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Whither green activism?
Written By murali772 - 31 May, 2013
environment Media Reports Karnataka sustainable development Health hazard
Green activists and local villagers have taken serious exception to proposals from defence and research institutions to build sensitive projects on the 10,000 acres of Amrit Mahal Kaval land allotted to them in Challakere taluk of Chitradurga district. Among the sensitive projects are a Defence Research Development Organization proposal to start an aeronautical test range involving flying and testing of drones and a plan by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (Barc) to set up an Uranium Enrichment Centre in their midst. "The Barc plan envisages conducting experiments with uranium, which will not only ruin the fertility of the land but put the lives of so many villagers at risk. Fear already pervades the grasslands," Leo Saldanha, co-ordinator, Environment Support Group, told a press conference here on Thursday.
For the full report in the ToI, click here.
This so-called grass-land is what you see in the picture, taken from ESG's web-site, accessible here. And, very likely, the picture was taken during the monsoon period. During the dry season, meaning for most of the year (the average annual rainfall at best of times being around 450mm - check data on the area here, the picture generally is one of total desolation. Essentially, these are totally arid lands, as compared to say a Singur (in West Bengal), from where TELCO was driven away, and perhaps rightly so.
Now, in such a location, the government is proposing to set up a whole new town-ship, comprising, apart from DRDO and BARC (talked about by the so-called "green activists"), there are also going to be new campuses of IISc, ISRO, apart from a 25MW solar park, a KSIDC ancillary industrial estate, and KHB's project for housing of all the people going to be moving in there. So, if there is any threat from any of DRDO's and BARC's activities for the local population, as being made out by the "green activists", it is going to be there for the staff of these organisations too. And, I expect you need to credit them with enough sense not to want to endanger the lives of their own people.
As such, I can't see why there should be any serious objection to this 'diversion' of land use, which will apart from everything else help transform the economy of this otherwise impoversished region, and prevent migration of the population to Bangalore and other cities.
The court has entertained the petition perhaps because the laid down procedures have not been followed, and to that extent there may be some merit to the PIL exercise. But, otherwise, I can't see what this hulla-balloo is all about. All the same, I am open to debate on the subject, and if convinced of the merits, I may even change my view.
Muralidhar Rao
COMMENTS
idontspam - 17 March, 2014 - 06:13
I dont know if I can relate this to the kavals but here is an incident. I visited a milkman rearing cows in my area to see if I can switch to organic milk straight from the cow. I realized after I got there that this is the same cow that was feeding on plastic and other garbage from the street side trash in my neighbourhood everyday. I saw a pile of hay and asked him why do you let the cows eat garbage and not feed it hay. He told me cows have a huge appetite and needs to be eating for a large part of the day for it to be healthy. The amount of time it grazes depends on the quality & quantity of grass it gets to eat. He mentioned the amount of hay he can afford to buy is just not enough and they need fresh grass also which he really cant get so he lets them lose for the roadside grass.
Just got me thinking how much grassland is really there left for our milk producing cows, goat etc. Is there any data at all? Not that schools colleges & research institutions can be built in air, but are we destroying something substantial? How was this land identified by politicians? What are the alternate arrangements made with the grazers do they have a stake in the development or are they just being shunted out?
PS: I am back to nandini milk which god knows how much chemical treatment it undergoes and how much calcium & protein is really left in it? they only report fat content and I didnt want to eat plastic.
srinidhi - 18 March, 2014 - 03:09
Simple Fact: Mammals other than humans do not drink milk after they grow up..however even for humans, our body is not really equipped to handle milk!
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WellnessNews/story?id=8450036
So maybe its better to cut down on it and look elsewhere for nutrition I suppose..
Throwing baby out with bath water
idontspam - 18 March, 2014 - 12:43
So maybe its better to cut down on it and look elsewhere for nutrition I suppose.
Tell that to the people who rely on whey to provide protiens, curd & buttermilk, to the people who consume butter & ghee which have more favourable omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acid ratio than oils. This is like saying MH370 may have had some bad guys so better it got lost.
murali772 - 19 March, 2014 - 11:22
Vegans manage life without milk - whatever, all that's a different discussion - a separate blog may be started for the purpose.
The question here is cattle rearing and such rural pursuits for livelihood versus modern industrial development (of the right kind, let's assume). Now, if it is cattle rearing associated with dairy industry (of the Amul kind), perhaps there's meaning to that. But, that doesn't seem to be the case here. It's more like in this village in Tuticorin (Tamilnadu) dstrict (check here), where repeat monsoon failures is leading to near total depravation of the local population, and their selling out bof the cattle to slaughter houses.
So, shouldn't some bit of industrial activity be welcomed?
Failure of the political class
murali772 - 16 March, 2014 - 18:17
M Chockalingam (Judicial Member) and R. Nagendran (Expert Member) constituting the National Green Tribunal (Southern Zone Bench), issued a direction on February 14, 2014 halting all construction in the ecologically sensitive Amrut Mahal Kaval grassland ecosystems in Challakere Taluk, Chitradurga district, Karnataka.
- - - Challenging this diversion before the National Green Tribunal (Southern Zone), the Petitioners have said that the entire exercise was illegal as no assessment of the ecological and social impacts was ever conducted, no proper assessment was carried out to assess the appropriateness of siting such dangerous and highly sensitive facilities all in one location, nor was there any compliance with environmental protection, pollution control and land use planning regulations. Besides the entire exercise was undertaken with extraordinary secrecy, including by keeping elected bodies and representatives out of the decision making process.
For the full report in the ToI, click here.
If these Kavals are classified as "ecologically sensitive", then I expect there are very few places in the world that won't merit the same classification too. Likewise, if the proposed facilities are classified as "dangerous and highly sensitive", I wonder if there are any other facilities in the world that won't merit the same classification too. Besides, while talk about developing the area as a "science city" had been in the air from long, perhaps locating all of these facilities in one location may not have been the right thing to do. Further, apparently, the many procedures needed to be followed were not carried out diligently too.
But, on the other hand, the projects would have transformed the place (nay, the enire district) into a developed area, which would have meant employment generation in large numbers for the local people, even if at lower levels, the skill and education levels amongst them being low, currently. Either way, this would have fetched better earnings than they make currently out of sheep/ cattle rearing, which besides engages only a handful amongst the lot. Also, as the science city eveloved, bringning in in its wake, attendant infrastructure like schools, polytechnics, colleges, etc, the scope for better levels of employment for future generations would have followed automatically too. As such, the blocking of the development now is going to be condemning the present, as well as future, generations to sheep/ cattle rearing at best, migration to cities (as another option), or plain starvation at worst.
It is difficult to believe that the local people would not have appreciated all of these, if the same had been put across to them in the proper way. That is where the political class, including the CM (who has after all risen from amongst the lot) has failed them, particularly those of the future generation.
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