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EDITORIAL |
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Violating the plimsoll lines: Learning to deal with natural disasters |
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The recent heavy downpour in Uttarakhand and the consequent disaster, death and damage to public property has taught us once again that nature doesn’t forgive us indefinitely. How can it do so? Will it not then break the promise it made to life, vibrancy of future and the human aspirations by remaining resilient, responsive and restorative within those limits? Maybe demolishing human encroachments on the margin of mountains was its way of reminding us about the ecological contract we had violated. We pray that it had chosen a kinder way of reminding us of our foolishness. But then is it easy to maintain the integrity of a pivot of precarious balance.
What can a pivot do to the seesaw of sustainable life?
It can remind those riding on it about the inviolable limits of plimsoll lines. A ship is bound to sink when we cross the limits. The sea is always ready to swallow the ship earth, if we forget the ethics of maintaining the boundaries. Would Noah’s Ark then suffice to contain what is left?
Every time our defence forces intervene in rescue and relief, our civic administration gains reprieve for being indolent and indifferent. It is not that defence forces should not help in emergencies. But may be, the defence forces are encouraged, invited and mandated to train civil society, administration and youth in providing similar emergency relief. Climatic variabilities and their untoward consequences will become severe with passage of time. Will we rely on defence forces every time? They are supposed to protect our borders and we should not involve them in the internal matters often. It is not good for the long term efficiency of civic administration and also the future democratic polity. Our forces have been fiercely patriotic and have respected their conventional role. Let it remain that way.
The large scale social protests in different parts of the world are indicating that patience of the common people is running out. But did we hear the voices on streets in Egypt, Turkey and even Brazil (which had a high level of economic growth like India in the last five years). Different countries responded differently. The Brazilian President declared that the entire surplus from the oil sector will be spent on education. Can a tax on every tourist to Uttarakhand be levied so that it is used for preventive training, maintaining battalions of civic self-defence force units, or what Dr K M Munshi said in 1952, unit of a Land Army?
Let me explain. Munshi wanted the unemployed youth to be organised into self-managed units of a land army to take up the mammoth task of managing drainage, watershed management and community management. The first unit was set up in Delhi University to clean the Chhatarpur drains. Later, he moved to another position and the idea was not continued till George Fernandez revived it in Karnataka during Janata Party Rule, post emergency in 1977.
Uttarakhand needs a new model of reconstruction and that too compatible with new limits of sustainability. Hills are the catchment of the country, they have to be conserved. If the pilgrims want to have lesser landslides, lesser floods, lesser havoc of the kind which happened, they should be willing to pay for compensating the state for the foregone revenue from the ‘developmental’ activities destroying environment. But that is not enough. The states which want less silt in the river Ganga have also to pay. Central government has to mandate the 14th Finance Commission to develop a new formula for transferring resources to all the ecologically fragile regions for conservation purpose. It may slow down the growth that rips nature apart and in due course plays havoc with human survival itself. We cannot conserve mountains without people living in plains paying for it.
Else, be ready for floods in Delhi next time when another dam will burst, another set of landslides will take its toll and a new cycle of human and ecological tragedy will unfold. At that time, we may not be able to sit around a teak table and plan reversal of the damage. There may not be any teak wood left in that region to talk about.
Let us also change the educational curricula. Despite the Supreme Court’s advice many years ago to introduce environmental courses in every academic institution, a great deal of negligence continues.
I must repeat for the nth time that even the emergency rescue drills are not held in most public and private institutions, local communities and settlements. We must accept fluctuations in the environment as a way of life in the future. There is no escape from it. While we must mobilise all the resources for urgent relief and rehabilitation of local communities in Uttarakhand, we must not just focus on the short term actions. The need for long term vision was never so high. There is a living wisdom still available in the mountainous regions which can be blended with modern Science and Technology to provide durable, democratic and diversified solution. Let us harness it. |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 24(2) 3, 2013 |
