The greens are going. Tis the colour of skirmish critters called environ activists, there is a corporal identify associated with them to being leftists, a cold blooded anti capitalist and of all they are looked down as “are these critters the only saviors of this earth”, Thou I don’t belong to any green brigade as such, but I am obviously concerned about the fallouts of implosive developmental activities happening in and around the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. In as many casual chats I have with friends one ends up touching the environmental issues daunting the Nilgiris. And invariably it boils down to green brigade bashing, which which made me ponder over the generic psychic of people inhabiting the Nilgiris. Is it only few jug heads like me go thumping around to protect the environment. It is the way commoner think as what impact a lil violation here n there does to the ecosystem, if the violations happened to get questioned they get petrified and throw tantrums a galore. “See even XYZ did the same thing and they got away with it, why only it has to be us”? “The ABC in the green brigade should have put this on to the department they are the jealous lot, they just cannot digest us being happy.”
Coming again to the greens it may be obvious that the greens pulled up their sleeves and got their hands dirty with ulterior motives be it as simple as to get some noise going to get noticed or may be as pretentious with commercial intent by and large there are souls out there gasping at the environmental time bomb, genuine or pretentious the greater common good should prevails and if a mile long is walked for this cause, it is the very cause that gets to gain. So think them to be fascist , critter or creeps the mile is jolly well walked…..
Awaiting dearly for the monsoon, it is not something as cheerfully awaited yet timidly in the corner of my heart I yearn for now the damp moist days, the aromas of steaming tea & ginger biscuits, the god should be crazy gossips around the fire place ,to cuddle with cozy blankets, with slushy roads and empty bylanes. The monsoon in Nilgiris has its own charm one has to ease in to it though the transition every year is cumbersome, the change will be drastic as gloom descends all around. I like the feel of monsoon, the yearn now is much more to do away with the horrid summer. I hope the wait is over........
In the recent days Masinigudi and its surrounding area have come in to limelight for all reasons that be good for good and bad for bad? Humm now how else can one classify the issues that is daunting this biome in general and the people in particular, above all if I try to concise or do a synopsis of all that comprehends this region for a small post in my blog it is no less an absurdity as I have always been inclined towards the social ecology rather then inviolate core area school of thoughts.
It was last month or so a hearing committee as directed by the Madras High Court had a sitting in the Segur range (on the Masinagudi – Ooty state highway) to receive objections and grievance related to the recently published Map demarcating the proposed Elephant Corridor,
There has always been high emotional over runs, on relocations issues, I like to draw similarities on relocation exodus of River Narmada, as the height of the Tehri Dam was raised the Tehri Valley natives had to relocate, it was opposed tooth and nail, but then it was the might of the pro development envisioned government vs. the will of indigenous mountain people , they cited loss of habitat, loss of diversity and so no but it reached the deaf ear, the govt went ahead with its plans to raise the height of the dam, haven’t heard since then of the plight of those relocated, the relocations is a painful social engineering especially if it is natives and indigenous people to be shifted out of their roots be it for development or for conservation they pay an hefty price, in the realms of social ecology man is an integral part of the ecosystem but in the current circumstances it is difficult to aggregate the harmonious check and balances, be it in the human settlements or these biome pockets getting overburdened with prey or predator populations. There will be more man wildlife conflicts as the spillover happens from either side.
The name derived from the Temple of Masaniamman this sleepy village became the cynosure for all wannabe wildlife socializers conservationist and shutterbugs, well that includes me too :( hanging around on the street waysides flashing those sleeveless, camouflages and khakis. Dousing oneself on chais, last minute shampoo soap spontaneities, Masinagudi has always charmed me from my early ages I have been excited to be here though it might be for mare stopover on the Masinagudi bazaar for its earthiness for its acute wafts of cow dung as you enter this typified village unlike the once we are used to in the upper part of the Nilgiris.
On the third day of the ICC field camp I had an opportunity to be at the media presentation by Dr Tarun Chabhra of Toda Nalavalvu Sangam, briefing about various aspects of conservations mechanisms that are entwined in the Toda culture & knowledge base, on the discourse he coined a phrase which compelled me to write this post “the mono culturing the cultural diversity of this world”
Across various civilizations and communities there are intricate practices, accrued knowledge base which has helped them adapt to certain kind of environment and livelihood needs which is inculcated in their cultural fabric as well, thus bringing about the uniqueness among various communities, in the current scenarios the free market driven conglomerates are clinically modifying the social & cultural fabric (even more so the demographic landscape) of every country, if this is the age of global villages with multi faceted culture dotted with Cokes, MacDonald & Pizza Huts fine but these are the prime indicators of mono culturing of our cultural diversity. This macro cultural engineering will lead to broad based dilution of culture in turn gradually affecting the knowledge base and indigenous practices which where organic and sustainable.
A classic example of how the mono culture has intruded in to our system can be seen in the rural farmlands, the farmers where encouraged to use the big conglomerates inorganic chemical fertilizers, pesticides and growth inducers. Conditioning them to move away from traditional farming methods that suited the particular environment (the knowledge base) now the same farmer is reluctant to go back to organic ways.
PS – after giving makeover to my blog I am some how got hooked on to posting black & white images, will last for awhile I guess.
(in lighter moments to the beats of local drummers)
The International Champions Field Camp got underway yesterday at the Salivation Army – Conference Facility Coonoor.In the inauguration The District Collector Mr Anand Rao Patil spoke on need for the district to be suitably compensated for offsetting the ecological imbalance of this region, and the true beneficiaries of this upland biome was the people in the lowlands, various development aspiration of the people of this hill district are curtailed so that the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve augments the critical carbon wheel of this region.
We had an informal chat with the champs they are keen to learn at the same time well informed about climate scenarios.The champs will go various places around Nilgiris, will conclude with a valedictory on 30th
A veiw from asara mattam of the Manalapatti Valley
Time and again I end up divulging a lot on the climate issues. Perhaps it is destined that I write about it invariably. Venu (D.Venugopal) said he is going to pull all stops to highlight the recent devastations & landslides that happened in Nilgiris which he attributes to climate change in Nilgiris, Nilgiri Documentation Center (NDC) that venu founded, firstly did a tribal music concert (Music of the Mountains) in Coimbatore, Now the NDC is priming up to put the Nilgiris on the International Climate Change Map, NDC in association with the British Councilis organising the second International Climate Champions Programme (ICCP) in the Nilgiris from January 24 to 30, 2010 The ICCP will consists of 30 young champions chosen across 14 countries 4 candidates have been included from the Nilgiri District. The ICCP will be based in Coonoor (Salivation Army) for 7 days & will be moving around various parts of Nilgiris observing impact of climate change on the people, land, forest, fauna, flora and general ecology of the Nilgiris; thereby interpreting the observations in the context of the respective countries of the participants; and seek to draw common lessons for managing such impact in the future.
They would also try to understand the mitigation measures being taken, their effectiveness and the role of NGOs in the fight against climate change impacts. At the end of the camp, they would develop and administer a learning framework to reinforce the experience to their own contexts and individual learning.
Apart from the observation and interpretations the ICCP will gain mileage in various media & give much needed exposure to the general public about the critical importance of the climate change at the local level, for the same there will be few lounges opened at the Salivation Army Conference facility exhibiting climate features, an art gallery, a Kota pottery sessions, sale of native produces and a photo gallery commemorating 25 years of Save Nilgiris Campaign (SNC).
Ah yes another year has began now, the staidness of the moments felt by me around me stringed to tabulated numerical significance, conniving to make years out of seconds in no time, making me wonder why sandwich something in between two numerical units and then exhilarate or exonerate, again set out to prophesies for the next set of units – for god sake can the Time be set to infinity?
The 2009 scenarios, has seen it all the recession the diving markets, the ever increasing political buffoonery, the climate imbroglio, the pandemic turmoil’s, the natural vagaries & what nots. It was uncertainties all the way with lil or nothin to cheer about. Having seen the back of 2009 for good The Twenty Ten should be all but optimistic to the resolute human self. This world at large expects that this optimism reflects all that we have learnt over the past years, thus to prudently engage in balanced, sustainable development actions & polices.
Its more like mimicking or reinventing the nature in simple term.
At the global arena the nature itself has enacted a preview for last couple of year – of the devastating depressions of Indian Oceans, the freak cold wave clamp downs in China and across Europe and hodunit hurricanes on Uncle Sam’s land, Still the leaders of the capital world are euphemistically passing the buck. We have to graduate from giving mere lip service to realize that human race to thrive needs to coexist. So millipede is as important as Microsoft to US.
It is an introspective
journey,
blossomed thru my iris
that filled
Nilgiris of every nook
and corners I roamed,
a metamorphosis that
made me feel for
the every feeble grass
blades that vanished
from the rolling meadows
that made of
my Nilgiris,
grandeurs of it is ranges,
the blue plumage of their
mountains
defaced in reckless irony
now where will my Thar go?
a humble yearning that made
me divulge in climate change,
conservation et al
thus
bringing forth a desire,
A burning desire! asking ME
and every one of
YOU?
WHY
WHY shouldn’t
NILGIRIS be SAVED?
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