A week at WIMWI

Louis Kahn's signature building It was a wet week, as the monsoon took itself very seriously.  The resident black ibises were busy on the cricket field. A distinct cluster from the blue rock pigeons....things were not so distinct within the classroom though. Grey langurs - assuming distinctive positions and making themselves at home.  I wondered what they thought of logistical regression. A black kite?  Where was the famous resident vulture though? The rain lilies greeted me on my return.  the correlation between the rain and their presence was a perfect 1. The courtyard framed A lovely distraction on our classroom wall.  I idly wonder who the artist is. En route to the computer lab.  Could a mathematical expression capture this? And so we marched on - mining data, analysing factors, scaling on multidemsions! Another beauty providing relief from the bricks on the wall The tree avenues were beautiful - peepul, neem in plenty, and not a whole lot of exotics.  Frangipani in bloom in some residences as also crepe myrtle.  Through the walking underpass to the new campus.  A strong smell of bat and a lovely display of the architectural fundas. Exposed concrete rather than brick, buut fidelity of the circle is maintained. The rain kept the students indoors it seemed, as I sloshed my way down deserted avenues, losing my way momentarily.  Or was it the time of day? I love the slick red against the concrete.

I was glad I took those morning walks.  That week was a tonic for the grey cells,  a detox for the mind and my soul. And those chirpy, fearless jungle babblers and the contented spotted doves will always remind me of the campus.

China Diary - Tianamen and the notorious Beijing skies

The amazingly huge Tiananmen Square.  We set off on our first sortie (actually second - we had gone out the previous evenng for a dimsum dinner in the neighbourhood), but this was our first train ride.  We located Dawanglu station which was around the plaza our hotel was located in, adn together figured out how to buy tickets as well!

Line one to Tiananment east.

Our first metro ride

The Meridian Gate.  Until here is free.  Beyond this, entry into the Forbidden City is ticketed, and I did that on another day.

One of the two huabio -stone columns replete with phoenix and lion

 

"The Godfather" played by Andre Rieu

Just at a whim, used iMovie for half an hour, and this is what resulted.  It's abrupt in its ending, but I ran out of time.

I loved the way the local Chinese enjoyed themselves in the massive square, taking pictures by the dozen, striking a pose and making the Square their own.

The topiary was fabulous as you will see in the slide show, and those huge video screens were swallowed up by the even more humongous Square itself.

A dull morning it was, and our first look at the Forbidden CIty which I did a quick run-through later on in the week.  It was only later that I was  told that the "dull, overcast" day was actually standard Beijing pollution.

But there was also rain that night, and I did not really find it difficult to breathe so I just thought that it was a First World exaggeration.  But I was told the US weather meters don't lie, and the count was some 200+ that day.

If you are in Beiing and with strangers, a great conversation starter is the pollution level for the day!! 

Pallikaranai

Marsh Melodies - The Hindu

Marsh Melodies

Akila Kannadasan

• 
  Larger whistling teals and common coots
• 
  Red Munias
• 
  Glossy Ibis
• 
  Purple Moorhen
• 
  Children at the interpretation centre

Whistles of teals, calls of the pheasant-tailed jacanas, the shrill cry of the red-wattled lapwing and the cacophony of painted storks, flamingos and coots. Akila Kannadasan listens to the avian orchestra at Pallikaranai

We are in their terrain. The shrill cry of a red-wattled lapwing announcing our arrival to the rest of the bird-gang, tells us so. We inch closer into the marshland, nevertheless. The previous day’s rain has bathed the Pallikaranai marshland and woken up the reeds and water-plants chased away by the sun.

What birds has the rain brought? We plod into the marshy waters on the western side to find out.

Pallikaranai is full of surprises — it is surrounded by tall buildings on all sides, a Corporation dumpyard sits on the north, roads with endless honking vehicles cut across its surface… and yet, birds seem to have taken a liking to the water.

On a small patch of land, several feet from us, we see a massive flock of birds lounging in the mild afternoon sun. The birds seem to be relishing the after-effects of the rain. It’s amazing how each species sticks together — painted storks with their pink flight feathers, creamy-pink greater flamingos, slate-black common coots…

Hundreds of magnificent purple moorhens mill about beyond the congregation. The cerulean blue birds with bright red beaks look on smugly as little common coots wade on the water. The birds look up one moment, and the next, they swiftly dunk their heads into the water — they repeat this exercise at regular intervals. 

A couple of pheasant-tailed jacanas fly past on song. One bird calls out and the other diligently follows. A lone grey heron, with its long neck and searching eyes, walks by the water’s edge looking for something — food, perhaps, or a friend? Little egrets add a dash of white to the mossy-green terrain. And then there are the tiny grebes that flit playfully between the big guys.

On the northern and southern side, we spot open-billed storks, spot-billed ducks, glossy ibis and pied avocets.

It’s another world out there — we are aware of the communication among the birds. One instant, their cacophony rises to a crescendo, but falls to a pin-drop-silence the next. But the silence is short-lived — one bird or the other breaks into song, to be joined in by others. Brown-bodied whistling teals, hundreds of them, ensure that there’s always music for the ears…

Why we must protect it

Pallikaranai is among the 94 wetlands identified under the National Wetland Conservation and Management Programme. K.V.R.K. Thirunaranan of The Nature Trust says that the marshland acts like the kidney of Chennai. “It is even shaped like one! It drains flood water and impure water into the sea. Also, it helps maintain the ground water level of the surrounding regions. Our ancestors have connected 31 tanks to Pallikaranai so that surplus water from them will flow into it.” The birdlife that the marshland attracts gives it aesthetic value. “We have recorded 130 bird species throughout the year in Pallikaranai,” he says. All of which give us plenty of reason to protect the marshland — 317 hectares of which is currently reserve land.

Interpretation centre

The Forest Department has set up an interpretation centre at Pallikaranai, open to the public. It has 66 displays of the commonly seen birds of the area. The displays, which come with backlighting, consist of a photo of the bird, its scientific name, Tamil name, details on distribution and a brief. There are eight mechanised scrolls about the flora and fauna of the marshland. The highlights are the two video booths that explain the Tamil and English names of birds, to the accompaniment of their calls. An 11-km walkway that will allow birdwatchers to walk around Pallikaranai is under construction. Viewing decks with spotting scopes and more are on the cards.

Behind China’s Hindu temples, a forgotten history - The Hindu

Behind China’s Hindu temples, a forgotten history - The Hindu

Behind China’s Hindu temples, a forgotten history

Ananth Krishnan

• 
  The Hindu A panel of inscriptions of the God Narasimha adorns the entrance to the main shrine of the temple, believed to have been installed by Tamil traders who lived in Quanzhou in the 13th century. Photo: Ananth Krishnan
• 
  The Hindu Li San Long, a resident of Chedian village, offers prayers at the village shrine, which houses a deity that is believed to be one of the goddesses that the Tamil community in Quanzhou worshipped in the 13th century. (Right) A stone elephant inscription on display at the Quanzhou Maritime Museum. Photo: Ananth Krishnan

In and around Quanzhou, a bustling industrial city, there are shrines that historians believe may have been part of a network of more than a dozen Hindu temples and shrines

For the residents of Chedian, a few thousand-year-old village of muddy by-lanes and old stone courtyard houses, she is just another form of Guanyin, the female Bodhisattva who is venerated in many parts of China.

Click here for video

But the goddess that the residents of this village pray to every morning, as they light incense sticks and chant prayers, is quite unlike any deity one might find elsewhere in China. Sitting cross-legged, the four-armed goddess smiles benignly, flanked by two attendants, with an apparently vanquished demon lying at her feet.

Local scholars are still unsure about her identity, but what they do know is that this shrine’s unique roots lie not in China, but in far away south India. The deity, they say, was either brought to Quanzhou — a thriving port city that was at the centre of the region’s maritime commerce a few centuries ago — by Tamil traders who worked here some 800 years ago, or perhaps more likely, crafted by local sculptors at their behest.

“This is possibly the only temple in China where we are still praying to a Hindu God,” says Li San Long, a Chedian resident, with a smile.

“Even though most of the villagers still think she is Guanyin!” Mr. Li said the village temple collapsed some 500 years ago, but villagers dug through the rubble, saved the deity and rebuilt the temple, believing that the goddess brought them good fortune — a belief that some, at least, still adhere to.

The Chedian shrine is just one of what historians believe may have been a network of more than a dozen Hindu temples or shrines, including two grand big temples, built in Quanzhou and surrounding villages by a community of Tamil traders who lived here during the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties.

At the time, this port city was among the busiest in the world and was a thriving centre of regional maritime commerce.

The history of Quanzhou’s temples and Tamil links was largely forgotten until the 1930s, when dozens of stones showing perfectly rendered images of the god Narasimha — the man-lion avatar of Vishnu — were unearthed by a Quanzhou archaeologist called Wu Wenliang. Elephant statues and images narrating mythological stories related to Vishnu and Shiva were also found, bearing a style and pattern that was almost identical to what was evident in the temples of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh from a similar period.

Wu’s discoveries received little attention at the time as his country was slowly emerging from the turmoil of the Japanese occupation, the Second World War and the civil war. It took more than a decade after the Communists came to power in 1949 for the stones and statues to even be placed in a museum, known today as the Quanzhou Maritime Museum.

“It is difficult to say how many temples there were, and how many were destroyed or fell to ruin,” the museum’s vice curator Wang Liming told The Hindu. “But we have found them spread across so many different sites that we are very possibly talking about many temples that were built across Quanzhou.”

Today, most of the sculptures and statues are on display in the museum, which also showcases a map that leaves little doubt about the remarkable spread of the discoveries. The sites stretch across more than a dozen locations located all over the city and in the surrounding county. The most recent discoveries were made in the 1980s, and it is possible, says Ms. Wang, that there are old sites yet to be discovered.

The Maritime Museum has now opened a special exhibit showcasing Quanzhou’s south Indian links. Ms. Wang says there is a renewed interest — and financial backing — from the local government to do more to showcase what she describes as the city’s “1000-year-old history with south India,” which has been largely forgotten, not only in China but also in India.

“There is still a lot we don't know about this period,” she says, “so if we can get any help from Indian scholars, we would really welcome it as this is something we need to study together. Most of the stones come from the 13th century Yuan Dynasty, which developed close trade links with the kingdoms of southern India. We believe that the designs were brought by the traders, but the work was probably done by Chinese workers.”

Ms. Wang says the earliest record of an Indian residing in Quanzhou dates back to the 6th century. An inscription found on the Yanfu temple from the Song Dynasty describes how the monk Gunaratna, known in China as Liang Putong, translated sutras from Sanskrit. Trade particularly flourished in the 13th century Yuan Dynasty. In 1271, a visiting Italian merchant recorded that the Indian traders “were recognised easily.” 

“These rich Indian men and women mainly live on vegetables, milk and rice,” he wrote, unlike the Chinese “who eat meat and fish.” The most striking legacy of this period of history is still on public display in a hidden corner of the 7th century Kaiyuan Buddhist Temple, which is today Quanzhou’s biggest temple and is located in the centre of the old town. A popular attraction for Chinese Buddhists, the temple receives a few thousand visitors every day. In a corner behind the temple, there are at least half a dozen pillars displaying an extraordinary variety of inscriptions from Hindu mythology. A panel of inscriptions depicting the god Narasimha also adorns the steps leading up to the main shrine, which houses a Buddha statue. Huang Yishan, a temple caretaker whose family has, for generations, owned the land on which the temple was built, says the inscriptions are perhaps the most unique part of the temple, although he laments that most of his compatriots are unaware of this chapter of history. On a recent afternoon, as a stream of visitors walked up the steps to offer incense sticks as they prayed to Buddha, none spared a glance at the panel of inscriptions. Other indicators from Quanzhou’s rich but forgotten past lie scattered through what is now a modern and bustling industrial city, albeit a town that today lies in the shadow of the provincial capital Xiamen and the more prosperous port city of Guangzhou to the far south.

A few kilometres from the Kaiyuan temple stands a striking several metre-high Shiva lingam in the centre of the popular Bamboo Stone Park. To the city’s residents, however, the lingam is merely known as a rather unusually shaped “bamboo stone,” another symbol of history that still stays hidden in plain sight.

China diary - Impressively subterranean

Beijing - Ten lines up and running now, much of it coming up before the Olympics.  We used it pretty extensively.  Dawanglu was our stop.

Every entry and exit is well boarded in Chinese and English, and even directionally-challenged me had little problems navigating.

The daily fare card - 2 Yuan to anywhere.  So that's roughly Rs 40.  I pay Rs 35 from Thiruvanmyur to Gemini on an AC MTC bus here, so it was really not expensive, especially when we went all the way to Summer Palace!!

Pavement stalls, Beijing style.  A lot of clothes, bags and accessories, and bargaining is the order of the day. 

I love the way this rolls in my mouth!

Four Chinese characters and so many alphabets!!

A movie thats coming out with an India connection - Monkey King - something about the search for the Buddhist scripts in India.  (Seen on an over-the-ground bus ride!)

One northern station from where I went to the Beihai Park

A hutong visit is a must-see we didnt.  I peeked down a few,  here and near Tianmen. 

A neighbourhood which looked lovely and Chinese as I emerged from the Beihai station

On to Xi'an

South Beijing Railway Station - Arrivals and Departures

The waiting rooms.  Different halls for different sets of platforms.  Only once boarding is announced were we allowed on to the platforms. 

Only ticketed passengers allowed on the platforms.  So, no waving goodbye parties!

What a wondrous sight - clean tracks

We were astonished at the Xi'an network as well.  The trains were a trifle less frequent than that in Beijing but also a little less crowded.

Two yuan to anywhere, here as well!

That little icon next to the station name, indicating that this is the stop for Wild Goos Pagoda.

More delightful names.  And the icon was for the Bell Tower

The only problem with travelling below the ground is that you miss the flavour of a city, and only discover the destinations. 

But if it wasnt for the network and the speed of travel, I wonder if we could have seen so much in so little time.

Being a xi que in Beijing

Xi que - happy magpie

These magpies we saw all over Beijing.  Happy as a magpie. (Pica pica - Eurasian magpie)

They are a sign of good luck and happiness in China.  We saw them in the Temple of Heaven gardens in Beijing, at the Beihai Park as well and in Xi'an too.

Sadly could not get better pictures than this.

There is a love legend surrounding this bird.  culminating in the Qixi festival sometime in August - the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.  On this day, so the legend goes, the magpies form a heavenly bridge to unite two unlucky lovers - Zhinu the weaver girl, and Niulang the cow herd.  So, Zhinu is now symbolised by the star Vega and Niulang by Altair, and the festival includes some star gazing!

It dates back to the Han dynasty, and the Manchus considered the bird sacred, and the Song dynasty has a poem about the lovelorn couple too.

To me it was a happy, cheerful, cheeky birds, reminding me in its manner and appearance to our Oriental magpie robin as well.

The other bird was the Azure-winged magpie.  Very camera shy they were, but beautiful as they glided between trees.

The one thing that surprised me was the abundance of sparrows.  From the Forbidden City to our hotel plaza they were everywhere.  Gazillions of them.

The tree sparrow - a little different from our house sparrows, they had a white collar.

Nesting in the dragon's mouth at Beihai Park! Passer montanus

 

Pretty impressive I thought, given that Mao had ordered their extermination - along with rats, mosquitoes and flies!  The Great Sparrow campaign in 1958, part of the Great Leap Forward, saw the Chinese tearing down sparrow nests, breaking eggs, and constantly shooing them, completely decimating their populations.

All because they ate grain.  

The local sparrow population was restored via imports of sparrows from Russia!  Their cheerful chirping was a welcome interlude in all the parks and green spaces that we visited. 

It got me wondering though.  In India, we wring our hands at the falling numbers of sparrows in our cities.  So the question is how are they thriving in Beijing, nototrious for its air pollution and where the density of human population, skyscrapers, cars, cell phones and every other supposed anti-bird development is extremely visible?

Gurudwara Hemkunt Sahib, at 15,000 feet, closes for a year

Uttarakhand: Iconic Gurudwara Hemkunt Sahib, at 15,000 feet, closes for a year | NDTV.com

Uttarakhand: Iconic Gurudwara Hemkunt Sahib, at 15,000 feet, closes for a year

Is this flood water or is this the lake?

Patiala: In the recent devastation caused in Uttarakhand, the Hemkunt Sahib Gurudwara may remain closed for the rest of the year as the road link to the 17th century Sikh shrine has been badly damaged.

"We have decided to close Gurudwara Hemkunt Sahib as of now and asked staff of the Shri Hemkunt Sahib Management Trust (SHSMT) to come down at Gurudwara Govind Dham, located lower at a height of 10,500 feet above sea level," SHSMT Vice Chairman Narinder Jit Singh Bindra said, adding that it will be next to impossible to resume the pilgrimage this year.

The sealing of the Gurudwara with electric welding is underway, Mr Bindra said. The entire process to keep all the food stock intact is likely to be completed in couple of days.

"We have instructed all the 70 odd staff members to come down at Gurudwara Govind Dham," he added.

All the staff members of the SHSMT along with 130 other employees from Gurudwara Govind Dham would be airlifted to the plains when the choppers will resume sorties in two days, Mr Bindra said.

"We have formed a committee which would visit and estimate the damage done to the Gurudwara and other buildings. It would also check the safety of the areas and advice on the repairs and maintenance," Mr Bindra added.

He said the Trust will ask the Uttarakhand Government to allocate some more place in Gurudwara Govind Ghat for Langar (Community Kitchen), store and parking as the entire place was washed away by the Alaknanda on June 16.

Moreover, the Yatra work could resume only after the roads and bridges en route to the Gurudwaras including Govind Ghat (6,000 feet) and Govind Dham (10,500 feet) were rebuilt, he added.

Notably, Hemkunt Sahib Gurudwara, situated at a height of over 15,000 feet above the sea level in the Himalayan ranges of northern India, has emerged as an important centre of Sikh pilgrimage which is visited by thousands of devotees from all over the world every summer.

According to Bachitra Natak, the autobiographical account of the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, it was at Hemkunt 'adorned with seven snow peaks' that he meditated in his previous birth.

Heritage valley in danger | Down To Earth

The Valley will recover if left alone.  The torrential rain has probably put paid to any road plans.

Heritage valley in danger | Down To Earth

Heritage valley in danger

The Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand, a World Heritage Site, may have been damaged in the recent floods in the state. A look at what makes this biodiversity-rich region susceptible to disturbance

The Valley of Flowers (VOF) National Park in Uttarakhand runs in an east-west direction along the banks of the river Pushpawati. Its rich biodiversity and outstanding natural beauty have earned it the status of a World Heritage Site from UNESCO. However, this region, with its picturesque and species-rich alpine meadows, is under threat.

What is at stake

The VOF has a highly heterogeneous landscape, ranging from low-lying flat and gentle slopes, to steep slopes, unstable glacial moraines, stream banks, forest-meadow edges and snow-bound areas. The mountain system consists of a series of spurs all around the valley. Many rivulets cut across the valley and meet the river Pushpawati, which originates in the Tipra glacier.

This unique geo-morphological heterogeneity has resulted in a rich diversity of flowering plants, which attracts a number of botanists and tourists from all over the world. During my long stay in VOF beginning 1993, I recorded a total of 520 species of higher plants; of these 498 belong to flowering plants, 18 fern species and 4 conifers. The VOF harbours 472 species of herbs, 41 species of shrubs and 8 species of trees. Asteraceae is the most dominant family here, followed by Rosaceae, Ranunculaceae, and Orchidaceae. Of the 520 species, 16 species are endemic to Indian Himalaya and 31 species are of rare and endangered categories.

A view of the valley in 1998. It has over 500 flowering plants

In the face of the current disaster in Uttarakhand, it is time to reflect on the fragility of the Himalayan ecosystem, and the importance of conserving its bounty. Once the hill slopes are exposed, continuous rainfall, floods and subsequent landslides can change and destroy the entire ecosystem. In such an event, the existing climax species would be lost. The process of succession of species would start again on exposed land. The first few species to come up in an area in the first stages of succession are weeds. The composition of the new ecosystem thus could be very different from its present day composition, affecting the natural beauty of the place.

Ill-planned development

During my years of stay at Ghangaria, 3 km downhill from the VOF and 3,000 m above mean sea level, I noticed rocks and boulders were frequently detonated for use in the construction of buildings and the widening of the pedestrian route to the Sikh religious site Hemkund Sahib. Such detonation is quite dangerous for the valley’s ecosystem as these activities affect the fragile hill slopes, rendering them vulnerable to landslides.

A plan to construct a motorable road up to Hemkund Sahib or at least up to Ghangaria had been proposed in 2001-02. Although the road was not constructed because of objections raised by conservationists, a parking facility for vehicles was constructed on the banks of the Alaknanda at Govindghat despite concerns about its feasibility that I repeatedly raised. Unfortunately, the recent disaster washed away over 200 vehicles from the parking facility.

Chandra Prakash Kala is a faculty member with the ecosystem and environment management division of Indian Institute of Forest Management in Bhopal

The Valley - grim news

The Valley will recover and rebound if left alone, what was more alarming to me was the news regarding the villages, villagers, the development activities and the cutting down of rare trees.

A series of articles by Vibha Varshney, who seems to have visited the Valley roughly around the time we did last year.

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/lost-valley-flowers

Floods have washed away the village that cared for the upkeep of the precincts around the World Heritage Site. Will its residents get a chance to rebuild their lives?

The river that passes through the Valley of flowers has reportedly wiped out the meadows and the flowers endemic to the landscape (Photos: Vibha Varshney)
News about the floods in Uttarakhand revive memories of my trip to the Valley of flowers last year. I am glad I could make it then, for this year this picturesque place in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand has been ruined by the extreme rains. Sanjay Rawat, sarpanch of the van panchyat (village forest council) who had guided me around the World Heritage Site last year, called to tell me about the devastation in the area. He said the river that passes through the heritage site had washed away the beautiful meadows. The flowers, too, have been wiped out. His information was hearsay as nobody can go near the area. Rawat and other people stranded in the valley were airlifted to safety recently.
But the Valley of flowers was not the reason Rawat called. The rains had washed away Pulna and Bhyundar—two small village settlements that had been in existence for about a century. Pulna is the winter residence of people of Bhyundar valley panchayat, and during summers, they move higher up to Bhyundar. These settlements had survived for at least a 100 years. The elders in the village say that the last time rains of this magnitude had hit the area sometime in the 1940's, the destruction had been minor. This time round, there is no way that the place can be rebuilt. Rawat said that now the community wants to be relocated to Joshimath.
The route to Hemkund Sahib before the floods
But the authorities have never been sympathatic to the needs of the people. During my visit, I had gone to Pulna to meet the former gram pradhan, Jagdish Chauhan. He had a story to tell – the forest officials in the area had cut down two trees of endangered Taxus wallichiana. The trees were just an excuse. The community was waging a war against the forest department to gain rights over the land where their hotels were built in Ghangaria. These hotels were the only livelihood option available to them since grazing animals had been stopped in the areas after it was declared a World Heritage Site (see Rift Valley).
Instead of supporting the van panchayat, the forest department seemed more amenable to ousting them and leasing out the land to outsiders. The community had got a taste of such an experiment on an earlier occasion. In 1960, the department had leased out land to the Hemkund Sahib gurudwara for a rest house. After 50 years, though 53 structures existed in the area, only 10 were given on lease by the authority. Last year, there were talks of taking paved roads right up to Ghangaria so that vehicles could ferry the tourists. This meant that more hotels would be needed. The community wanted some assurance that they would have a stake in the profits. They did not get this despite the fact that the van panchayats in the area are supposed to have control over development. People of Ghangaria have been taking good care of the area. Despite the huge number of tourists, a community organisation has managed to keep the plastic menace in control to an extent).
The valley has many rare plants. The Himalayan poppy
But the bigger question at the moment is whether fragile ecosystems like these should be put through haphazard development. Both the Valley of flowers and Hemkund Sahib are accessible only between June and September, and even during this time, landslides are common. My bus ride from Dehradun to Joshimath took me through areas where huge boulders jutted out of the mountainside and loomed over the road. These were accidents just waiting to happen – a slight tremor, a little rain could easily dislodge these and my co-passengers seemed to hold their breath all though the 10 hour journey. The only conversation that happened was when we crossed a place where a landslide had crushed a car and killed everyone in it a few days back. The driver concentrated on the road while the conductor focused on the mountainside, hoping to catch a signal in case boulders showed the slightest sign of movement. As he stared at the mountainside, the conductor told me the destruction to the landscape was because of the dams being built on the Alaknanda river.
As the area also houses Hemkund sahib gurudwara, religious tourism is likely to restart as soon as the paths are made navigable. This would be the time to set up a better system in place to protect the area. Climate change will bring in more such events. In the absence of a plan, letting people go there is akin to homicide. And for people like me who love plants, losing the valley would mean losing precious biodiversity.

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/rift-valley

The rift valley | Down To Earth

With no income options, Ghangharia residents want forestland for hotels

Ghangharia is a base station for people heading to Hemkund Sahib and Valley of Flowers (Photographs: Vibha Varshney)

Every year between June and September, Ghangharia becomes a busy place. Pilgrims going to the nearby Hemkund Sahib gurudwara and those visiting Valley of Flowers, a World Heritage Site, have to spend at least one night in this small settlement in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district. Residents have cashed in on the influx of tourists by opening hotels, restaurants and small shops. But they live in constant fear of losing their means of living.

Map not to scaleGhangharia lies in a reserve forest and is part of the van panchayat of Bhyundar (see map). The van panchayat, which is responsible for managing forests along with the forest department, has been active in Ghangharia since 1965. Over the years, the community has been fighting with the forest department over land rights. The residents want some part of the forest to be earmarked exclusively for livelihood through tourism—to which the authorities have paid scant attention. The authorities maintain that the existing hotels, restaurants and shops are illegal since they have been built on forestland.

Events in December 2011 underlined the increasing tension between the two. Forest officials cut down two trees of endangered Himalayan yew to build an additional hut for an information centre. Residents, who need to obtain a series of permissions from the forest department to cut even one tree, filed a complaint with the district magistrate, the divisional forest officer and the state and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), saying the tree should be protected because it is home to an endangered bird (see ‘Proof at its best’). In a letter dated June 27, 2012, MoEF asked the sarpanch of the van panchayat to verify the residents’ claims. The sarpanch, Sanjay Rawat, through whom the complaint was filed, is yet to respond.

When Down To Earth enquired about the tree felling, the forest department said it was necessary because the trees were growing in the middle of the construction area. “We can cut down trees for work related to protection and development of forests,” says S R Prajapati, the divisional forest officer. Madal Lal Sah, the local forest guard, adds the trees were small and unlikely to survive. “We will compensate by planting 10 similar trees in the region,” says Prajapati.

Proof at its best

 

Felling of trees led to construction of a hut for an information centre on the Valley of Flowers (Courtesy: Jagdeesh Chouhan)

 

Residents of Ghangharia claim the forest department is not protecting the forests. The officials cut down two Himalayan yews in December 2011 (Taxus wallichiana). Following this the residents filed a complaint with the authorities. As evidence, they sent a photograph of the trees before they were cut down. The photograph was taken by former gram pradhan Jagdish Chauhan.

Himalayan yew or thuner, as it is locally called, is the winter home of the state bird "monal". The bird (Lophophorus impejanus) is protected under schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972.

IUCN classifies the Himalayan yew as endangered. It is also included in the Red Data Book of Indian Plants and is part of the Convention on International Trade of endangered species of wild Fauna and Flora, restricting its trade. Regeneration of the tree is difficult as the seeds take two years to germinate and the tree grows slowly. Traditional uses of the Himalayan yew do not put the tree at risk. People used to drink an infusion of the bark to keep the body warm in the coldest of winters. With the easy availability of tea in the market, only its fruits are now used.

In the 1990s, 90 per cent of Himalayan yew trees were cut to derive an anticancer drug from the bark and leaves.

Both Prajapati and Sah believe residents filed a complaint on such a trivial matter because a powerful faction of the Ghangharia community is in a legal tangle with the department. In November last year, the department had filed cases against five hotel owners in the district court for illegally extending their hotels. The owners, including gram pradhan Devendra Singh, claim the officials have arbitrarily marked the boundary for forestland. Still, the hotels are within limits, they add. The next hearing of the case is on August 10.

Former sarpanch of the van panchayat Vijendra Singh Chauhan explains the boundary issue. Till the 1970s around 8,000 hectares (ha) was under the control of the van panchayat (land under van panchayats is revenue land). “But in the 1980s, the department took over 650 ha, saying the area was too big for us to control,” says Chauhan. At the time of land transfer, the department did not mark any boundaries. “In 2007, the officials haphazardly installed pillars to mark the limit. They did not even consult the van panchayat as required under law,” he adds. What’s more, the van panchayat has not been given a map that shows land under its jurisdiction. In April 2012, Rawat filed an RTI demanding the map. Reply is awaited.

Better to know boundaries

Ghangharia residents, who have been traditional grazers, say they have no other income source besides running hotels and restaurants. Under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), forest dwellers can use their land for agriculture, not tourism. In Uttarakhand, where FRA has not been implemented, agriculture is difficult because of rocky terrain and extreme weather conditions. Resident Raghubir Chauhan says his hotel is the only source of income for him. “If they take away this, I will have to leave my village and learn a new trade,” says Chauhan, who earns between Rs 2-Rs 8 lakh annually. Devendra Singh demands that 8 ha of forestland should be diverted for hotels.

In 2011, more than 700,000 tourists flocked Ghangharia.

In 1960, the first construction on forestland started when the department leased out land to the Hemkund Sahib gurudwara. At present, there are 53 structures within the forestland, of which only 10 have leases. Singh alleges the gurudwara has been given preferential treatment over the local community.

Others have backed the demand of the residents. In 2005, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, which was commissioned by the state tourism department to prepare a master plan for ecotourism in the Valley of Flowers-Hemkund belt, had recommended that land should be diverted to ensure residents’ land rights.

Land conversion would imply diverting forestland under the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980. The Act considers only those areas for conversion that the state had identified before the Act came into existence. In 2004, the revenue department along with the forest department created a database of the land on which construction has taken place in Ghangharia. They found that buildings had been constructed on 1.99 ha before 1980 and petitioned the nodal officer in Dehradun to convert it into revenue land for hotels. The authorities are yet to take a decision on the petition. In the absence of regularisation, buildings are growing stealthily in Ghangharia. By 2002, nearly 3 ha was occupied by hotels, shows a study by Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.

Officials say despite no response to the petition, all the 53 structures within the forestland have been allowed to stay. “As long as the resident community maintains a status quo, there is no problem,” says Prajapati.

Forest officials have installed pillars (circled) to mark boundary of forestland

Rawat says there are many instances where the department has interfered in the smooth running of the settlement. The forest officials created hurdles in the van panchayat’s recent efforts to lop a few trees to make way for electricity transmission wires, says Rawat. The officials also do not allow any construction material because the department does not want any additional construction in the area. “While the department allowed a helipad in the area, it objected when the panchayat leased out land for setting up tourist tents,” adds Rawat.

A far-fetched dream

It seems the residents’ demand of revenue land for forests would remain unheeded. A July 2012 report of the Central environment and forests ministry on the action taken on all proposals from Uttarakhand for land conversion between 1980 and 2012 does not mention anything on hotels in Ghangharia. Among the approved proposals, 0.99 ha is for integrated development of Hemkund Sahib and Govindghat, 0.04 ha for a reporting police post and 1.3 ha for a path from Ghangaria to Hemkund.

Forest right activists say instead of giving the land to outsiders for hotels, it is better to let the residents use it. “These people are the original residents of the area and should get land rights,” says Roma of National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers.

If the situation is not defused quickly, the future of community forestry would be at risk, says Hem Gairola, founder of the Himalayan Community Forestry Centre in Chamoli. “Van panchayats have worked well,” he adds.

However, Gairola blames the changes in the van panchayat rules for the deterioration of working relationship between the forest department and the community. The first set of rules came out in 1931, since then it has been revised four times. “With each set of rules, the powers of the van panchayat have been diluted,” he says. For instance, before the rules were amended in 2005, the van panchayat could decide how it wanted the land to be used. “If the community wanted a part of the land for hotel construction, the van panchayat would have allowed it if necessary,” says Gairola. The government should work with the community and set down rules as per requirements, otherwise conflict would start in sensitive areas, he suggests.

Guman Singh, coordinator of Himalaya Niti Abhiyan in Himachal Pradesh, suggests political involvement as a solution. Under existing laws, it would be easy to label the ongoing commercial activity in Ghangharia as encroachment. “The residents cannot now go back to traditional grazing activity and should be given land for alternative livelihood,” says Singh. The community needs to petition the government and appeal for its livelihood. “The fight over settlement of land rights is a national phenomenon. The resolution will come from this fight,” he says.

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/redemption-litter?quicktabs_1=0

Redemption from litter

Uttarakhand non-profits have taken responsibility for clearing tourists’ plastic waste

Sacks full of plastic waste thrown by tourists are collected along the path to Hemkund Sahib and the Valley of Flowers

Neat piles of white sacks greet people as they enter Govindghat hamlet in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district. The sacks are full of plastic bottles, food wrappers and remains of raincoats made of thin polythene, thrown by pilgrims and tourists along the trek to Hemkund Sahib gurudwara and the Valley of Flowers National Park. The 13-km pathway, that bifurcates at a small settlement called Ghangaria and leads to the two centres, is crowded during peak tourist season—June to September. Mules that tourists ride on also leave a trail of dung. Yet, the area is reasonably clean. All the plastic waste thrown by pilgrims and tourists along the path are picked up, packed in sacks and kept at places assigned for the purpose along the path.

This organised system of waste collection started in 2002. Before that, the pathway was a mess, says Jyotsna Sitling, former director of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, who was then working to get the Valley of Flowers recognised as a World Heritage Site. At least 400 illegal shops had sprung along the pathway. But their owners did not take the responsibility of clearing the waste they generated. There are stories about a Canadian woman who tried to clean the area single-handedly by picking up plastic bottles and packets. “But nothing helped because the amount of waste was overwhelming and chances of the Valley of Flowers getting World Heritage Site status were bleak,” says Sitling.

It was around this time that the forest department took up the challenge. It roped in a non-profit at Bhyundar, the only village on the route, to collect plastic strewn on the pathway. In about three months, the non-profit Eco Development Committee (EDC) Bhyundar, had 4,000 sacks full of plastic waste, all brought to Govindghat on mules. The next year, it had 14,000 sacks. But all this waste stayed in Govindghat because the forest department had not yet formed a system to dispose it. In fact, the collection was as high as a three-storey building, says Sitling. In 2003, the forest department sent the waste to Dehradun, where it was segregated and then sent to Delhi for recycling. But transporting so much of waste was troublesome and expensive. The forest department collaborated with the municipal authorities in Srinagar town in 2004 to use its compactor machine that can compress plastic and make transportation easy. But after four years, the machine broke down and the forest department had to again take up the cumbersome task of transporting big, uncompressed sacks to Dehradun.

In 2010, the authorities at Joshimath tehsil allowed the use of their compactor machine. But it was overworked and the authorities refused to compress waste the next year.

In 2011, a group of trekkers saw the sacks piled at Govindghat and informed their friend Anis Ahmad, a waste dealer in Dehradun, about them. Ahmad worked out a deal with EDC. Till now, EDC was paying the transportation cost. But Ahmad gave EDC Rs 3,000 for each truck of waste and transported it for free. He collected 111 tonnes of waste and sold it to a recycler in Delhi, for profit.

This year, too, he awaits a similar arrangement with EDC. By June-end, EDC had 9,980 sacks of waste. With the tourism department’s decision to install a compactor machine at Govindghat, transportation is sure to become easy.

Economics of cleanliness

To lend a helping hand to EDC Bhyundar, the forest department made efforts to create a similar non-profit in Govindghat. EDC Govindghat was created in 2004. Till now, the two units have disposed of 587 tonnes of waste.

Most of the fund is generated by charging registration fee from mule owners, and dandis and kandis. Dandis take people up to the hills in palanquins and kandis carry tourists’ load in baskets. With increase in tourism, the number of mules, dandis and kandis also increased, improving EDCs’ collection. In 2003, EDC Bhyundar had collected Rs 10.4 lakh. This rose to Rs 29.6 lakh in 2011. EDC Govindghat, which had collected Rs 6.5 lakh in its first year, raised Rs 17.2 lakh in 2011. The non-profits also tax shop and restaurant owners on the path. The amount is used to hire sweepers and manage waste disposal.

(Left) Around 70 sweepers clear litter at regular intervals; waste collected along the path that leads to Hemkund Sahib

The system works well for tourists and pilgrims also. Mule owners, dandis and kandis are more accountable because all of them are registered. Their rates are also fixed by the district authorities and reviewed every year.

The initiative has proved a big source of employment. EDC Bhyundar hires youngsters to provide information to visitors to the Valley of Flowers National Park. They are also trained to work as guides, accountants, cashiers and computer operators at both the EDCs.

Besides, many migrant labourers have found jobs here. EDC Bhyundar has 49 sweepers while the Govindghat EDC has 20. Most of them come from Uttar Pradesh where the monsoon is a lean work season. Dileep Kumar, for instance, has been given the task of cleaning the path outside the Valley of Flowers. Work at the brick kiln at Moradabad, his hometown, stops during monsoons. During his four months’ stay in Ghangaria, Dileep will earn Rs 2,500 per month, get food, a place to stay and medical care, all for free. The facilities are available to mule owners and head loaders as well.

The forest department’s efforts yielded results and in 2005, the Valley of Flowers was declared a World Heritage Site. EDC, however, admits that mule dung has not been taken care of because there is no space to collect it and turn it into manure.

Ideas big and small

What happens if the EDCs are unable to generate enough funds to hire sweepers? Satish Chandra Bhatt, chairperson of EDC Govindghat, suggests government could step in to supplement funds.

However, instead of collecting huge amounts of waste at a high cost, would it not be better to reduce its generation? wonders R N Okhal, a Mumbai resident on a pilgrimage trip across the country after retirement. “When I went to Gomukh, I deposited Rs 20 for each plastic bag that I carried. While returning, I got the money back when I showed the same number of plastic bags,” he says.

Another effective way to reduce litter would be to give tourists discount on water bottles when they return empty bottles, suggests Ranu Srivastava, a tourist who is program manager at Oracle India Private Ltd in Gurgaon. Ravinder Singh of Punjab thinks a difference can be made if people are fined for littering. There should be restriction on sale of cheap raincoats, says Vipin Kumar, Dehradun-based expert on plastic waste disposal.

But authorities believe implementing these suggestions could be a problem. “The number of people who come to Govindghat is huge. They come from far away places and bring their own plastic. It is not possible to regulate such a huge amount of waste,” says S A Murugesan, district magistrate of Chamoli. In fact, EDC Govindghat had tried to reduce waste by providing good quality raincoats on rent. But tourists were not ready to pay. In the masterplan for Uttarakhand, Kumar has suggested technologies that can be used to turn plastic into products that do not re-enter the waste cycle. Bread wrappers, for instance, can be turned into chairs, he says. He has also suggested charging tax from manufacturers who increase the shelf-life of their products by packing food products in plastic bags.

The forest department is making efforts to increase awareness about keeping the area clean, like painting messages on mountains and placing dustbins. Tourists need to do their bit, says S R Prajapati, divisional forest officer of Nandadevi Biosphere Reserve. “Just throw waste inside the bins,” he says.