The World’s

First
Plastic-Free
Flight
Shantha Biotechnics Limited
3rd & 4th floors, Vasantha Chambers,
Feteh Maidan Road, Basheerbagh, Hyderabad-500 004.
Tel: +91-40-66301000, Fax:+91-40-23234103. www.shanthabioteh.com
 Editorial

Advisors
Narne Prabhakar
Kaza Krishna Rao
Dr. N. Harinath
Dr. V. Haraprasad

Advisory Board
M. Gopala Krishna, IAS (Retd.)
RIGHT TO WATER AND UN SDG 6
C.S. Ramalakshmi, I.F.S,
Dr. N. Bhaskara Rao
t is essential to see how the political parties and their representatives are wrestling in the
Prof. P.G. Sastry
Er. G. Prabhakar
Prof. D.N. Reddy
I arena of election campaign on unnecessary issues without any concern for basic needs of
the people like clean air and water. More than 163 million people in India constitute 19.33%
Dr. Rameshwar Rao of world people who do not have access to clean water. Lack of political will is the main reason
S. Raghupathy
for such a prevailing situation. For example, according to Master plan for Artificial Recharge to
Prof. I.V. Muralikrishna
Ground Water 2013, respective state governments will have to construct 1110 million artificial
Editor structures with an estimated cost of Rs 79,178 crores. Despite Supreme Court Orders in
Dr. P. Narayana Rao
February 2017, the state governments are not keen to implement though 330 million people

Associate Editor
are affected by draught in India. In July 2010, 122 countries including India acknowledged the
Dr.B.Ramana Naik "human right to water and sanitation" in UN General Assembly. In September 2010, the
Human rights Council adopted a resolution recognizing that the human right to water and san-
Sub - editor
itation forms part of the right to an adequate standard of living. Supreme Court of India in sev-
Swarajyam P.
eral of its judgments has stated the same in accordance with Article 21 of Fundamental Rights.
Design According to UN SDG 6 (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals), we have ensured
arcongraphics@gmail.com
availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. The targets to be

Edited, Printed & Published by

P. Narayana Rao on behalf of society
for environment and education,
hyderabad.
Address for communication
302, Padma Nilayam,
St.No. 1, Shanti Nagar,
Hyderabad - 500 028.
email: nraopotturi@yahoo.com
contact: 9247385331
(The views expressed by authors
may not be necessarily be the same
as those of magazine)
achieved by 2030 include universal and equitable access to safe affordable drinking water for
all; access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all paying special attention to
the needs of women and girls; improve water quality by reducing pollution; increase water use
efficiency across all sectors and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water
scarcity; implement integrated water resources management at all levels; support and strength-
en the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management.
Unfortunately we are far from achieving this Goal 6. India unlike some countries like South
Africa does not have a Right to Water Act .If the right to water was explicitly recognized in
Indian Law, it would allow the civil society and Indian Citizens to demand it in several ways. So
pressure must be mounted on the Indian Government to legislate for such an Act. Hence a sus-
tained campaign for Right to Water Act has to be started by the civil society so that political
parties will take it seriously and bring legislation at least in next Loksabha.

March 2019 1 Environment & people

 With The World’s First Plastic-Free Flight,
This Airline Is Making History! 5

content Air purifiers are catching on - but they may

be doing more harm than good 6
Bengaluru Techie Single-handedly
Revives Lake in 45 Days, Plans to Save 45 More by 2025! 8
This Is How States Illegally
Rejected Forest-Dwellers' Land Claims 12
Protecting fisheriescan fight poverty: study 18
Raising Environmentally-Responsible Kids?
These 7 Books Make It Simple & Fun! 20
Eco Tourism 23
Explained: Why Healthcare Reforms e waste is recycled in appalling conditions in India 24
Should Be an Election Issue in 2019 -16
18 countries showing the way to carbon zero 26
Harvesting Rainwater & Organic Food,
This Green Lakeside Home Is a Labour of Love! 28
Environmental conferences 31
Eco quotes 32
Eco IQ 33
Eco cartoons 34
Making money while the sun shines:
What Is Matula Tea and
Farmers in a Gujarat village are selling solar energy 10
what it is made of?? 22

Environment & people 4 March 2019

With The World’s First Plastic-Free
Flight, This Airline Is Making History!
hile there are continuous initia-
W tives taken around the world to
conserve the environment, a
Portuguese charter airline flew its first
flight without any single use of plastic. It
marked a historical landmark in the aviation
industry by taking this environmental
friendly initiative and became the world’s
first plastic-free flight. It was one of the
first four trails to not use any use plastic on-
board which took off on 26th December
from Portugal to Brazil.
The Hi-Fly airlines replaced the com-
monly used plastic items on board with
biodegradable alternatives, like the plastic
cutlery was replaced by bamboo flatware,
food was served in compostable paper trays
and even the bags for motion sickness were
greener than ever. After the first successful
trial of this eco-friendly initiative, the com-
pany plans to execute the other three trial
flights to completely ban single-use plastic
in their flights by 2019.
According to the Hi-Fly president Paulo
Mirpuri, this initiative is taken to no longer
ignore the impact of plastic contamination
on the ecosystem as well as the human body.
UN Environment Program says that the
single-use plastic is a pervasive problem
where 79 percent of all single-use plastic
ends up at the landfill or else littered around
in the environment and this initiative taken
by this airline was started to cut down the
waste.
Seeing the tremendous effort by Hi-Fly
airlines, other airlines are also embracing
this initiative. In October, Air New Zealand
announced that they are planning to cut the
usage of plastic on-board. Meanwhile in the
US, Alaska airlines have already cut-off the
use of plastic straws and on the other hand,
Delta and American airlines are also on the
phase of cutting out the single-use plastic.
This eco-friendly initiative by the avia-
tion companies is indeed making history
and we hope that helps in reducing the pol-
lution level around the globe. So the next
time you plan an international trip, make
sure to hop on one of these flights to expe-
rience (and promote) a complete eco-friend-
ly travel. Share this with your friends and
family to encourage them to do the same.
(Source: traveltriangle.com)
March 2019 5 Environment & people
iltering air uses lots of energy
and concentrates harmful chem-
icals in landfills.
recently found myself in the surreal
I
world of the Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas discussing the next
generation of pollution sensors that one
day you might find inside your phone. The
exhibits I saw suggested the next big thing
in home technology could be anything
from intelligent cat litters to internet-
enabled teapots, with everything powered
by mysterious machine learning and the
unfathomable blockchain.
But there was no escaping that air qual-
ity and air purification is now a seriously
Environment & people 6 March 2019
big thing in the consumer products world.
Most major white goods manufacturers
have a range of products. There are also
plenty of start-ups offering new variants -
including purifying robots that wander for-
lornly around your home and bizarre bio-
inspired devices that blow air over the
leaves of poor unsuspecting houseplants.
If you live in Europe it could be easy to
dismiss these as tech gadgets that may
never catch on, but that would be badly
misjudging the ever-expanding user base
for home air filtration that already exists in
Asia and beyond. These devices are for sale
because people want them, and the market
could be worth in excess of $30 billion per
year by 2023.
In some regards, indoor air purification
is an individually empowering technology.
In a well-sealed home, filtration-based
purifiers clearly make a difference and can
noticeably reduce concentrations of tiny
harmful particles, particularly if the home
is somewhere with lots of pollution out-
doors, such as central Beijing or Delhi.
The evidence for the removal of harm-
ful gases indoors, including volatile organic
compounds from paints and glues, is
sketchier. Some systems get the gases to
stick to a charcoal-based filter, but there is
little independent data that shows these
actually work. In other types of purifiers
UV radiation is used to accelerate a chemi-
cal reaction that turns those gases into car-
bon dioxide and water. However manufac-
turers have not yet published data to show
that this process doesn't actually end up
converting relatively benign compounds
into something more harmful.
Outdoor air filtration demonstrators
have so far proved ineffective, simply
because the atmosphere is so huge rel-
ative to the size of the filtering sys-
tem. However, indoors, the balance
shifts. Homes have internal volumes
measured in the hundreds to maybe
several thousands of cubic metres
and, simply due to natural drafts and
leaks, the indoor air is swapped with
outdoor air perhaps once per hour.
That is still a lot of cubic metres of air
to clean, but the maths begins to stack
up.
Yet the costs of filtration are pos-
sibly larger than they first appear.
Most air purifiers use cellulose or
polymer membranes that are replaced
every month or so, often as part of a
regular service contract. The air is
pushed through the filters with fans
and pumps which use energy, perhaps
anywhere between 100 watts (equiva-
lent to a bright lightbulb) and 1000
watts (a microwave), depending on
the size of the air cleaner and home.
Poor air quality in this sense then
impacts on climate by increasing ener-
gy demand in the home and the city,
and of course it adds directly to the
user's electricity bill. The power
demands of air filtration are not as
great as air cooling, but would poten-
tially run 365 days a year, not just in
the summer months. If you add 500
watts of continuous demand to mil-
lions of homes, this becomes a big
deal.
Concentrating chemicals
Then there is the elephant in the
room. What happens to all those mil-
lions of microfiber particle filters or
traps full of activated carbon? I asked
that question more than 20 times in
Las Vegas and the answer was always
the same - you put them in the bin.
Should we care? Possibly, yes.
Filters in the home that collect parti-
cles end up concentrating some rather
unpleasant toxic chemicals gathered
from air outside - heavy metals from
brake wear, polycyclic aromatic com-
pounds from wood and coal fires,
nitrosamines from cigarette smoke,
the list goes on. A filter may end up
holding milligrams (and maybe more)
of individual chemicals that were ini-
tially found in air at very diluted con-
centrations, and whose previous fate
was probably to deposit as a very thin
layer over huge areas of land.
If hundreds of millions of filters
from millions of homes are then all
dumped in the same few city landfills
we double down on the concentration
process. Are we simply shifting a
problem from the air into a problem
of those same chemicals now leaching
out into the soil and water? It's
unclear how much thinking has gone
into this, or the energy demand con-
sequences should hundreds of mil-
lions of people start purifying their
own air at home. (Thinking more pos-
itively for a moment: perhaps those
millions of waste filters would offer
someone an opportunity to "mine"
the trace metals collected?)
There are some obvious conclu-
sions to be drawn, the most striking
being that there is a financial oppor-
tunity for someone in every crisis. But
this particular solution comes with
costs that we haven't yet well quanti-
fied. Air filtration adds electricity
demand for sure, it needs raw materi-
als and resources to build, maintain
and support and it is possibly creating
chemical disposal problems we'
haven't yet evaluated. It does however
reinforce the well-trodden scientific
principle that it's always more effi-
cient to stop pollution at source than
try to clean up afterwards.
(Source: https://scroll.in)
March 2019 7 Environment & people

Ananya Barua
“When I first visited the spot, it
was a disaster. Such a huge lake
had dried up, and villagers were
using it as a playground or
dumping their waste. From that,
we went on to create an oasis.”
lmost 500 years ago, when
A Kempegowda founded Bengaluru, he
dotted it with numerous beautiful
water bodies, thus earning it the sobriquet
– city of lakes.
Environment & people 8 March 2019
Bengaluru Techie
Single-handedly
Revives Lake in 45
Days, Plans to Save
45 More by 2025!
But, that is all in the past, because the
present has ravaged the city of its natural
treasures. From 262 water bodies in 1960,
the figure has declined to 81, of which only
34 are currently alive.
After months of research and study on
the city’s lakes, 38-year-old Anand
Malligavad is all set to rejuvenate 45 lakes
by 2025, with the work already in progress!
Speaking to The Better India, Anand
shares details of a few recent successes that
gave back Bengaluru its prized lakes.
The first, he says, was the 36-acre water
body, Kyalasanahalli Lake near Anekal,
which was restored in only 45 days! Anand
designed and executed the rehabilitation
procedure with the help of nearby commu-
nities, including several techies from
Electronic City.
“We began the work on April 20, 2017,
with a budget of Rs 1 crore and 17 lakh,
provided by Sansera Foundation. We need-
ed help and reached out to the nearby com-
munity with the help of a senior citizen, B
Muthuraman (74). Together, we covered
almost 400 houses to spread awareness.
Eventually, people began to show up, and
joined hands to work long hours to make
this possible,” says Anand. He was
Sansera’s CSR head at the time.
B Muthuraram, the ex-Vice Chairman
of Tata Steel, had constructed a house just
opposite the lake in 2009. But when he
came to live there in 2014, the dry lake
irked him to action. He approached Anand,
who was already venturing into a project of
rejuvenating the city’s lakes.
Without the help of any industry
experts, architects or engineers, Anand, a
mechanical engineer, along with fellow citi-
zens, removed almost 4 lakh cubic meters
of mud from the lake.
This mud was then used to create five
islands of 110 diameters each, all across the
lake, in only ten days. These islands now
serve as nesting areas for birds, with a huge
tree planted in the middle for nests, as well
as fruit-bearing and flower saplings
around.
“A total of 18,000 saplings, 3,000 fruit
bearings of 22 varieties, 3,000 native
species of plants, and 2,000 ayurvedic
plants, now populate the lake area, provid-
ing it with a bounty of natural treasures,”
he adds.
The next step was to remove around 1
lakh cubic meter of mud from the lake and
fill it with water.
Two canals of the stormwater drain
were diverted 1.8 km away, and then the
September rains showered their magic,
restoring life to a lake which had been dead
for the past 35 years.
“It’s a unique procedure, and we created
forests of almost 25,000 sq feet with more
than 5,000 plants. A total of 1,500 volun-
teers came together to plant trees in the
forests in a record time of 1 hour and 45
minutes,” says Anand.
And so, the area surrounding the lake
was not only protected by plants but also
turfed with natural grass to save it from soil
erosion.
“Also, keeping in mind the majority
population of farmers in the area, we didn’t
want the lake water to be directly used for
irrigation purposes, which would cause
harm to the aquatic life. So, instead, we cre-
ated and recharged 186 borewells around
the lake for their use,” he adds.
“After completing Kyalasanahalli Lake,
I had found my calling, and so, I left my
Sansera job, and began to work on other
lakes, all on my own. The next stop was
Vabasandra Lake near Bommasandra,” he
says.
“Being an upper stream, restoring this
lake and making it a reservoir would mean
year-long life for the lakes situated on a
lower level, like Kyalasanahalli,” the water
conservationist says.
“It was in a situation worse than the
foam-filled Bellandur lake when we found
it. The pollution had changed the water to a
toxic gel-like substance, making it one of
the most poisonous lakes in the city. This
was the doing of the industries and phar-
maceutical companies in the area. But then,
one of them, Hikal Ltd, decided to alter the
damage and helped us with a fund of Rs 81
lakh to rejuvenate it,” Anand proudly says.
This work began on November 3, 2018,
and was completed on February 3, 2019.
“Saving nature does not require only
money, but willpower and a collective
effort. It is my dream to give this city one of
the best wetlands in the country.
Nanajapura lake is the best spot for that,
and we also plan to create a bird sanctuary,
thus giving the ecological cycle, a healthy
wind!” concludes Anand.
(Source: thebetterindia.com)
March 2019 9 Environment & people
Making money while the sun shines:
Farmers in a Gujarat village are selling
solar energy
Surplus energy is bought by
Gujarat's power distribution
company.
ntil three years ago, farmers in
U Dhundi, a village in Gujarat's Kheda
district south-east of the state's cap-
ital city Gandhinagar, knew only one way of
mechanical irrigation in their farms - using
noisy and polluting diesel generators, since
their village was not connected to the
power grid.
Now, they are proud to have found a
cheaper, noise-free and pollution-free way
of irrigating their farms, using the sun's
energy. And as a bonus, they are also earn-
ing by selling the surplus energy.
With the intervention of International
Water Management Institute or IWMI and
Sir Ratan Tata Trust through the IWMI-
Tata Water Policy Research Program, farm-
ers in Dhundi are now harvesting the sun's
energy and are no more dependent on
Environment & people 10 March 2019
diesel generators for irrigating their farms.
Before the advent of solar energy in
Dhundi, there were 50 diesel generators for
as many irrigation pumps in the village,
said Rahul Rathod, a consultant with
IWMI. "Now, the farmers and their families
have not only got rid of the noise, diesel
fumes and spending on diesel, but are also
selling solar energy worth thousands,"
Rathod said.
The farmers use solar energy for irri-
gating their farms and sell the surplus
energy like a cash crop to Gujarat's power
distribution company, Madhya Gujarat Vij
Company Ltd.
"Today, our village is free of noise
because there are no diesel generators. It is
a big relief," Champaben, one of the village
women, told Mongabay-India.
Climate-proof income
Nine farmers of Dhundi have formed a
cooperative, Solar Pump Irrigators'
Cooperative Enterprise locally known as
Dhundi Saur Urja Utpadak Sahakari
Mandali, to pool their solar energy which
makes it easy for Madhya Gujarat Vij
Company Ltd to buy energy from them.
Madhya Gujarat Vij Company Ltd
meters, monitors and pays money to the
cooperative based on its own meter reading
at a single evacuation point outside the vil-
lage. The cooperative later distributes the
revenue among its members based on units
evacuated by each one of them as recorded
on individual meters.
Dhundi solar cooperative is said to be
the ?rst of its kind. Its nine members have
signed a 25-year power purchase agree-
ment with Madhya Gujarat Vij Company
Ltd at 4.63 rupees/kwh. But, effectively,
they get 7.13 rupees/kwh as IWMI pays
them a bonus of 1.25 rupees/kwh as green
energy bonus and another 1.25
rupees/kwh as water conservation bonus.
As part of the power purchase agreement,
the farmers in return have given up their
right to apply for farm power connection
for 25 years.
According to Tushar Shah, senior fellow
at IWMI, when IWMI-Tata Water Policy
Research Program went to the farmers and
discussed the solar energy option with
them, they were uncertain whether solar
pumps will deliver enough water and
whether Madhya Gujarat Vij Company Ltd
will actually pay for the surplus power
farmers evacuate to the grid.
The farmers were offered contribution
and the Dhundi farmers had to pay a com-
paratively smaller sum of Rs 5,000 towards
the capital cost of solar pumps. After assur-
ance and the offer of subsidies from IWMI-
Tata Water Policy Research Program, the
villagers agreed and the program kicked off
in January 2016 and started selling power
from May 2016 as it took three months to
connect the solar farms to the grid.
"Now that both their doubts are put to
rest," Shah said that four more farmers,
who joined the cooperative later, willingly
contributed nearly 40% of the total invest-
ment despite the fact that solar tariffs in
the country had plummeted by then (3.24
rupees/kwh). In Dhundi, locals say that the
solar pump, these days, is viewed not only
as an irrigation asset but also an income-
generating asset that has potential to deliv-
er "climate-proof" income.
Praveen Bhai Prama, a farmer and Solar
Pump Irrigators' Cooperative Enterprise
member in Dhundi who owns about one
acre of land, dreamt of owning a cow for
years, but could not afford one. "As I start-
ed selling electricity, I was able to buy a cow
within a year. I have sold electricity worth
90,000 rupees since May 2016 and am sell-
ing milk as well. We hope to carry it on
which can enable us to send our two kids to
private schools in the years to come. Solar
[energy] has given us hope," Prama said.
"Irrigating our farms has now become
far easier and we, now, grow vegetables
such as tomato which need many irriga-
tions," he said.
Another farmer, Udha Bhai, said that
earlier, one time irrigation would cost him
Rs 250 per beegha (1.75 beegha is one
acre), "but now it is free and I am also able
to sell power." He said that he has earned as
much as Rs 7,000 in several months since
he began selling power in 2016. "The good
thing is that I didn't have to spend a penny
for earning this money," he added.
As regards the land-footprint of solar
panels in the farms, the farmers said that it
was something which discouraged them in
the beginning. "We thought they (solar
panels) will take a lot of land, but later we
found out that crops like spinach and egg-
plants can be cultivated even under the
panels," said Udha Bhai who has nine solar
panels in his 1.5 beegha farm.
No wonder that IWMI, Shah and his
colleagues claim, is getting requests from
farmers from near and afar to form similar
cooperatives. "Farmers are excited by the
idea of selling solar energy as a cash crop
that needs no seeds, fertiliser, pesticides,
irrigation and backbreaking labour,"
Shah said.
Replacing diesel and subsidised
power from farms
In India, mechanised irrigation
pumps numbered just around 5,000 in
1951. Their numbers soared to 19 million
by the turn of the millennium and between
22 and 25 million today. All these irrigation
pumps run on subsidised electricity being
provided to farmers by the government of
India.
But models like the one in Dhundi
seem to have inspired the government of
Gujarat's Rs 9 billion Suryashakti Kisan
Yojana scheme and the central govern-
ment's Rs 480 billion Kisan Urja Suraksha
Evam Utthaan Mahaabhiyan scheme.
Under both these schemes, tube-well own-
ers will be offered solar panels to run irriga-
tion pumps and will have the option to sell
surplus solar power to the grid.
IWMI's experts like Shah say that pay-
ing farmers for surplus solar energy will
not only help increase their income but also
incentivise groundwater conservation.
Under the power purchase agreement
with Madhya Gujarat Vij Company Ltd,
Dhundi solar farmers surrendered their
right to apply for grid power connections
for 25 years. This, said Shah, suggests the
potential to get India's over 20 million elec-
tric tube-well owners to surrender their
grid power connections in lieu of solar
pumps with a power purchase guarantee.
"Using solar energy for irrigating
India's farms has a number of benefits.
Besides increasing farmers' incomes, it will
help conserving ground water (as farmers
would prefer selling solar energy for eco-
nomic benefits rather than using it for
extracting ground water unlike highly sub
sidised or free electricity) and reduce car-
bon emissions," Shah said and added that
(cont...on page no. 30)
March 2019 11 Environment & people
 This Is How States Illegally Rejected
Forest-Dwellers' Land Claims
Such government violations of the law are common not just in Rajasthan
but nationwide, as 1.9 million families of indigenous people - roughly
9.5 million people at five persons per family - are at risk of being evict-
ed from their homes in forests.

Nihar Gokhale rejected' below). which says that no claim will be disposed of
The summons and notices issued to against a claimant without giving them a
reaking the law isn't something one Devi Lal and 60 other Bhil tribals for reasonable opportunity to present their

B is usually proud of. But for Devi Lal, a

resident of a forest village in south-
ern Rajasthan, a court summons for
encroaching on forest land in 2002 is a
prized possession.
A quiet, tall man dressed in a dhoti,
kurta and a colourful turban, the 64-year-
old from an indigenous community called
Bhil, proudly showed off the terse order -
neatly laminated and stored in a bag - that
demanded his presence before a forest offi-
cial's court, where he would stand trial.
Since the Forest Rights Act (FRA) was
introduced in 2006, these summons
became evidence that Devi Lal had lived on
the land in question before that, and
became vital evidence to support his claim
under the Act (see 'How claims are filed and
encroaching on forest land in 2002 are now
evidence of their claims under the FRA.
Nearly three years after he and 60 oth-
ers in the villages of Rawatbhata block
applied for land titles, the applications
were rejected in 2015. They do not know
why; they were never informed of the rejec-
tion, a violation of the FRA, which says
that decisions to reject or modify claims
have to be communicated to the claimant
in person, so that they have the opportuni-
ty to appeal the rejection within 60 days.
They could not appeal against the rejec-
tion because they were never informed that
it was rejected.
They were not even given a chance to
appeal their case before the rejection order
was passed, another violation of the law,
case.
Such government violations of the law
are common not just in Rajasthan but
nationwide, as 1.9 million families of
indigenous people - roughly 9.5 million
people at five persons per family - are at
risk of being evicted from their homes in
forests.
Such violations include, as this story
will detail, allowing forest guards to illegal-
ly decide claims and demands made by gov-
ernments, and asking tribals to furnish
satellite imagery and non-existent 75-year-
old records.
On February 13, 2019, the Supreme
Court ordered that all households whose
rights claims under FRA have been rejected
should be evicted from forests by July

Environment & people 12 March 2019

2019. After widespread criticism and
protests from tribal groups and conserva-
tion scientists, and a petition by the
Centre, the Supreme Court temporarily
stayed its own order on February 28, 2019.
The 21 states involved must now
explain to the Supreme Court how the FRA
claims were accepted or rejected. The states
are:
 Andhra Pradesh
 Assam
 Bihar
 Chhattisgarh
 Goa
 Gujarat
 Himachal Pradesh
 Jharkhand
 Karnataka
 Kerala
 Madhya Pradesh
 Maharashtra
 Manipur
 Odisha
 Rajasthan
 Tamil Nadu
 Telangana
 Tripura
 Uttarakhand
 Uttar Pradesh
 West Bengal
The petitioners before the Supreme
Court, namely Wildlife First, Nature
Conservation Society and Tiger Research
and Conservation Trust, have argued that
the rejection of an FRA claim implies that
the claimant is an encroacher and not a
bona fide forest dweller.
But growing evidence from the ground
- as IndiaSpend reported from
Chhattisgarh in November 2018 - indicates
that a large number of rejections were ille-
gal and arbitrary.
How claims are filed and rejected
The FRA recognises individual rights of
tribals over forest areas, if they can prove
occupation before December 13, 2005. The
claims over forest lands are processed
through a three-tier system: the gram
sabha, or general assembly of the village,
where the claims are first submitted; a sub-
divisional-level committee (SDLC) headed
by a government officer; and a district-level
committee (DLC) headed by the district
collector.
Every forest claim must be accompa-
nied by two documents as evidence, which
could be: documents issued by the govern-
ment; research studies; statement by eld-
ers; and even physical evidence of posses-
sion or use of land, such as wells.
Accompanied by officials from the rev-
enue and forest departments, the gram
sabha's forest rights committee verifies
claims by a field visit, collecting additional
evidence, if needed, from claimants and
witnesses. The committee then submits its
opinion to the gram sabha, which approves
or rejects the claim.
Approved claims are forwarded to the
SDLC for review. If approved, the claim is
forwarded to the DLC, which is the final
legal authority to approve or reject claims.
Appeals against rejection follow the
same order. If the gram sabha or SLDC
rejects a claim, the claimant can appeal to
the SDLC or DLC.
The law says that claimants must be
granted a personal hearing before claims
are rejected, and they must be given - in
writing - the reasons for rejection.
But as our investigations have revealed,
the process does not work as it should.
Satellite imagery and 75-year-old docu-
ments
As of November 2018, nearly half
(46%) of all FRA claims had been rejected
nationwide, according to the latest month-
ly progress report prepared by the Ministry
of Tribal Affairs.
Adivasis (forest dwellers), experts -
and, increasingly, the courts and the gov-
ernment - have not been convinced that
every other forest dweller in India is actual-
ly a post-2005 encroacher.
In Jharkhand, decisions on forest
rights claims are often influenced by the
local forest department, said Father George
Monipally, a priest based in Latehar in cen-
tral Jharkhand, who has worked on forest
rights in the state. "Only the village-level
bodies are empowered to verify claims but
the committees often take decisions based
on statements by forest officials," he said.
In Chhattisgarh, where forests cover
41% of the area and a third of the 25 mil-
lion population belongs to a scheduled
tribe, meaning one of the 645 indigenous
communities protected by the
Constitution, the government illegally
included village-level revenue officials and
forest guards in the forests rights commit-
tees, said Tushar Dash, an independent for-
est rights researcher in Odisha.
"More than half the rejections in
Chhattisgarh were found to be at the gram
sabha level," said Dash. "But many of these
rejections were decided by forest guards or
patwaris."
One case documented by Land Conflict
Watch, an independent network of
researchers and journalists documenting
land conflicts across India, revealed how a
forest-rights claim was rejected by a range
forest officer on the grounds that the
claimant did not live on the land before
2005. Range officers are not authorised to
reject FRA claims. They can only provide
recommendations to claims committees.
Although the FRA rules list numerous
kinds of admissible evidence, including
statements from village elders, permanent
improvements to land such as bunds, and
genealogy tracing ancestry to persons men-
tioned in old land records, states often
make additional demands that are not a
part of the Act.
In Gujarat, for instance, a third of the
118,000 claims filed until 2008 were reject-
ed by SDLCs due to "insufficient evidence",
according to a Gujarat High Court judge-
ment delivered in 2013. The government
insisted on records of the forest depart-
ment as documentary evidence, and
demanded satellite imagery to be sourced
only from a Gandhinagar institute, the
Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space
Applications and Geo-Informatics, accord-
ing to the petitioners in the high court
case, the Gujarat-based non-profit, Action
Research in Community Health and
Development.
The Gujarat government also decided
to process only those claims that could
prove possession before 1980, contrary to
the law. In its 2013 verdict, the Gujarat
high court struck down these require-
ments, observing that "to demand from
such a class of citizens strict proof as
regards their rights would frustrate the
very object with which the Act has been
enacted". The court also asked for a review
of rejected claims.
The problem of evidence is worse for
March 2019 13 Environment & people
"other traditional forest dwellers", those
who do not belong to a scheduled tribe,
who need to prove "continuous existence"
in the forest for 75 years.
"Karnataka put in a rule that said even
the documents submitted as proof have to
be 75 years old," said a former consultant
to India's ministry of tribal affairs, speak-
ing on condition of anonymity. "How is
that even possible especially for a forest-
dwelling family? Would that document not
turn into dust?"
In a statement issued in March 2018,
the ministry said that it had asked chief
secretaries of state governments where the
rejection rates are high, to "mandatorily"
review all such claims from April 1, 2014.
As of November 2018, the latest month
for which data are available, Chhattisgarh
had rejected most individual claims
(455,000), followed by Madhya Pradesh
(350,000) and Maharashtra (120,000).
The missing files of Chittorgarh
Devi Lal and others of the Rawatbhata
block, as we said, were never informed that
their claims were rejected or why.
The tribals filed the claims between
2010 and 2012 to their homes and agricul-
tural fields, no more than a hectare each -
the size of two football fields.
That was the last they saw of their
claim papers. They did not get a receipt or
any acknowledgement that the file was
received, and had not kept a copy for them-
selves.
"We went to the panchayat a number of
times," said Devi Lal. "But every time they
said the file was under process."
Environment & people 14 March 2019
None of them recollected any field ver-
ification of their homes or farms by the for-
est rights committee. Not having heard
about their claims, the farmers prepared
fresh applications in 2017, but when they
tried to submit these to the gram panchay-
at, they were told that their earlier claims
were rejected by the SDLC, so they could
not file a new claim.
That is when the farmers began filing
applications under the 19-year-old Right
To Information (RTI) Act to track their
claims.
Postal receipts of the right-to-informa-
tion requests filed by the Bhil of
Rawatbhata block in Rajasthan's
Chittorgarh to track their claims under the
Forest Rights Act.
The documents they sourced through
RTI showed that the gram panchayat, a
body of elected representatives that gov-
erns a village, had in 2012 sought records
from the forest department for each of the
claims, and a letter from the department
had acknowledged that the request was
under process. There is also an undated
document from the SDLC listing 61 reject-
ed claims, including all applicants from two
hamlets, Amba and Bevda Ki Khal.
The SDLC's actions violate several of
FRA provisions, such as Section 12 (A)(3)
that says a rejection should be conveyed "in
person" so that the claimant can file an
appeal within 60 days; and Section 12
(A)(10) that says the reasons for rejection
must be recorded in writing.
Instead, the RTI responses suggest that
even a forest rights committee was not
formed in the village when the claims were
rejected. The forest rights committee was
constituted only in June 2018, three days
after an RTI was filed seeking the names of
the committee members, according to RTI
responses reviewed by this reporter.
The committee had five members,
though the law says it should have no fewer
than 10. There were no women representa-
tives, as the law says there must be. There
was a "vice president" appointed to the
committee, an illegal position.
"We went to the houses of the FRC [
forest rights committee] members," said
Devi Lal. "None of them had any idea that
they were on any such committee. Some of
them work in the panchayat and were sim-
ply made members."
Confusion among officials, invalid rea-
sons for rejection
Amit Kumar Verma, the sub-divisional
magistrate and head of the SDLC, said he
was not aware of the case of Devi Lal or the
others, as he had taken charge only in late
2018. But, Verma said, his office was will-
ing to rectify any errors, if "brought to my
notice" by the applicants.
According to the files that Verma exam-
ined before this reporter, the SDLC had dis-
patched the orders rejecting the 61 claims
on June 4, 2015. However, copies of the
orders or the reasons for rejecting them
were not available in Verma's office. Verma
said all the orders and files had been dis-
patched to the office of the panchayat
samiti, an intermediate office between the
sub-divisional magistrate and the panchay-
ats.
At the samiti office, the block develop-
ment officer, M.L. Sharma, said he, too,
had taken charge only recently, but accord-
ing to his office records, the forest rights
rejection orders had been forwarded to the
Bhainsrorgarh village panchayat - which
governs the hamlets where Devi Lal and
other claimants live - to be distributed to
the claimants.
At the panchayat, an official who did
not wish to be identified went through all
forest-rights records, but found no record
of FRA rejections. The officer said the files
appeared to have never returned from the
samiti office.
In the panchayat samiti and gram pan-
chayat offices, officials gave reasons for
rejecting the claims but on condition of
(cont.. on page no. 30)
 Climate change is killing off Earth’s lit-
tle creatures
Climate change gets blamed for a lot of
things these days: inundating small
islands, fueling catastrophic fires, amping-
up hurricanes and smashing Arctic sea ice.
But a global review of insect research
has found another casualty: 40% of insect
species are declining and a third are endan-
gered. It confirms what many have been
suspecting: in Australia and around the
world, arthropods – which include insects,
spiders, centipedes and the like — appear
to be in trouble.
The global review comes hard on the
heels of research published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences USA that suggests a potent link
between intensifying heat waves and stun-
ning declines in the abundance of arthro-
pods.
If that study’s findings are broadly valid
– something still far from certain – it has
chilling implications for global biodiversity.
Arthropod Armageddon
In the mid-1970s, researchers on the
Caribbean island of Puerto Rico conducted
a large-scale study to measure the total bio-
mass (living mass) of insects and other
arthropods in the island’s intact rain-
forests, using sweep nets and sticky-traps.
Four decades later, another research
team returned to the island and repeated
the study using identical methods and the
same locations. To their surprise, they
found that arthropod biomass was just
one-eighth to one-sixtieth of that in the
1970s – a shocking collapse overall.
And the carnage didn’t end there. The
team found that a bevy of arthropod-eating
lizards, birds and frogs had fallen sharply
in abundance as well.
In the minds of many ecologists, a
widespread collapse of arthropods could be
downright apocalyptic. Arthropods polli-
nate some of our most important food
crops and thousands of wild plant species,
disperse seeds, recycle nutrients and form
key links in food chains that sustain entire
webs of life.
This ecological ubiquity arises because
arthropods are so abundant and diverse,
comprising at least two-thirds of all known
species on Earth. In the 1940s, evolution-
ary biologist J. B. S. Haldane quipped that
“God has an inordinate fondness for bee- warming was the gun, but El Niño pulled
tles.” Humans might think we rule the the trigger.
world, but the planet really belongs to
arthropods. Beyond heat waves
Puerto Rico is certainly not the only
Killer heat waves place on Earth that has suffered severe
The researchers who documented the declines in arthropods. Robust studies in
arthropod collapse in Puerto Rico consid- Europe, North America, Australia and
ered a variety of possible causes, including other locales have revealed big arthropod
pesticides and habitat disruption. But the declines as well.
evidence kept pointing to another driver: And while climatic factors have con-
rising temperatures. tributed to some of these declines, it’s clear
Weather stations in Puerto Rico indi- that many other environmental changes,
cate that temperatures there have risen such as habitat disruption, pesticides,
progressively in the past several decades – introduced pathogens and light pollution,
by 2? on average. are also taking heavy tolls.
But the researchers are far less worried So, at a planetary scale, arthropods are
about a gradual increase in temperature suffering from a wide variety of environ-
than the intensification of heat waves— mental insults. There’s no single reason
which have risen markedly in Puerto Rico. why their populations are collapsing.
This is because nearly all living species have ( S o u r c e :
thresholds of temperature tolerance. https://theconversation.com/climate-
For example, research in Australia has change-is-killing-off-earths-little-crea-
shown that at 41?, flying foxes become tures-109719)
badly heat-stressed, struggling to find
shade and flapping their wings desperately
to stay cool.
But nudge the thermometer up just one
more degree, to 42?, and the bats suddenly
die.
In November, heat waves that peaked
above 42? in north Queensland killed off
almost a third of the region’s Spectacled
Flying Foxes. The ground beneath bat
colonies was littered with tens of thou-
sands of dead animals. Dedicated animal
carers could only save a small fraction of
the dying bats.
The El Niño connection
El Niño events – fluctuations in Pacific
sea-surface temperatures that drive multi-
year variations in weather across large
swaths of the planet – are also part of this
story. New research appears to be resolving
longstanding uncertainties about El Niños
and global warming.
Recent studies published in Nature and
Geophysical Research Letters suggest glob-
al warming will in fact intensify El Niños –
causing affected areas to suffer even more
intensively from droughts and heat waves.
And this ties back to Puerto Rico,
because the researchers there believe a
series of unusually intense El Niño heat-
waves were the cause the arthropod
Armageddon. If they’re right then global
March 2019 15 Environment & people
Explained: Why Healthcare Reforms Should
Be an Election Issue in 2019
Experts want the public health system
to be “democratised" and policy mak-
ing to be scientific and pro-people.
ew Delhi: As political parties pre-
N
pare their manifestos, a string of
public health professionals have
been preparing “health manifestoes” with
the demand to make healthcare a priority.
Four such documents have been
released by civil society in the past few
months. Seen together, they provide a
thorough look at the number of issues
plaguing Indian health care and how politi-
cal parties can address them.
Today, the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan
released their “People’s Health Manifesto.”
In December, the Alliance of Doctors
for Ethical Healthcare (ADEH), released an
eight point document for political parties.
In February, a range of civil society
leaders released a document called
‘Reclaiming the Republic.’ This also has a
chapter on health reforms.
This month, the Vikalp Sangam has
also released a ‘People’s Manifesto For a
Just, Equitable, and Sustainable India’ with
a chapter on health and hygiene.
Environment & people 16 March 2019
“Abandon Ayushmaan Bharat”
Monday’s release by the Jan Swasthya
Abhiyan has especially focused on the gov-
ernment’s much touted national health
insurance scheme, Ayushmaan Bharat-
Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana
(PMJAY).
The manifesto boldly calls for the
entire programme to be abandoned. This
insurance programme was announced by
the current BJP government in the 2018
budget and received a big boost in this
year’s budget, going from Rs 2,000 crore to
Rs 6,400 crore.
Various estimates have said the scheme
could actually cost the government any-
thing between Rs 12,000 crores to Rs
50,000 crores and the manifesto says this
would be “much better utilized by invest-
ment in expansion of public facilities and
creation of permanent public assets.”
The health professionals also say the
government should abandon public-private
partnerships and stop working with multi-
lateral organisations or corporate consul-
tancies. Ayushmaan Bharat is however
looking to operate largely on a public-pri-
vate model, with the government offering
to fund and subsidise the private sector, as
The Wire has reported.
Health as a well-funded right
This manifesto also repeats a long-
standing demand that the right to health-
care is made a justiciable right. India cur-
rently has a right to education and a right
to food for example, but no specific right to
health. However the right to health is
largely protected under the larger right to
life and by a number of court orders.
The manifesto says that the public
health system should be “democratized and
expanded exponentially” and that policy
making should be scientific and also pro-
people.
It also asks for an increase in public
health financing through taxation, to at
last 3.5% of India’s GDP. This money
should go towards decreasing out of pocket
spending and increasing human resources.
ASHA workers, anganwadi workers and
others in the public health system should
be well paid and protected from unfair
treatment.
Essential drugs and diagnostics should
be entirely free, with lessons learnt from
(cont. on page no. 30)
By Taruna
he feeling of hunger is not the only
T motivation for eating. As food can
make people feel good, many are
guilty of eating even they are not hungry.
Some are tempted to eat when feeling
angry, stressed, sad, or lonely. The worst
part is this makes it easy to fall into the
trap of overeating or eating too much in
one sitting. This can then lead to weight
gain and increased risk of chronic diseases.
If you tend to overeat, it is likely that
you struggle with self-control when it
comes to food. Breaking this cycle can be
challenging, but it is still possible to kick
this habit for good. Family doctors in West
Jordan note that you can start with know-
ing the signs that you’ve overeaten, fol-
lowed with what you can do stop overeat-
ing.
Have you eaten too much?
It is all about how you feel after con-
suming a meal. If you usually feel bloated
or uncomfortable, it is likely that you’ve
eaten too much. Here are a few other things
that can happen to your body when you’ve
eaten more than you should:
Your stomach expands, resulting in
pain or discomfort (feeling swollen or
gassy).
You may feel drowsy or tired.
Heartburn may set in (especially for
greasy foods or those that are harder to
digest).
You may feel extremely full (to the
point that you cannot move well). You may
feel distressed after eating.
You may feel nauseated.
Persistent overeating may signal binge
eating disorder (BED). Common signs
include eating faster than the usual, eating
large amounts of food (even when you’re
not hungry), and consuming food until you
feel uncomfortably full. It is best to work
with a dietician or a family doctor if you
regularly notice the signs of both BED and
overeating.
How to stop overeating?
Here are some of the things that can
help you kick the habit of overeating:
Track what you eat. This means record-
ing your food choices, including when, why,
and how much you consume. This is bene-
ficial in controlling food portions.
Avoid distractions. Eating or snacking
in front of the TV, computer, or any gadget
can cause you to overeat. Be sure to switch
off or stay away from any distraction so you
can focus on your meal and prevent
overeating.
Engage in mindful eating. This means
eating slowly, taking smaller bites, and
chewing thoroughly. This allows your brain
to get the signal that your stomach is full.
Mindful eating, furthermore, helps you to
be aware of your senses and emotions to
appreciate your food.
Watch your portions. This applies both
when eating at home or at restaurants. You
can do this by eating a single serving
according to the food label and avoiding
buffets. You can also share a meal with a
friend and choose healthier options.
Reduce stress. Everyday stress increas-
es the likelihood of overeating, so it best to
find ways to lower stress levels in your life.
Some of the things that can help include
exercise, meditation, gardening, yoga, and
listening to music.
Eat at the same times daily. Apart from
helping you lose weight, regular mealtimes
are also good for your BMI and blood pres-
sure. If you, on the other hand, eat at dif-
ferent times or skip meals, you are more
likely to eat later in the day.
Make healthy foods accessible.
Preparing healthy food choice enables you
to make better choices, especially if you
want a snack. Keep unhealthy foods out of
sight or stop buying and keeping unhealthy
foods in the pantry or fridge.
Don’t let overeating take you over.
Consider the tips and signs of overeating
mentioned above or get help from health-
care professionals like doctors, dieticians,
or psychologists.
(Source: www.healthlogus.com)
March 2019 17 Environment & people
 n Cambodia, for example, Like their better-known

I millions of people rely direct-

Olivia DeSmit
For many people in develop-
ing countries, freshwater
fisheries are their lifeline.
ly on the Tonlé Sap lake, the
largest lake in Southeast Asia, for
their food and income. But over-
fishing has depleted stocks of
fish there, perpetuating poverty
in one of the region’s poorest
countries.
So, how to boost fish stocks
without hampering people’s abil-
ity to eat and make a living?
marine counterparts, Hannah
says, freshwater protected areas
don’t benefit just wildlife. The
study shows they’re good for
people, too. Human Nature
interviewed Hannah to explain.
Question: What was the
biggest takeaway from this
study?
Answer: The thing that sur-

One answer is to establish

freshwater protected areas, new
research finds.
A study recently published in
the journal Ecological Modeling
by Lee Hannah, senior scientist
for climate change biology at
Conservation International, and
co-authors, found that establish-
ing protected areas within fresh-
water fisheries can actually help
pull local communities out of the
poverty cycle.
prised us was that protected areas for fish-
ing benefits work in freshwater systems
much the same as for marine systems. We’ve
known that protected areas in marine sys-
tems improve fishing benefits, but freshwa-
ter systems are different in a lot of ways, so
it wasn’t entirely clear that that same princi-
ple was going to work. Conservationists
have also known that freshwater protected
areas offered benefits for wildlife, but they
never knew they could actually help gener-
ate more food and income for local commu-
nities, who often rely on the freshwater fish-
eries for survival. What we were able to
show using our model is that fisheries with-
in freshwater systems benefit from protect-
ed areas, which in turn benefits local com-
munities.
Q: Aside from the obvious, how are
freshwater and marine fisheries different?
A: Marine fisheries use big boats to tar-
get a specific fish species and record their
catch, so things for the most part are pretty
well tracked. It’s not perfect, but it’s on a
larger scale and more advanced than fresh-
water fisheries. Freshwater fisheries are
usually very small, family-driven and are not
targeting a specific species, but rather what-
ever they can catch in order to eat or sell,
and they don’t track their catch. However,
we found that despite all of these differ-
ences, protected areas — whether freshwa-
ter or marine — benefit the communities
and people who depend on them.
Q: Where did the idea for this project
come from?
A: Communities living in the Tonle Sap
region had noticed they were catching less
fish and were concerned for their futures, so
they actually approached Conservation
International asking for help. Now we have
been working in the region for almost 10
years studying how external forces, such as
climate change and upstream dams, affect
freshwater fisheries, and this project is an
expansion of that. We were able to adapt the
marine systems model to the Tonle Sap
region using data from previous projects
with the Belmont Forum to study how local
communities could escape the poverty cycle.
We found that benefits of protecting the
freshwater fishery increase until you get to
50 percent of area protected. At that point,
the access to the lake is so limited that peo-
ple are unable to reap the full benefits of
recovered fish populations. One big consid-
eration with this model is that there are two
different ways to implement it. Some fami-
lies use the fish solely for protein and sell
whatever is left, in which case, the protected
area should be smaller, allowing families
more access to fish, but other families use
the fish as income, which means the bigger
the fish, the more income, so the protected
area should be larger to allow the fish to
grow. But, all of that requires that families
aren’t fishing hand to mouth.
At first, the benefits do decline since
fishers are now unable to access previously
used waters, but after a few years — once
stocks have recovered — fish from the pro-
tected area begin swimming outside of it
and into the surrounding community fish-
ing areas. This is known as the “blue halo.”
Q: A rather gloomy recent news report
indicated that people living in the Tonle Sap
region are stuck in an endless cycle of pover-
ty. What is your response to that?
A: They are in a cycle of poverty, but I
think there is still hope. Our model helps
determine what exactly is necessary to get
out of that cycle of poverty. People are real-
izing that yes, it’s overfished, but the model
shows there is a way out of that and to get
more fish out of the lake. Protected areas are
going to reduce the fish catch for a while,
but in the longer term, somewhat paradoxi-
cally, fishing less yields more fish. But,
there’s a short-term price for that, and the
impoverished fishers are not going to be the
ones to pay that price — there must be
external assistance, whether from govern-
ments or non-governmental organizations,
to help them get through that problem and
break the cycle of poverty.
Q: What’s the next step for this
research?
A: The next thing that needs to be done
is to try and test this out in the field, and
Conservation International is working with
community fisheries to develop alternative
income sources so they aren’t so dependent
on the fisheries and to establish conserva-
tion areas within the fisheries. Our goal is to
get to a place where communities are getting
better fishery returns. There are a lot of
other countries that get huge amounts of
protein out of freshwater fisheries in similar
settings, and that’s why we wanted to look
at the Tonle Sap region, because the data we
gather can be applied to other countries and
help them sustainably manage their fresh-
water fisheries.
(Source: conservation.org)
Raising Environmentally-Responsible Kids?
These 7 Books Make It Simple & Fun!
Asking questions like who owns water or pointing facts 3. So You Want to Know About
about how many times plastic can be recycled, these books
introduce your little ones to concepts like conservation, coex- the Environment, Bijal
istence, waste reduction and child rights, among others! Vachharajani
Here are some books by well-regarded Indian authors that, Did you know that the water you’re drinking
without being moralistic or dull, encourage young readers to could be the very same water that dinosaurs
reflect on environmental issues and the strands of kinship drank billions of years ago? Or that climate
that bind us to the non-human world. change is putting the world’s chocolate supply in
grave danger?
Peppered with activities, experiments, quizzes and crafts, this book
allows readers to engage with the problem of climate change. Who
wouldn’t love mapping their family’s mood swings as the weather
1. Water Stories from changes or doing a smell test that allows you to eat a whole lot of yummy
food?
around the World, Various The author’s laidback narrative and clever humour make complex
Authors topics like ocean pollution and food sustainability accessible to young
readers. Children may be its stated target, but there’s a lot for adults to
Children are taught in school to take away from this book, too.
save water but when told through beau-
tifully illustrated, imaginative tales,
they understand much better that water belongs to every-
body and that we share the responsibility to use it carefully. 4. Catch That Crocodile,
‘Who owns water?’, ‘What causes droughts?’, ‘How can we Anushka Ravishankar
share water?’ —These are just some of the fascinating and
Another book from the stable of
important questions this book urges children to think about.
Anushka Ravishankar, who, with her non-
A compilation of retold folktales and mythology from 11
sensical rhymes and communicative
countries, it is accompanied by vivid illustrations of water
typography, delights readers of all ages.
from these cultures. It also carries the message of under-
When an escaped crocodile is suddenly
standing water, valuing and protecting it.
found in a ditch one day, the whole town is
sent into a tizzy. Between Policeman
Probin and his stick, and Doctor Dutta armed with his potions,
2. Ouch & Moo, Trupti deciding the future of the croc brings some of the town’s strongest
men to their knees.
Godbole, Govind Mukundan As we weigh the reptile’s options, the author introduces a sub-
and Poonam Bir Kasturi tle message of conservation and coexistence (‘Who says a croco-
Published by Daily Dump, a dile should be caught?’). Do more peaceful methods to guide the
Bengaluru-based waste solutions com- reptile home triumph over the portly wrestler Bhayanak Singh’s
pany, this set of two illustrated books tactics to terrify the hapless beast back to whence he came?
draws children’s attention to the prob-
lem of plastic bags and the impact this
everyday material has on the environment.
Packed with activities (‘plant a banana peel and a plastic
bag and see which decomposes in the soil’) and real-world
examples, it points readers to some important facts about
plastic (‘how many times can plastic be recycled?’).
The Red and Yellow Ouch and Moo books help children
differentiate between man-made and natural things and
understand where they all go once we are done with them. It
also includes some concrete steps that a child can take in her
daily routine to build the habit of reducing, reusing and recy-
cling.
 5. Trash! On Ragpicker Children
and Recycling, Gita Wolf and
Anushka Ravishankar
Fact and fiction blur in this poignant book
that the authors say was the result of workshops
done with rag-picking children. It introduces
readers to the world of waste and helps them
empathise with the people behind the waste
industry.
The protagonists—street children, Velu and Jaya—are ragpickers
who give us an inside look into what happens to our waste once it leaves
our homes. It introduces readers to reusing and recycling.
The book addresses some important issues—social discrimination
against waste pickers, child rights, and waste reduction. It also urges
readers to observe the world around them more closely and see how
they change their behaviour.
For instance, in Houses From Trash, it asks children to observe a
slum dwelling and notice how ‘what some people throw away as waste is
valuable to others’. The book makes readers sit up and take notice of the
often invisible people who keep the wheels of the waste industry turn-
ing.
7. The Honey Hunter, Karthika Nair
An evocatively illustrated book that tells the
6. The Water Catchers, Bhairavi story of Shonu, his parents who are honey-gather-
Parekh ers, and Bonbibi, the presiding demon-tiger deity of
the Sunderbans—a delicate and fascinating place in
This book takes readers along on a wild ride
flux.
from flood-prone Mumbai to drought-hit
One day, struck by hunger, Shonu defies the car-
Gujarat as Chintu sets off to solve an ancient
dinal rule of the honey-hunters and sets off into the
mystery and rescue his ancestral village from
heart of the mangrove forest to find some honey.
running dry. (Source: www.thebetterindia.com)
Every drop of water in his grandfather’s
beloved Tintodan is precious and must be
saved, but does Chintu have what it takes to win the race against time
and save the people?
Reality-bending adventures, ancient prophecies and magical char-
acters come together to bridge the gap between reality and fantasy and
leave readers with a new respect for this life-giving resource.
 What Is Matula Tea and
what it is made of??
By Taruna
rinking matula tea is a fantastic method to support
D
Africa.
your gastrointestinal wellbeing by utilizing old cus-
tomary information from indigenous clans in
What is Matula Tea?
Matula tea is a solid home grown refreshment that is
fermented with a blend of plants from the southern dis-
tricts of Africa. While the fixings may change contingent
upon singular arrangements, the normal parts of this tea
are wild garlic, guava leaf, olive leaf, Syzygium Cordathus,
licorice, rooibos tea, Artemesia Afra, and Cyclopia
Intermedia. As a mix, this tea has been utilized for quite a
long time in various African clans to relieve various wellbe-
ing concerns, especially those identified with the stomach,
for example, ulcers and acid reflux.
There is no caffeine in this tea, and the taste is firmly
hearty, like an unsweetened green tea, yet when you
include common sweeteners, it is certainly agreeable.
How to Make Matula Tea?
In the event that you need to make your own particu-
Environment & people 22 March 2019
lar tea at home, you can set up a blend of those herbs and
plants specified above, despite the fact that purchasing
pre-bundled matula leaves or powder is exceedingly sug-
gested.
Stage 1 – Bring a pan of water to bubble.
Stage 2 – Add 1-2 teaspoons of matula powder or dried
blend to a tea maker/tea kettle.
Stage 3 – Pour over the heated water and enable the
blend to soak for 4-5 minutes.
Stage 4 – Strain out the powder/leaves and include
nectar or another regular sweetener, if need.
Matula Tea for H. pylori?
Numerous individuals guarantee that the dynamic fix-
ings in this tea can kill H. pylori to a high degree – over
90% end. This microscopic organisms is extremely normal,
and keeping in mind that extra research is required, the
early reports demonstrate that this tea is a fantastic solu-
tion for this bacterium.
Matula Tea Side Effects
There are some symptoms of this tea, to be specific
swelling and sickness, in uncommon cases.
 Eco Tourism
lthough Kodai can be visited
A throughout the year but it looks pic-
turesque and provide best touring
option during the months between April
and September.
Weather : Kodai experiences tropical
cool climate with negligible variations
throughout the year. The maximum tem-
perature during summers is 19.80 degree
centigrade while winters are cooler with a
little variation in temperature. The mini-
mum temperature recorded during winter
season remains around 17.30 degree centi-
grade.
Known For : Bewitching beauty and its
lake. The pleasant climate here is a major
temptation.
KodaikanalKodaikanal
Kodai is an ultimate splendor spot for
those who love being close to mother
nature. They say every bird must sing it's
own throat while we say every traveller
should find his own way out of variegated
and unblemished paths of deep valleys and
steep mountains. And why would a nature
eccentric would go on the same path that
everybody else follows. While at Kodai, we
would recommend you to take all the oppo-
site turns and follow unknown paths.
Kodaikanal offers a variety of breathtaking
spots and attractions to lure travellers.
At Kodai, you will find a number of vir-
gin spots of attractions, which are
untouched and undisturbed by human pres-
ence. So if you are also set for such a twist-
ing and turning journey across the green
valley, we would make a request to maintain
the sanctity of place that you visit. The
pleasurable scenic beauty of Kodai will defi-
nitely enslave you. The sweet chirping
sound of the singing birds combined with
the witching beauty offers a great stroll
around Kodai.
Eco-tourism in Kodaikanal
Guna Caves
With loose and wobbly rocks, these
caves are also known as the Devil's kitchen
for there is amusing variety of plants and
small insects that are found here. These
caves have a bat infested chamber which
sets between three boulders which has a
mention in a book as well. The scary sights
of the cave are loved by teenagers who
stand outside the cave and shout their
names to hear their scaring echoes.
Kodai lake
The deserted roads of Kodai will take
you to Kodaikanal. This 6km long lake is
famous for walking strolls and bicycle tours.
So you can trip around Kodai without
harming the ecological balance by the
fumes of Jeeps. The splendid flora with its
flowering beauty lures the attention all. If
Kodaikanal
lucky enough, you may spot a rare bird and
have a view of birds romancing under the
green woods that adorn Kodai.
Berijam Lake
A great spot for those who wish to live
secluded, amidst refreshing as well as
charming setting of mother nature. Only a
few kilometers from Kodai, this calm and
soothing lake is a reservoir of witching
fauna. This star shaped lake is famous for
its pure water. You may need to take permit
from Forest Department 24hrs in advance.
Waterfalls
There are a few waterfalls that drench
the hills at Kodai. When water rushes down
from steep slopes and precipitous paths of
Kodai, the whole aura looks magnificent.
Silver Cascade is located 8km off Kodai and
is a witching fall. Bear Shola Falls are other
important falls here. These waterfalls are
famous for bears which used to come here
for water. The third major waterfall of
Kodai are Thalaiyar falls. It is the widest
waterfall here with a sheer drop from a
height of 957ft. These splendid waterfalls
are so magnificent that even a maundering
trip can let you explore very interesting
shrubs and small plants.
March 2019 23 Environment & people
 The world produces 50 mil-
lion tonnes of electronic and
electrical waste (e-waste) per
year, according to a recent
UN report, but only 20% is
formally recycled. Much of
the rest ends up in landfill, or
is recycled informally in
developing nations.
ndia generates more than two mil-
encountered hundreds of people,
including children, handling different
types of electronic waste including dis-
carded televisions, air-conditioners,
computers, phones and batteries.
Squatting outside shop units they
were busy dismantling these products
and sorting circuit boards, capacitors,
metals and other components (without
proper tools, gloves, face masks or suit-
able footwear) to be sold on to other
dium. The process involves acid burning
and open incineration, creating toxic
gases with severe health and environ-
mental consequences.
Workers come to Seelampur desper-
ate for work. We learned that workers
can earn between 200 and 800 rupees
(A$4-16) per day. Women and children
are paid the least; men who are involved
with the extraction of metals and acid-
leeching are paid more.

I lion tonnes of e-waste annually, and

also imports undisclosed amounts
of e-waste from other countries from
traders for further recycling.
Local people said the waste comes
here from all over India. “You should
have come here early morning, when
Income is linked to how much work-
ers dismantle and the quality of what is
extracted. They work 8-10 hours per
day, without any apparent regard for
around the world – including Australia. the trucks arrive with all the waste,” a their own well-being. We were told by a
We visited India to examine these trolley driver told us. local government representative that
conditions ourselves, and reveal some Seelampur is the largest e-waste respiratory problems are reportedly
of the devastating effects e-waste recy- dismantling market in India. Each day common among those working in these
cling has on workers’ health and the e-waste is dumped by the truckload for filthy smoke-filled conditions.
environment. thousands of workers using crude Delhi has significant air and water
methods to extract reusable compo- pollution problems that authorities
Indian e-waste nents and precious metals such as cop- struggle to mitigate. We were surprised
More than 95% of India’s e-waste is per, tin, silver, gold, titanium and palla- to learn that the recycling community
processed by a widely distributed net-
work of informal workers of waste pick-
ers. They are often referred to as
“kabadiwalas” or “raddiwalas” who col-
lect, dismantle and recycle it and oper-
ate illegally outside of any regulated or
formal organisational system. Little has
changed since India introduced e-waste
management legislation in 2016.
We visited e-waste dismantlers on
Delhi’s outskirts. Along the narrow and
congested alleyways in Seelampur we

Environment & people 24 March 2019

does not like to discuss “pollution”, so as
not to raise concerns that could result in
a police raid. When we asked about the
burning of e-waste, they denied it takes
place. Locals were reluctant to talk to us
in any detail. They live in fear that their
trade will be shut down during one of
the regular police patrols in an attempt
to curb Delhi’s critical air and water
problems.
As a result of this fear, e-waste burn-
ing and acid washing are often hidden
from view in the outskirts of Delhi and
the neighbouring states of Uttar
Pradesh and Haryana, or done at night
when there is less risk of a police raid.
Incidentally, while moving around
Seelampur we were shocked to see chil-
dren playing in drains clogged with
dumped waste. During the drier months
drains can catch fire, often deliberately
lit to reduce waste accumulation.
After our tour of Seelampur we visit-
ed Mandoli, a region near Delhi where
we were told e-waste burning takes
place. When we arrived and asked about
e-waste recycling we were initially met
with denials that such places exist. But
after some persistence we were directed
along narrow, rutted laneways to an
industrial area flanked by fortified
buildings with large locked metal doors
and peephole slots not dissimilar to a
prison.
We arranged entry to one of these
units. Among the swirling clouds of
thick, acrid smoke, four or so women
were burning electrical cables over a coal
fire to extract copper and other metals.
They were reluctant to talk and very
cautious with their replies, but they did
tell us they were somewhat aware of the
health and environmental implications
of the work.
We could not stay more than a few
minutes in these filthy conditions. As
we left we asked an elderly gentleman if
people here suffer from asthma or simi-
lar conditions. He claimed that deaths
due to respiratory problems are com-
mon. We also learned that most of these
units are illegal and operate at night to
avoid detection. Pollution levels are
often worse at night and affect the sur-
rounding residential areas and even the
prisoners at the nearby Mandoli Jail.
We had the luxury of being able to
leave after our visit. It is devastating to
think of the residents, workers and their
children who spend their lives living
among this toxic waste and breathing
poisonous air.
Field trips such as this help illustrate
a tragic paradox of e-waste recycling in
developed versus developing nations. In
Australia and many other advanced
industrialised economies, e-waste col-
lection is low and little is recycled. In
India, e-waste collection and recycling
rates are remarkably high.
(Source: theconversation.com)
March 2019 25 Environment & people
Eighteen countries from devel-
oped economies have had
declining carbon dioxide emis-
sions from fossil fuels for at least
a decade. While every nation is
unique, they share some com-
mon themes that can show
Australia, and the world, a
viable path to reducing emis-
sions.
lobal CO2 emissions from fossil
G fuels continue to increase, with
record high emissions in 2018 and
further growth anticipated for 2019. This
trend is linked to global economic growth,
which is largely still powered by the burn-
ing of fossil fuels.
Environment & people 26 March 2019
Significant reductions in the energy
and carbon intensities of the global econo-
my have not been sufficient to trigger
decreases in global emissions.
But 18 countries have been doing
something different. A new analysis sheds
light on how they have changed their emis-
sion trajectories. There is no “silver bullet”,
and every country has unique characteris-
tics, but three elements emerge from the
group: a high penetration of renewable
energy in the electricity sector, a decline in
energy use, and a high number of energy
and climate policies in place. Something is
working for these countries.
Australia was not part of the study, as
its CO2 emissions from the burning of fos-
sil fuels remained largely stable over the
study period 2005-2015 while the coun-
try’s economy grew. However, emissions of
all greenhouse gases across all sectors of
the economy (including land use change)
declined over most of the same period, a
trend that reversed in 2014 since when
emissions have increased.
Why did emissions decline?
The 18 countries shown below all
peaked their fossil fuel emissions no later
than 2005 and had significant declines
thereafter to 2015, the period covered by
our study.
Uniformly, the largest contribution to
emissions reductions – about 47% – was
due to decreases in the fossil share of ener-
gy production, while reductions in overall
energy use contributed 36%.
However, there are large differences in
the relative importance of the factors that drove
Is intelligence deter-
emissions reductions in the various countries.
For instance, reduced energy use dominated
emissions reductions in many countries of the
mined by genetics?
European Union, whereas a more balanced Like most aspects of human behavior and cognition, intel-
spread of factors dominated in the United ligence is a complex trait that is influenced by both genet-
States, with the single largest contributor being ic and environmental factors.
the switch from coal to gas. Emissions reduc-
ntelligence is challenging to study, in part because it can be defined and
tions in Austria, Finland and Sweden were due
to an increased share of non-fossil and renew-
able energy.
Interestingly, our analyses suggest that
I measured in different ways. Most definitions of intelligence include the
ability to learn from experiences and adapt to changing environments.
Elements of intelligence include the ability to reason, plan, solve problems,
think abstractly, and understand complex ideas. Many studies rely on a meas-
there is a correlation between the number of
ure of intelligence called the intelligence quotient (IQ).
policies to promote the uptake of renewable
Researchers have conducted many studies to look for genes that influence
energy and the decline in the 18 countries.
intelligence. Many of these studies have focused on similarities and differ-
The declining emissions were not caused by
ences in IQ within families, particularly looking at adopted children and
the consumption of products produced else-
twins. These studies suggest that genetic factors underlie about 50 percent of
where during the period examined. Earlier in
the difference in intelligence among individuals. Other studies have examined
the 2000s, this practice of outsourcing emis-
variations across the entire genomes of many people (an approach called
sions to other countries (for example by moving
genome-wide association studies or GWAS) to determine whether any specif-
manufacturing offshore) was a significant driv-
ic areas of the genome are associated with IQ. These studies have not conclu-
er of emissions decline in many developed coun-
sively identified any genes that underlie differences in intelligence. It is likely
tries. But that effect has diminished.
that a large number of genes are involved, each of which makes only a small
The lasting consequences of the 2008 global
contribution to a person’s intelligence.
financial crisis on the global economy however
Intelligence is also strongly influenced by the environment. Factors relat-
did have an impact, and partially explained the
ed to a child’s home environment and parenting, education and availability of
reduced energy use in many countries.
learning resources, and nutrition, among others, all contribute to intelligence.
A person’s environment and genes influence each other, and it can be chal-
How significant are these emissions declines?
lenging to tease apart the effects of the environment from those of genetics.
Emissions declined by 2.4% per year during
For example, if a child’s IQ is similar to that of his or her parents, is that sim-
2005-15 across the 18 countries.
ilarity due to genetic factors passed down from parent to child, to shared envi-
One could argue this decline is not particu-
ronmental factors, or (most likely) to a combination of both? It is clear that
larly meaningful because global fossil fuel emis-
both environmental and genetic factors play a part in determining intelli-
sions continued to grow at 2.2% per year during
gence.
the same period. However, this group of coun-
tries is responsible for 28% of the global CO2
emissions from fossil fuels. That is a sizeable
fraction, and if the decline continues and fur-
ther intensifies it can have a significant impact.
The 18 peak-and-decline countries also
played a part in the stalling of global emissions
between 2014 and 2016 while the global econo-
my continued to grow, a combination that
showed, briefly and for the first time, what
accelerated decarbonisation would look like.
While China did not have 10 years of continu-
ous declining emissions (and hence it was not
part of the group of 18 countries), it was the
biggest contributor during this stalling.
There is no guarantee that the declining
trends will continue over the coming decades. In
fact, our global 2018 carbon budget report
showed that some of the more recent country
trends are fragile and require further policy and
actions to strengthen the decreases and support
long-term robust decarbonisation trends.
(Source: theconversation.com)

March 2019 27 Environment & people

Harvesting
Rainwater &
Organic Food, This
Green Lakeside
Home Is a Labour
of Love!
by Jovita Aranha

Located about 125 km from Mumbai, nestled

in the lap of nature, with a spectacular view of
the Pawna lake and Tungi hills, lies Deogadh,
the Homestay.
hen Bandra-based Anabelle Ferro and Clement

W DeSylva married in 1991, the couple nurtured a

dream to build a home in Goa away from the chaos
of city life and in tune with nature.
Unlike today, it was more cumbersome to hunt and buy
real estate in the 90s. There were no websites or transactions
online. Information was scarce, and one had to rely on sup-
plements, newspapers, and bulletins for it.
And so, eight years passed and their dream was far from
being a reality. Until Clement, an architect by profession
received a commission to build a home in Pawna.
The serenity and beauty of the place enthralled him. A
dip in the lake at the end of a work day would take all the
exhaustion away. When he took Annabelle on a trip to
Pawna, the couple realised they had finally found the perfect
location for their dream home.
Located about 125 km from Mumbai, nestled in the lap
of nature, with a spectacular view of the Pawna lake and
Tungi hills, lies Deogadh, the Homestay.
Fondly known among the villagers as DeSylvancha
Bangla (the bungalow of the DeSylva's), the home, spread
over a vast area of 3,500 sq ft, is built with natural, locally-
sourced material.
Clement's inspiration to build the sustainable home came
from what Mahatma Gandhi once told renowned architect
Laurie Baker.
"When you build a home, construct it with material
found within one km radius of your site."
And so, skipping the use of reinforced cement concrete
(RCC), Clement began building the home with stone. Perhaps
it was a stroke of luck that quarrying for the construction of
Mumbai-Pune expressway started around the same time.
Thus, with the help of several villagers, Clement was able to
source stone in large quantities.
The home is a blend of modern and traditional architecture. From a
picturesque porch to rugged stone arches, walls covered with trellises,
large wooden doors and windows reused from an old bungalow in
Alibaug, the entire house seems to have sprung up from the earth!
For its water needs, the house depends on rooftop rainwater har-
vesting. Apart from an orchard with over 50 mango trees, it also boasts
of an organic farm where most of the veggies, as well as grains, are
grown.
When they first started living in the home, Anabelle and Clement
managed without electricity. The insulated walls, the low windows, and
the passive air cooling helped considerably.
"The area suffered power cuts for long hauls. Sometimes there
would be no electricity for two-three weeks. So, we decide to build the
home in a way where it wouldn't require lights or fans. But once our
twin daughters were born, Annabelle would often joke about having to
change diapers in the night in the candlelight saying, 'I am afraid I'll put
the diapers on the babies' head instead of their bottoms!' And so, we had
to take electricity connection," recalls Clement.
Till date, they have not needed to install an air conditioner.
Deogadh continues to be a second home for the couple. It was only

Environment & people 28 March 2019

four years ago that they decided to
convert it into a homestay.
"I design homes for a living. And I
firmly believe that homes fall apart if
they are not lived-in. So, when the girls
went to college, we decided to run it as
a homestay. A farmer from the village
approached us who was being cheated
by land sharks. He told us, he wanted
only us to buy his land. And he came
from a difficult background. Of course,
we couldn't build another home on the
land since we already had one. But
later we purchased that piece of land
and set up a campsite which now runs
under our venture Camp Deogadh."
During its construction, the couple
laboured together with the villagers
and often slept under the stars.
What first began as a single room,
now has a spacious living room, two
bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, a stor-
age room and most importantly, a
front porch with a hammock with the
Pawna Lake and Tungi hill in-view.
From birthday parties to weekend
getaways and barbecues, the homestay
is a place to create happy memories,
says the feedback from the customers.
Apart from mangoes that
Annabelle loves to pluck for the guests,
their orchard has a range of fruit trees
like lychee, sapota, custard apple,
cashew, lemon, papaya, and love apple
among others. The grove is lush with
Gulmohar trees, bamboo, various
herbs, and an age-old banyan tree.
Much of the food cooked for the
guests including rice and a few vegeta-
bles, come from their organic farm.
"Whenever we think we are run-
ning out of food, the organic farm
comes in handy. You can step out,
pluck a few veggies, wash them and
whip up a dish," says Clement.
Camp Deogadh
The campsite is spread over 1.5
acres and has state-of-the-art Coleman
tents.
While many campsites are infa-
mous for their lack of sanitation, the
DeSylva's have gone the extra mile to
ensure hygiene.
They have western toilets with
bidet sprays. Besides, the tents also
have plug points for campers.
While trekkers climb the hills and
take a dip at the nearest waterfall,
birdwatchers can be found peering
through their binoculars at egrets in
flight. Forts like Tunghe, Vishapur,
Lohegad, Tikona & Bedse caves are
also close-by.
Campers go swimming, windsurf-
ing or kayaking in the lake just down
the road.
Like the porch is to the homestay,
the Agni is to the campsite.
From photography, star gazing,
discussions, sharing of anecdotes, and
memories, the campfire is fondly
named Agni. It has three rows of seat-
ing like a mini amphitheatre and is a
space for many activities like theatre
workshops, stand-up comedy acts,
poetry slams, independent film
screenings, reiki, yoga and farm-to-
table cooking sessions in the space.
Whenever in Pawna, the couple
stays in their private quarters on the
first floor of the homestay giving their
guests privacy. The warm and friendly
couple love to make their guests at
home and in their absence, the care-
takers ensure that the guests have a
comfortable and memorable stay.
Annabelle and Clement continue to
share a great rapport with the villagers
as well, often being invited to share
meals.
The next time you are in Pawna do
not forget to check out this eco-friend-
ly place.
(Source: thebetterindia.com)
March 2019 29 Environment & people
(page no. 16 conyt...)
schemes already running in Tamil Nadu, Delhi
and Rajasthan. Vaccines should also be made more
easily available and drug discovery and production
needs government help, says the manifesto.
Generic medicines should be promoted.
Corruption in healthcare needs to be tackled.
The document says attention needs to be paid to
medical education, to appointments and funding
in the public health system and to the business
models of private hospitals.
The manifesto also says that political parties
should pay special attention to the health of
women, Dalits, Adivasis, particularly vulnerable
tribals, refugees, migrants, queer and transgender
people, people in conflict zones, people with haz-
ardous occupations (such as manual scavengers),
differently abled people, children and the elderly.
A range of health manifestos
While JSA’s manifesto and its 29 points is
broad in its sweep, the eight-point manifesto
released by ADEH in December placed specific
focus on pricing and corruption in the medical
field.
They asked political parties to find ways to
control the prices of drugs and devices, such as
through trade margin caps. They also urged gov-
ernments to not leap into private health insurance
tie ups. Medical education should be cleaned up,
with tuition fees regulated, said this document.
In February, ‘Reclaiming the Republic’ released
six key points in their manifesto, for political par-
ties to look into. Their primary thrust area was
also an increase in health care spending, to at least
3%.
Further, they asked the government to pro-
mote cheaper generic drugs and through a pooled
procurement of drugs, which will bring down
prices even further. They also focused on issues
with human resources in health care, suggesting
that there be a public health cadre for primary care
and workers should not be temporary or contract-
ed but should be permanent staff.
Vikalp Sangam’s ‘People’s Manifesto for a Just,
Equitable and Sustainable India’ released this
month focusses on health and hygiene. This mani-
festo says that ill health needs to be improved by
focusing on its many basic components, many of
which are social determinants for health such as
nutrition, water, sanitation and the environment.
It also says that medical systems should be plu-
ralistic and integrate modern medicine with tradi-
tional, indigenous medicine, nature cures,
Ayurveda, Unani and so on. This idea has been
echoed in all manifestos except ADEH’s.
(Source: thewire.in)
Environment & people 30 March 2019
(page no. 14 cont..)
anonymity. The reasons varied: Some said the land was unsurveyed, others said the
claims were rejected because the hamlets Amba and Bevda Ki Khal fall within the
nearby Jawahar Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary.
None of these are valid reasons under the law. The claimants have indeed
received encroachment notices from the forest department, but if a wildlife sanctu-
ary is involved, the FRA states that the relocation of forest dwellers is only the last
resort; rights must first be settled.
Not informing claimants about rejections is not unique to Rajasthan.
A 2017 audit of the Odisha state government by the Comptroller and Auditor
General of India, which checked 51 rejected claims, found 35 to have been "irregu-
larly rejected" and their claimants "not intimated about the rejection".
In a plea filed before the Supreme Court on February 27, 2019, the tribal affairs
ministry argued that the court's order should be modified to stall evictions until all
states had reviewed the rejections. The affidavit said the ministry was aware of con-
cerns around rejections, including a high rate of rejections and "non-communica-
tion of rejection order" (sic).
Back in Chittorgarh, such a modification might provide not just relief from evic-
tion but perhaps also help locate the documents the Bhil filed seven years ago to
claim their land rights.
"The district administration just makes people run around between offices, giv-
ing reasons orally," said Bapu Nath of Buld Mazdoor Kisan Samiti, a local advocacy
that has helped Bhil farmers file claims and RTI applications.
Without a written order, they [the Bhils] cannot appeal or know if they could
have corrected the claim application," said Nath. "Because of our RTIs, at least they
began digging out old files.
(Source: thewire.in)
(page no. 11 cont...)
India's electric tube-wells receive electricity subsidy worth Rs 700 billion annual-
ly. He said that doing this will also contribute to India's ambitious target of
achieving 100 GW of installed solar capacity by 2022.
Shah added, "Given that governments fear a strong backlash from farmers for
reducing or eliminating power subsidies, the Dhundi model offers a painless
option to the governments to eliminate farm power subsidies and reversing the
perverse incentives it creates for farmers to overuse energy and ground-water."
State governments, Shah said, have so far promoted solar irrigation pumps
only by o?ering 70%-95% subsidy on capital cost to farmers who opt out of the
queue for grid power connections. "But a power purchase guarantee, on the lines
of Dhundi model, can encourage farmers to aggressively take to solar pumps at far
lower capital subsidy," he said.
Opposing views however, claim that incentivising solar energy in India's
farms can spell a disaster for the country's economy and ground-water. In a paper,
Solar Irrigation Cooperatives: Creating the Frankenstein's Monster for India's
Groundwater, published by the Institute of Resource Analysis and Policy in
November 2017, the authors have argued that instead of committing such eco-
nomic blunders, we need to wait till solar photovaultic systems become cheap
through technological breakthroughs and market conditions become highly
favourable.
"As it stands now, to keep such experiments afloat, a large amount of money
will have to be pumped in. Replication of such experiments can only perpetuate
pervasive subsidies, which, once rolled out on a large-scale, will be difficult to
revoke," the authors have argued and added that it can also lead to over-exploita-
tion of ground-water resources.
However, Shah says that Dhundi model is a practical solution to potential
groundwater exploitation by solar pumps as it motivates farmers to sell energy
and use it judiciously. According to him, the government should lower the elec-
tricity subsidies to a modest rate and enable farmers to sell back surplus solar
power to the utility grid.
(Source: scroll.in/article)
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March 2019 31 Environment & people


Eco Facts
1) Only 3% of our planet’s water is drinkable. 97% of it is salt
water. More than half of the Earth’s fresh water can be found
frozen in the glaciers. The rest is underground.
2) The water in our lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, ponds and
other surface water makes up 0.3% of our fresh water resource.
3) 25% of the bottled water you buy is really municipal tap
water.
4) There is more water vapor in the atmosphere than all the
combined rivers on the planet.
5) The Niagara Falls process 750,000 gallons of water every
second!
6) More than 700 million people do not have access to clean
water and more than 2 billion have sanitation problems.
7) 6 to 8 million people die annually from water-borne diseases
and disasters.
8) Agriculture uses up 70% of our global freshwater. It goes up
to 90% in fast developing countries.
9) We use 10 billion tons of water worldwide.
10) The Ozone Layer “Hole” which is 29 million square kilome-
ters, is expected to be fully healed in the next 55 years. This is
due to the worldwide banning of chlorofluorocarbon and hydro
fluorocarbon.
11) In the last 200 years, we added 2.3 billion tons of Carbon
Dioxide into our atmosphere. Half of this was added in the last
35 to 50 years.
12) We have already destroyed 27% of our coral reefs which is
home to 25% of our marine life.
13) We have explored more of Space than our terrestrial
oceans.
14) If you go to the deepest part of our ocean, the pressure can
be compared to a human being trying to hold 50 jumbo jets!
15) The Ice in Antarctica is as much as the water in the Atlantic
Ocean.
Environment & people 32 March 2019
Eco
Quotes
There are two problems for our species' survival - nuclear war and environmen-
tal catastrophe - and we're hurtling towards them. Knowingly.
Noam Chomsky
There is a reason and a need to have an Environmental Protection Agency.
Scott Pruitt
Land is a great example of how we can manage and invest in sustainable infra-
structure for economic, social, and environmental gains. Its use - and misuse - is
at the heart of the challenge for food, fuel, and fibre.
Paul Polman
Land is a great example of how we can manage and invest in sustainable infra-
structure for economic, social, and environmental gains. Its use - and misuse - is
at the heart of the challenge for food, fuel, and fibre. Paul Polman
Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right
hand and chop off his left.
Aldo Leopold
I've always been interested in the industrialization of our food; it's been an issue
for me from an environmental and animal rights and human health perspective.
Richard Linklater
I've always been interested in the industrialization of our food; it's been an issue
for me from an environmental and animal rights and human health perspective.
Richard Linklater
China is bearing the environmental cost for much of the world because China is
the factory of the world.
Ma Jun
Nature is not simply a technical or economical resource, and human beings are
not mere numbers. To suggest that one can somehow align all the squabbling
institutions of science, environmental management, government and diplomacy
in an alliance of convenience to regulate the global climate seems to me opti-
mistic.
James Buchan
I see humanity now as one vast plant, needing for its highest fulfillment only
love, the natural blessings of the great outdoors, and intelligent crossing and
selection.
Luther Burbank
 Eco
IQ
1. What year was the first Earth Day held in the U.S.?
a. 1970 b. 1992
c. 1948 d. 1966

2. How many times more efficient are the Compact Florescent lights than
the Incandescent light bulbs?
A. 4.6 x B. 4x
C. 0.4x D. 6x E. 0.6x

3. April 22, 2010 will be______.

A. The 35 anniversary of Earth Day
B. The 40th anniversary of Earth Day
C. The 45th anniversary of Earth Day
D. The 50th anniversary of Earth Day
E. Earth Day!

4. What is this picture of?

A. A maple leaf. Duh!
B. A scorched maple leaf
C. A maple leaf with air pollution damage
D. A maple leaf with chemicals spilled on it
E. A maple leaf with a problem with it's chlorophyll (that's the stuff that
makes it green)

5. What is the warmest year on record, according to NASA?

a. 2011 b. 2013
c. 2016 d. 2015

6. According to recent research, the CO2 concentration difference between

ambient air and exhaust gases created by combusting fossil fuels is an
untapped source for producing ____
a. Heat b. Fertilizer
c. Electricity d. Club Soda

7. Better recylcing procedures could help recapture which valuable ele-

ments from lithium-ion batteries?
a. Lithium and Cobalt
b. Gold and Silver
c. Cobalt and Uranium
d. Platinum and Lithium

March 2019 33 Environment & people

 Plastic Life - Mahnaz Yazdani Demise - Tjeerd Royaards
The wildlife of the future? More than 40% of insect species are declining and a
third are endangered, threatening the collapse of
nature.

Environment & people 34 March 2019

Environment & People RNI - 63997/94