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Receding glaciers cause alarm
Pebbles & stones for a road |
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Before tourists, come the water woes in Mussoorie
Entrust us with nation’s reins: Dalit writers
O P Valmilki with his books. Tribune photo; Anil P. Rawat
Dalit literature comes of age
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Receding glaciers cause alarm
Dehradun, March 24 Himalayan region has some of finest glaciers in the world, including the Shigari glacier in the Rohtang valley, Chorabari in the Kedar valley and Dokraniin the Bhagirathi valley. Rising temperatures hastening the receding of the glaciers have been a cause of concern among geologists for quite some time. A study conducted by the WIHG concluded recently has come up with a time period when the receding process most likely began in these majestic Himalayan glaciers. A study published in the recent issue of “Current Science” says the Himalayan glaciers were probably the first to bear the brunt of climatic changes and began to melt during the mid 18th century. A team of WIHG researchers led by Dr RK Chaujar took up for study composite organisms developed on the loops of the moraines formed by the Chorabari glacier near the famous Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand to arrive at the conclusion based on the appearance of lichens on loops of moraines formed during various stages of the advance and retreat of the glacier. The lichens on the loop of moraine indicate the period when the Chorabari glacier started receding (258 years) from the point of its maximum advancement in this part of the Himalayas. “Earlier work in the Dokriani Bamak (glacier) has shown that the period of retreat in the respective part of the Himalayas is around 314 years. Research on various glaciers of the northern and southern hemisphere has shown that most of these began to recede in the mid 18th century. “The results suggest that climatic changes in the world started during early to mid 18th century, though this needs to be confirmed,” Dr Chujar writes in his paper. Welcoming the WIGH initiative on Himalayan Glaciers, renowned environmentalist and Padma Shri Chandi Prasad Bhatt said a thorough study on glaciers was a must. A member of a group headed by Principal Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister to study Himalyan Glaciers, Bhatt said little had been done till date to study the affects of receding glaciers on the wildlife and agriculture in the Himalayan region. He called for more comprehensive studies on glaciers that spread across the 11 Himalyan states and Darjeeling in West Bengal. However, geologists rule out fears of any possibility of immediate drying up of the Himalayan rivers in the backdrop of reports of on the receding of Gangotri-like glaciers in the Himalayan region. They term receding of glaciers as a natural process. Geologists at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology here rule out the possibility of drying up of rivers as a direct fallout. Sources say global warming is causing the glaciers in the Himalayas to recede at the rate of 13 to 19 metres every year. The glaciology group at the Wadia institute says glaciers keep receding but they also increase at times. In the last 16 million years, the glaciers on earth must have undergone 21 such cycles. Similarly, in 1850, during the brief Snow Age period, the Himalayan glaciers, including the Gangotri, recorded an increase. During this period, it went up to Harsil. Now the glacier has receded by 55 km. “There have been efforts to generate awareness on the ill- effects of climate change on glaciers. The WWF has been initiating campaigns to increase awareness related to the impact of climate change on Himalayan glaciers. “The WWF programme continues to monitor two key glaciers in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh through direct field intervention as well as media-related awareness campaigns,” said Dr JS Rawat, conservation officer, World Wild Fund for Nature. He said the WWF had included Dehradun in its Earth Hour programme under which people were asked to keep their lights off for two hours on March 28. The Uttarakhand forest authorities had a year back decided to curtail the number of tourists to the Gangotri to minimise human interference in the region. It has introduced a permit system to check the swelling number of tourists to the region.
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Pebbles & stones for a road
Landoura/Manglore, March 24 Rs 1 crore to the PWD, keeping in view the ‘kumbh mela’.Heavy traffic flow to Haridwar would be diverted onto this road from Roorkee to Manglore during the mela to decrease the pressure on Roorkee-Haridwar highway. However, delay in the work is giving a tough time to residents of Landoura, Jainpura and Manglore. There are frequent accidents on this stretch, especially two-wheelers. “Besides due to heavy traffic there is dust all around, which causes respiratory diseases,” said Fasihuzzama Farooqui, a resident of Manglore. Apart from this, the big stones on the road damages vehicles. “To cover the 6 km stretch, it takes over half-an-hour,” said Farooqui, who travels on the road each day to reach his mango orchards situated at Landoura. And if anyone chooses an alternative route via Roorkee, extra 18 kilometres have to be covered. “We heaved a sigh of relief when metalling started last year. But now we are fed up with the slow pace of work,” said Mohammad Kesar, another local. On the positive side, PWD executive engineer Anil Mittal said work on the project, which would cost Rs 390 lakh, would be complete by June.
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Before tourists, come the water woes in Mussoorie
Mussoorie, March 24 The Landour area has been facing water shortages since the beginning of February and although despite several protests and complaints by the locals the Jal Sansthan is yet to find a permanent solution to the problem. According to Ravi, a local resident, “It is surprising that this year we are facing water crises during the winter season.” He said he expected much greater crises during summers. “We have rationed the water in our house and even have to buy mineral water bottles to meet our drinking water requirements,” said an irate housewife. Meanwhile, AK Sharma, Xen of Jal Sansthan said this situation had mainly arisen during the last week of February when the employees had gone on a strike. “During that period we had to feed the town through our reserves and also the entire water pumping and distribution systems were disrupted due to the strike,” Sharma said. However, Sharma assured that the Jal Sansthan is taking all efforts to normalise the situation and that within the next few days a permanent solution would be done. “Although we have tried to increase the water supply since yesterday, in the next couple of days the water supply will be brought to normal,” he said. The entire water supply of Mussoorie is done by pumping water from springs to tanks located several kilometers uphill. There are a total of seven pumping stations serving this town having a capacity of 7.51 million litres per day although the town’s peak season demand of water stands at around 13 million litres per day.
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Entrust us with nation’s reins: Dalit writers
Dehradun, March 24 “Things have vastly improved for Dalits as a result of reservation. But as long as the rest of the society continues to practice the ‘varna’ system, the problem will persist,” said Patel who hails from Bhuvaldi village in Gujarat. In the city to participate in the national-level conference on “Dalit Literature: Contents Concerns, Trends”, Neerav Patel said that he is the first among his family members to taste the fruits of education. His children too have followed his example. Employed with the Central Bank of India, Neerav Patel’s works include “Burning from both ends” (poetry), “What did I do to be so black and blue?” (poetry) and “Bahishkrit Pholo” (prose). He writes in English and Gujarati. On the evaluation of Dalit literature in the country, Patel said it was not organised and continues to be pushed in different directions by proponents of different schools of thoughts.“The language being used too speaks of their inner turmoil and is more common place and rustic,” said Patel. He said that though he had migrated from his village but a part of him would never be able to let go of the memories of his struggle that he had to encounter as a Dalit. “My son too will continue to harbour those experiences though he is undergoing his education at a premier institution,” Patel said. On the issue of who can qualify as a Dalit writer, Patel said, “He can belong to any community but he should be aware of the problems faced by the Dalits.” However, his contemporary Dalit writer Om Prakash Valmiki, who also participated in the conference, was of the view that only Dalits writers should ascribe to the philosophy of Dr BR Ambedkar and Phule. “Non-Dalit writers do not understand the problems faced by the Dalits and cannot do justice to Dalit literature. Casteism is in their DNA and the votaries of caste system do not understand our culture,” said Valmiki, a resident of Dehradun. His book “Amma” narrates the travails of a Dalit woman while “Joothan”, written in 1985, traces his life journey. Valmiki says:“Time has come to entrust the Dalits with the reins of the country and once that is done, there will be a radical change in society,”
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Dalit literature comes of age
Dehradun, March 24 Valmiki said that Dalit literature is about the response of Dalits to their conditions sometimes reflected as anger towards the society at large. The condition of Dalits has hardly changed over the past centuries. He said, “Dalit literature is about giving expression to human sensitivities, pain and sufferings endured by them.” He added that Dalit literature presents the true picture of the lives lived by them and the pain, suffering and agony felt by them. “However, some writers in Hindi have missed this important aspect of the Dalit condition,” he said. Dr SZH Abidi, head of Department of English, Lucknow University, said that the conference had managed to meet its objectives. “The purpose of the conference was to bring about intellectual stimuli and stir the participants. We have done all that.” He further said that the seminar has sensitised people about the existence and development of Dalit literature. Dalit literature has been instrumental in the rise of writers and journalists. Answering a question on whether the rise of Dalit literature in North India was mainly due to the political upsurge in the past several years, Valmiki said, “The rise of Dalit literature is not because of political support. It has made a mark on its own when there was not much political consciousness in the community.” He also accepted the fact that the focus of Dalit literature in the northern region has been primarily on autobiographies. As a result, there were very few novels. “Dalit writers consider novel writing to be more imaginative, so they are avoiding it,” Om Prakash Valmiki said. As to why Hindi Dalit literature lags behind Marathi Dalit literature, he said, “In Hindi, Dalit writing began 25 years after Marathi writing.”
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Travelling on Landoura-Manglore road is a literal nightmare. In the name of a road, there are just stones and pebbles scattered on the 6 km stretch connecting the two
towns.
Dehradun, March 24
