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Humans, the real threat

Distressed friends from Kerala, Coorg and Uttarakhand have written moving mails of how the recent floods have destroyed crops, homes and lives in their region.

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Ira Pande

Distressed friends from Kerala, Coorg and Uttarakhand have written moving mails of how the recent floods have destroyed crops, homes and lives in their region. All of them have also accepted that more than nature’s fury, it was human greed and rampant misuse of land and forests that made this calamity even more acute. Who can argue with that?

As a child growing up in Nainital, I remember that only the Governor’s car was allowed to drive up the Mall Road: the rest of us walked, rode ponies or were carried in dandies up and down the hillsides. We walked miles to school, rain or shine, and cheerfully bore the vicious monsoon showers and winter sleet. In just a few decades, all that has been reversed. All schoolchildren now ride on four-wheeled vehicles to school; the beautiful grounds, once the scene of the popular Durand Cup football matches, are now a vast parking lot, and the Mall is full of honking cars with traffic jams. Naturally, this has taken a toll on the fragile mountains and lake-side paths. A huge chunk of the Lower Mall (known previously as the thandi sarak) recently caved in and led to panic all over. As a member of a WhatsApp group of concerned citizens in Nainital, I receive scores of posts of how the townspeople have taken the lead in taking measures to halt this dangerous development.

Similarly, in Kerala, it was the initiative of the local people — who put aside their religious and political differences — to lend a hand and save precious lives. If there are any lessons to be learnt from all these disasters, foremost is the one that awakens public conscience and social responsibility. Forget the state and the government, we must take ownership of our own environment and save it from the rapacious builders and so-called developers who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Shimla, Mussoorie, Nainital have been destroyed by tourism; Mumbai by the thugs who run the building cartels and control that mafia — will we never learn?

Similarly, had it not been for the timely intervention of our civil rights’ activists and the Supreme Court, we would have tamely submitted to the misuse of laws to imprison those who raise their voices against the exploitation of the tribals and the most marginalised groups. Living in our comfortable urban condos, we often forget the country that lies just a few miles away in the most pitiful and degraded villages and ghettos. 

This became even clearer to me while on a short trip to Madhya Pradesh. If I believed the newspapers and TV reports alone, I would never have been able to judge for myself how truth can be twisted to suit political agendas. First of all, the incredibly green and lush fields of the Deccan Plateau, from Bhopal to Mandu (the famed Malwa region, showed me that while there may be pockets of farm distress in MP (and which state does not have these?), there is little visual evidence of rampant poverty and depravation. The roads are smooth and a joy to drive on and the villages along these have pucca houses. Gone are the jhopris that one saw in such areas. Driving to Bhimbetka and Bhojpur, we took a few shortcuts through rural roads and despite the steady drizzle, we did not get stuck in potholes. Mandu, which was magical in the monsoon, was another delight: brimming ponds and green hills, far away from the madding crowd and an aching loveliness that haunts me even now. 

The only bad memory is the noisy kanwariyas we encountered on the way to Bhojpur, which has a magnificent 11th century temple dedicated to Shiva with possibly the largest Shivling in the country. I must admit, there is something extremely moving about a religious procession (of any religion) full of devotees that truly believe in the rites and rituals of their faith. It would be a mistake to throw the baby out with the bathwater and confuse a faith with its political misuse, I believe. The innocent joy and participation of the villagers and their little shops and baubles (mostly Chinese plastic toys, I’m afraid) made me realise how far away we have drifted from the simple joys of life.

The absence of plastic all over the region is another victory: MP (like many other states) has banned the use of plastic. Yet, while other states have been lax in implementing this ban, I saw no plastic waste anywhere in MP.  It seems that they also have controlled the manufacture of plastic bags and bottles. 

One last observation: despite claims that some BJP-ruled states are ripe for the picking, I saw little that gave me any hope on this score. We were in Mandu on Independence Day, an occasion for the local Congress workers to put up a presence. I saw nothing resembling a poster or banner to mark its presence. If the Opposition has any hopes of unseating the present government, it lags way behind it on publicity at least. 

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