Madhav Gadgil
Date: Fri, May 17, 2013 9:39 pm
Dear Dr. Kasturirangan,
JBS Haldane, the celebrated 19h century scientist and humanist who quit England
protesting its imperialistic invasion of Suez to become an Indian citizen has
said: Reality is not only stranger than we suppose, but stranger than we CAN
suppose! I could never have imagined that you would be party to a report such
as that of the High Level Working Group on Western Ghats,
but, then, reality is indeed stranger than we can suppose!
 |
| Courtesy: Wikipedia |
In our report to the Ministry of Environment & Forests, based on our extensive
discussions and field visits, we had advocated a graded approach with a major
role for grass-roots level inputs for safeguarding the ecologically sensitive
Western Ghats. You have rejected this framework and in
its place, you advocate a partitioning amongst roughly one-third of what you
term natural landscapes, to be safeguarded by guns and guards, and two-third of
so-called cultural landscapes, to be thrown open to development, such as what
has spawned the 35,000 crore rupees illegal mining scam of Goa. This amounts to
attempts to maintain oases of diversity in a desert of ecological devastation.
Ecology teaches us that such fragmentation would lead, sooner, rather than
later, to the desert overwhelming the oases. It is vital to think of
maintenance of habitat continuity, and of an ecologically and socially friendly
matrix to ensure long term conservation of biodiversity rich areas, and this is
what we had proposed.
 |
The Great Indian Hornbill
Courtesy: Wikipedia |
Moreover, freshwater biodiversity is far more threatened than forest biodiversity
and lies largely in what you term cultural landscapes. Freshwater biodiversity
is also vital to livelihoods and nutrition of large sections of our people.
That is why we had provided a detailed case study of Lote Chemical Industry
complex in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, where pollution exceeding all
legal limits has devastated fisheries so that 20,000 people have been rendered jobless, while only 11,000 have obtained industrial
employment. Yet the Government wants to set up further polluting industries in
the same area, and has therefore deliberately suppressed its own Zonal Atlas
for Siting of Industries.
Your report shockingly dismisses our constitutionally guaranteed democratic devolution
of decision making powers, remarking that local communities can have no role in
economic decisions. Not surprisingly, your report completely glosses over the
fact reported by us that while the Government takes absolutely no action
against illegal pollution of Lote, it had invoked police powers to suppress
perfectly legitimate and peaceful protests against pollution on as many as 180
out of 600 days in 2007-09.
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| Lion tailed Macque |
India's
cultural landscape harbours many valuable elements of biodiversity. Fully 75%
of the population of Lion-tailed Macaque, a monkey species confined to the
Western Ghats, thrives in the cultural landscape of tea gardens.
I live in the city of
Pune
and scattered in my locality are a large number of Banyan, Peepal and Gular trees;
trees that belong to genus
Ficus,
celebrated in modern ecology as a keystone resource that sustains a wide
variety of other species. Through the night I hear peacocks calling, and when I
get up and go to the terrace I see them dancing. It is our people, rooted in
India's
strong cultural traditions of respect for nature, who have venerated and protected
the sacred groves, the
Ficus trees,
the monkeys and the peafowl.
Apparently all this is to be
snuffed out. It reminds me of Francis Buchanan, an avowed agent of British
imperialism, who wrote in 1801 that India's sacred groves were merely a
contrivance to prevent the East India Company from claiming its rightful
property.
It would appear that we are now more British than the British and are asserting
that a nature friendly approach in the cultural landscape is merely a
contrivance to prevent the rich and powerful of the country and of the globalized
world from taking over all lands and waters to exploit and pollute as they wish
while pursuing lawless, jobless economic growth. It is astonishing that your
report strongly endorses such an approach. Reality is indeed stranger than we can suppose!
With warm personal regards,
I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Madhav
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