Anarcho-environmentalism allegorised

The name Anaarkali in the present context has many meanings - Anaar symbolises the anarchism of the Bhils and kali which means flower bud in Hindi stands for their traditional environmentalism. Anaar in Hindi can also mean the fruit pomegranate which is said to be a panacea for many ills as in the Hindi idiom - "Ek anar sou bimar - One pomegranate for a hundred ill people"! - which describes a situation in which there is only one remedy available for giving to a hundred ill people and so the problem is who to give it to. Thus this name indicates that anarcho-environmentalism is the only cure for the many diseases of modern development! Similarly kali can also imply a budding anarcho-environmentalist movement. Finally according to a legend that is considered to be apocryphal by historians Anarkali was the lover of Prince Salim who was later to become the Mughal emperor Jehangir. Emperor Akbar did not approve of this romance of his son and ordered Anarkali to be bricked in alive into a wall in Lahore in Pakistan but she escaped. Allegorically this means that anarcho-environmentalists can succeed in bringing about the escape of humankind from the self-destructive love of modern development that it is enamoured of at the moment and they will do this by simultaneously supporting women's struggles for their rights.

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Arrogance and Infighting Make the Congress Bite the Dust

 Now that the assembly elections in the three Hindi Heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are done and dusted, it will be useful to analyse the voting pattern to discern why the Indian National Congress (INC) lost all these states to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ishaan Khaperde and I have analysed the voting data of these states available on the Election Commission website (https://results.eci.gov.in/AcResu.../partywiseresult-S12.htm). The analysis reveals that in Madhya Pradesh in 53 of the total 163 assembly constituencies where the BJP won, the combined vote of the INC and that of other parties and independents who were Congress rebels, was more than that of the winning BJP candidate. The details are as follows -

The votes garnered by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alone along with that of the INC would have ensured victory for the combine in 24 seats mostly in the northern belt bordering Uttar Pradesh.
The votes got by a combination of the INC with BSP, Samajwadi Party (SP), Gondwana Ganatantra Party (GGP) and others would have ensured victory for the combine in13 seats.
The GGP alone would have ensured victory along with the INC in 4 seats and the SP alone would have ensured victory along with the INC in 1 seat.
INC rebels, who fought as independents and garnered substantial number of votes spoilt the party for the INC in 11 seats.
Thus, if in accordance with the spirit of the INDIA alliance the Congress had struck up a pre-poll alliance, especially with the BSP, SP and GGP and chosen its candidates more judiciously in the seats where the rebels upset the apple cart, then even with the current voting pattern this combine would have got 119 seats and the BJP would have been reduced to 110 seats. This despite the fact that the combined voteshare of the BSP, SP and GGP in 2023 has declined from the last elections in 2018 by 4.5% which went to the BJP. The new Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP), which stands for the rights of the Bhil Adivasis and proposes a separate state to be carved out for them from the four states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, made a debut in these elections by winning one seat from the two that it fought.
What is important is that a credible pre-poll alliance would have had a positive impact on the mindset of the voters and so it is possible that such a pre-poll combination under the aegis of the INDIA alliance would have resulted in the BJP losing voteshare and even more seats instead.
In the last assembly elections in 2018 also the absence of an alliance with the BSP, SP and GGP had cost the INC dear as it had just managed to scrape through with a thin majority losing heavily in the northern belt. If it had had a pre-poll alliance in 2018 then the combination would have got a huge number of seats and been immune to the split that brought about the downfall of the INC government after only fifteen months in power.
Indeed, the INC in Madhya Pradesh has been plagued by both arrogance of its leaders and in fighting between them which has prevented the party from working cohesively within and also aligning with other parties like the BSP, SP and GGP. The refusal of Digvijay Singh to give up his Rajya Sabha seat for Jyotiraditya Scindia when it came up for re-election, resulted in the latter going over to the BJP with his faction of legislators bringing down the INC Government.
A similar situation prevailed in Rajasthan. The INC lost in 115 seats to the BJP and of these in as many as 56, its votes and those of other non BJP parties or independents were together more than that of the BJP as follows -
1. Independents alone along with the INC would have ensured victory in 18 seats.
2. The Rashtriya Lok Dal alone with the INC would have ensured victory in 12 seats.
3. The Bharat Adivasi Party alone with the INC would have ensured victory in 9 seats.
4. The BSP alone with the INC would have ensured victory in 5 seats.
5. The Azad Samaj Party alone with the INC would have ensured victory in 5 seats.
6. The CPIM alone with the INC would have ensured victory in 3 seats.
7. A combination of parties and independents with the INC would have ensured victory in 4 seats.
Thus, even if some of the independents in these seats and the 8 who won the elections were not all rebels of the INC, a pre-poll seat sharing understanding would definitely have resulted in the victory of this non-BJP alliance. In fact it did have an alliance with the RLD which is a member of the INDIA alliance but in the end the two parties fought against each other and both came a cropper as a result. Clearly, the INC, like in Madhya Pradesh, has to both set its own house in order internally to prevent this large scale rebellion that is taking place and also form credible alliances with other parties if it wants to retain any relevance.
The Bharat Adivasi Party won three seats and got significant votes in 9 other seats in the tribal belt in southern Rajasthan. It got a seat in Madhya Pradesh also bordering Rajasthan. There is, consequently, every possibility of its emerging as a significant force for Bhil Adivasi rights in the western Indian region in the near future.
Chhattisgarh saw the INC losing in 54 seats to the BJP and in one seat to the GGP. In the those lost to the BJP in as many as 16 seats, its votes and those of other non-BJP parties or independents were more than that of the BJP as follows -
1. The INC along with a combination of other parties like the GGP, Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC), BSP, CPI etc would have won in 10 seats.
2. The GGP alone along with the INC would have ensured victory in 4 seats.
3. The BSP alone along with the INC would have ensured victory in 2 seats.

Thus, with the present voting pattern, if there had been a pre-poll alliance of the INC with other non-BJP parties, then that alliance would have won in 53 seats and the BJP would have got 37 seats.
This is similar to the situation seen earlier in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Last year in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh also the fragmentation of the non-BJP votes due to the INC's insistence on going it alone had resulted in a similar debacle. Analysis shows that in as many as 172 of the 255 seats that the BJP won in Uttar Pradesh, if a pre-poll alliance of the non-BJP parties had been formed, it would have won instead.
The evidence is thus overwhelming that in the Hindi heartland states, the INC has lost its capacity to win elections on its own and it must accommodate other non-BJP parties in a pre-poll alliance. It can act as coordinator of the alliance but it can't lead it and demand an unrealistic seat share. These elections had provided an excellent opportunity to get the INDIA alliance going on the ground but it has been wasted. It remains to be seen whether the INC will learn from this debacle and mend its ways so as to form a credible INDIA alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections next year.

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Bhil Indigenous Women are Reviving Nutritious Traditional Farming

Translated from the original Hindi by Baba Mayaram published in Vikalp Sangam (https://vikalpsangam.org/article/paushtik-kheti-ki-or-laut-rahi-hain-bheeli-kisaan-in-hindi/

Efforts are being made to bring back into practice the vanishing indigenous seed cultivation and its culture.

“While working on women's health issues, I saw that their health was very weak, they were anemic and underweight. Most of their health problems are related to lack of nutritious food, so we first did organic farming of nutritious grains ourselves, learned through experience and now we are trying to get indigenous women farmers to do this as well.” Said Subhadra Khaperde, a farmer and social worker from Pandutalab village.

This area of Western Madhya Pradesh is situated in the valley of Narmada River between the Vindhya and Satpura hill ranges. The residents here are mainly Bhil indigenous people. Bhil, Bhilala, Barela, Mankar, Naik and Pateliya Scheduled Tribes are together known as Bhils. Most of the tribals are landless and farmers with small land holdings. Most of the farming here is non-irrigated and rain-fed. Since there is very little income from farming, the farmers have to do labor also for livelihoods.

The settlement of villages here is not dense, it is sparse. Houses (huts) are built in the fields. There is a lot of distance between them. There are kutcha and tile houses in the hills. The houses are made of grass and wood, the walls are also made of mud, wood and bricks. Rooster, hen, goat and cattle also live together with humans.

The story of change in farming starts from the year 2015. This initiative has been taken by Subhadra Khaperde and her husband Rahul Banerjee. This couple has been engaged in social work for years. Subhadra Khaperde started her social work with Ekta Parishad, while Rahul Banerjee, after graduating with a civil engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur, worked for a long time among the indigenous people in Alirajpur.

An organization was formed to carry out organic farming systematically and take this work forward. The name of this organization is Mahila Jagat Lihaz Samiti (https://mahilajagatlihazsamiti.in/) which means Society for Respect for Women and Nature. This village is in Udainagar tehsil of Dewas district. Before this, Rahul Banerjee has worked for the rights, education and dignity of tribals through Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath in Alirajpur district.

Subhadra Khaperde said that first of all we bought one acre of land and established the Tribal Culture and Livelihood Promotion Center there. This center is situated on barren and hilly land. Many efforts were made to make this land fertile through conservation of soil and water. Irrigation using alternative solar energy was developed. Embankments have been built to prevent soil erosion and many local species of trees have been planted on the hill slopes to enhance water recharging, which include Amla, Sitaphal, Bamboo, Karanj, Neem, Mango etc.

Recently I visited this area for three days. Along with Rahul Banerjee, I saw the farm of Pandutalab and met many women farmers from Dewas, Khargone, Alirajpur and Jhabua districts.

We traveled hundreds of kilometers amidst drizzling rain. There was the smell of soil, air and trees on the way. There was clear rain-drenched air in the afternoon. There was a green forest. There were rustling leaves and fluttering insects. At some places there were croaking frogs, light touch of wind, fields of maize, sorghum, cotton, groundnut and soybean swaying in the wind. There were green meadows. There was a murmur of many rivers and streams. The clattering sounds of bullock carts and the bells around the necks of the bulls attracted attention. We passed through clouds in the high hills.

After reaching Pandutalab, I took a look at the fields. Visited the crops closely and touched them. Here crops of millets like Rala, Bhadi, Batti, Sawa, Ragi, Bajra, Jowar and Maize, Tur, Choula, Groundnut and Aambari were flourishing. There was also local Dunwar and Dubraj paddy. Apart from this, there were indigenous vegetables like ladyfinger, small tomato, spinach, gilki, zucchini, chawla and semi.

This center also reminds us of tribal culture and traditional farming. It has also been constructed from soil, stone and wood. The wood carvings have been done by tribal artisans. Most of the materials for the mud house were local. The soil was also brought from an old broken house. Bought old wood and used it. Made clay tiles and placed them on the roof. There is also a well and a motor pump operated on solar energy.

Through this centre, efforts are being made to preserve the folk traditions of the tribals like folk songs, stories, musical instruments and craftsmanship. In this context, an audio-visual program named Bheel Voice (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCndkAYBLF_2ZWRPHZRJglaw) is being run through the organization. For this, a studio has been built on the hill in Kakrana village of Alirajpur district, in which stories, songs of Bhil tribals and videos on environmental education programs are made and broadcast on YouTube channel. There is also a residential school for tribal children, which is run by tribal teachers only. This school has been named Rani Kajal Jeevan Shala after the life-giving goddess of Bhils, Rani Kajal.

Subhadra Khaperde said, “Pandutalab center has 30 varieties of indigenous seeds of grains, pulses, oilseeds and vegetables. We have collected these seeds by going from village to village. Along with this, properties and information related to these seeds were also obtained. This initiative is to conserve and promote indigenous seeds.”

She further explains that from time to time Farmers' meetings and programs are also organised. Mother's Day was also celebrated in May this year. Women from nearby villages attended it. They were also told about organic farming of local seeds and were distributed local seeds, so that they too could do farming in their fields without chemical fertilizers.

Subhadra Khaperde said that the cultivation of these indigenous seeds has been continuously spread to other tribal districts. Another similar center is in Kakrana village of Alirajpur district. From this centre, indigenous seeds have been distributed to women farmers of many nearby villages. So that they can grow nutritious grains in their fields and include them in their diet.

Pandutalab centre worker Badrilal and his wife Heerabai said that they do not use any kind of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in farming. Bio-pesticides are prepared and sprayed by themselves, which kills the insects. Bio-fertilizer Jeevamrit is also made from farm biomass and cow dung manure, which makes the soil fertile.

Tejlibai and Belubai of Khodamba village in Alirajpur district have grown jowar, sawa, urad, bajra and batti in their fields. He told that there is no cost in this farming. There is no need of any kind of chemical fertilizer or pesticide nor of buying seeds from the market and local grains are very tasty to eat. Earlier these indigenous seeds had become extinct, which they have got back from the organization.

Tejlibai fed us fresh Ambari bhaji and maize bread from her farm. On the same day, 'Navai' was worshiped at their house. Navai means new food. It is a traditional festival to welcome the crops in the fields. Farmers also celebrate it with great pomp in Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

Vesati Bai of Attha village, Raiti Bai of Kakrana and Naku Bai said that now we have got the old indigenous seeds. They grow it in their fields and give its seeds to some new farmers every year. There is a seed bank in Kakrana, from where seeds are taken every year and we also learn how to make bio-pesticides.

Overall, a few things can be said about this initiative, such as this initiative is environment friendly. This method is not only based on local seeds, local cow dung manure but is also effective in increasing production through new technologies like bio-pesticides. Useful in increasing production in adverse conditions. Because in mixed farming, if one crop fails, it is compensated by other crops. There is a continuous emphasis on learning from traditional elderly farmers. Because traditional knowledge has also been associated with indigenous seeds.

This is also a method of reducing the cost of external investment in farming. This is a time and situation when farmers across the country are going through unprecedented crisis. Most of whom, burdened with high costs and debt, start taking extreme steps like suicide. In such a time, it has become very important to remember the old indigenous seeds and low-cost farming using plow and oxen and implement it. It definitely takes hard work but that too will reduce the problem of unemployment. The government should take initiative to popularize it by providing adequate grants.

Organic farming will increase biodiversity, soil quality, water conservation and reduce carbon emissions in the face of climate change. It is labor friendly and very creative, hence it gives people a chance to engage in creative livelihood. This is also a lesson for the school children and teachers of Kakrana. This initiative also enhances the value of labor in education for schools, which has been missing in our education. The most important thing is that farmers will get nutritious food. Overall, this initiative is commendable as well as exemplary.

Friday, November 17, 2023

Sustainable and Equitable Urban Governance

 There is a lot of talk going on regarding sustainable and equitable urban governance but very little is being done to implement the measures that are well known for ensuring this from implementation across the world. These measures are -

1. Installation of rooftop grid connected solar PV systems. While these will not be able to meet peak evening loads, but they will nevertheless reduce the demand for day time grid electricity. They also have some effect in reducing the heat in summer by shielding the roofs from the sun.
2. Strict Banning of parking of both two and four wheeler motor vehicles on roads in both commercial and residential areas to decongest traffic and curtail air pollution. Vehicles have to be parked either inside private and commercial buildings or in designated parking areas and the charges for these should also be graded depending on the congestion in the area.
3. Integrated electrified public transport cum cycle system with smart card operation. This is the most important for ensuring sustainability and equity in transportation. It must be remembered that transportation is the second largest contributor to global warming after energy generation.
4. Rainwater harvesting and recharge. This is absolutely essential to eliminate the present unsustainable practice of pumping water to cities from ever more distant locations. Also this solves the problem of urban flooding which has become increasingly problematic with time.
5. Segregation of thrown away materials at the household or community level with composting of the greens in situ and the collection and local sorting of the dry by SHGs of women followed by sale to recyclers. This is the cheapest way to manage solid thrownaway materials.
6. Segregation of grey and black water at the household level followed by in situ treatment and reuse through dual plumbing systems. This considerably reduces the economic and ecological costs of used water treatment
and by reusing treated water
for non-potable uses , reduces the potable water demand.

Friday, October 27, 2023

Conservationist Par Excellence

 This is Pavlia, an unsung hero of our times. He is a Bhil Adivasi resident of Vakner village in Alirajpur district. He is standing on his farm on which he grows organic and indigenous varieties of sorghum, maize and cotton. He has a stone bund which prevents soil erosion in front of him and a forest that he has protected behind him. There is no grid electricity as his farm is deep inside the forest and so he uses a solar panel to meet his minimal needs for lighting. There is no mobile connectivity so he does not have a mobile. There is no road connectivity either so he does not have a motor vehicle. Obviously there is no television also. He uses the traditional paat technique to irrigate his farm through gravity.

He is free of the travails of the market. His farming is low cost and since it is default organic and biodiverse it is highly productive. He does not chase money of which he earns enough for his subsistence from selling minor forest produce like mahua, karanj, behera etc. So he does not face the struggles that chemical farmers are saddled with. What are most important are his worldview and lifestyle which are in harmony with nature unlike the rest of us.
Consequently, he is hugely carbon and water positive providing invaluable ecosystem services to society to combat climate change living a sustainable life.
Actually sustainability is a complex issue. Modern development based on advanced technology invariably is associated with ecological destruction and socioeconomic inequality. There is no way in which everyone can enjoy advanced technology and also save the environment at the same time. Moreover, advanced technology is also associated with militarism and financial skullduggery.
Ultimately it is all about our attitude to physical labour. Is physical labour liberating or does it limit our freedom.
Pavlia and others like him in Vakner have taken a conscious decision to live lives of subsistence. They can live a modern life enjoying mobikes, mobiles, TVs, etc, if they want to by migrating seasonally to cities for work as many other Adivasis in his village do. But they are the few who have analysed the situation and decided that their labour intensive lifestyle is better. They do use modern technology selectively but it is peripheral to their existence. They are veteran comrades from the hey days of our mass organisational work in Alirajpur and have retained the core of the political critique of modern capitalist development that we all together developed and so are deeply committed people. While I have not been able to live that life after 1995, Pavlia and some others in Alirajpur are still carrying the torch. They are conservationists par excellence.

We have to try and become carbon and water positive like him which is possible even after using modern technology much more than he does. We may not be as good as him as far as sustainable living is concerned but we can certainly do better than what we are doing at present.
All this has been possible because Pavlia is a member of the Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath which has fought a long and successful battle to restore the Adivasis' rights to th

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

In Search of Cold Pressed Edible Oil

Here is some good news on Dussehra. We have finally managed to extract oil out of the organic groundnuts produced on our farm!! Our farm being a small one of just 1 acre, in which we produce over 27 varieties of crops during the Kharif season, produces only about 15 kgs of groundnuts. Normally, we just eat these in various forms but last year we decided to see what quality of oil comes out from these indigenous groundnuts. These days there are very few oil mills in rural areas as the production of groundnuts in western Madhya Pradesh has gone down considerably and most of what is produced is sold in the market by the farmers and thereafter they go to the big corporate mills. The ones that are there are mostly milling the nuts of Mahua seeds for the Adivasis and flatly refuse to switch to milling just 15 kgs of groundnuts. So, Subhadra Khaperde tried contacting some of the people in Indore who run oil mills to supply fresh milled oil to customers. However, most of these are not functioning regularly because there are not enough customers. So only when they get a large milling order do they run their mills. Consequently, they too were not prepared to run their mills just for 15 kgs. Even though more expensive cold pressed oils are better because the corporate oils sold in the market use chemicals for extracting oil which are carcinogenic.

However, finally yesterday she was able to get in touch with Madhav Ram Ji Patidar who runs an oil mill in Indore and produces and markets filtered groundnut, coconut, sesame and mustard oil under the brandname GURU Sampoorna Taaja . Madhav is the son of a farmer in Shajapur district and launched this brand five years ago. He chose to build his mill and retail outlet in Indore as it offered a better market. He sources his crops from his own farm and that of other farmers in Shajapur and then processes them in his mill in Indore. He sells the flour of jowar, bajra and other millets, aonla candy and local snacks all attractively packaged. He has been able to develop a customer base who like his products and so are prepared to pay a premium over the cheaper products of corporate food companies to buy his farm fresh products. Consequently, his direct farm to consumer business is running profitably by catering to a niche market that is able to pay more for his farm fresh products. The store in Indore which is shown in the picture below is at this location - https://www.google.com/maps/place/GURU+Sampoorna+Taaja+Cold+Wood+pressed+oil+indore,+and+other+organic+and+natural+products/@22.7196278,75.9068855,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x3962e33e860c9193:0x36450e1bff4e27b7!8m2!3d22.7196229!4d75.9094604!16s%2Fg%2F11f5tv28d_?entry=ttu

Monday, October 23, 2023

The Agricultural Product Prices Conundrum

Why have prices of agricultural products been low historically as compared to those of other products? Take for example the comparative prices of gold and wheat in the USA over the past century. The price of wheat increased from $1.11 per bushel in 1923 to $6.79 per bushel in 2023 which is an increase of 510% over the past century. Whereas the price of gold increased from $20.67 per troy ounce to $1835.9 per troy ounce in 2023 which is an increase of 8782%. The production of wheat went up in the same period by 111% while the total stock of gold in the USA went up by 233%. The population in the USA increased by 204% in this time. The production to population ratio for wheat, which was 7 bushels per capita in 1923 has dropped to 4.9 bushels per capita in 2023 whereas the stock to population ratio for gold which was 0.000134 troy ounce per capita in 1923 has risen to 0.000147 troy ounce per capita in 2023. Consequently, given the fact that the availability of wheat per capita has gone down and the availability of gold per capita has gone up in the USA one would expect the inflation in the price of wheat to be greater than that in the price of gold!! However, instead the inflation in the price of gold greatly exceeds the inflation in the price of wheat. The consumer price index in the USA was 17.1 in 1923 and has since risen to 307.8 in 2023 which is a rise of 1700%. Thus, while the rise in the price of wheat has lagged the rise in CPI by 1190%, the rise in the price of gold has topped the rise in CPI by 7082%.

Clearly, the prices of agricultural products have been suppressed by Governments in the USA and elsewhere by various means, mainly subsidies, so as to keep food prices and wages low. While, keeping food prices low is a legitimate objective, but it should not be at the expense of farmers and so the level of subsidy to them needs to increase.

Saturday, September 24, 2022

पारंपरिक भील आदिवासी संस्कृति का प्रसार

 संयुक्त राष्ट्र महासभा ने 2022 और 2032 के बीच की अवधि को स्वदेशी भाषाओं के अंतर्राष्ट्रीय दशक के रूप में घोषित किया है, "कई स्वदेशी भाषाओं की विकराल स्थिति की ओर वैश्विक ध्यान आकर्षित करने और उनके संरक्षण, पुनरोद्धार और प्रचार के लिए संसाधनों और उत्साहियों को जुटाने के लिए।"  पर भील आदिवासी कार्यकर्ता वाहरू सोनवने कहते हैं, भारत सरकार ने अभी तक इस संबंध में कोई कार्यक्रम संबंधी निर्णय नहीं लिया है। अफसोस की बात है कि आजादी के बाद से आदिवासी भाषाओं की उपेक्षा की प्रवृत्ति रही है

अलीराजपुर जिले में भील आदिवासी जन संगठन, खेदुत मजदूर चेतना संगठन (खेमचेस) चार दशकों से भीलों की संस्कृति की पारंपरिक समृद्धि को फिर से जीवंत करने के लिए सक्रिय है और अब भील वॉयस नामक एक इंटरनेट रेडियो और वीडियो चैनल शुरू किया है संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका के एरिज़ोना स्टेट यूनिवर्सिटी के साथ मिलकर।

अपनी समस्याओं को स्पष्ट रूप से अभिव्यक्त करने में सक्षम हुए बिना किसी समुदाय का विकास संभव नहीं है। लिखित भाषा और संहिताबद्ध संस्कृति की कमी के कारण भीलों का विशाल समुदाय आधुनिक भारत में हानिकारक रूप से प्रभावित हुआ है। भले ही आदिवासियों को विभिन्न सामाजिक समस्याओं से मुक्त रखने में इसके अपने फायदे हैं, लेकिन आज की वाणिज्य, उद्योग और शासन की जटिल प्रणालियों को देखते हुए इसका मतलब यह है कि भीलों की आकांक्षाओं को सम्पन्न वर्ग की उपभोग की पूर्ति के लिए, लगातार हाशिए पर रखा गया है।

वाहरु सोनवने कहते हैं, "हमारी संस्कृति, रीति-रिवाज और विश्वदृष्टि हमारी भाषा में व्यक्त की जाती है। हमारे बहुमूल्य ज्ञान की रक्षा तभी हो सकती है जब हमारी भाषा को संरक्षित रखा जाए। जब कोई भाषा संरक्षित नहीं होती है तो वह मर जाती है और उसके साथ जुड़ी संस्कृति और जीवन शैली भी मर जाती है। इस संस्कृति से जुड़े मानवीय मूल्य भी, भाषा के साथ-साथ, तबाह हो जाते हैं

खेमचेस के सचिव शंकर तडवाल कहते हैं, "वर्तमान में विकास के विचार और इसके कार्यान्वयन के बारे में बहस उन भाषाओं में हो रही है जो भीलों के लिए विदेशी हैं और इसलिए वे इसमें योगदान नहीं दे पा रहे हैं। वास्तव में, भीली बोलियों में इन विचारों पर चर्चा करने के लिए शब्दावली का अभाव है। खेमचेस ने इस कमी को दूर करने की कोशिश की है और एक समृद्ध नई लिखित भाषा और साहित्य के निर्माण कर और अपने पारंपरिक संगीत और नृत्य को बढ़ावा देकर क्षेत्र और राष्ट्र के विकास में भीलों को वैचारिक रूप से शामिल किया हैआधुनिक विकास और सांस्कृतिक संदेशों को व्यक्त करने में हमारे पारंपरिक मिथकों और धुनों का उपयोग करने के अनुभव ने दिखाया है कि वे इस उद्देश्य के लिए बेहद प्रभावी हैं। इसके अलावा, ब्रिटिश काल से भील आदिवासी विद्रोह का इतिहास भी बहुत प्रेरणादायक है और खेमचेस द्वारा भील युवाओं को उत्साहित करने के लिए इस का प्रचार किया गया है।"


पश्चिमी मध्य प्रदेश क्षेत्र के विभिन्न सामाजिक और राजनीतिक विकास के संगठनों द्वारा अब तक इस तरह का नवाचार छुटपुट ढंग से किया गया है। पर अब खेमचेस द्वारा यह काम को व्यवस्थित ढंग से आगे बढ़ाया जा रहा है। रानी काजल जीवन शाला की एक शिक्षिका रायटीबाई कहती हैं, खेमचेस ने क्षेत्र के कई अन्य आदिवासी जन संगठनों को आदिवासी शहीदों की जयंती मनाने की पहल करने के लिए प्रेरित किया है और आदिवासी इतिहास और संस्कृति पर हिंदी में कई ग्रंथों को प्रकाशित करने में मदद की है और आगे संपूर्ण भीली लोककथाओं का प्रतिलेखन भी होगा। खेमचेस ने सन 1990 के दशक में महान टानटिया भील, जो अंग्रेजों के हाथ शहीद हुए थे, को एक स्वतंत्रता सेनानी के रूप में मान्यता देने की प्रक्रिया शुरू की, जिसे अब वैधता और आधिकारिक मान्यता मिल गई है।“

लोकगीतों के रचनात्मक व्याख्या से वैकल्पिक, सामुदायिक और सतत विकास के सिद्धांत और व्यवहार के समर्थन में प्रचुर सामग्री निकाला जा सकता है। उदाहरण के लिए, नर्मदा नदी के पास के गांवों में गाया जाने वाला एक धरती के सृजन मिथक है, जिसमें विस्तार से बताया गया है कि कैसे भगवान अचानक ब्रह्मांड के निर्माण के विचार से घिरे हुए थे और उन्होंने जंगल में जाने और लकड़ी लाने के लिए जंगल में रहने वाले रेलू कबाड़ी से मदद मांगी। इस तरह से शुरू होती है पूरी कहानी कि कैसे धीरे-धीरे सभी जानवर और पौधे बनते हैं और अंत में नर्मदा और ताप्ती नदियाँ। ये नदियाँ विवाह में दूदु हमड़ सागर से मिलती हैं और उनकी यात्रा की प्रक्रिया में सभी विभिन्न गाँव, पहाड़ियाँ और घाटियाँ बनती हैं। पूरा गीत प्रकृति की विशालता और प्राकृतिक प्रक्रियाओं की ताकत का आभास कराता है और इनके लिए श्रोता में सम्मान पैदा करता है।

रानी काजल जीवन शाला के प्राचार्य निंगू सोलंकी कहते है, "हमारी जीवन दृष्टि आधुनिक मनुष्य के अभिमान के सीधे विपरीत है जिसने प्रकृति को अपने स्वयं के अधीन करने की कोशिश की है और आज उसके कारण गंभीर पर्यावरणीय समस्याओं को जन्म दिया है। आदिवासी इस प्रक्रिया के शिकार रहे हैं। इस प्रकार, यह हमारा फर्ज है कि हम हमारे सृजन मिथक को लोकप्रिय बनाय और इस बात पर बल दें कि हमारी आदिवासी विश्वदृष्टि वर्तमान काल में कहीं अधिक "तर्कसंगत" है।“

इसी तरह, एक महाकाव्य में एक महिला के बारे में एक और कहानी है जिसे अपने पति द्वारा किए गए अत्याचार पर सवाल उठाने के लिए दोषी ठहराया जाता है। उसे पंचायत के सामने लाया जाता है जहां पंचों द्वारा आदेश दिया जाता है कि उसकी जीभ काट दी जाए और पति को निगलने के लिए दे दिया जाए। पर वह जीभ पति के गले में फंस जाती है।

इस कहानी दर्शाता है कि भील समाज किस हद तक पितृसत्तात्मक रूप से महिलाओं का दमन करता है। साथ ही, यह तथ्य कि जीभ पति के गले में फंस गई है, महिला को अवसर प्रदान करता है कि वह अपनी जुबान को वापस खींच लें। अपने हकों के लिए बोलने का अधिकार स्थापित कर भील महिलाओं को घर के अंदर और बाहर विविध पितृसत्ताओं के खिलाफ लड़ने के लिए इस कहानी के द्वारा प्रेरित किया गया है।

साहित्य, विशेष रूप से अलंकारिक चरित्र के धार्मिक साहित्य में लोगों को उनकी सामाजिक आर्थिक स्थिति को बदलने के लिए प्रेरित करने की जबरदस्त शक्ति है। दुर्भाग्य से खेमचेस को छोड़कर मध्य भारतीय क्षेत्र के आदिवासियों और विशेष रूप से भीलों के लिए उनके समृद्ध मौखिक साहित्य को लिखने और उपयोग करने का कोई महत्वपूर्ण प्रयास नहीं किया गया है।

अब खेमचेस के इन प्रयासों को एक बड़ा समर्थन मिला है क्योंकि इस प्रयास में अमेरिका के एरिजोना स्टेट यूनिवर्सिटी के ह्यू डाउन्स स्कूल ऑफ ह्यूमन कम्युनिकेशन के प्रोफेसर उत्तरन दत्ता इससे जुड़ गए हैं। उल्लेखनीय है कि एरिजोना स्टेट यूनिवर्सिटी विगत आठ वर्षों से लगातार अमरीका के विश्वविद्यालयों में नवाचार में प्रथम स्थान पर है। प्रोफेसर दत्ता ने अलीराजपुर जिले में नर्मदा नदी के तट पर ककराना गांव में खेमचेस द्वारा संचालित आदिवासी बच्चों के लिए आवासीय विद्यालय रानी काजल जीवन शाला में एक आधुनिक रिकॉर्डिंग स्टूडियो स्थापित करने में मदद की है, जहां भीली भाषा में व्याख्यान और संगीत रिकॉर्ड किए जाते हैं और फिर इंटरनेट रेडियो और यूट्यूब चैनलों पर अपलोड किया जाता है।

स्टूडियो में एक स्वतंत्र रिकॉर्डिंग सुविधा है और युवाओं को मीडिया उत्पादन में कुशल बनने के लिए प्रशिक्षित किया जा रहा है 
यह स्टूडियो भील आदिवासियों की पारंपरिक स्थापत्य शैली में बनाया गया है। खेमचेस के सचिव शंकर तड़वाल ने कहा, "चार पश्चिमी भारतीय राज्यों, राजस्थान, गुजरात, महाराष्ट्र और मध्य प्रदेश के भील आदिवासियों द्वारा यहाँ श्रव्य दृश्य सामग्री तैयार किया जाता है और स्टूडियो युवाओं के लिए एक प्रशिक्षण सुविधा के रूप में भी काम करता है। स्कूल के लड़के-लड़कियां मीडिया प्रोडक्शन में दक्ष हो रहे हैं।

1 जुलाई, 2022 को हुए उद्घाटन के बाद से भील वॉयस यूट्यूब चैनल ने हजारों व्यूज हासिल कर लिए हैं और यह समय के साथ बढ़ता जाएगा जैसे जैसे सांस्कृतिक कायाकल्प प्रक्रिया और मजबूत होती है।

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Life in a Cold Desert

 Ladakh, the roof of India and an extension of Tibet which is considered to be the roof of the World, is a cold desert at an average height of about 11000 feet above mean sea level. Temperatures are so low for most parts of the year that the land is covered with snow and the rivers too freeze on the surface and so there is only sparse vegetation and minimal agriculture. Consequently, the life is harsh, compounded by the fact that the terrain is very hilly and so people have to climb steep hills to even go to their farms from their villages or to commute between them. A visit to Ladakh had been on my radar for quite some time but it materialised suddenly due to an invitation to conduct a training session for youth on development issues in the Sambhavna Institute situated near Palampur in Himachal Pradesh of which more later. The timing of the workshop in Sambhavna was such that I had to visit Ladakh in the second fortnight of May just after it opens up for tourists after the prolonged winter. Eventually, I travelled through Punjab and Himachal Pradesh also traversing four of the five sub basins of the Indus River basin apart from the Indus basin itself - Beas, Chenab, Sutlej and Ravi and only Jhelum which originates in Kashmir still remains to be done.


The trip started with my crossing the Sutlej and the Beas Rivers on my way to Amritsar from where I was to board my bus for going to Manali in Himachal Pradesh in the upper Beas basin. Both the Sutlej and the Beas have been dammed for hydroelectricity and irrigation in their upper reaches and so the summer flow was very less in the Punjab plains as shown below.


I next visited the Harmandir Sahib Gurdwara in Amritsar which is the centre of the Sikh religion which essentially preaches truthful living and service to humanity and faith in one God. Despite the huge crowds of devotees and tourists, the management is very good and so the flow of people is smooth.


 Then I took a night bus from Amritsar to Manali up the Beas valley and so started my Himalayan adventure which began with rafting on the river Beas in Manali. An experience of a lifetime. The raft bobs up and down through the river as it foams over the stones and drenches you with ice cold water. I booked a raft to myself as I had no other co adventurists. The first time this has happened according to the Raftsman Sunny Sherpa as they normally take 6 passengers. Consequently, due to lesser weight we bounced even more and at one point we went round and round in a 360 degrees spin in an adrenalin rushing experience. Sunny, who is pictured below with his helper Rahul Rajput, is from Kathmandu in Nepal and is a licensed Raftsman. He plies his trade for three months here and then goes to Ladakh and finally in winter and summer to Goa for sea rafting. The raft is made in USA. For the even more daring there is also paragliding on offer. I thought of doing that too for a while but then let prudence take precedence over valour.


The Beas River flows with force and character in Manali because the catchment above is still heavily forested and it is unimpeded by dams which have been built lower down in the valley. A sight for sore eyes after seeing the denuded catchments and summer trickle of the Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh which has been dammed into oblivion. Snowmelt too does contribute a considerable amount of flow and it is being said that due to global warming more snow is melting in summer. 




 The Chandrabhaga or Chenab, the largest river in Himachal Pradesh by volume of flow, meanders through its upper reaches in the scenic Lahaul Valley which is on the other side of the Rohtang Tunnel which connects Manali to Lahaul on the road to Leh.


I found myself amidst snow capped mountains for the first time in my life at the Shinkula pass which is on the ridge that separates the Lahaul and Zanskar valleys on the border of Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. It was snowing slightly to add to the romance. 

It is said that at such great heights, due to the lesser oxygen in the air, it becomes difficult to breathe. However, I was able to practice rigorous yogasanas quite comfortably at this pass. This is not a general plug for the benefits of yoga but just a statement that the philosophy of yoga has worked well for me both physically and mentally.


What used to be trekking tracks in the Zanskar valley earlier are now being converted by the Border Roads Organisation into motorable roads mainly to provide multi-pronged strategic mobility to the military. However, there is still a long way to go as for most parts there is little semblance of a road from which the snow has been removed amidst peaks which are still snow laden. The road that we took from Shinkula to Padum, the tehsil town in the Zanskar valley, is picturesque with fast flowing streams, isolated villages and yaks grazing on the sparse vegetation. 

Our driver Lobsang Stanzin, a resident of Padum, was an expert at negotiating steeply sloping and curving narrow dirt tracks, driving without nerves on the edge of steep cliffs. 


He had been fixed for us by our travel agent in Leh about whom more later. When I asked in Manali just to know what the drivers there thought of the route, they unanimously said that they could not do it and asked me to take the standard route from Manali to Leh along the Lahaul and Indus valleys.


The road from Padum to Leh along the Zanskar river is flanked by steep hills. At one point we could see the folded rocks of the Himalayas as they had been cut through by the river. The BRO is working on a war footing to complete the Padum to Leh Road before winter and so it has been closed to traffic after a point in the valley. 


We had to take a long detour over two more valleys crossing their ridges through passes at heights above 16000 feet along some of the most scary roads. Finally we reached the Indus some 80 kms downstream of the confluence of the Zanskar with it at Nimmu and drove up to it and then a further 35 kms to Leh. 


The Zanskar river freezes in its upper stretches in winter and then it becomes popular for its Chadar Trek in which tourists trek on the frozen ice cover or chadar. The road from Nimmu to Padum will put paid to this the locals said as it will lead to development that will spoil the charm of the trek. The picture below shows the Zanskar in the background with a different colour meeting the Indus in the foreground at Nimmu.

There were no signs of any afforestation efforts throughout the Zanskar valley except near its confluence with the Indus river and in the Indus valley. This is a matter of concern because the people said that the flow in both the Zanskar and Indus rivers has reduced over time. At least along the springs and rivers below the snowline, where irrigation can be ensured by gravity, afforestation work should be done. In addition to trees like willow and poplar there are hardy local shrubs and grasses which could be planted. There was no soil and water conservation work being done either. The steep slopes are eroding away very fast and need to be stabilised. Especially since heavy road building work is being done. The barrenness of Ladakh, even accounting for the fact that it is a cold desert, is jarring after the green beauty of Manali.


Ladakh generally has very shallow soil depth even in the valleys and almost nothing on the slopes which are mostly barren except for a few shrubs and Tufts of grass here and there. We did not see many trees except for a few poplars near the habitations which too were few and far between. The people say that the hills and valleys become covered with grass in July for some time but once the snow begins falling then everything is covered with snow and the rivers also freeze. Since farms with enough soil are very few and there is no electricity and very little rainfall, the villages are few and far between. Some farming is done by directing the water of springs through channels onto the farms. These villages are the epitome of a hard physical life in harmony with nature.

The traditional architecture of Ladakh is based on the use of local resources like stones, mud and wood. The stones or sun baked mud bricks are put together with mud mortar and plastered with mud to form the load bearing structures. The roof is made of wooden beams covered with wooden poles and topped by a special waterproof mixture of mud and sand. Good drainage is provided to ensure that the roof does not leak. 

In fact this method of construction is still preferred because it keeps the inside of the house warm in winter whereas concrete slabs lead to freezing temperatures. Carved wooden eaves are used to decorate the roof, windows and doorways.


The Leh Palace built by the Namgyal dynasty in 1630 is the crowning example of this architecture. This, at 40 meters in height was one of the highest buildings in the world at the time.  It has been restored by the Archaeological Survey of India and stands in full glory on the commanding height over Leh.


The palace also has beautiful frescoes.


And an exquisitely carved wooden skylight.

There are many panels of experts both international and national cogitating on how to tackle the climate change and water stress crises that face us. However, the best solutions are always the simple ones. There are no other better measures than afforestation and soil and water conservation done in a communitarian manner. Modern Development has ravaged the environment, especially so in a cold desert like Ladakh. The impingement of geo-political factors has made it imperative to construct wide roads in the fragile mountainous terrain. Once roads and grid electricity reach an area, the adverse ecological impacts begin to mount. Therefore it becomes necessary to implement counter measures in the form of afforestation and soil and water conservation. However, the cold and the terrain make this difficult in Ladakh. Compared to what is required, very little of this mitigation work is being done in Ladakh. Nevertheless, something has been done in afforestation in and around Leh. The Buddhist monasteries have taken the lead in this regard. The Hemis monastery, which is a major repository of Buddhist knowledge and history, has won several national and international awards for its afforestation initiatives. The government too has implemented village level schemes, mainly along the Indus river. The newer development in Leh town has many trees and the panoramic view from the top of the Leh Palace is breathtakingly green.

The world's second highest motorable pass is at Khardungla on the way to the Shyeok valley and it is crowded with tourists these days. The highest motorable pass at Umling La is also in Ladakh but it is not open to civilians.


The Shyeok River valley is very picturesque with villages using gravity to bring water for farming from higher up. The river originates in Tibet occupied by China and enters India at Galwan where a fierce battle took place between the Indian and Chinese armies a few years back. The river moves north through Ladakh like the Indus which also originates in China occupied Tibet and meets it in Pakistan.


The Nubra River, the northernmost river in India, after originating in the Siachen glacier, flows south from the Karakoram range and joins the Sheyok River. The valley is much greener possibly because the soil is of better quality. There are a number of very green villages and towns along it with Simur stated to be the greenest village in Ladakh. The Siachen base camp of the army is situated where the Nubra descends from the hills. However, the army has a checkpost about 30 kms from the base camp where it stops tourists from going further. There are hot springs at Panamik village along the river, which are supposed to be therapeutic.

The roads in the Sheyok valley are mostly in bad shape because of sudden floods that take place due to huge snow melts. So even though most of the time the flow takes place in a narrow channel, the river bed itself is very wide and full of stone debris that the flash floods have brought down from the mountains.

Consequently, for its safety, the road has to be built well above the river's bed. This has been done in the downstream portion for the road leading to the Pakistan border because there has been much more fighting there ever since the time of independence.

However, on the upstream section, the road to the China border still runs through the bed of the river and so has got washed away in many places and there is only a bed of stones to drive on. The serious battle that took place two years ago between the Chinese and Indian armies has drastically altered the situation. Full mobilisation of the military has to be done on the China border also like on the Pakistan border and so work has been started on building better roads but there is still a long way to go. The Border Roads Organisation is hectically at work and employs contract Adivasi workers brought in from as far as Jharkhand.

The village Pharnu in Pakistan is on the other side of the Shyeok River from the village Thang which is the northernmost village of India on the border with Pakistan at N 34 degrees 55 minutes 37 secs and E 76 degrees 47 minutes 55 secs at 9534 feet above MSL. Separated by the River Sheyok and Line of Control now, before 1971 they were both in Pakistan.

 A few villages along with Thang were occupied by the Indian army. Sadly, despite close family ties they are now permanently separated from the Pakistani villages due to the hostility between the two countries. The residents are of the Balti tribe who are Muslims.

The Balti have a distinct culture with their own musical instruments and songs.

There is a rich collection of prehistoric rock art thousands of years old throughout Ladakh in the Indus valley. Mostly these are in remote areas which can be accessed only by trekking. However, there is one set in the village of Tangtse which can be accessed by car and so we went and saw that one.

Tangtse village is off the electricity grid but Tata BP Solar is running a 100 KW solar energy plant and supplying electricity on a commercial basis to the village.


The Changthang Wildlife sanctuary is possibly one of the most visited of sanctuaries in India, not because of its wildlife which consists of snow leopards, ibex goats and asses but because of the Pangong lake which is situated in it. Situated at about 15000 feet above MSL, it is a huge salt water Lake which is 134 kms long and about a km wide. Half of it is in India and the other half in China occupied Tibet. It is the site of fierce battles between the two countries from time to time and so is heavily militarised. The water is very clear. The views of the sanctuary and the lake are very scenic. 

I took the opportunity to swim in the Pangong lake and do some more high altitude yogasanas there. In fact I swam in all the major rivers also during this trip braving the freezing cold despite my normally bathing only once a week and that too in warm water!!

The last leg of the Ladakh tour was a visit to Dah village and the Sham valley. The Brokpa tribe resides in a few villages in the lower Indus valley region of which Dah is situated on the Leh to Srinagar highway. They are very fair and blue eyed and so it is said that they are the unalloyed descendents of the migrants into India from the central Asian region in the second millennium BCE


The village is very scenic situated in a valley and ensconced as it is amidst hills . 

Returning from Dah we went up the Sham valley to the Lamayuru monastery which is situated in a spectacular moonlike landscape. 

The village itself is quaint because it mostly consists of mud and stone houses. The villagers are farmers who bring water into their fields through gravity channels from the stream making it very green in contrast to the moon landscape surrounding it.

After this we visited the monastery in Alchi which is the oldest in Ladakh dating from the 11th century CE. It has three tall standing statues of the Buddha. 

Alchi also has a rich collection of rock art on the hills overlooking the Indus River.

The Ladakh tour was organised for me by Tse Wang Dorjey through his travel agency https://www.maitreyatoursladakh.com/ . He not only planned the trip for me but also very accommodatively made changes in it along the way as I received inputs from friends to try out other places off the beaten track. All arranged at a very reasonable cost. He and his wife Padma also provided superb hospitality at their home stay on the banks of the Indus river at Choglamsar about 10 kms from Leh which is close to the Sindhu Ghat built for bathing and swimming in the river. All in all a fabulous experience.

The one thing that one can't miss in the Himalayas is the ubiquitous presence of the army. In fact all this tourism in the mountains has been made possible by the army. The Border Roads Organisation is frantically constructing roads in the high mountains so as to increase the military capability to counter the strategic threats from Pakistan and China. Consequently, the world's highest motorable passes, Umling La at above 19000 feet above MSL, Khardung La at more than 18000 feet above MSL and Changla below at 17688 feet above MSL are in the Indian Himalayas. So what was once a trekkers' paradise is very quickly being converted into a standard tourism destination.


There are a few people in this country who follow their passion regardless of the hardships that this entails. I met one such person quite by chance in Ladakh when I got down to have food in a restaurant. This is Phunchok Angchok who has set up and runs the Ladakh Rocks, Minerals and Antiques Museum at Shey on the Leh-Manali Road just next to this restaurant where I had lunch ( Ladakh Rocks and Minerals Museum

https://maps.app.goo.gl/oYPRjTStt2QiqAgL8). He was a government school teacher but gave up the job to work full time in collecting and displaying rare rocks, minerals and antiques of Ladakh. He set up an NGO for this which runs solely on contributions made by the public without any government support whatsoever. So he is able to do some work but not able to do it on the scale that he would like. Here he is standing in front of traditional stoneware utensils used by Ladakhis to cook food.

The last major river valley I visited on this Himalayan trip was that of the Ravi in western Himachal Pradesh. Unlike the Zanskar, Chenab, Nubra, Sheyok and Indus rivers which cannot be dammed under the Indus Water Treaty which stipulates that all their water has to go to Pakistan, the waters of the Ravi are allocated to India and so it has been dammed at Chameri. In contrast to the cold desert of Ladakh, the lower Himalayas through which the Ravi flows are very green with trees and shrubs. I stayed at Banjal village with my long time activist friend Narendra Patil at a height of 7200 feet above MSL. For the first time on this trip I did some trekking. An art that I have lost. There was a time in the 1980s and early 1990s in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh when I used to trek all the time as there were no roads in the Hills. However, now there are roads even in the remotest villages of the Narmada valley and so trekking is a thing of the past.


The villagers of Banjal are hardy farmers and have terraced their fields over centuries. Tractors can't be operated in these steep slopes and so all farming operations have to be done manually. These days they are doing horticulture also producing apples and exotic vegetables with the help of green houses. 


The residential houses and cattle barns are made of a combination of stones, mud and wood with slate roofs.

They carry their goods and produce up and down the steep slopes on mules. They also have conical baskets in which they carry goods on their backs called kirtas. 

Water supply is by pipes from concrete tanks built at a height to which water from the springs is diverted. 

This Himalayan tour happened because I was invited as a resource person to train youth by the Sambhaavna Institute of Public Policy and Politics in Kandbari in Palampur in Himachal Pradesh https://www.sambhaavnaa.org/ . Sambhaavna is a unique institution, the only one in India, set up by the Kumud Bhushan Trust, of which public interest litigator and activist Prashant Bhushan is the secretary. The institute conducts trainings in various aspects of alternative sustainable and equitable governance and development with the help of activists from the field so as to provide youth and activists an understanding of the nature of the challenges that this country faces. The programmes are currently anchored by Mohammad Chappalwala who is a computer scientist by training and has ditched his career in software engineering to become a full-time activist resident in Sambhaavna. The campus is picturesque, situated as it is with the Dhauladhar range as a backdrop. The buildings are eco-friendly, having been designed by the late iconic sustainable architect Didi Contractor and built with local materials.

Thus, my exhilarating fortnight of travel concluded with a few days spent in Palampur. This area has tea gardens. 

The tea industry is labour intensive as the plucking of the special set of leaves that are made into tea cannot be mechanised. Therefore, primitive accumulation takes place as the big companies involved in tea production like Unilever and Tatas, all skimp on paying proper wages and providing decent working conditions so as to increase their profits. A few of the youth participants in the workshop from the Northeast were the children of the workers in the tea gardens and they related how horrendous were the living and working conditions there and how disease and death were rampant.
Palampur town situated in the foothills of the Dhauladhar mountain ranges in Himachal Pradesh depends primarily for its water supply on the Neugal river which presently has an extremely depleted flow in summer. This is because there has been heavy deforestation in the catchment area of the river.
However, some of its water is sourced from a spring in Bohal village a few kilometres above the town in the Dhauladhar range. The catchment area of this spring is about 286 hectares called the Bheerni forest. The forest department had formed a village forest development committee in the 1990s to protect the forest. Ban and Bani trees, which provide fodder for cattle, were planted. The villagers, who are mostly shepherds of the Gaddi caste, benefited from this and appointed a chowkidar from among themselves to protect about 45 hectares of the forest by making a monetary contribution which currently stands at an annual Rs 12000 cumulatively.
Then in 2010 the Palampur Municipality, concerned that the flow in the Bohal spring was reducing, in collaboration with the Panchayat and forest department formed a new committee for the protection of the forest and contributed another Rs 10000 per year to strengthen the forest conservation effort of the villagers. This has now been publicised widely as the country's first project of payment for ecosystem services rendered by villagers living in close proximity with the forests. There are several problems with this kind of characterisation. The first and foremost is that the payment by the Municipality is itself laughably small. Not only is it less than what the villagers themselves are contributing but it is far less than the value of the services provided in terms of water conserved, carbon sequestrated and biodiversity conserved. Over and above this a new much bigger water collection and treatment plant has been constructed which has a much bigger catchment of over a thousand hectares.

 Finally, the springs in Bohal supply a small fraction of the total water of Palampur, which is mostly drawn from the Neugal river. So a much more widespread soil, water and forest conservation programme has to be implemented over the whole catchment of the river extending to over 7000 hectares involving many more villages. The Himachal Pradesh Government has received hundreds of crores of Rupees for ecosystem restoration from the central government but instead of designing and implementing appropriate projects with these funds it is publicising a grossly inadequate project, that is unjust towards compensating the forestdwellers for the ecosystem services they are providing, as a successful example of payment for ecosystem services.
Thus, it was an enjoyable and educative fortnight of travels in the Himalayas and especially Ladakh, where I met some amazing people. The Ladakhis are mostly Buddhists and extremely hospitable people who go out of their way to make tourists comfortable and this has been enhanced by the homestay revolution. 
Even in remote villages there are homestays. Their cuisine too is fabulous.