P A G E
Thursday, May 20, 1999
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E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Thursday, May 20, 1999 |
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Wheat:
export and lose
ELECTIONS
IN INDIA
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Cool
pines fan forest fires
The
Baikunth niwasi
Volunteers
and funds for Vykom Satyagraha |
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Wheat: export and lose THE BJP-led government is taking the export route to tackle the problem of mounting wheat stock. But it is an unviable proposition. International price right now is $ 125 a tonne, while the economic cost is as high as $ 190 a tonne, meaning that export of every tonne will result in a loss of $ 65 or about Rs 2700. The government’s plan to sell a million tonnes will mean a whopping loss of Rs 270 crore. This huge gift to the foreign consumer of Indian wheat will inflate the food subsidy bill, giving a wrong impression that the kisan is fattening himself at the expense of all others. Another idea the government is toying with is to increase the monthly quota of wheat to those living below the poverty line. At present a family of four members gets 10 kg at Rs 2.78 a kg and this scheme accounts for fully 3.3 million tonnes. The proposal is to increase the quota to 15 kg or even 20 kg but on a one-time basis. In other words, the change will apply only to this agricultural season and will be reviewed later. What about the increased subsidy involved in sharply hiking the quantity of wheat to those below the poverty line? What about all those arguments the government dished out in April when it abruptly increased the sale price of wheat to all consumers, including those below the poverty line? It is a different matter that it rolled back its decision affecting the last category. The government is advancing a curious explanation to justify additional expenditure. By reducing the buffer stock by about 3 million tonnes over a year, it claims, there will be a net saving. Really? The only other way to reduce the buffer is to export and that would double the subsidy involved in increasing the quota to the very poor. If this logic is accepted, there will be saving even when the subsidy bill shoots up. All this is not to argue against the laudable objective of offering food at affordable prices. The only objection is that all those under the poverty line in all states do not benefit from this system and that the beneficiaries are forced to lift the grain at one time, while most of them cannot rustle up the necessary cash. The size of the wheat
stock is stunning. The procurement season started with a
carry forward of a little less than 10 million tonnes and
add to this the addition during the current procurement
spell of about 14 million tonnes. This is nearly double
the requirement of both buffer and operational stocks.
Since the day the issue price was raised from Rs 4.50 to
Rs 6.82 in April last, the offtake has sharply fallen. If
this trend continues, the FCI will have to incur a heavy
expenditure in holding this volume. A small part of it
will find its way to SAARC countries under an agreement
and oil producing countries may lift about half a million
tonne. Hence the desperate solution of exporting at a
great loss. Never has food economy been so badly managed
as now. |
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THE outcome of the elections to Fiji’s 71-member Parliament has important lessons for India in the context of Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s Italian birth and Indian citizenship. It would be wrong to say that the Fijians have voted in favour of the Indian-dominated Fiji Labour Party on two counts. First, most of those who contested the election on the Labour Party ticket are Fijians of Indian origin and as such have as much claim over the soil of the place of their birth as the native Fijians. Their forefathers came to Fiji as indentured workers and never returned home. The second reason for the handsome victory of the Labour Party led by Mr Mahendra Chaudhry is the numerical “unity” of the voters of Indian origin in relation ethnic Fijians. Indications are that Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka is ready to step down in favour of Mr Chaudhry after the defeat of his SVT Party in the parliamentary elections. What makes the verdict against Mr Rabuka more ironical is the fact that to make up for his lack of support among the Indian voters he included the All India National Federation Party led by Mr Jairam Reddy in his rainbow coalition. It would be wise not to forget 1987 when Mr Rabuka led a coup against the Indian-dominated Parliament with the full backing of the native Fijians. It is significant that even a century after the arrival of the Indians to work on sugar plantations their progeny have still not been able to win the complete trust of the native Fijians who make up 51 per cent of the population of the island nation. After grabbing power in
1987 Mr Rabuka introduced a new Constitution to somehow
restore the balance of political power in favour of the
“original sons of the soil”. Under the new
constitutional dispensation out of 46 communal seats 23
are reserved for Fijians, 19 for Indians, one for Rotuman
Island and three for other racial denominations. Mr
Chaudhry and his alliance partners had to make up the
shortfall in numbers from the 25 open seats. In spite of
the verdict in favour of the Labour Party and its
alliance partners including the ethnic Fijian Association
Party and the western-based Party of National Unity there
are more signs of tension than celebration on the streets
of Suva, the capital of Fiji. Logically Mr Chaudhry as
leader of the largest party of the winning alliance
should be invited to form the next government. However,
there is an outside chance that President Ratu Sir
Kamisase Mara may under local pressure invite an ethnic
Fijian to become Prime Minister to avoid repetition of
what happened in 1987 when members of Indian origin swept
the elections only to find Mr Rabuka waiting with his
troops for “protecting the rights of the ethnic
Fijians”. It remains to be seen whether Mr Chaudhry
is treated as a “foreigner” or granted the
right to run the country — a right which has earned
in a fair and well-fought election. |
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BY transferring both Mrs Kiran Bedi and Mrs Anuradha Gupta, the Administration has taken the easy way out of an ugly situation because this reduces the spat between the two senior functionaries to some kind of a personality clash. The hope seems to be that by keeping them apart, the sparks can be prevented from flying. How one wishes the situation was quite that simple! It is not. As we wrote earlier also, the issue involved is much larger. There is bitter acrimony between the IAS and the IPS lobbies and what happened between Mrs Bedi and Mrs Gupta is only a small manifestation of that. The two may go their own ways but the divide remains. And till it is present, trouble can break out again and again. For the sake of record, Mrs Kiran Bedi has been sent out on her own request. She has quoted “strong personal reasons” for seeking the transfer from the posting of her choice. But that does not fool anyone. She herself gave her bitterness away when she said “I think it is going to be more and more difficult for straight police functioning and delivering justice to the common man”. It is clear that she is not at all reconciled to certain distorted ways of the bureaucratised city and would rather bid adieu to it than reorient herself to its functioning. How much her transfer affects the morale of the police force will become clear in the days to come. As far as the common man
is concerned, he has not liked this bickering one bit.
Mrs Bedi had come here with the image of a no-nonsense
officer and her reputation had made many people mend
their anti-social ways on the double. The police too was
doing its duty with alacrity. All that may change for the
worse now. In fact, signals to that effect are already
visible in some ways. That is bad not only for the police
but also for the administration. After all, Mrs Bedi was
not just any other officer. The Magsaysay Award winner
need not have been treated with kid-gloves but surely she
deserved a little more understanding. One thing that is
held out against the mercurial Inspector General of
Police is that she went to the Press on the issue of
alleged interference by the Home Secretary in police
postings and transfers. That pre-supposes that official
channels of protest were open to her. Supposing these had
already been explored without the desired results? In any
case, the actual efficacy of “official
channels” in the redressal of grievances is well
known to every citizen who has been unlucky enough to
have any kind of brush with the government. What needs to
be underlined is that all she was doing was not in her
personal capacity but as the head of a disciplined force.
The chief cannot enforce her authority and responsibility
if she is bypassed. The administration must reassess the
whole episode in a dispassionate manner. For the man on
the street, the IGP is as much the government as the Home
Secretary of the Union Territory is. Once he knows that
the two do not see eye to eye, he is bound to feel
bewildered. And the law-breakers are bound to thrive in
the dark rift area. The Chandigarh Administration needs
to fill the breach before it causes even more serious
damage. |
ELECTIONS
IN INDIA EVERYONE seems to be moaning about having another election. The moans from the politicians who got elected last time are the loudest. “Go through all that again? Where is the money? Where is the support?” The truth is that nobody is sure about getting elected because the economy is unstable. We do not know what the causes of it are, and we may have unexpected results. In the last few years, the losses suffered by the captains of business and industry have been phenomenal. The number of small industrial units that are closed, and the number of workers unemployed is very large. We live on the assurances that the recession is on the way out. Mr Rahul Bajaj says, “Three years of political uncertainty, low growth and poor profits: two quick elections. Who has got the money anymore?” It is with black-marketeers, waiting for amnesty; with unscrupulous men, who corrupt the election process and dominate over us. We will soon know what will happen in the elections. It may end up in more corruption, more dipping into the nation’s till, more debts, more arm-twisting, more favours promised. Or we may suddenly find that the people want the candidates who spend the least, look honest, and stand for integrity. Our saviour will probably come that way, but Lord, please, give him a visa without the usual delay. Critics say it is costly to have elections. They believe that it is not costly to have flyovers by the dozen, hundreds of people going abroad on petty excuses, lavish grants to legislators which in some cases are used as pocket money, lavish increases in all salaries, innumerable staff cars, unlimited security, an unlimited expense on publicity, and all the claptrap of office. All that I suppose is not expensive. We have chosen to ignore the word “economy”. That should be enough to fight an election on. I dread the new trend of dragging the armed forces into politics, which will affect democracy adversely. Making the Admiral walk the plank has not been cheered by the ship’s company, and the soldiers and airmen on board. We should be glad that another election is on line. If there is any big question to be decided, the sober second thoughts of the people are the best way of deciding it. We have an election commission that we can rely on. Experiencing an election is an education in democracy, and the cost is minimal compared to the result that is achieved. An election gives an opportunity to every single individual in the land, from the President down to the illiterate villager, to think about our needs. I have watched every election for the last 50 years and each time I am amazed to see the thinking that is churned up, the upsurge of spirit that it creates, and all the rubbish in politics that it sternly rejects. The criminal with loads of black money is the only source of danger! And that is because he is not punished by the law, and misleads people by supporting religious functions. True the telephone lady answering a quick poll says that people are bored and angry. She does not say that she does not vote at all. But ask anyone: ask the hawker, the taxi driver, your servant in the house, or your sabziwali, and they will tell you that an election seems to give them some status in the land. The best argument in favour of an election is provided by the rural voter who loses his day’s work and wages, trudges several miles in blazing heat but still goes to the booth to register his vote of 60 per cent or more, and that does bring about a change in the land, imperceptible sometimes, but it stresses a vital need of giving a say in affairs to all the people. Yet there is a strong feeling in the electorate that their problems are not receiving attention. One of them said, “They will come again, promise us home, roti and work, and then nothing happens.” The nation may gain a lot in prestige by sending up satellites, but the average man thinks that this is secondary to the fact that all that he needs to live — just to live — is not there. He is more worried about the falling value of the rupee in the market, more concerned about caste violence in the neighbourhood than the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The price of dal or tea, the rise in school fees, and claims that the rate of inflation has declined drive him crazy. We have allowed a large number of criminals to creep into our legislatures. We have watched with dismay the transfer of IAS and IPS officers just to crush their spirit. Humiliation seems to be a part of public service now. And all this because we have failed to give justice. If our system of justice could work in time, no criminal could enter the sacred precincts of our legislatures, no government could transfer people about just to get amenable officers, or to punish those who differ. The fact is that we are incapable of giving justice. Years of civil disobedience, and defiance of the law, have blunted our sense of justice. We seem to believe that the law is the enemy of the people, and defiance of the law is the way to glory, even after making a couple of crores illegally. We have legislated that religion cannot be used to ask for votes. Has that been firmly enforced? We were ordered by the court to protect the Babri Masjid. We watched its destruction on TV without raising a finger to stop the vandalism. We have legislated half-heartedly against corruption. Nobody has been punished for it. Convictions for murder and heinous offences are becoming rare. In fact, I have come to believe that at heart the Indian wants to preserve the past of wrongs and injustice. He thinks that the process that has kept us together for thousands of years is basically sound. If we change it, we may disintegrate. Ask any Thakur in Bihar and he will confirm it. Nor are we prepared to see that order is the root of national life, that justice is the cornerstone of a nation. We have put it in the Constitution to feel noble and totally failed to enforce it. On the other hand we have allowed mobs to lead us on every important occasion. That statement of Goethe, “I prefer an injustice to disorder”, shows us why we are a backward people. There is a lot of criticism of regional parties that join a coalition and keep holding it to ransom for their own ends. Small groupings give some hope to the people, and they are an indication of a much deeper urge all over the world for the devolution of power. Wherever that need is understood, as in Madhya Pradesh by Mr Digvijay Singh, the response is clearly in favour. Coalitions with smaller parties are inevitable. What the world wants today is the devolution of power, which is synonymous with the age of information brought about by television, radio and literacy. It is the local problems that matter to millions, they are far more important that the CTBT or a Ram mandir. The failure of coalition politics is one for which we should be able to find an easy and prudent answer. Support must be given in writing to the satisfaction of the President for a specific period, and it cannot be revoked. The real divide in India as far as our politics is concerned is between the rich and the poor, between the city-dweller and the villager, and a perceptible divide that has appeared in the West is between man and woman, the young and the old. These will appear here too. As regards the first two, it is basically a question of taxes. Everyone is pleased when the rate is low. What is not seen is that the money required to uplift the poor goes into the pockets of the rich. There may be arguments about the rate of growth being affected by higher taxes. Are they convincing? The major defect in our democracy is that we have not been able to improve the lot of the poor. Democracy gives them the right to demand a change. They feel persecuted, and this can cause serious disorder. The least we should do is to fund polls for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates. India has been on the decline for the past 300 years, except for a brief period when it fought for and secured independence, and the system worked well for nearly 20 years. Yet in the same period we had Partition, massacres and migrations. And ever since we have been reckless in expenditure, piling up debts, disregarding the need for pulling the poor out of their unending poverty and all that goes with it. We have been ruled by a
class of politicians for many of whom power is the only
theme, and profit the only motive. The saddest part of it
is that we have come to believe that all this is part of
democracy. It is only elections that can bring us to our
senses. The voice of the people does not lose volume
because we hear it more often. |
Child soldiers of Africa A SIERRA Leonean child soldier went on a killing spree with his AK-47 assault rifle and accidentally killed his own mother. Another boy who participated in a rebel attack on his village deliberately shot his parents. He said that they had reduced him to becoming a soldier by failing to send him to school. Both children are now in a centre for recently demobilised child soldiers in Freetown. Their stories are horrific but by no means unusual: a new report says more than 120,000 children are involved in hostilities in Africa, some as young as seven years old. The report, “ The Use of Children as Soldiers in Africa”, “represents a catalogue of shocking abuse against African children”, says Stuart Maslen, coordinator of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, which published the report. He calls on governments to stop recruiting children into their armed forces and to end support for rebel groups using children as soldiers. Children have been recruited in Angola, Burundi, the two Congos, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Uganda. Some volunteer but tens of thousands are forced to join, sometimes at gunpoint. Sierra Leone is one of the worst cases. Child soldiers, including nine-year-olds, took part in a two-week reign of terror by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in January in which thousands of civilians were killed, thousands more had their hands cut off and more than 2,000 were raped. Freetown was devastated in the attack. There are some 300,000 displaced people and 15,000 amputees in the city, two-thirds of which is in ruins; 2,500 children are missing. One local UN official has a special insight into the difficulties of reintegrating former soldiers into civilian life: he and his family were abducted in January and had first-hand experience of the issues of under-age soldiers. “The RUF believe that children make better soldiers”, he says. “Those of us who were captured and suffered at their hands know that the younger boys are definitely more difficult to handle. They have a one-track approach. They are told ‘Go’ and they just go, without asking questions. When they commit these atrocities, for them it’s like a game. In fact, they enjoy it. Some of the younger kids enjoy what they are doing because they’re not fully aware of the consequences. That is why they try to get the younger boys as rebels.” Getting the children out of active service is top priority. Next comes mental and social rehabilitation and reintegration. Explains the local communications officer of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Mohamed Djiallo: “We prefer to deal with the kids’ problems within the community because UNICEF believes that the best place for children is within the family. We try to reunite the children with their families, and then support them within the community.” The task is difficult. A number of children are rejected by their families, and must stay in care centres until, if they are lucky, foster parents are found. Some of those abducted by rebels at a young age cannot remember their names or those of their families and villages. Demobilised children are often regarded with suspicion. One former boy soldier in Sierra Leone was taken to hospital with acute malaria. A girl lying in the same children’s ward suddenly screamed: “That’s the one. He was the one who raped me.” The report is part of an international campaign to raise the minimum recruitment age of military service to 18. (The UN estimates 300,000 under-18s are fighting in armed conflicts worldwide.) To strengthen protection for children in conflict, UNICEF and the Coalition are pressing governments to agree to an optional protocol to the international Convention on the Rights of the Child. The report says that children are often used to run check points when not engaged in combat. Adults tend to stand further back so that if bullets start flying, the children will be the first victims. It also points out that in any conflict in which children serve as soldiers, all children, civilian or combatant, come under suspicion and are therefore at greater risk. There are a few glimmers of hope. “The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which used thousands of children in its struggle, has finally realised that it has created a generation of children who cannot read or write and know only the respect that is earned by the barrel of a gun.” But it remains to be seen whether the SPLA will stop recruiting children and demobilise those currently in service. — Gemini (The writer
specialises in African affairs.) |
The
Baikunth niwasi SUDDENLY, after crossing over to the eighties of life, I realised that I and my generation of Very Senior Citizens have become illiterate once again. There is a similar rhythm in our faltering steps as in the days of infancy and in our attempts to learn the language of the future age. We have become “computer and technology illiterate” unable to go surfing in cyberspace, though “cybertime” is open to us for surfing with plenty of colourful websites located in the past. So I got on to the mind’s internet and went back 70 years to latch on to a bright website where I saw myself heading a group of five brothers and cousins whom the elders playfully called the Pandavas. On account of my slight headstart in years, and an inherent inability to tell a lie with a straight face, I was dubbed Yudhishthira! My uncle’s heavily built elder son was Bhima, and my paternal aunt’s fleet-footed nimble-fingered son was Arjuna. My younger brother and my uncle’s second son, born within a month of each other, were Nakula and Sahdeva. I smiled over the games we had played and the escapades we had run into. I lingered for a while on this delightful website and then shifted 40 years forward. Bhima and Sahdeva had become eminent doctors running the family “Rajkishan Medical Hall” established in 1845 in Sadar Bazar, Ambala cantonment. Arjuna had become a labour leader and a prominent Member of Parliament winning successive elections from Kanpur (then Cawnpore). His wit and humour had enlivened parliament proceedings sending ripples of laughter across both opposition and treasury benches, including Jawahar Lal Nehru. Nakula had gone on to become an ace pilot in the Second World War winning a gallantry award and a niche among War Heroes displayed in the Air Force Museum at Delhi. Arjuna was more of a favourite with me because I could crack jokes with him and have a dig at his Marxism. Once when I was in the Planning Department doing evaluation work I could not resist mocking at the ineffectiveness in the implementation of Plan schemes and the way “heads” and “sub heads” of planning went awry. I had written a doggerel captioned “The Rhyme of the Rising Prices” and read it out to Arjuna. It ran as follows: All evolution must
need revolution, Rich crops of severed heads; Arjuna had laughed and pointed out that the “decapitated” can hardly be expected to read and, in any case, the last line did not properly rhyme. I came back to the
present. All the other four Pandavas have gone, and even
my little faithful dog whom I sometimes called
“Dharam Raj” is no more. I wondered how could
I, like Yudhishthira, be translated to Heaven without
shuffling off the mortal coil. The answer came back in a
flash on the internet. Name the house as
“Baikunth” and put a sign plate outside to that
effect. Then I could safely be referred to as
“Baikunth Niwasi” without having to go the way
of all flesh. |
Cool pines fan forest fires RECENT fires have caused massive destruction of forests in Uttarakhand. It is being asked — why is the destruction caused by fires increasing in this ecologically crucial region the hilly catchment of the Ganga-Yamuna river system? While several aspects of this question deserve consideration, one crucial, but frequently neglected aspect is the changing mix of tree-species in forests which alienate local villagers from forests. During this century the composition of several forests of Uttarakhand has changed significantly as the broad leaf species of trees like the oaks have been displaced and the coniferous species like the chir pine have spread widely. This wasn’t nature’s work, instead the nature’s behaviour was obstructed by the forestry department to create conducive conditions for the decline of oak and spread of pines. The reason was the increasing commercial-industrial orientation of the forest department. The oak did not provide many industrial products while the chir pine was useful to industries for its timber, pulp as well as the resin. However, from the point of view of the villagers the priorities are entirely different. They value the broad-leaf species of oak for fodder, as well as for its soil and water conservation properties. On the other hand chir pine provides no fodder, instead its spike leaves impede fertility and help little in water conservation. Chir monocultures create dry conditions where fire spreads easily, in addition chir resin and wood catch fire quickly. In several oak forests deodar saplings have been planted and then the oak trees have been girdled so that they dry up and die an early and unnatural death. After some years oaks vanished while deodars, flourished. In pine forests the management is such that a dense growth of trees which is conducive to the sprouting of oaks is discouraged by selective cuttings in the name of providing light for the proper growth of pines. In this and other ways a massive monoculture of coniferous trees has been fostered in the Uttarakhand region, while carrying out such management, the forestry department also continues to propagate that only coniferous trees can now grow on the depleted, barren slopes of these hills. Some years back the late Miraben, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi who had spent several years in Uttarakhand, questioned some of the well-propagated myths of the forestry-department. Her analysis is worth quoting to detail. Myth I: The forest department is taking care to protect the oak wherever it exists. Miraben: During the five years that I lived in the Garhwal forests at 5000 to 7000 feet altitude, I did not see the slightest sign of this protection, except in one small area where the department was anxious to protect a spring to provide water to some government buildings. Myth 2: Nowhere has chir pine been planted to replace the oak. Miraben: I have seen many areas of pure chirpine in the banj (oak) zone. If they were not planted by the forest department, they were certainly cared for and thinned out by it. Planting is hardly necessary as the chirpine seeds itself and grows like a weed. Myth 3: Banj-oak requires deep and fertile soil and it is slow growing. Most of the southern slopes of the Himalayas are bare. Even if cost-considerations are ignored, lack of soil-depth and moisture will not allow the banj to prosper. Miraben: Firstly, it is an exaggeration to say that most of these slopes are bare, without a trace of soil left. Secondly, the deep, powerful roots of the banj penetrate between the rocks. The banj can grow on steep mountain ranges. It is banj that enriches the soil and fosters cool springs. Where it has been obliterated by chir, it will, of course, be a long and difficult job to resuscitate it owing to the impoverishment of the soil caused by the hard resinous pine needles of the chir, but ways will have to be devised if floods are to be controlled. Myth 4: The official policy is that the oak should be maintained wherever it exists. Miraben: Had this policy been carried out during 25 years since I last wandered in the Garhwal forests, there would by now be definite development of banj growth. Miraben has also written on this subject in an article. “Something Wrong in the Himalayas”. “Living in the Himalayas as I have been continuously now for several years, I have become painfully aware of a vital change in species of trees which is creeping in the southern slopes — those very slopes which let down the flood waters on the plains below. This deadly changeover is from banj (Himalayan oak) to chir pine. It is going on at an alarming speed... The banj leaves, falling as they do, year by year, create a rich black mould in which develops a thick tangled mass of undergrowth (bushes, creepers and grasses), which in their turn add to the leaf mould deposit and the final result is a forest in which almost all the rain water is absorbed. Some of it evaporates and the rest percolates down to the lower altitude as sweet and cool brooks. It would be difficult to imagine a more ideal shock-absorber for the monsoon rains than a banj forest. The chir pine produces just the opposite effect. It creates with its pine needles a smooth, dry carpet which absorbs nothing and which at the same time prevents the development and any undergrowth worth the name. In fact, often the ground in chir pine forest is as bare as a desert. When the monsoon beat down on these southern slopes of the Himalayas, much of the pine-needle carpet washes away soil. These needles, being non-absorbent, create no leaf mould, but only a little and very inferior soil, which is easily washed out from the rocks and stones... The destruction of oaks to make way for the conifers has been also emphasised in the report of the Kashmir Kohima foot — march (KKM Report). (This footmarch was undertaken by Sunderlal Bahuguna and some friends). “We cannot forget the painful sights of destruction of oak forests to plant conifers. With its excellent qualities of soil building, water conservation and supplying fodder, fuel and agricultural implements, all villagers call the oak a “kalpavriksha”. The sweet cold water of oak roots has been praised in hill folk songs. But the destruction of oaks to plant conifers started with the commercialisation of forests, and continues unabated in spite of the Uttar Pradesh Government’s pious declaration to protect this species. We could see in Kansar compartment 5 Chakrata Division stumps of big oaks. These were felled to plant deodar and kail. Eighty hectares of the oak area in Rari Uttarkashi in the catchment area of Yamuna was planted with deodar during the fourth Five Year Plan. During 1980-81, 20 hectares of the oak forest was cleared to plant deodars in Khurmola Compartment 8 of Uttarkashi division. When we enquired how it happened, the reply was what could the poor ranger do, when the target to plant commercial species was fixed from Lucknow”. Many hazards implicit in creating conifer monocultures have been mentioned from time to time. In this context it is pertinent to draw attention to the widespread destruction of trees caused by windstorms in the Himalayas which has exposed the inherent weakness and susceptibility of such species. The following note of Richard St. Barbe Baker (taken from his book “My life, My trees”) regarding a massive destruction of pine trees in a forest of England will explain this point better. “We inspected the tree roots to read if possible the cause of this disaster. We found that most of the trees felled in the storms were approximately 40 years of age when root competition had become severe. It is a fact that the hair roots of pines are charged with an acid sheath, nature has provided this to help dissolve rocks and enable the roots to penetrate. One often sees how the root of a pine, by the sheer force of expansion, has succeeded in splitting a rock, emerging a foot or so below the point of entry. Imagine myriads of small roots competing with each other at the same level for growing space. When this happens an acid pan is formed at the level of the greater root competition. For the health of pines there must be a mixture of broad-leaf trees so that leaf fall can provide food for the roots of the conifers.” It is therefore clear
that commercial monocultures are neither good for the
health of forests, nor for the villagers near the
forests. By placing emphasis on pine monocultures or
other commercial monocultures, we alienate villagers from
these forests. This makes it difficult to obtain their
cooperation in extinguishing forest fires, and without
their active cooperation it is difficult to detect and
extinguish fires at an early stage. Therefore it is
important that forest policies should be re-oriented in
favour of species which are preferred by villagers. |
Public
meeting in Calcutta CALCUTTA: The arrest of Messrs Kesava Menon and Madhavan on the resumption of the Vykom satyagraha has roused popular enthusiasm throughout Kerala. In response to notices issued by Mr Ramunni Menon, who has just returned from a trip to Vykom, a large and enthusiastic gathering assembled in the Town Hall yesterday to congratulate Messrs Kesava Menon and other satyagrahis for the courageous self-sacrifice and the efforts to establish the elementary right of the so-called untouchables to the free and unfettered use of a public place and to take steps to help in bringing the glorious campaign at Vykom to a victorious conclusion. Mr Gopala Menon, a High
Court vakil, presided. Mr Sadasiva Prasad, the well-known
Brahmo worker, moved the only resolution of the day in an
eloquent and moving speech. Mr Ramunni Menon, seconding,
explained in detail the situation at Vykom and appealed
for volunteers and money. Rupees 112 were subscribed on
the spot. |
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