a rallying cry across Goa uniting even the opposition parties such as the Congress, AAP and Goa Forward on standing in solidarity with the citizens. A documentary, The Art of Destruction, brought together some of Goa’s prominent ecologists, environmentalists, architects, activists, artists and government representatives and explored the dilemmas faced in conservation and development and what strikes the right balance.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Despite these protests, the railway double-tracking project has already begun. Working clandestinely at night amidst heavy security cover, the state has chosen to cock a snook at its people. The same rhetoric that has played elsewhere is playing out in Goa – confuse the people with half-truths & untruths, run roughshod over established norms and processes, decimate the autonomy of institutions, brand the dissenters as anti-state, anti-development and help a few crony companies profit at the expense of the people. The midnight protest on November 1 until 5 AM the following day in Chandor, Goa – the seat of the double-tracking rail project – may well be a turning point. This brought together several thousands of ordinary citizens in an all-night vigil on the railway track that ferries coal through the state. The message was clear – Goa’s people WILL NOT allow Goa to become a Coal Hub. Are the state ministers listening? Is the centre listening?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Peaceful dissent cannot be de-legitimised. Nor can it be overlooked. An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere. What is happening in a corner of Goa may eventually engulf all of Goa. Indeed, the whole country is seeing a cruel, capricious, anti-people decision making in every aspect of governance – an unprincipled demonetisation, a poorly implemented GST, the incarceration of an entire state and its people, a hurried, unplanned lockdown, an uncoordinated pandemic response, arrogant handling of the migrant labour crisis, an insufficient economic revival package – undermining all the socio-economic gains of the previous decade and possibly slipping tens of millions back into poverty.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Goa has a vibrant culture, natural heritage and a viable economy. Its ecology is its unique selling proposition. Attacking it relentlessly and ruthlessly with illogical projects that reflect 19th-century thinking, could endanger its very existence. The whole country must come together and stand with the people of Goa. In solidarity.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Illustrations by Frits Ahlefeldt

[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Current situation, how the impact of climate change is being evidenced world-over” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left|color:%23dd9933″][vc_column_text]The climate is a-changing world over, and the impact is manifesting in the environment. And equally, the other way round too.  Deterioration of the environment is causing pollution, depletion of the ozone layer, global warming and drastic climatic changes across the world. Greta Thunberg had thundered – we are not in the same boat, we are in a storm. (more…)

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Cauvery and MM Hills WS, along with other adjoining Protected Areas (PAs), form a large interconnected area which is home to many species of endemic flora and fauna, while also constituting possibly the largest contiguous tiger habitats found in the country. It is evident why Karnataka is said to be home to around 10% of the world’s population of tigers and around 15-18% of India’s tigers! With around 17% of forested land, Karnataka also ranks fourth in the country in terms of green cover and is estimated to harbour nearly 50% of the Western Ghats’ biodiversity.

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