NATURE’S PRESENT

a symposium on

understanding conflicts around

nature in contemporary India

symposium participants

14 THE PROBLEM Posed by Mahesh Rangarajan, Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Ashoka University, Sonipat; Rinki Sarkar, independent researcher, Delhi; Ravi Agarwal, Director, Toxic Links, Delhi 20 NATURE AND ASSAM’S PRESENT Arupjyoti Saikia, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati 24 CAN A COFFEE COMPANY SAVE FORESTS? Arshiya Bose, finished her PhD on market incentives for biodiversity and founded Black Baza Coffee Co., Bengaluru 29 DISASTER BY DESIGN Nityanand Jayaraman, writer and social activist; member, Vettiver Collective, Chennai 35 MANAGING FISHERIES FROM A MIGRANT PERSPECTIVE Divya Karnad, graduate student, Rutgers University, New Jersey and Research Fellow, Foundation for Ecological Research Advocacy and Learning, Pondicherry 40 FALLOW SOIL: BRINGING POLITICAL ECONOMY INTO CONSERVATION Shashank Kela, Visiting Scholar, Wolfson College, University of Oxford, Oxford 45 RECYCLING END OF LIFE VEHICLES N.S. Mohan Ram, Captain, Indian Navy (retd.), Fellow, Indian National Academy of Engineering (FNAE), Bengaluru 50 AT NATURE’S END Rohit Negi, urban geographer, School of Human Ecology, Ambedkar University, Delhi 54 FRICTION ALONG THE FRINGE Meera Anna Oommen, Associate Director and Founder Trustee, Dakshin Foundation, Bengaluru 59 HISTORICIZING MUTINIES AGAINST NATURE Aarthi Sridhar, PhD candidate, University of Amsterdam, and Trustee, Dakshin Foundation, Bengaluru 63 URBAN COMMONS IN A GLOBALIZING CITY Hita Unnikrishnan, B. Manjunatha and Harini Nagendra, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru 68 WOH JANGAL HAMARA HAI Anand Vaidya, anthropologist, University of Bergen, Norway 72 REIMAGINING AESTHETICS OF THE WILD IN DELHI Mayank Vikas, Researcher, International Forestry Resources and Institutions; School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 78 IN MEMORIAM Dileep Padgaonkar 1944-2016 Javeed Alam 1943-2016 Sulabha Brahme 1932-2016 13 Anupam Mishra 1948-2016 90 BACKPAGE COVER Designed by www.designosis.in The problem THE theme of nature in the present is ubiquitous given In a broad sense, the Indian experience fits such the far reaching and perhaps even epochal transforma- a larger narrative, with the end of the sixties marking tions in the human environment that we are living the coming to fore of many different, diverse, often through. Nature in contemporary India can hardly be contending, shades of green concern. The depletion of viewed apart from the larger context of the planet we forest cover and water pollution, the endangerment of live in and are part of. charismatic fauna and monuments, and the livelihood Here, the long- and short-term shifts in the global struggles of a variety of underclass groups – fishers economy and environment are of importance for all. and pastoralists, artisans and cultivators, especially The term the ‘Anthropocene’ is often used to describe Adivasis – were among those which helped shape the the era since the late 18th century when fossil fuel use new environmentalism. By 1982, this pluralism was well first became prominent. Their use has only grown since represented in the first citizen’s report on India’s envi- and they now account for four-fifths of all energy con- ronment by the Centre for Science and Environment, a sumed on the planet. The global picture of the long-term landmark document. matters, and not only to historians. But of more direct In retrospect, it is clear that the clash of and con- relevance to us is the idea of the ‘great acceleration’ in versation between the popular and eminent domains economic growth and demographic expansion that took shaped the public space in the 1980s. This was evident place worldwide after the end of the Second World in well publicized and studied conflicts such as the War in 1945. The period from then till the early seven- dams in Silent Valley (on biodiversity), the Narmada ties was one of unprecedented levels of economic (on displacement and social justice) and Bhopal (on change. By then, not only did economic expansion relief and follow up). The ground level or popular move- begin to slow down on a global scale, but various currents of environmental concern had also matured modern eras as uniquely destructive of ecologies see Kathleen D. Morrison, The Human Face of the Land: Why the Past Matters to a point when they could mount a challenge to the for India’s Environmental Future. Occasional Papers in History dominant ethic of ceaseless expansion.1 and Society, no. 13, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi, 14 2013. On the importance of the uneven role in ecological impacts 1. J.R. McNeill and Peter Engelke, The Great Acceleration: An depending on socio-economic and political status see J. Guldi and Environmental History of the Anthropocene Since 1945. Belknap D. Armitage, The History Manifesto. Cambridge University Press, Press, Harvard, 2013, esp. pp. 1-5. On reasons to be critical of Cambridge, 2014, pp. 70-71.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 ments laid much emphasis on local empowerment and if not dismantling ‘rule by fiat’ of the forest estate by people’s knowledge while rekindling Gandhian ideas the Forest Department. Similarly, there were changes of appropriate technology. These trends did not end in some legal enactments, most significantly the with the decade of the eighties. Alternatives were Environment Protection Act in 1986. India’s political exemplified in very original studies on village level leaders, both at the Union and state level, did not abide biomass (Towards Green Villages) and potable drink- by grassroots concerns but they did modify their stance ing water supply (Dying Wisdom). Such ideas of grass- to take account of them. This was true even in the roots level environmental regeneration gained support Narmada case, where the Gujarat government reached from a fresh crop of scholarly studies by social scien- out to a section of anti-dam protestors who were will- tists who often traced the collapse of such systems that ing to engage with it on issues of resettlement.2 had combined renewal of resources with participation The picture has significantly changed over the to the period of imperial rule. last quarter century or so. For one, the pace of econo- It was in this context that the regulatory appara- mic growth picked up, from 5% in the 1980s, to a high tus of forests and wildlife, air and water pollution, land of 8.3 in the years 2003-11. Even if it has dropped since, and water use took shape. Rates of economic growth the base of the economy as a whole is broader and more also declined from a heady 4% in the early years of plan- variegated than it was in the pre-1980 era. Levels of ning to 3.5% (1965-80). There were larger debates in integration with the global marketplace are also far the polity on growth and redistribution of economic greater. While issues of economic disparity and job crea- opportunity. Legislative and executive measures tion have held centre stage, the ecological consequences included a ban on tiger skin exports in 1969, to the of the change may be more important than apparent at enactments on wildlife, air and water pollution in 1972-74, all the way through to the Forest Conserva- 2. Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narian, Towards Green Villages. Cen- tre for Science and Environment, Delhi, 1992 and Dying Wisdom, tion Act of 1980, the year that the Union government The Rise Fall and Decline of India’s Water Systems. Centre for set up the Department of Environment. The ‘eminent Science and Environment, Delhi, 1997. The shifts over time are domain’ was thus not immune to ground or intermedi- examined in M. Rangarajan, Nature and Nation: Essays on Envi- 15 ronmental History. Permanent Black, Ranikhet, 2015. For the ear- ate level pressures; the adoption of Joint Forest Man- lier period, M. Gadgil and R. Guha, Ecology and Equity: The Use agement was in part a response to the calls for curbing and Abuse of Nature in Contemporary India. Penguin, Delhi, 1995.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 first sight. Greater rates of extraction of biomass, good, the routs and reverses turned out to be more intensified demands on the biophysical environment important than the victories. A fresh sense of crisis is (mining of coal or iron ore), or more extensive use of the widely pervasive. ecological infrastructure (soil, water, air) or depletion The same period since the early nineties also of biological diversity (flora and fauna) or even whole saw new kinds of fissures arising in the environmental biomes (mangrove, wetland, scrub jungle, savannah, movement, in turn leading to shifts within what were estuary or forest): all these have become more promi- earlier largely hermetically sealed categories of state, nent than ever before. From being the prime investor, market and community. Each had limitations that have the governments at both the federal and state level have become more, not less, obvious over time. To be fair, moved to being facilitators of investment. These far- each had advocates whose practice was nuanced and reaching changes have unleashed new pressures and whose own specific attitudes shifted over time. None- pointed to a slow unravelling of the earlier systems of theless, a broad category-wise look may help to show environmental renewal and public consultation.3 why and how we came to the present impasse. There was also a stepping back after a phase of Statism had long enjoyed support, specially to instituting a flurry of rights based laws on land and for- protect forest wealth and imperilled wildlife, a legacy ests. By 2014, decision makers had come to believe that which goes back to princely and imperial initiatives in green regulations were a drag on business, growth and the early 20th century acquiring fresh currency due to development as they hampered rapid implementation a heightened sense of ecological patriotism and anxi- of projects. This followed significant victories of envi- ety about desiccation in the seventies and thereafter. ronmentalists – mining in Niyamgiri and the eventual Faunal protection has since seen a divide between those failure of the POSCO steel mill and port on the Odisha who sought to sequester nature in strict reserves and coastline. But these were small victories against the other more inclusive modes of conservation. Even well backdrop of larger defeats.4 This was also clear in policed parks such as Sariska, Rajasthan, were found cities where floods (Mumbai, 2005 and Chennai, 2016) bereft of tigers by 2005.6 Ivory poaching had meanwhile proved unavoidable as real estate development and brought down the male to female ratio in much of south- settlements blocked water courses. In early 2016, Delhi ern India to one to one hundred. Most seriously, as a too experienced a near state of atmospheric emergency result of a series of decisions under successive govern- due to a mix of factors that drove up levels of air pollu- ments, parks and sanctuary land has been whittled away tion.5 Long-term campaigns on air quality have had to make way for mines, roads, dams and townships. Its little coherent impact on policy. The recharge of indisputable legacy of securing natural cover and groundwater and protection of the flood plain to help populations of rare species on lands under protection meet drinking water needs and lessen damage by floods notwithstanding, the statist model has clearly worn out gets more lip service than action in most Indian towns. its appeal. It is at its wits end especially when confronted The precautionary principle lost out and growth as good with mobile animals (leopards or elephants), as its won out. While there was a renewal of hope of demo- rigid models do not take account of the fluidities of cratic pressure, laws and executive action, the media nature and market alike. and courts (including the National Green Tribunal) help- By the end of the 1980s, market forces had won ing rein in industry, both public and private, for the greater major ideological victories worldwide and thus it was only to be expected they would play a larger role in 3. A critical view of the changes is provided by Aseem Shrivastava mediating our ties with nature in a post-reform India. and Ashish Kothari, Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India. Penguin India, Delhi, 2010. On China see Jonathan Watt, Pricing forest lands via net potential value was seen by When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind – the courts as a way of extracting a price from compa- or Destroy it. Faber and Faber, London, 2010. nies and concerns that cleared woodlands. A higher 4. On anti-dam movements see Sanjay Sangvai, The River and price for forest products such as timber was also believed Life: People’s Struggle in the Narmada Valley. Earthcare Books, to be a deterrent to over use. Most recently, the Union Mumbai, 2000; Uma Maheshwari, When Godavari Comes: Peo- ple’s History of a River – Journeys in the Zone of the Dispossessed. government has imposed a cess on coal to discourage Aakar Books, Delhi, 2014. On Niyamgiri, Felix Padel and its use, while taxing greenhouse gas emissions. A slew Samarendra Das, Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and the of scholars, multilateral agencies and policy advocates 16 Aluminium Cartel (2011). Orient BlackSwan, Hyderabad, 2010. 5. A graphic and moving account on urban air pollution is Pallavi 6. Ghazala Shahabuddin, Conservation at the Crossroads: Aiyar, Choked! Everything You Were Afraid to Know About Air Science, Society, and the Future of India’s Wildlife. Orient Pollution. Juggernaut, Delhi, 2016. BlackSwan, Ranikhet, 2010.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 want to quantify ecosystem services to drive home the The caste and class blindness of many early value of habitats such as wetland or forest. But the sad environmentalisms is evident in the way internal hier- fact is that the payment of levies has not managed to archies were lionized for resource renewal. There was deter those who want the land deforested, nor is there far less acknowledgement not only of labour as resource, serious evidence that the funds so realized are used for but that material and human dignity ought to be as criti- serious ecological restoration. Quantification sounds a cal as ecological repair. New work in various parts of fine solution until one takes into account the market value India now shows more complex forms of collective of coal, gas, or oil that lies under the lands in question. It assertion that foregrounds politics and reinvents ideas is worth noting how market friendly fishing has led to of association. Far from being a survival of yore, they the depletion of fish stocks of a host of species along draw on ideas of democracy and science to assert claims both the Coromandel and Malabar coasts. Even as the of those who work the shoreline or the forest.9 push for market friendly means by economists and The pragmatic and cautious approach would be revisionist conservationists alike is notable, but as of to draw on each of these dimensions where relevant now, the major focus has been on where it falls short.7 but seek to fashion a situation or site specific response. Disenchantment with the market as much as with This still leaves us with the question as to what the the centralized agencies of the government had led guiding principles can be or, at least, ought not to be. many to turn to the community. There is little doubt One way forward would be to see how new kinds of about not one but multiple cases of local water bodies, questions have arisen in the recent past. It would be forest patches and groves being protected over long naive and foolhardy to claim there are ‘lessons’ or ‘ans- periods due to energetic local initiatives. The many wers’, but it is the case that there can be fresh insights. forms of knowledge and skill involved, as in the case of The picture then in 2017 is not one totally at odds water sources, require both deep study and apprecia- with the past even as the challenges remain all too real. tion. Interestingly, whereas gender issues had long been To think these through, both coherently and in depth, is critical to ecological debate, caste based exclusion in even more vital than ever before. This hinges on how both statist and community level resource protection we define the present and where we draw the bounda- initiatives is only now being openly questioned. Laws such ries of what does or does not make up what we see as as the landmark Forest Rights Act, 2006, did expand nature or the natural. Some concerns are not new: the the penumbra of rights for forest users in the arena of obliteration or remaking of ecosystems, clashes over individual land title but have done precious little to access to the bounty of nature or divisions on who will expand the scope of community control. Dalit claims bear the burden of its despoliation. These are tropes that have often faltered even as Adivasis, seen as more come to our present from the past. But the pace of ‘authentic’ forest dwellers, have made some gains.8 change and the socio-political context has changed, 7. H.S. Pabla, Road to Nowhere: Wildlife Conservation in India. often very markedly so. Create Space Independent Publishing Platform, Bhopal, 2015. Earlier, it was possible to draw on rural or local A senior forester and wildlife official advocates sport hunting to community cases as exemplars of resource steward- finance protection of fauna and flora. Tourism with local revenue sharing is advocated by Valmik Thapar, Saving Wild India: A Blue- ship, however imperfect, as a way to harmonize human print for Change. Aleph, Delhi, 2015; also, see Pavan Sukhdev, aspirations and nature. It was also possible to look at Corporation 2020: Transforming Business for Tomorrow’s World. the village or small town as alternatives to the growth Island Press, Washington and Penguin, Delhi, 2012. For a searing account of the collapse of regulation as market forces take over of mega city agglomerations that invariably evolve to administration in key natural areas see J. Mazoomdaar, The Age have large ecological footprints. But we are now in a of Endlings: Explorations and Investigations into the Indian Wild. world where not only information, capital or humans but Harper Collins, Delhi, 2016. animals, plants and materials also move across huge 8. Dalit claims and movements have also, where strongly mobi- lized, tried to gain fresh ground under the terms of the act. The spaces in short spans of time. Nowhere is the intensity need to prove occupation for three generations (waived for as clear as in the question of how to direct the growth Adivasis) makes their task more difficult. But it opens a door where earlier there was none. See Anand P. Vaidya, ‘The Origin of 9. For different notions of community recast via socio political the Forest, Private Property, and the State: The Political Life of action in southwest and central India see Ajantha Subramanian, India’s Forest Rights Act’. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department Shorelines: Space and Rights in South India. Stanford University of Anthropology, Harvard University, 9 April 2014. For a differ- Press, 2009; Yoda Press, Delhi, 2013. For work on the Chhattisgarh ent view see Kamal Nayan Choubey, The Forest Rights Act and labour initiatives of the 1980s see Radhika Krishnan, ‘Red in the 17 the Politics of Marginal Society. Occasional Papers in Develop- Green: Forests, Farms, Factories and the Many Legacies of ment and Society, No. 31, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Shankar Guha Niyogi (1943-91)’, South Asia: Journal of South Delhi, 2014. Asian Studies 39(4), 2016, DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2016.1216243.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 trajectory of mega urban agglomerations. Creating ten how a new sense of community can be forged to meet million jobs a year in sustainable ways is also a chal- the challenge.11 The present crisis may be an opportu- lenge in small towns, villages and forested areas. nity to rethink our approaches and refashion a new 21st Needless to add that the concerns on resource century environmentalism. repair or renewal, on the need to retain key public goods New kinds of alliances are the need of the hour. like fresh water or air, or the retention of biotic wealth There have been very positive insights as in the case of and critical habitats are all important. But the ways we trawler fishing off the Odisha coast, where advocacy think and act on them may need to engage more deeply of fisher rights has the combined effect of helping tur- and in newer ways with different institutions. Doing so tles and marine ecology and saving livelihoods.12 Less will likely reopen older debates about whether incre- central to the national imagination are issues of floods, mental change is better than an all-out fresh model. We flood plains and dams on the Brahmaputra. Here, the acknowledge such deep reflection, but the long jour- issues are deeply socio-political in nature as they entail ney begins from where we stand. To begin to change who pays the price for large-scale engineering inter- the present for the better and assure nature a more ventions in a fluid, shifting landscape where livelihoods secure future, it is essential to ask how we got here. This are intertwined with water, silt, fisheries and access to may help illumine far better the way we ought to go. land.13 Similarly, science based interventions can do Specific choices in the past often played a key role much to take the edge off human-animal conflict by in shaping our present. Unlike some critics of the proc- securing livelihoods in a manner that saves rare spe- ess, we do not see any way of rolling back the twin pro- cies as well. cesses of globalization and liberalization, while These may be critical in vast landscapes where recognizing the case to renegotiate some of their key production and conservation, certain human activities features. Our journey in this issue of Seminar is through and wildlife presence cohabit the same space. This specific works that unpack three dimensions of the marks a widening of the canvas beyond refugia and problem: the history, the current crisis and innovative holds out hope of wider networks to conciliate produc- ways to move forward. Most of the essays draw on long ers and nature.14 At the same time, rethinking nature engagements with specific sites or issues and try to map requires not only an acknowledgment of its resilience, the way keeping the larger challenges in mind. The common element, if any, is a larger belief in 10. Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Penguin Allen Lane, Delhi 2016, pp. 50-78. the need to step more lightly on natural cycles and sys- Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai were built in a time of global net- tems and in ways that expand, not contract, opportu- works and paid scant attention to the dangers of climatic events nity for the underclass. How can this be done in a on vulnerable sections of the coast. Yet as N. Jayaraman argues in democratic and knowledge sensitive way? Common this issue, the 19th century did see some wisdom in Chennai with drainage provisions. Today, these are being rapidly dismantled lands even in a globalizing city such as Bengaluru, as by real estate interests and government. For a more optimistic much as in marine ecologies, need to survive intact not view of an older city and its environs see Harini Nagendra, only for reasons of livelihood but because of their criti- Nature in the Indian City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present, and Future. Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2016. cal larger ecological functions. The coming century is 11. T.M. Krishna, ‘Moving on in Chennai’, The Indian Express, a time to draw on history for insight, our understanding 29 December 2015, argues for a common sense of citizenship over- of the crisis to re-energise ourselves, and build on crea- coming social and economic divisions in the flood hit metropolis. tive impulses to expand the spaces for collective and In a vastly different setting on the cultural assertion in Arunachal against land take over for statist nature preservation see Ambika individual action. After all, a city such as Delhi has been Aiyadurai, ‘Tigers Are Our Brothers’: Understanding Human- a home of urban humans for well over a millennium Nature Relations in the Mishmi Hills, Northeast India. Unpub- and Bengaluru is close to the 500-year mark. How did lished PhD thesis, NUS. Singapore University, July 2016. these cities stay habitable and productive? What if any 12. This is examined in depth in Kartik Shanker, From Soup to elements of those systems are still intact or can be Superstar, The Story of Sea Turtle Conservation Along the Indian Coast. Harper Collins, Delhi, 2015. reconfigured in new ways? 13. Sanjib Baruah, ‘Hydropower, Mega Dams and the Politics of This may not always be the case viz., in the age Risk’, Seminar 640, December 2012. Himanshu Thakkar, ‘India of climate change, key cities along the coast that date Facing its Worst Water Crisis Ever’, Business Standard, interview to colonial times are especially vulnerable to rising sea with Aditi Phadnis, 14 May 2016. 18 levels.10 But there may be ways to lessen negative 14. For further discussion on these aspects see Gopi Sundar of the International Crane Foundation, Vidya Athreya’s work on impacts on citizens without turning the clock back in leopards in western Maharashtra (under aegis of the Wildlife history. Recent crises have rightly led to questions about Conservation Society India). See, Vidya Athreya et. al., ‘Big Cats

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 but also of the vulnerability of certain key processes and unclear how the re-minted alliance of industry and gov- species under both state and community stewardship.15 ernment, intent on growth at all cost, will be tempered. There is, to put it simply, no silver bullet solution. At This shift, prefigured by key shifts in the previous another level, in an increasingly urban society with ruling alliance in India, was consolidated and acceler- large levels of waste, there are also dead and polluted ated after 2014. There has been significant roll-back landscapes that need urgent intervention. A new kind of some of the gains of the previous period such as rules of alliance building may need new kinds of technique, and laws governing forests, water, and land use. We of recycling and resource use. Are there ways for- are likely to see a similar pattern emerging in the world’s ward? We have reason to believe there are steps pos- largest economy, the US. This leads us to wonder if sible in democratic ways; the generation of wealth environmental concerns only acquire purchase during in new ways can lessen, not just add to, the ecological periods of high growth and tend to wane when growth burden.16 declines sharply. This was evident in the West when The Great Acceleration or the specific phase of those economies boomed for thirty years after World it in India especially since around 1980 has indeed War II. It was in that context that environmentalism exerted new pressures but equally, the opportunities it was projected as a concern of the well-off – a point of opens up can be drawn upon. Rethinking nature’s view that Indian scholars rebutted, often citing commu- present also calls to rethink the idea of a pristine past. nity-led efforts in Third World countries. A resource fru- After all, humans have been around for millennia. Some gal, technologically appropriate and collective approach challenges and pressures are new but we also have seemed an antidote to the dominant modes of both the more nuanced ideas of nature and society to draw upon old West and the socialist East. These categories have than we did some decades ago. Frankly, it is as yet themselves moved into history. India has become a key emerging economy. Its role in the Great Acceleration in Our Backyards: Persistence of Large Carnivores in a Human has become more not less central. Dominated Landscape in India’, PLoS One 8(3), e57872, March 2013. For another view see Joe Walston et al, ‘Bringing the The challenge of our environmental present and Tiger Back from the Brink – The Six Percent Solution’, PLOS, future may or may not track those of the West. What 14 September 2010, http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/ will be the role of history and the past in helping us make article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1000485 DOI: 10.1371/journal. pone.0057872 Source: PubMed; The two decades long Nature our way ahead? If we do adopt key features of the West Conservation Foundation and Snow Leopard Trust’s work in the (high speed roadways and rail, large urban settlements, Himalayan states is notable. Charudutt Mishra, The Partners extensive ports on the coastline, larger formal industri- Principles for Community-Based Conservation. The Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle, Washington, 2016. alized sector), how will it reflect in environmental For a sympathetic but often critical look at such initiatives see policy and politics? Green energy such as solar, wind Bahar Dutt, Green Wars: Dispatches from a Vanishing World. and water have become key government and private Harper Collins, Delhi, 2015. Also, see Umesh Srinivasan and sector driven programmes, each with major ecological Nandini Velho (ed.), Conservation at the Margins, Stories from and societal implications. How spaces for nature shrink the Periphery of India’s Conservation Landscape. Forthcoming. 15. Rinki Sarkar, ‘Sustainability of Endemic Chilgoza Pine For- or grow and how society-nature linkages evolve will be ests in the Western Himalayas: Habitat Threats and Conserva- of central importance. We are too close to the changes tion Exigencies’, Unpublished Paper at workshop on, ‘Wildlife to make coherent sense of them, but we are all involved Conservation in India: From Policy to Practice’, New Delhi, in working out how to reshape them. Unlike China, under the aegis of the Centre for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania, 4-5 November 2016. India is a multi-party democracy with public spaces 16. For a thoughtful overview of the spaces afforded by legisla- for debate and contestation, but the trials we face are tion and how these can expand accountability and citizen partici- serious. Democracy is good for liberty, but how will it pation see Madhav Gadgil, Science, Ecology and Democracy in measure up to the dilemmas of ecology? This is now India. Occasional Papers in Development and Society, No. 12, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi 2013. For a grim- our question of questions. mer view of present prospects see R. Guha, ‘Day of the Locust’, The debate on how, where and in what form eco- in C. Chandler and A. Zainulbhai (ed.), Reimagining India: logical sanity and environmental justice will prevail is Unlocking the Potential of Asia’s Next Superpower. Simon and Schuster, Delhi, 2012, pp. 258-267. The growing gap emerges in an active one. We make no grandiose claims. But ours the potential and the decline of public action is shown in two is a journey of hope as much as an appeal to reason. works separated by a few years. Meenakshi Kapoor, Kanchi Nature’s present is an invitation to begin anew. Kohli and Manju Menon, India’s Notified Ecologically Sensitive 19 Areas: The Story So Far. Kalpavriksh, Pune, 2009; Kanchi MAHESH RANGARAJAN Kohli and Manju Menon (ed.), Business Interests and the Envi- RINKI SARKAR ronmental Crisis. Sage Publishing, Delhi, 2016. RAVI AGARWAL

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Nature and Assam’s present ARUPJYOTI SAIKIA

A quick glance at the newspapers the flood plain was key to the survival published from Assam brings the of pre-19th century political king- reader’s attention to the following doms. Powerful medieval kingdoms phrases: river linking, hydropower, ero- would chase away the weaker tribal sion, flood, embankment, sand depo- communities from the flood plain, forc- sition, demand to declare the flood of ing them to seek shelter deep inside the Brahmaputra as a national calam- the forested and hilly areas. ity, and so on. These widely popular The pre-imperial era was the best catchwords are worrying signs of a witness to a careful selection of habi- bigger crisis. Sometime they appear tats. Riverine areas and river islands with an alarming tone, often mixed had to wait till the early 20th century with powerful political slogans. Assam, for their complete reclamation. The the land of a hundred rivers, and the flood plain dwellers, with access to mighty Brahmaputra can be another advanced agrarian technology and example of human beings’ present techniques of warfare, often succeed experience with the environment. in retaining control over the flood plain A mosaic of three distinct geo- and also constantly push the bounda- graphical spaces – hills, rivers and ries of their habitats to the foothills. The flood plains – has defined the environ- distant hills and dense jungles were mental setting of India’s northeast. thus sparsely populated. Hills and A large number of rivers carry water, flood plain dwellers were dependent on silt and strong undercurrents to the each other, and political and social Bay of Bengal before watering the mechanisms evolved for the suste- flood plains. Away from the rivers, nance of this relationship. there stand ranges of smaller hills to Of the two million population high mountains. In between the hills living in the Brahmaputra valley in and rivers there are stretches of flat 1881, most produced crops, collected flood plain. These rivers, their sands, and fish and only a few lived on trade. waters constantly make and unmake Except for a few towns located on the flood plain. Over the centuries, either bank of the rivers, their villages a complex environmental setting were located far away. Their fields was transformed by humans and non- spread over sandy alluvium, low lands, humans alike. These distinct geogra- and slightly elevated fields. As these phical spaces housed the rationale for fields reach away from both the banks livelihood activities. Environmental of the Brahmaputra, they usually constraints ensured that the human escaped the whims of the river. During domestication of spaces was confined the monsoon, the Brahmaputra’s tribu- to a limited area. taries flooded them or damaged the For instance, in the Brahmaputra land by filling it with non-arable sand. valley, the Assamese peasants chose ‘The people of Assam can be the fertile flood plain – away from the said to be relatively happy. Their land river bed – as best suited for settlement does not require much cultivation. The and agrarian activities. They rarely flood waters of the rivers fertilize it so 20 came close to the riverbanks, and did that the people are able to earn their so only when compelled to seek arable livelihood with little labour’ is what land in times of distress. Control of M.K. Gandhi famously wrote about

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Assam’s floods in the 1920s. Gandhi After the news of tea, floods became rural peasantry to move closer to the was not alone. A 1837 report described the second reference point for Assam. rivers. Areas under agriculture multi- how ‘the rainy season may be called Loss of human property and agricul- plied. But at the same time the under- the carnival of Assam; all the labours ture was now quantified. Flooding nourishment of fields became more on the field are suspended; everyone came to be seen as a danger to the visible. Embankments remained a seems happy and contented.’ Indeed, well-being of humans. defence against the penetrating flood- the early British writers were usually waters for a few years but eventually caught between two views of the land- it was of little effect. Embankments scape of the valley. One view depicted As floods came to be viewed as a helped in creating confidence among a landscape full of extreme rain, threat to the general well-being of the people, food production increased unvarying floods and others depicted Assam in the last century, govern- and human settlements spread out to the general cheerfulness of the people ments were expected to regulate the wider areas. The poor and the vulner- in the rainy season. If some officials river and adopt measures for flood able reached out to the low-lying areas were agreeable to the idea of the fer- control. Thus, embankments came to presuming defence from the floods. tilizing capacity of floodwater, others dot Assam’s landscape, leading to a were equally pessimistic about the full reconfiguration of the flood plain or impact of the floods. rearrangement of human settlement Bank erosion had been a factor ear- patterns. This ensured a new form of lier too but this natural geological pro- relationship between the river and the cess is slowly becoming a threat to In the 20th century, the flood was people who lived around it. humans living along the riverbank. At increasingly seen as the foremost enemy In the second half of the 20th least until the 19th century, human of the flood plain. The Brahmaputra century, the river systems came to be settlement along the Brahmaputra came to be remembered, and criti- encircled with thousands of kilometres was rare. The local communities were cized, more for its floods than for any of embankments. The scale and impact aware of those places where the river- other reason. There may be multiple of this encirclement was much higher bank had stability. Guwahati and Tezpur reasons for this but I would like to than the pre-19th century human expe- are two towns where urban settlements emphasize a few. First, the rural peas- rience of rivers. The results became grew for this reason. But in the 20th antry could not manoeuvre the floods, evident quite early. In the wake of the century, several factors changed the which it had done with some success anger expressed by the rural peasantry character of the settlement pattern. earlier. People would move out from against embankments, the Assam gov- This was largely a result of the influx vulnerable areas if floods threatened ernment, as early as 1957, constituted of population into the valley that set- their survival. As the 19th century pro- a committee to look into the effective- tled down in the rural landscape. gressed, with sedentary agriculture ness of such human intervention on Within the 20th century, accord- becoming a norm, the land under tea the rivers. Bijoy Chandra Bhagawati, ing to Indian census reports, there was plantations expanding, and the intro- a veteran Congress leader, chaired the a nine times increase in the valley’s duction of jute cultivation since the committee. The Bhagawati Committee population, creating a new burden on early 20th century, there was little mostly encountered an angry crowd the flood plain. Most of the incoming space for this kind of manoeuvring. who reprimanded the government for population struggled in search of cul- A wide range of governmental regula- its wrongdoings. The charge was that tivable land. By the end of the 20th tions restricted the free mobility of the embankments had led to the loss of century, the valley’s population had peasants. With this, the peasants’ free- the land’s fertility and caused the dis- exhausted its agrarian capacity. Human dom to move out to new and less flood appearance of fish from their fields. settlement has now spread all along the prone areas (to overcome localized Notwithstanding such serious highly vulnerable river banks. This has challenges of floods) came to an end, concerns voiced by the floodplain dwell- exposed an increased number of the making them more vulnerable. Concern ers, embankments became an integral population, mostly belonging to the over loss of crops and floods as a des- part of the landscape. Technocrat- poorer sections, to the threats of river tructive force began to gain currency. contractors-politicians, apart from a bank erosion. News of houses and Flood intensity increased spe- section of the rural peasantry, collec- agricultural fields being eaten up by cially after the earthquake of 1950, but tively pushed for the expansion of the rivers are now regularly reported. 21 scientists have thrown light on other embankments. The latter slowly heaped Most rivers on the north bank are dimensions of this increasing intensity. new-found confidence on millions of under the grip of river bank erosion,

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 carrying millions of tons of sand (there bank is a common story. The deposi- Yes, the vast flood plain or the is no available data). Some rivers tion of sand to a depth of up to 6-7 feet watery land of the Brahmaputra quickly spill out the waters into the has been reported. Overall, flood- valley offers space for a great range fields along the river. induced sand deposition has changed of aquatic life, especially fish. One the soil texture of the district to a signi- knows that glacial water and long ficant extent. Removal of this sand is duration of rainfall kept the rivers In recent months, deforestation in the a daunting task for the farmers. Not all dynamic for most of the year. Water’s city of Guwahati has become the talk of them have sought refuge in urban own dynamics, flood-plus dynamics, of the town. A good percentage of peo- employment, some are also creatively in the language of river ecologists, ple who have squatted on government trying to harness the obstacles, for ins- ensured a regular renewal of the con- owned hilly forest lands and wetlands, tance, by changing cropping patterns. nection between scattered water have identified themselves as ecologi- Near irreversible damage to the paddy space and fishes. The latter obviously cal refugees from Assam’s north bank fields and poor agricultural outcomes turned out to be a crucial and easily districts. A good example of such ‘vio- from the partially degraded lands is available component of the people’s lence of nature’ is the Dhemaji district. forcing people to look for other income nutrition intake. The dead fish left Considered as the rice bowl of Assam, and livelihood alternatives outside the behind crucial calcium from their the agricultural fields have now been district. bones to replenish the floodplain. transformed into a virtual desert due The Brahmaputra also regularly The increasing complaints about non- to post-flood sand deposition.1 A 2006 gives birth to new lands. These newly availability of fish (only to be replaced report reveals that one-sixth of the dis- born lands, known as chapori or char, by commercially produced fish from trict’s total cultivable land has been are fertile and rich in nutrients. They do states like Andhra Pradesh or Uttar rendered unproductive by sand deposi- not require a long gestation period to be Pradesh) is essentially an anxiety about tion.2 Consequently, the soil texture has productive. Given the speedily shrink- the life and times of embankment- undergone significant transformation. ing ratio of land vis-à-vis population, encircled rivers of Assam. A study reporting the findings of everyone’s eyes are on reclaiming such Aquatic scientists now see the a soil test carried out during 2009-2010 newly-born lands. When opposing long stretch of embankments across found that of 346 agriculture plots in claimants belong to different religious the rivers which prevent the inundation 148 sample households comprised communities, for instance, Hindus and of the flood plain as standing against 54% sand and 36% silt. Also, the net Muslims in this case, such claims over the biological process of the spawning sown area of the district during 1992 land often manifest as communal riots. of various fish species. The result is to 2005 had reduced by approximately evident: most Assamese households one-tenth of the total cultivable area. now complain about a lack of fish An equal area was reported as fallow Fish continues to be an integral part of from the local rivers thus depriving mil- and uncultivated land. This is a matter Assamese cuisine. A large floodplain lions of an important source of nutri- of serious concern. geography of eastern India is bound by tion. A dynamic floodplain is crucial Essentially, as the rivers push the a common culinary practice centred for the survival of a culinary culture as sands out to the fields, with an increas- around fishes. Fish is still found every- well as human well-being. ing amount getting deposited, the land where and contributed to the nutritio- is fast becoming uncultivable. Erst- nal well-being of millions of people while cultivated fields becoming unten- for centuries. The Assamese farmer Technocrats or policymakers view able in many places of the northern returning home after work, with fish in the river and its flood plain differently 1 . Kalyan Das, ‘Economic Manifestations of hand caught on the way, was a typical from the way Assam’s rural population Changed Landscapes: Resources, Regulations, image. Despite their poverty, millions looks at it. The dominant view is that and Livelihood in an Upper Brahmaputra cherished cuisines prepared from the waters of the Brahmaputra are a Valley’. Unpublished paper presented at fish. A 19th century scholar thought waste. This enormous gift of nature NMML conference, 2012. that ‘the Assamese of all classes eat must be harnessed for the well-being 2. NRMF, Study of Siltation of Rivers, its Nature, Extent and Magnitude of Problems fish, and the consumption is, therefore, of mankind. Many from the valley and their Remedial Measures in the Upper very great… the River Brahmaputra agree with this opinion. The idea of the 22 Catchment of Brahmaputra River in Assam. appears to be sufficient to keep up an construction of hydropower in the river Unpublished Report, National Resource Management Foundation, Guwahati, 2006, ample supply for the numerous streams basin of the Brahmaputra has been quoted in Kalyan Das, ibid. which communicate with it.’ around since the 1920s but it was dif-

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 ficult to realize this dream. When the along with small tributaries of the How to make an indolent flood Indian government pushed for a dam Brahmaputra through a 473 km long plain and its rivers a partner in India’s upstream of the Brahmaputra imme- canal starting from Manas and drop- new economic avatar? Techno crats diately after India’s independence, ping into the Ganga upstream of and Indian policymakers convincingly the 1950 earthquake came as a natu- Farakka. A proposal was mooted to argue that the production of hydro- ral warning. However, towards the construct water storages on the Manas power is the only possible answer. This latter decades of the 20th century, the and Sankosh to be released during the bold technocratic affirmation never- need for human control of the rivers dry season. theless comes without any promise of came to be advocated by people of Protests against the Indian gov- recreating prospects for coexistence the state. ernment’s river linking project, which of the rural peasantry and the flood A few also argue that the waters would drain away water from a few plain. Flood plain dwellers, already of the Brahmaputra have hardly been rivers flowing through the west of the facing nature’s wrath, are clearly not put to use, making China a powerful valley, was an immediate response to enthusiastic with this answer. They claimant in case of any international this proposal. Parallel to this, anti- insist that their organic relationship dispute around user rights. Such argu- hydropower protests gripped Assam with the flood plain not be disturbed. ments are not only naïve but also miss since the last few years. This forced the complex story of human as well as the Indian government to temporarily non-human dependency on the flood stop work on the Lower Subansiri The human experience of rivers and plain. Unfortunately, such views have hydropower project. flood plain in Assam is undergoing gained wide popularity to lobby for rapid changes. In the last century, few hydropower projects in the Brahma- could have imagined such a dramatic putra river basin. The Brahmaputra and its flood plain transformation. For instance, floods (watery lands of Assam) of the present now come with great intensity. Erosion offer a unique example of a creative now hits a greater number of families. The idea that the waters of the Brah- space for both humans and non- On the other hand, human efforts to maputra were being wasted became humans. The Kaziranga National Park regulate floods no more holds true. The a powerful argument in the latter dec- is an example where, despite odds, government investment in such works ades of the 20th century. Given a non-humans have created a very sup- of regulation has significantly declined, general water scarcity in India’s South portive environmental space. The idea as it increasingly expresses its unwill- and other regions, the waters of the of floodplains is crucial to the very sur- ingness to see such works as a public Brahmaputra were seen as a solution. vival of the Kaziranga National Park. good. The human-nature equilibrium, River linking remained a powerful idea The Brahmaputra and its tributaries, centred around its flood plain and cre- and was publicly articulated. It was in silently or often visibly, contribute to ated over several centuries, looks like 1992 that the Government of India the making and recreation of the flood reaching a saturation point in the near began ‘toying with the lofty idea of plain. This is contrary to the techno- future. However, the crisis has yet to transferring Brahmaputra water all the cratic view of the river and its flood enter the imagination of a wider popu- way from the heights of the Himala- plain. Despite nature’s own challenges, lation, except for those who have per- yas down to the southern river systems’ humans also creatively adjusted in sonally experienced it. which would augment ‘on the way the the dynamic flood plain. One cannot foresee what will flow of the Hooghly river for the main- By the early 21st century India happen next, but the flood plain and tenance of the Calcutta port.’ This has slowly emerged as a global eco- rivers will inevitably continue to be a was part of a grandiose plan to create nomic power. Along with it has come companion to the human journey. The a ‘national water grid to carry surplus a never ending appetite for the appro- humans (and also the non-humans) water available in some regions to priation of natural wealth for the con- will continue to brave the ferocity of water deficit areas.’ solidation of this economic strength. nature. But it is also time for a deep The proposal was to construct a The country, during this ambitious voy- reflection to comprehend this com- gravity canal linking the Brahmaputra’s age scaling the great heights of an eco- plex human journey in nature’s pasts. two tributaries, i.e. Manas and Sankosh nomic power, considers Assam’s rivers It is also a time to creatively nourish with the Ganga and other peninsular and her rural landscape, characterized this man and nature relationship 23 rivers. The Indian planners envisaged by the flood plain, as an anticlimax of by learning from the environmental intercepting the flows of these two India’s new found economic power. pasts.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Can a coffee company save forests? ARSHIYA BOSE

A few years after I completed my doc- what is and is not acceptable are increa- toral research on markets for biodiver- singly being vocalized by a new set of sity conservation, I started a private actors – NGOs, businesses and public- limited company in an attempt to con- private partnerships. These norms can serve forests in the Western Ghats. take the form of ‘naming and shaming’ While this may at first seem like a logi- bad practices or creating market based cal trajectory, the backstory is that my incentives to follow good ones. research was critical of market based Outside the nature conservation ideas. Both narratives – the academic space, examples of market based tools inquiry into markets as well as the more include certifications like the Fair entrepreneurial journey – are forays in Trade label that attests to a particular an attempt to understand one of the commodity being bought and sold via most complex, unpredictable and yet equitable trading conditions. So as a relevant networks of our times. conscious consumer, I can purchase a The idea that markets can be used guilt-free or feel-good shirt because to drive social and environmental the clothing label carries an additional change is not new but clearly uncom- Fair Trade or Fair Wear or Direct Trade mon in the nature conservation space label or has stitched on it some infor- in India. In the recent past, normative mation about the factory’s working benchmarks for social and environ- conditions (e.g. ‘American Apparel is mental justice were scripted by gov- sweatshop free’).1 Similarly, if I want ernments, labour unions and religious a more ethically crafted shampoo, institutions. However, in the current I might opt to buy a brand that is labelled scenario of globalizing economies, ‘Cruelty Free’ or ‘Against Animal 24 ideas and cultures, where social and Testing’. environmental issues can be transna- 1. http://www.americanapparel.net/aboutus/ tional rather than national, norms about verticalint/workers/

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 In fact, the US based B-Lab now coming from areas with otherwise its supply chain to fisheries that have certifies businesses as B-Corporations poor mobile telephony (but debates on been certified by the council. if they meet the highest standards of what constitutes a social enterprise is The coffee industry has been one social and environmental performance. the subject of an altogether different of the most active spaces for labelling. Their tagline is ‘using business as a article). Walk down the aisle of a supermarket force for good’ and amongst the 1200+ in North America and Europe and you certified B-Corporations, some of the will encounter a diversity of coffee more well known companies include The point here is that whatever shape packets, each imprinted with a label or Patagonia Inc (sells outdoor apparel and form market based tools might illustration symbolic of the production and tools), Alter Eco (sells Fair Trade take, they operate on one key premise: story: resplendent tropical birds, faces chocolate and quinoa), Roshan (Afgha- that there is a demand (often at a of farmers and geographic origins and nistan’s largest telecom provider), premium price) for those particular a certification stamp that says Fair Natura (Brazil’s largest cosmetics goods and services being traded. Yvon Trade, Organic, Bird-Friendly, UTZ company), Etsy (an online market- Chouinard who founded Patagonia Certified or Rainforest Alliance. Inci- place connecting small creative busi- surely started his company with the dentally, the closest one would get to nesses with buyers) and Ben and strongly held belief that consumers drinking certified coffee in India (other Jerry’s (an ice cream company and care and are therefore willing to pay a than Organic certified coffee) is either subsidiary of Unilever that promotes premium for the additional invest- at a Costa Coffee outlet that serves responsible practices across its supply ments that Patagonia would need to Rainforest Alliance certified coffee chain). Some businesses operate by make towards using recycled materi- or if one directly buys coffee beans carrying labels from third party certi- als and switching to organic cotton, from a plantation that was Rainforest fications (e.g. Fair Trade) and others not to mention bearing the higher costs Alliance or UTZ Certified. have their own internal monitoring for obtaining Fair Trade certification. systems (e.g. Starbucks has a C.A.F.E. As a conservation entrepreneur practices standard which it follows and academic, I am confounded about Contrary to the apparent scarcity of whilst sourcing coffee beans). the nature and fate of market based accessing certified coffee in India, a tools for conservation and, in particular, fair number of coffee farms are actu- need to ask two questions: (a) Do good ally Rainforest Alliance certified. My In India, the proliferation of impact conservation decisions also make own doctoral research covered over oriented businesses has created an good business decisions? (b) Is there 150 farms in Kodagu district alone but active social entrepreneurship ecosys- a market for biodiversity related goods certification agencies claim more than tem. Spend five minutes on platforms and services? My disclaimer is that my 300 farms are certified across just the like Your Story or The Better India love for the subject of geography and, two states of Karnataka and Kerala. and you will encounter numerous sto- in turn, its love for place-based analy- The Rainforest Alliance certification ries of entrepreneurs leaving behind sis allows me to explore these ques- constitutes a set of environmental and corporate careers to build technolo- tions within a fairly narrow canvas of social standards that are aimed at pro- gies for communication, education, what I know best – promoting sustain- tecting biodiversity. The explicit push financial inclusion, health care and able coffee production through eco- is to incentivize producers through a agricultural services for under-served certification labels! price premium to discard damaging communities in India. A well known In the nature conservation space, practices like spraying of toxic chemi- example is that of Ramon Magsaysay labelling has been used to distinguish cal pesticides, hunting of wildlife or awardee, Harish Hande, who started a range of products in the timber and indiscriminate conversion of forest land his for-profit business SELCO twenty agrifoods industry. For example, the to plantation. Once a farm is audited years ago with the purpose of making Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) by an external agency and found to solar power technology and smokeless accredits timber harvested from for- qualify, its produce is eligible for a price cook stoves available to over 2,00,000 ests managed according to FSC’s premium in the market. Buyers (mostly homes across Karnataka. Of course, environmental standards. Similarly, exporters) typically purchase coffee many entrepreneurs also claim that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) at a premium of between Rs 1-2 per Bharti Airtel is amongst the largest recognizes and rewards sustainable kilogram. These buyers can then also 25 social enterprises in the country with 84 fishing and provides ‘eco-labels’ on sea- label this coffee as Rainforest Alliance million of its 188 million subscribers food that can be traced back through certified, as in turn their buyers can and

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 so the beans travel up along the value trend observed in Indian coffee from good reason to believe, through a chain. the 1970s. number of interviews with Rainforest However, at the farm level my Alliance staff in the U.K., that the research threw up some counter- environmental and social standards in intuitive findings. Researching the A study by the French Institute of India were not about to change too dra- environmental and social impacts of Pondicherry showed a significant loss matically anytime soon. Rainforest Rainforest Alliance certification, the of tree cover in coffee producing dis- Alliance was not keen to strengthen question I asked was whether certified tricts like Kodagu between 1997 and their standards beyond the ‘lowest farms operated differently as a result 2007 owing to the removal of shade common denominator’. of having taken on board the certifica- trees from privately owned farms.4 tion standards. Interestingly enough, Similar observations were made about I found that certified farms were no the impact of this transition from shade For example, there was little willing- different from conventional farms and to sun farming on biodiversity. Shaded ness to add-on mandatory criterion this was true across a range of differ- coffee plantations provide refuge for that specified a minimum abundance ent environmental and social param- plants, insects and other arthropods, or diversity of shade trees or discour- eters. For example, both certified and birds and mammals and, though fewer age chemical pesticides altogether. conventional farms typically had com- research projects have studied them, From a social standpoint too, I encoun- parable use of chemical pesticides reptiles and amphibians. The role of tered smallholder growers who lacked (Rainforest Alliance only prohibits such shade coffee farms is especially market channels, access to production chemicals banned by the EU), waste important in regions with increasing costs and inputs and agronomic sup- management facilities, labour prac- fragmentation of forest like in much of port. In the BR Hills, Karnataka tices and working conditions. With the Western Ghats.5 So thinning shade (where we currently source coffee regards to biodiversity, I observed that trees from coffee farms impacts the from), growers receive 20-30% less both certified and conventional farms abundance and diversity of a range of than the market price on any particu- had the same abundance and compo- species (although we cannot be sure lar day. This concerned me as a con- sition of shade trees.2 about the time frame in which this servationist. It was clear that social and negative impact can be seen). environmental problems were aplenty At the end of my PhD work, all but the current model of certification Here I take a slight diversion to des- my observations about certification (indeed this market tool) did not do cribe the importance of what I have were pointing to the conclusion that enough. just referred to as shade trees. Coffee except for a few minor modifications The explanation of whether cer- is a plant that has a somewhat luke- (e.g. certified farms followed some- tifications are implicitly designed to warm relationship with other trees what more systematic documentation achieve little is relevant. The conse- that might coexist on a farm. The cano- of farm management processes), eco- quences of a certification standard pies of these trees shade the coffee certification for coffee in Kodagu pro- that fundamentally altered the struc- bush from excess sunlight, thereby moted business as usual. I also had ture and governance of global coffee regulating the temperature and humi- value chains in favour of a more equi- 3. L. Soto-Pinto, I. Perfecto, J. Castillo- dity, especially during prolonged peri- Hernandez and J. Caballero-Nieto, ‘Shade table and environmentally sound prac- ods of drought. At the same time, the Effect on Coffee Production at the Northern tice would be mammoth-like. My number of fruits formed per coffee Tzeltal Zone of the State of Chiapas, Mexico’, thesis explored this as well and what Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment plant decreases when shade cover is 80(1-2), 2000, pp. 61-69. I found left me quite jaded about glo- 3 more than 48%, which means that 4. C. Garcia, S. Bhagwat, J. Ghazoul, C.D. bal blueprint solutions and the role of often the quickest way to ramp up cof- Nath, K.M. Nanaya, C.G. Kushalappa, academic research in bringing about a fee yield is to remove shade trees or Y. Raghuramulu, R. Nasi and P. Vaast, meaningful impact. heavily modify the branches to reduce ‘Biodiversity Conservation in Agricultural I started Black Baza Coffee Co. Landscapes: Challenges and Opportunities the spread of their canopy. This is a of Coffee Agroforests in the Western Ghats, with the aim of taking my learning from India’, Conservation Biology 24(2), 2009, eco-certification, deconstructing the 2. A. Bose, C. Garcia and B. Vira, ‘Does Eco- pp. 479- 488. environmental and social standards 26 certification in Coffee Promote “Business as 5. I. Perfecto, R.A. Rice, R. Greenberg and to make them more site specific and Usual”? A Case Study from the Western M.E. v.d. Voort, ‘Shade Coffee: a Disappear- Ghats, India’, Ambio, 2016. Available online ing Refuge for Biodiversity’, BioScience 46(8), create a more farmer friendly process. at: DOI: 10.1007/s13280-016-0796-3 1996, pp. 598-608. Because certification does not always

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 guarantee a buyer, I quickly realized also discussed raising funds through in Belgium found that people were that we would not only have to set and impact investments and are being willing to pay as much as 27% more monitor farming guidelines but also incubated at IIM Bangalore’s entre- for Fair Trade certified coffee but only be an active buyer of coffee. Today, preneurship cell. However, the subject 10% of the 808 respondents were will- coffee growers who are willing to join of this article is not our achievements ing to do so.6 Yet another study showed our programme sign an agreement to and milestones but what this journey that all other features being equal (price, maintain a certain abundance and into mainstream market tells us about quality and packaging), consumers diversity of indigenous trees on their market based conservation, however are more likely to buy a certified pro- farms. Our agreement also restricts young our company might be. duct. It appears that how consumer the use of chemical pesticides and demand and markets respond to the reduces chemical fertilizers to 1.5 kgs non-physical features of a product is a per plant for the first year, with the The entrepreneurial journey, like the grey area. Second, and more important aim of transitioning to zero. In turn, academic journey (particularly in for our work, is that selling the biodiver- we guarantee a buy-back of coffee Human Geography) has been non- sity feature may be far more challeng- at a 15% market premium and help linear and puzzling with many contra- ing than we had initially thought. build capacity to improve the quality dictory truths. One of the most impor- of coffee. tant questions (both business-wise and philosophically) has been about what Our coffee has sold not only for its we are selling. In a project like this, does symbolic but also the physical charac- Each packet of coffee sold under one sell coffee or biodiversity or a bit teristics: roasting profile and fresh- our label can be traced right back to of both? It is critical we answer this ness, flavour notes and diversity of the farm from which the beans were soon because that will determine our blends to suit varied customer prefer- harvested so that the coffee drinker trajectory into what activities we invest ences. The most frequent (almost knows that the coffee comes from time and funds. embarrassingly so) feedback from Pallakere Estate in Kodagu or from We currently label our coffees customers is that we have too much Achukkegowda’s half acre farm in ‘100% Biodiversity-Friendly’ and all information on biodiversity and not BR Hills. A number of our coffees are of our different blends are tributes to enough on the coffee flavour itself. also single-estate. We use only the some iconic species from the Western We organize numerous coffee events best quality grade beans from the farm, Ghats. For example, our pure Arabica in Bangalore city as a way to connect especially since we garble beans our- is called the ‘Wanderoo’ after the lion- consumers to growers and to do social selves (none of our beans are pest or tailed macaque. We have a Luna advocacy on ‘what goes into your cap- fungus infested). We can guarantee Roast, Black Baza Roast, Otter, Ficus puccino’ though an overwhelming our online customers that coffee will and The Whistling Schoolboy Blends. majority of questions from participants be delivered to their doorstep within The packaging has a ton of informa- are about different coffees (Costa three days of roasting. tion about our project – our vision for Rican Tarrazu, Jamaican Blue Moun- We custom grind coffee beans shade-grown coffee, the farming phi- tain, Ethiopian Sidamo) and ways to depending on whether our customers losophy, local history of the farm and brew them. brew coffee in a french press, aero finally a table showing our impact In fact, the advice from every press, espresso machine, moka pot, metrics: 180 farms, 200 acres, 2000 marketing expert (and we have met pour-over or a classic steel filter cof- trees protected, 150 native tree spe- dozens) has been to let go of the feel- fee set. Our quality check, roasting and cies, 25 rare tree species and 988 good biodiversity story; at most keep custom grinding sets us apart from people directly impacted. The ques- it as a byline. Apparently few coffee many coffee players in the regular tion is, has sharing (or selling) our drinkers, discerning or otherwise, care market and positions us as a specialty story worked? My opinion is a resound- about the impact of coffee farming on coffee brand. Within two business ing no. endemic and endangered wildlife of years, we have been able to work with Contrary to my impressions, a the Western Ghats or that 200 years over 180 growers in the BR Hills and recent Stanford based study found of shade grown farming in India is Kodagu, manage approximately 200 that labels like Fair Trade could add a acres (we are still under mapping) competitive advantage to differentiate 6. P. De Pelsmacker, L. Driesen and G. Rayp, 27 ‘Do Consumers Care About Ethics? Willing- under shade grown farming and retail the same products on a supermarket ness to Pay for Fair-Trade Coffee’, Journal our coffee across the country. We have shelf. Another study of coffee buyers of Consumer Affairs 39, 2005, pp. 363-385.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 now being lost. We were told that we help with quality improvement, give could squeeze the smallholder angle to growers visibility through single-estate some extent but even that would lose labelling and, over and above this, also its stickiness with consumers. There provide a 15% price premium, seems appears to be no demand for biodiver- to be an agreeable partnership. In our sity friendly coffee. case, the market incentive for farmers – in this case a price premium – albeit important, is only one of a suite of dif- The implications of this are that if we ferent catalysts. If we did not present want to continue with conservation the entire set of benefits, would a price work, our efforts have to be equally if premium be adequate? I believe so but not more heavily invested in coffee, some growers may prefer much higher marketing and technology. Our coffee premiums (one grower proposed experience has to surpass that of any 25%), especially if the decreased cof- other specialty coffee company – fee yields from high shade-cover turn biodiversity friendly or otherwise. out to be significant. Re-loop these pre- Would this strategy compromise miums into our hypothesis of demand our conservation work? If the aim is for biodiversity-friendly coffee and we to be a good business, it would. We clearly face an uphill challenge. would have to procure coffee from only those plantations whose coffee beans are pulped, dried and processed This is what happens when geogra- with utmost precision in state-of- pher-conservationists step into the the-art facilities (e.g. in drying racks real world; they attempt to solve far above the ground to prevent the slight- too many problems all at one go – in est chance of excess moisture). We our case, the conservation-livelihood- would determine our price premiums farming problem and the market. based on quality factors rather than the Despite the odds, there is a solution(s) number of shade trees. We might even here somewhere that will emerge once limit the number of farms and regions we have tried various market permuta- we work in, proposing that fewer farms tions. In an interview, Yvon Chouinard with higher yields would make the most said, ‘We have very environmentally business sense. In doing so, we would aware customers, but I would guess most likely have to exclude smallholder that maybe 10% care that our cotton is farms that are often located in forest grown organically in Turkey. Organic fringes or corridors between frag- farming is growing around 30% a year, ments. No doubt this would be both a but that’s mostly because you can taste poor conservation strategy as well as the difference, and there’s an obvious a socially exclusionary one. health value. There’s a selfish motive On the farm side of this mar- for eating organic foods. But when ket, the question is whether financial we’re telling customers to care about incentives work as catalysts of land how cotton is grown in Turkey, that’s use change. While my research on still a stretch for them.’7 Rainforest Alliance showed that cer- So one case for optimism is to tification price premiums were not a rejoice that we are not alone; the sec- catalyst, I find that with Black Baza ond is, what a good friend and col- Coffee Co. the picture is considerably league once pointed out, that if we different. Our structure wherein we can’t do conservation with coffee, then 28 guarantee a buy-back, develop trust most other crops don’t stand a chance. and goodwill, prove that we want to 7. http://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/does- associate with farms for the long-term, sustainability-matter-consumers

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Disaster by design NITYANAND JAYARAMAN

A cataclysmic natural event does not Not much time is devoted to exploring qualify as a disaster unless human what it is that we are seeking an alter- lives and property are affected. The native to, whether or not the formula- very framing of an event as a ‘natu- tion of the problematique is robust, and ral’ disaster pre-concludes at least a if a solution can at all be given within partial culpability of nature’s actions the self-imposed restrictions of politi- over peoples. But living as we do in cal and financial viability. the Anthropocene – a period where The December 2015 floods in human actions are the dominant influ- Chennai resulted in the predictably ence on geology, climate and the envi- ritualistic soul-searching that fol- ronment – it is debatable whether at all lows every natural disaster. A litany of there is anything left that is natural usual suspects was invoked – unpre- about nature. cedented rainfall, inadequate drainage, Every flood, cyclone, heat wave, poor urban planning, ill-maintained drought or earthquake brings in its stormwater drains, encroachments in wake boringly trite debates on whether waterbodies, lack of infrastructure, nature’s fury or human folly was to corrupt politicians, unscrupulous blame for the disaster. Even before the builders – along with a not-so-usual dust settles on these conversations, an suspect, namely, climate change. equally banal question, ‘So, what is The city and state administra- 29 the solution?’ is posed, sometimes as tion blamed the flooding on unprec- a query, but more often as a challenge. edented rains. A report in NDTV quotes

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, the late flooding because of their location. questions: Can Chennai continue to J. Jayalalithaa as saying, ‘Losses are Some cities are better prepared than grow without eroding its resilience unavoidable when there’s very heavy others, but none is risk-free. to natural shocks? Can flood mitiga- rain. Swift rescue and relief alone tion measures be carried out without are indicators of a good government.’ exposing Chennai to other natural Made in mid-November 2015, when Consider the case of Tokyo. If engi- extremes such as storms, heat waves the worst was still to come, the state- neering interventions were the answer, and water scarcity? Can hard and ment was intended to normalize a one would expect this technologically potentially unpopular decisions, such human-made disaster, and gloss over sophisticated Japanese city to be well as removal of encroachments from the pathology of urban development equipped to deal with floods. The sensitive areas, be taken in a political under successive administrations. floods of September 2015, which system where the government changes struck the Kanto region, northeast of every five years? Can the city go about Tokyo, were triggered by torrential business as usual and still hope to cope There is no basis to claim that the rains that swelled the Kinugawa river with extreme weather events that will rains were unprecedented, consider- that flooded Kanto. An article in Japan increase in frequency and intensity in ing that the city has unbroken rain Times warned that, ‘It’s just a matter the years to come? records only from two monitoring sta- of time before Tokyo is struck by the tions and for only less than 250 years. same magnitude of flooding... and That duration is a poor sample to pre- should the capital remain unprepared Chennai is naturally flood prone dict the behaviour of nature that has it will most likely be ‘annihilated’.1 The as it was built on the flood plains of evolved over four billion years. Also, article quoted Noboyuki Tsuchiya, a three rivers – Adyar, Cooum and in the climate uncertain times that we civil engineer and author of Shuto Kosasthalaiyar. But its location on currently live in, the unprecedented Suibotsu (The Capital Submerged) the high energy Coromandel coast and may become an annual phenomenon. who said that if similar rains fell over its tropical hot climate make the city Addressing Chennai’s flooding Tokyo and swelled the Arakawa or prone to a lot more than merely a flood- problem is fraught with dilemmas that Tone rivers, ‘the flooding would lead ing risk. May and June are the heat arise from building a city on a flood to unprecedented fatalities and an eco- shock season. Cyclones and storm plain. Chennai is not alone, though. nomic catastrophe that would send surges visit between October and Tokyo, Srinagar, Mexico City, Bangkok, shock waves around the world.’ December, bringing with them gale Baghdad and Paris are just a few of A post-mortem of Chennai’s force winds, tidal surges and copious the many cities that are at risk from floods raises a number of difficult rainfall. Despite the substantial rain- fall – which averages 140 cm annually – Chennai is perennially insecure about drinking water. In November 2015, before the spate of disastrous rains began, only 535 million litres of water was being supplied daily as against a requirement of more than 800 million litres a day. The city is not without its defences, though. The city is bound on the south and north by the Kovalam and Ennore creeks, and to the east by the Bay of Bengal. Low-flung hills dot the western edges of the city. Along

1. ‘Tokyo at High Risk of Devastating Floods, Experts Say’, Tokyo Times, 21 September 30 2015. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/ 2015/09/21/national/tokyo-high-risk-devas- tating-floods-experts-say/#.V3NGg5fPFyQ Survey of India, 1970. Downloaded on 29.06.2016.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 the city’s southern edges lie the Chennai would find itself severely handed down by the British with the Pallikaranai marshlands – once spraw- restricted in its mission to expand its Ryotwari system. ling, but now reduced to less than a urban footprint and grow by develop- Keeping wetlands and other tenth of its original size as garbage ing its manufacturing, commercial and communal use porombokes off limits dumps, glass and steel buildings hous- service industries. The fact that mod- for construction was sensible from a ing IT companies, and infrastructure ern Chennai is less prepared and more hydrological perspective. Rainwater and housing to service these industries exposed than pre-modern Chennai to run-off is greater in built up areas than have sprouted within the wetland. floods, cyclones and heat indicates in open spaces with or without vegeta- that administrators and planners have tion. For the same quantum of rainfall gone about their jobs without regard then, watercourses and waterbodies Sandy beaches and dunes carpeted to the region’s vulnerabilities. downgradient of built up areas will with vegetation like screwpine and reach their carrying capacities far palmyra retard violent storms, soak up quicker than they would if the catch- fresh water and keep the sea from From an unassimilated scattering of ment were left open. It is a fact that intruding too far into the groundwater. agrarian villages and seaside fishing the poromboke is the backbone of our Mangrove-studded estuaries and salt hamlets, Chennai’s transformation as economy. marshes are biological marvels that an urban cluster with thriving trade and Over the years, in colloquial also serve as shock absorbers during industry began with the arrival of the Tamil and common usage, the word the monsoon by buffering flood waters British East India Company in 1639. poromboke has come to be used as a and regulating their exit to sea. The prevailing Tamil land use at the pejorative to refer to people or places In the pre-industrial era, the time focused on ordering life around that are worthless. Not surprisingly, the areas that now make up Chennai were the eris. Habitations were located up etymological corruption of the word settled as temple towns and agricul- gradient of the eri’s waterspread, and has closely mirrored the physical deg- tural villages either around naturally farmlands and grazing areas (meikal) radation of the commons. A large share occurring wetlands like the Pallika- below. The meikal and farm plots were of the blame for the 2015 floods can be ranai or by carving out irrigation tanks designed to be flooded as the water laid squarely on the wanton desecration (called eri in Tamil) in the gently brought with it nourishing silt. of the poromboke. In its bid to become undulating flood plain. Eris miti- Dating back to the Chola times, a world-class investment destination, gate floods and improve water secu- land in Tamil villages were classified Chennai – like many other cities – has rity by storing rainwater and recharg- as warapet (taxable and assessed wet foolishly opted to replace the natural ing groundwater. A 2011 article in The lands), tirwapet (assessed dry lands), infrastructure of survival that the Hindu cites a IIT Madras research tarisu (waste – recently uncultivated poromboke provides with the infras- project that found approximately 650 or historically uncultivated lands) and tructure for international commerce. waterbodies existed in the Chennai poromboke. Poromboke denoted region.2 unassessed lands reserved for com- The region’s humid tropical cli- munal and public use, including com- Since the 1940s, successive commit- mate is conducive for vegetation which mons such as cremation or burial tees set up to look into the causes of is characterized by scrub, grasslands grounds, roads, lakes, tanks, rivers, for- floods have pointed to the encroach- and patches of tropical dry evergreen ests, grasslands, grazing grounds and ment of watercourses and waterbodies forests. Large trees were only found the margins of roads, waterbodies and as a key contributor to urban flooding. in pockets and usually where residents the sea. Concerned citizens and NGOs have planted them to make the area more Barring the natham porombokes filed several Public Interest Litigations habitable. Tree cover is vital in regu- where dwelling units were permitted, (PILs) seeking to remedy the situation. lating microclimate and temperatures. the commons were left to remain open But the PIL is not a magic bullet. Courts If the wind, water, fire combina- to the skies. No construction was per- of law are not equipped to undo the tion of factors is taken seriously, mitted on it, and there were prohibitions damage caused by encroachments into and strict regulations discouraging the waterbodies. Only unlicensed struc- 2. A. Srivathsan and K. Lakshmi, ‘Chennai’s diversion of poromboke for any other tures are encroachments as defined by Vanishing Waterbodies’, 6 June 2011. http:// land use. This categorization has law. Under law, a license is all impor- 31 www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/ chennais-vanishing-waterbodies/article survived with some modifications in tant; the location of the structure does 2099315.ece. Downloaded 30.06.2016. the current revenue classification as not matter.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 The 35 km Mumbai Coastal the other hand, are more robust – city’s waterbodies, successive gov- Freeway is proposed to run through Chennai Metropolitan Development ernments unerringly hone on ‘slum the sea, requiring the conversion of sea Authority (CMDA)-approved layouts, eviction as an achievable first step.’4 space into land. From the perspective National and State Highways, IT Spe- In 2009, the DMK government of the sea and nature, the road is an cial Economic Zones, and state of the announced a Rs 1200 crore plan to encroachment. Mumbai’s fisherfolk art transport corridors may have legal restore Chennai’s rivers, particularly too may see that as an encroachment. sanction but come rainy season, they the Cooum, by focusing on one aspect The Coastal Regulation Zone Notifica- endanger themselves and others by – ‘removing encroachments in the tion, 2011, too prohibited such reclama- blocking and diverting floodwaters. city limits and developing the areas tion. But that changed last December retrieved into parks.’ Though touted as when the then Environment Minister a ‘river restoration’ project, this effort Javadekar amended the CRZ Notifi- The issue of ‘illegal’ encroachments was merely a questionable exercise in cation legalizing the proposed recla- and its removal is imbued with a class beautification. The insincerity of the mation for Mumbai’s sealink road.3 bias against the poor. After every government’s claims to care for the Human law can be amended to make flood, cyclone or tsunami, the judiciary river were exposed when the same gov- exceptions. Nature’s law grants no and the government renew their ernment simultaneously announced exemptions and cannot be changed by resolve to rid the city’s waterbodies or the 19 km Elevated Expressway pro- the offer of a bribe or compelling argu- the coast of encroachments by mak- ject between Chennai port and Natio- ments. As far as nature is concerned, ing lofty declarations to that effect. The nal Highway 45. Rejecting a shorter, the license, even one endorsed by the actual action on the ground is restricted straighter connection, the alignment highest court of law, does not matter if to police assisted evictions of the poor of the proposed expressway followed the location is wrong. from their dwellings on the banks of the curving path of the Cooum. the Adyar or the Cooum or another waterbody. In December 2015, the In Chennai, government is one of the city government announced that it As justification, the project docu- biggest wetland encroachers. They would remove hutments from river ment claimed that, ‘Construction of and many elite institutions and build- and canal banks and relocate oustees such project road will result in the ings have licenses to encroach. The in Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board evacuation of slum areas present along poor, on the other hand, are pushed by tenements in Perumbakkam and the riverbank.’5 In the government’s an unequal and unwelcoming society Ezhil Nagar. Both sites are located in scheme of things, the obvious hydro- to build their huts on the margins of low-lying flood prone areas. Cyclone logical impact of running a road on the sea, roads, rivers and lakes. The Vardah, which visited Chennai in the Cooum riverbed was a justified dwellings of the marginalized are mostly December 2016, left a trail of destruc- risk when weighed against the twin unlicensed – insecure of tenure and tion in its wake, caused mostly by high- benefits of freight transport and slum vulnerable to the vagaries of nature. velocity winds. At 203 mm over a 24 eviction. The survival encroachments of hour period, the rains were heavy but The last two decades have wit- Chennai’s poor are a threat to them- nowhere near the downpour of nessed a rash of projects that pursued selves more than they are a threat to December 2015; Chennai for most this calculus of prioritizing short- flooding the rest of the city. Unless part escaped flooding. Perumbakkam, term commercial considerations over they occupy entire waterscapes, the however, was instantly flooded and the ecological services offered by thatch and ramshackle constructions remained underwater for four days. wetlands. Politically and financially, built on the margins of seas, water- Flood mitigation is merely one building on wetlands is an attractive courses and waterbodies lack the of the pretexts to clear hutments from 4. Karen Coelho and Nithya Raman, ‘Salvag- structural tenacity to block or divert waterways. At various times, and ing and Scapegoating: Slum Evictions on waterflow. Elite encroachments, on sometimes simultaneously, the state Chennai’s Waterways’, Economic and Politi- cal Weekly XLV(21), 22 May 2010. http:// and city governments have justified 3. ‘Environment Ministry Issues Final Noti- www.environmentportal.in/files/Salvaging% fication for Mumbai Coastal Road’, The slum clearance citing a need for infras- 20and%20scapegoating.pdf Downloaded Indian Express 30 December 2015. http:// tructure development, eco-restoration 29.06.2016. 32 indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/envi- or city beautification. Sifting through 5. ‘Final Feasibility Report for 4-lane Ele- ronment-ministry-issues-final-notification- vated Expressway from Chennai Port to for-coastal-road-in-mumbai/Downloaded the maze of factors that contribute to Maduravoyal on NH-4’, Wilbur Smith Asso- 29.06.2016. flooding or the degraded state of the ciates for NHAI, New Delhi, 2008.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 proposition: land acquisition costs are of the Chennai Metropolitan Area population (2001 census) lived in reduced as the poromboke lands are (CMA), Velachery is bound on the urban areas. vested with the government; and northern side by the Velachery eri (tank) politically fraught negotiations with and on the west by the Adambakkam private land owners can be averted. eris. A 1970 Survey of India topo- According to a Mission Overview That is why most of the state assisted graphical map identifies the areas to document published by the Govern- projects like roads, rail corridors, SEZs the northwest and west of Velachery ment of India, ‘…the liberalization and industrial estates have come up and Adambakkam lakes respectively policies adopted by the Government wherever poromboke lands, usually as settled habitations (natham), of India is expected to increase the waterbodies, were available. and the areas to the east and south of share of the urban population… to The 337 acre ELCOT IT SEZ in the two lakes as a grazing or meikal about 40 per cent of total population Sholinganallur housing Wipro, Tech poromboke. by the year 2021. It is estimated that Mahindra, Satyam and Cognizant was In a matter of decades, the by the year 2011, urban areas would carved out of the Pallikaranai marsh Velachery lake has shrunk to a quar- contribute about 65 per cent of gross and sits at the point where waters from ter of its original water spread of 108 domestic product (GDP). However, the north, west and south of the marsh hectares. The Adambakkam eris this higher productivity is contingent exits into the Okkiyam Maduvu canal. and the vast low-lying meikal plains upon the availability and quality of The Siruseri IT SEZ set up by state below the Velachery tank are now infrastructure services.’7 owned SIPCOT is likewise located at buried under a maze of buildings. Prepared in 2007, Chennai’s a point where waters from three direc- Second Master Plan 2026 projected the tions converge to exit to the Bucking- population in CMA to increase to 8.9 ham canal and Kovalam creek. The The demand for land hungry infra- million by 2011 and 12.5 million by Mass Rapid Transit System’s elevated structure did not just happen. It was 2026. Much of this growth is designed rail corridor extended to serve the intentionally designed. Between 1991 to happen through horizontal expan- newly developed IT corridor runs and 2001, CMA’s population increased sion in new areas, and not through along the Buckingham canal before from 5.8 million to 7.04 million.6 Rather vertical densification. veering west through the Pallikaranai than check the growing urban popula- Master plans are meant to be marshland. An extension to the second tion, the central and state governments about wise land use planning that runway at the Chennai International worked out schemes to increase it facilitates the city’s growth without Airport was built almost entirely over even further. In 2005, the UPA govern- compromising its environmental resi- the riverbed of the Adyar – exposing ment announced the Jawaharlal Nehru lience. Land use conversions, particu- both the airport and the surrounding National Urban Renewal Mission, larly of farmlands, forests and wetlands areas to flood risk. which noted almost ruefully that only to built forms would therefore require High-speed, multi-lane roads, 28 per cent of the India’s 1027 million to be disclosed, discussed and justified including the East Coast Road and the Old Mahabalipuram Road (IT Corri- dor), have been laid with no regard to water flow. Raised several feet above the level of surrounding areas, these roads are veritable dams that block east-flowing waters.

To accommodate the population boom that followed the IT explosion, the government reclassified lakes, grazing and marshland porombokes in the city’s south as sites for residen- tial layouts and gated communities. 33 The case of Velachery (see maps) is telling. Located at the southern edge Velachery Eri (Tank), 2015. © Google Earth.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 in the plan document. But the Chennai freed up by the curiously named ‘river ‘Room for the River’ programme that master plan’s chapter on ‘Land Use straightening project.’ The Kamarajar returns to the river what was its to Planning and Strategy’ makes no men- Port Ltd, a mini-navaratna Govern- begin with.9 This is not a cop-out. tion of the intent to convert land use. ment of India company, is a key bene- Rather it is an acknowledgement of The devil, in this case, is not in the ficiary of the proposed conversion of the inevitability of rising sea levels detail. Rather, tucked away in two water to land. and the inexorable push that water is tables listing existing land use in 2006 capable of exerting. and proposed land use in 2026, are entries that hint at the impending Conventional interventions for deal- flooding woes of North Chennai. ing with rain involve flood control tech- At the very least, the city should not From 6563 hectares in 2006, nologies and sundry hare-brained convert any more wetlands. It would industrial area in the CMA is set to end-of-pipe measures that will do any- be even better if it begins to undo some increase to 10690.41 hectares by 2026. thing to avert disturbing the status quo. of the damage. If hutments are to be Simultaneously, agricultural area is Take the case of the ELCOT IT SEZ removed, they need to be relocated on slotted to decrease from 12470 hec- in Sholinganallur. The massive and dry land within the city, not expelled to tares to 7295.81 hectares, and lands hydrologically disruptive software the margins. More important from a under the Others (vacant, forest, hills, park is located inside the marshland at floods perspective is the removal of low-lying and waterbodies) category the mouth of a drain to a 250 square elite encroachers and the freeing up of shrinks from 56507 hectares to 28147 kilometre catchment. ELCOT is the the marshland in the south, and the hectares. perpetrator, not a victim of floods. But Ennore creek to the north. the government has proposed a Rs 22 Politically this may be far more crore project to construct a storm- challenging than handing out engineer- The hydrological ramifications of this water channel to drain the ELCOT ing contracts for construction of storm re-zoning are dealt with in greater de- area directly into the Kovalam creek. water drains. But fighting nature is tail in another article I wrote recently The area sought to be drained is a marsh. not an option. One way or the other, about the Ennore creek area in It is meant to retain water. Draining nature will prevail. It is all well to talk Chennai’s north.8 Of the 3416.08 hec- that water quickly may secure ELCOT about a balance between environment tares allocated to ‘Special and Hazard- from floods, but it will leave the larger and development. But regardless of ous Industries’ in the CMA outside region more vulnerable to water scar- our development needs, the environ- Chennai, a little less than 1000 hec- city and salinity intrusion. ment will do no balancing. tares (2341 acres) falls just within three Countries like the Netherlands creekside villages of Athipattu, Vallur have learnt the hard way that in deal- 6. Census of India data, cited in S.P. Sekar and and Ennore. Wetlands, including 1500 ing with nature, humility is wisdom. S. Kanchanamala, ‘An Analysis of Growth Dynamics in Chennai Metropolitan Area’, Ins- acres of salt pans, 212 acres of fish Rather than flood control, they are titute of Town Planners, India Journal 8-4, farms and 317 acres of tidal waterbody, talking of controlled flooding. In the October-December 2011. http://www.itpi.org. constitute nearly 90 per cent of the place of flood-inducing river strai- in/files/oct3_11.pdf Downloaded 30.06.2016. above area reserved for S&H indus- ghtening projects, the Dutch have 7. ‘Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission: Overview.’ Ministry of Urban Deve- tries. Even more land is sought to be launched a multi-decade $3 billion lopment and Ministry of Urban Employment & Poverty Alleviation, Government of India. Land Use Zone 2006 (Existing at 2026 (Proposed) ha Undated. http://jnnurm.nic.in/wp-content/ the time) ha uploads/2011/01/PMSpeech OverviewE.pdf Downloaded 29.06.2016. Residential (primary + mixed) 22877 (21.87%) 31090 (31.68%) 8. Nityanand Jayaraman, ‘Chennai May Just 13503 (13.84%) Be Masterminding its Next Flooding Disas- Industrial 6563 (6.28%) 7274.33 (7.18%) ter’, The Wire, 21 June 2016. http://thewire.in/ 3416.08 (3.38%) – special and 44393/chennai-may-just-be-masterminding- hazardous industries its-next-flooding-disaster/Downloaded Agricultural 12470 (11.92%) 7295.81 (7.20%) 01.07.2016. Others (vacant, forest, hills, 56507 (54.03%) 28147 (27.79%) 9. Michael Kimmelman, ‘Going with the low-lying, waterbodies) Flow’, The New York Times, 13 February 34 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/ Source: ‘Landuse Planning & Strategy.’ 2nd Master Plan, Vol III, Chapter 14. Chennai Metro- arts/design/flood-control-in-the-netherlands- politan Development Authority. http://www.cmdachennai.gov.in/Volume3_English_PDF/ now-allows-sea-water-in.html?_r=0 Vol3_Chapter14_Landuse%20Planning%20and%20Strategy.pdf Downloaded on 28.06.2016.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Managing fisheries from a migrant perspective DIVYA KARNAD

A characteristic feature of nature in from the ways in which fisherfolk adapt the present is change. From coastlines to changes in the natural resources on to urban green spaces, our conception which they depend. Examining the of nature is in flux, as is the technology processes and impacts of their adap- that we use to interact with nature. tation strategies allows us to see the Nowhere is that more obvious than in complex ways in which nature is trans- the marine realm. As sea levels rise, formed. waters warm and acidify, so mobility, It was January 2011 in Manda- flexibility and adaptability become pam, Ramnathapuram district, Tamil key characteristics of survival. The Nadu, when I came across George. A survival of charismatic marine species, fisherman from Kanyakumari district, or people who traditionally depend on George was on his annual trip up the marine fishing, is seen as being threat- coast to follow the fish. Along with ened by ecological and economic his group from Kanyakumari, George transformations. In an era of environ- operates a wooden boat powered by 35 mental and economic change, my app- an outboard motor, which he uses to roach to understanding nature emerges catch mackerel, seerfish and mainly

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 sharks. George claims that he spends flicts over access to fish resources, use the state.6 In fact, several aspects of six months of the year migrating as far of technology and sustainable resource national legislation (such as Article North as the Pudukottai district (a dis- use have been described across India, 19-1g and 19-1e of the Constitution) tance of over 400 km each way), stay- in the states of Tamil Nadu,2 Kerala,3 promote the idea of open access to ing with relatives, in-laws and others Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.4 fishing as an occupation.7 Constraints with whom his group has made ‘tradi- Many of these conflicts involve a on migration are more likely to emerge tional’ arrangements. spatial dimension, i.e. conflicts over from customary rule making bodies the movement of people into a fishery, of fishing communities. These bodies either on land or at sea. base many of their arguments on pre- These ‘traditional’ arrangements are venting the community and ‘outsiders’ only a few decades old, dating back to from indulging in practices that reduce the 1980s.1 Given the background of Conflict on land has been described opportunities for others to access fish, conflicts among fishermen regarding in many cases to have a basis in caste as well as on ecological principles to territoriality, particularly who could politics. Single castes dominate many sustain the fishery. These bodies also fish in which waters, and the self- fishing villages and the immigration react differently to different types of distinction of fishing communities of fishermen from a different caste, migrants. Salagrama identifies that from ‘outsiders’, such arrangements with or without fishing backgrounds, the threat posed by mechanized fish- with temporary migrant fishermen could create conflict.5 Conflict at sea ing vessels from Andhra Pradesh, fish- seem surprising. In stark contrast is has much more to do with equitable ing in Orissa waters, resulted in the the experience related to me by Ramulu access to resources and ecological sus- strengthening of artisanal fishing man- in 2013. A fisherman from the Sri- tainability. My focus in this essay is on agement regimes in Orissa.8 kakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, conflict at sea in the face of different Ramulu regularly migrates to the types of migration. Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra The impact of migration on the Among fishing communities, migra- to work in the purse seine fishery. environment is not straightforward. tion is common within areas of similar His group is treated with suspicion by Both immigration and the use of fish- environmental and social conditions, local artisanal fishermen, who maintain ing areas by migrant fishermen could i.e. access to the sea, and ability to use fishing territories in which the purse- have a significant impact on the marine traditional skills and knowledge.9 seine boats are not allowed to operate. ecosystem. For instance, immigration Migrants from other fishing castes are Further, he is not allowed to stay or into the fishery in the Ramnathapuram more readily accepted by locals, pro- access the fish market in the artisanal district of Tamil Nadu has led to over- vided that they use artisanal (non- fishing village. capitalization and resource degrada- mechanized) fishing technology10 and Migration is thus a key process tion due to an absence of checks by have an acceptable reason for migra- in shaping the discourse of fishing 2. M. Bavinck, Marine Resource Mana- tion. George’s group in Mandapam is communities across India. A history of gement: Conflict and Regulation in the seen as acceptable because of their migration has meant that fishing vil- Fisheries of the Coromandel Coast. Sage Pub- use of artisanal fishing gear and the lications, Delhi, 2001. lages and societies, just like the activ- 3. J. Kurien and A.J. Vijayan, ‘Income Spread- ity of fishing, cannot be viewed in 6. A. Menon, M. Bavinck, J. Stephen and ing Mechanisms in Common Property R. Manimohan, ‘The Political Ecology of isolation and must necessarily function Resource: Karanila System in Kerala’s Palk Bay Fisheries: Geographies of Capital, in relation to other places, people and Fishery’, Economic and Political Weekly, Fisher Conflict, Ethnicity and Nation-State’, 1995, pp. 1780-1785; A. Paul, ‘Rise, Fall, Antipode 48(2), 2016, pp. 393-411. activities. and Persistence in Kadakkodi: An Enquiry The relational aspect of marine into the Evolution of a Community Institu- 7. M. Bavinck, ‘Wealth, Poverty, and Immi- fisheries is best demonstrated in the tion for Fishery Management in Kerala, gration: The Role of Institutions in the Fish- eries of Tamil Nadu, India’, in Poverty form of the conflicts and contestations India’, Environment and Development Eco- nomics 10(1), 2005, pp. 33-51. Mosaics: Realities and Prospects in Small- that define most fishing communities Scale Fisheries. Springer Netherlands, 2011, 4. M. Bavinck, D. Johnson, O. Amarasinghe, pp. 173-191. and fishing operations in India. Con- J. Rubinoff, S. Southwold and K.T. Thomson, ‘From Indifference to Mutual Support: 8. V. Salagrama, Trends in Poverty and Live- lihoods in Coastal Fishing Communities of 1. M. Bavinck and K. Karunaharan, Legal A Comparative Analysis of Legal Pluralism in the Governing of South Asian Fisheries’, Orissa State, India (No. 490). Food and Agri- 36 Pluralism in the Marine Fisheries of Ramnad culture Organization, United Nations, 2006. District, Tamil Nadu, India. Report to the European Journal of Development Research Indian Council of Social Science Research 25(4), 2013, pp. 621-640. 9. V. Salagrama, 2006, op. cit., fn. 6. (ICSSR), 2006. 5. Ibid. 10. M. Bavinck, 2001. op. cit., fn 2

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 devastation wreaked on the Kanya- temporarily fish and land their catch annually by the monsoon. As a result, kumari coast (his origin) by the 2004 in those villages.15 In Ramnathapuram marine exports, other than from large tsunami. Migrant labour, on the other district, trawl owners gave weekly or ports like Ratnagiri and Mirkarwada, hand, is not deemed acceptable because monthly payments to village leaders are not well organized and occur at a it is associated with technological in exchange for landing their catch on smaller scale than in other parts of change. Such labour is usually required the village beach. coastal Maharashtra. Ratnagiri’s fish- to man mechanized fishing vessels, ing society consists mainly of people which are seen as a threat to ecology from the Kharvi fishing caste, with and equity. While several studies have attem- some Kolis and several migrant com- pted to theorize the relationship bet- munities including the Memons from ween migration and the environment, Gujarat and fisherfolk from Andhra Curran distinguishes at least five no broad theory has emerged that can Pradesh.18 It is this last group that is forms of migration – return, repeat, be extended to explain the impact of relevant to my discussion of migration. circular, permanent and temporary, migration on marine resource use. One which could have different impacts on approach to building a theory is to look origin and destination sites.11 Depend- not only at the processes by which Migrants from Andhra Pradesh ing on the social composition of migrants participate in their occupation (AP) in Maharashtra hail mainly from migrants, each of these forms could at the destination, but also the relation- the Srikakulam district, an area produce different outcomes in desti- ships and networks that they build renowned for its fisherfolk migra- nation sites. Some temporary migrants there. Curran attributes the diversity tions.19 The fisheries of the Srikaku- have been linked to declines in resource in outcomes to the varied ways in lam district are notorious for poor sustainability, through mechanisms which migrants embed themselves catches and difficult sailing, earning such as disruption of the social bonds in the social relations that govern eco- these fishermen a reputation for being that sustain collective action.12 For ins- system use at the destination.16 The extremely skilled. In the days before tance, the kadakkodi (sea-court) sys- degree of embeddedness is the key to mechanization, their skill was in high tem in Kerala, was associated with positive or negative outcomes.17 I shall demand in Gujarat and Maharashtra. users of artisanal fishing vessels and attempt to demonstrate the ways in Most of the fishermen from AP who gear. Paul attributes its decline to tech- which embedding in social relations moved to Ratnagiri district migrated nological change, such as motorization affect fisheries management using there in the 1980s. They have subse- and mechanization, influx of migrant examples from my own research in the quently settled down as permanent labour and subsequent politicization of fisheries of Maharashtra. migrants and integrated themselves the fishing community.13 The Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg into the local society to the extent of Other temporary migrants have districts of Maharashtra, where I setting up businesses and standing for been linked to the creation of manage- focused my research, have a mix of election in the local panchayats. Never- ment regimes by locals, as a response different fishing communities and theless, they continue to be viewed as to the threat that migrants pose to the technologies. The fisheries of these a distinct group, and sometimes as resource.14 Trawl owner groups have districts are relatively disconnected outsiders. This is reinforced by factors, managed to set up financial arrange- from the main markets due to a lack such as the spatial clustering of their ments with the leaders of some fish- of well developed transport infra- homes at one end of a village, relatively ing villages in Tamil Nadu in order to structure. The main roadways con- low rates of intermarriage with the necting the fish landing sites to markets Marathi fishing communities, and the 11. S. Curran, ‘Migration, Social Capital, and are the National Highway 17, which rhetoric used by their political oppo- the Environment: Considering Migrant Selec- runs quite a bit inland, and state high- nents during panchayat elections. tivity and Networks in Relation to Coastal Ecosystems’, Population and Development way MSH 04, which is generally in Their push factors from Srikaku- Review 28, 2002, pp. 89-125. poor condition after damage wrought lam were uncertainties related to mar- 12. E.G. Katz, ‘Social Capital and Natural 18. Government of India, 2010; http:// Capital: A Comparative Analysis of Land 15. M. Bavinck, 2011, op. cit. fn. 8. eprints.cmfri.org.in/9007/1/MH_ Tenure and Natural Resource Management 16. Ibid. report_full.pdf in Guatemala’, Land Economics, 2000, 17. B.J. McCay and S. Jentoft, ‘From the 19. S.B. Sarma and V. Salagrama, Migration pp. 114-132. 37 Bottom up: Participatory Issues in Fisheries of Fishermen From Srikakulam District 13. M. Bavinck, et. al., 2013, op. cit., fn. 4. Management’, Society and Natural Resources in Andhra Pradesh. Report of South Indian 14. Ibid. 9(3), 1996, pp. 237-250. Federation of Fishermen’s Societies, 2007.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 keting, regular failures of the fishing nets. In this case the migrants had not increased competition from trawlers season, combined with famines caused acted as disruptors, but instead had that originate in Vishakhapatnam and by poor agricultural produce from the participated in collective action. Fur- Orissa. They report a declining avail- arid hinterland of the district. Pull ther evidence of the embeddedness of ability of natural resources, even on factors in Ratnagiri were the richer the migrants comes from the rituals land, and a lack of fisheries infrastruc- fishery which offered greater oppor- that they performed with the locals, ture. The increasing production costs tunities to trade, particularly with large such as observing the traditional in the fisheries of Srikakulam is creat- export markets such as Mumbai. Many monsoon fishing ban, participating in ing growing indebtedness amongst of these fishermen left Srikakulam the religious rites surrounding the start fisherfolk. However, they lack access during the prawn boom in Andhra Pra- of the fishing season and so on. to alternatives. desh, and having been exposed to the Srikakulam is the least developed technology and skills required to catch district among the nine coastal dis- this export oriented seafood, brought The migrants that I came across in the tricts of Andhra,20 and rainfed agricul- these innovations to the Ratnagiri Sindhudurg district fit a different pro- ture has failed. The government has coast. Thus they were at an advantage file. The Sindhudurg district has a invested in some infrastructure pro- in being able to supply this high com- relatively more homogenous fishing jects, such as the building of cyclone mercial value item to fish traders in caste distribution, with the fishing shelters, but there has been little invest- Mumbai at a time when prawn fish- society primarily consisting of the ment in developing social capital.21 ing had just been introduced in the Gabit caste, with a few Catholics Women from the Srikakulam fishing Ratnagiri district. These migrants who migrated from Goa, as well as community also have their reasons for were able to quickly accumulate capi- some Muslim fisherfolk. Migrants sending their male counterparts away tal and in some cases began to own from the Srikakulam district are tem- to work. A liquor shop at the gate of small fleets of trawl net operating ves- porary or repeat migrants, who travel the Vishakhapatnam fishing harbour sels, or trawlers. to Sindhudurg and northern Goa ensures that most of the fishermen’s every year during the fishing season income is drunk away before it reaches on the West coast. They come to fill the family. Characteristics such as capital accu- the requirement for labour aboard trawl mulation and pursuing trawl fishing and purse seine vessels, as well as to appear to mark these fishermen out as mend nets. Wives of migrant labourers claim economically self-interested and capi- The local Gabit fishermen often that being forced to live on board fish- talist. Nevertheless, several of them do not participate in trawl or purse ing vessels prevents their husbands participate in community activities seine operations because many of their from drinking away their earnings, that sometimes appear to work against communities have taken a decision to resulting in greater remittances to the a profit motive. For instance, in one ban these technologies for reasons of family, which can be used for educa- village in northern Ratnagiri district, ecology and equity. They believe that tion and economic mobility. They also the fishing community had decided to usage of this gear results in excessively claim an overall decline in alcoholism take a stand against the use of purse large fish catches and capital accum- among the migrant fishermen. A sec- seines (a type of mechanized fishing mulation in the hands of a single trawl ond reason given by the women is net). The trawl owners association, or purse seine boat owner at the cost that labour on Vishakhapatnam trawl- consisting of Marathi and AP resi- of hundreds of artisanal fishermen ers receive daily wages, which are dents, joined this movement despite the whose catches have been accordingly very low, supplemented by a share of fact that they had the capital to invest diminished. They also mention how the profits. This means that income is in purse seines. trawl nets dredge up the sea bed and extremely variable, depending on Purse seine operations promised purse seines trap the young fish due the profit reported by the boat owner high rewards, and these seine were to their small mesh size, resulting in after each fishing trip. being used by fishermen from Ratnagiri fewer fish for the future. What attracts the temporary and town. However, the village projected Migrant labour fills the vacuum repeat migrants from Srikakulam to a united front, preventing outsiders created by the non-involvement of Sindhudurg is the prospect of getting 38 from using purse seines within their locals. The push factors for the Sri- 20. Government of India, 2010, op. cit., fishing territory and banning commu- kakulam fishermen include low fish fn. 18. nity members from purchasing the catches in Srikakulam, combined with 21. Ibid.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 a fixed monthly income (although it is nected to locals who might be able to often paid as a lump sum at the end of pressurize the boat owner into provid- the fishing season). There is some ing fairer wages and working hours, prestige associated with working on the migrant seems powerless. It is large mechanized vessels in Srikaku- this very powerlessness that makes lam. Mechanized vessels are consi- him an exploiter of marine life. Unable dered easier to operate than traditional to make decisions about where to fish ones and therefore safer. Fishermen or how long to fish, a migrant’s goal is working on mechanized vessels often to catch as much as he can for the boat demand higher rates of dowry.22 How- owner, irrespective of the ecological ever, conditions of employment in consequences. Being the exploited Maharashtra are often not labour makes him an exploiter. friendly. Unlike the migrant labour sys- tems that take Srikakulam fishermen The current picture of nature in the to Gujarat, boat owners in Maharashtra marine realm is one of decline, where do not offer the migrants any advance every intervention by fisherfolk is seen payments. There is no health insurance as a threat. However, understanding or health cover provided by the boat the multiple pathways through which owners. Migrants often bear the brunt change operates, reveals a reason of local hostility towards trawl and purse for hope. In order to build a resilient seine vessels. The migrants are often fishery management regime, whether unaware about local rules regarding by the government or local fishing fishing territories and ban on mecha- communities, the fact of change, inc- nized vessels, and are caught or held luding migration, has to be taken into hostage by the locals when they ven- consideration. ture into these territories. Locals also These examples from my do not allow the migrants to live in their research indicate that the single phe- villages, forcing them to stay onboard nomenon of migration can have multi- the vessel. As a result migrants have ple impacts on the marine ecosystem, limited access to fresh water for bath- depending on how people engage or ing or laundry and are forced to use integrate with social networks, culture seawater for this purpose. and relations at their destination. In one case, migration is a disruptor exacerbating conflicts at sea in an In this case migrants act as disruptors already contentious fishery. In the to common property regimes by tak- other case, even though the migrants ing jobs that locals consider ecologically may be involved in conflicts on land, and economically unsustainable, disre- it does not seem to hamper their par- garding or being ignorant about fishing ticipation in collective action and territories and rules. They do not con- common property regimes. The resi- tribute to the local economy because lience of natural systems of resource most of their remittances are sent use, such as fishing, could emerge back to their place of origin. Being from surprising factors, which in con- outcast by locals, they are prevented junction with existing social systems from participating in local markets. may work to conserve fisheries. Our Such a migrant labourer’s situation is understanding of nature in the present ripe for exploitation. Employed with- needs to move away from a depend- out a written contract, not well con- ence on standard tropes of change as 39 22. S.B. Sarma and V. Salagrama, 2007, op. cit., a threat in order to leave room for these fn. 19. surprises.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Fallow soil: bringing political economy into conservation SHASHANK KELA

THIS essay aims to bring together by the 1990s).1 However, as soon as things that are usually studied sepa- we come to the realm of solutions, it rately – environmental history, political begins to intrude more insistently, if economy and conservation practice. only because, as Gramsci remarked, Given constraints of length, the treat- we interpret the past by the very fact ment must of necessity be schematic, of acting in the present.2 but I hope to show that a fruitful con- An important question in the vergence is possible, a convergence Indian context involves projecting the capable of casting fresh light upon con- roots of environmental degradation temporary ecological problems includ- back in time. This is of obvious inter- ing species extinction, habitat loss, and est to historians, but I believe that it has some of the other consequences of implications for conservation practice that ever growing, ever more ominous as well. A small body of work has deve- shadow the human race casts over the loped around this problem, beginning planet as a whole. with Ramachandra Guha and Madhav Ecologists and conservationists Gadgil’s formulation that the pre- tend, not unnaturally, to focus upon the colonial period was marked, on the present and the future. The past is usu- whole, by ecological harmony, a bal- ally demarcated in terms of a specific ance between resource use and pres- problem – like the catastrophic impact 1. An anti-inflammatory drug widely used to of organo-chlorine pesticides on raptor treat livestock (and humans). Vultures eating populations in Europe and North cattle carcasses rapidly acquire toxic levels, leading to renal failure and death. 40 America, starkly visible by the 1970s, 2. Antonio Gramsci, Further Selections from or the consequences of diclofenac use the Prison Notebooks. Lawrence and Wishart, on vulture populations in India (visible London, 1995, p. 383.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 ervation, mediated largely through the tion is inherently unsustainable and was carried out at very variable levels caste system.3 ahistorical, it makes no sense to regard of intensity: cultivation could be broken This idealized view, conflating the colonial period as being exceptional up by wild grasses, canebrakes, shift- different periods and state structures, in this regard.8 I believe that her speci- ing riverbeds and seasonal lakes – like was sharply challenged by subsequent fic examples can be critiqued on other the frontier region between Delhi and scholars. There is evidence to show grounds: for example, the restricted Lahore described by Jos Gommans.11 that wild grass for fodder had already nature of the evidence used to argue These interstitial spaces provided become a contested resource in parts that forests in the Western Ghats show shelter for wild animals and enabled of the Deccan by the 18th century, evidence of anthropogenic disturbance alternate forms of resource use like liable to engrossment by powerful from very early on.9 Besides, distur- nomadism. Agriculture incorporated military and landowning groups.4 bance is a relative term: how would we fallows; the frontier of cultivation Other examples include the steady describe their state now? More impor- fluctuated – scrub forest could take reduction of the range of the one- tantly, I believe that her argument mis- over abandoned fields. In other words, horned rhinoceros, found as far west reads the nature of ecological change the agricultural landscape under cer- as Gujarat in Harappan times;5 and before the advent of colonialism. tain ecological conditions (that were the over-hunting of cheetahs in the far from uncommon) constituted a Mughal period.6 There are doubtless mosaic, one which wild animals like many other instances of landscape Although it is true that human beings elephants, wolves, lions, deer could modification, range reductions and have modified wild landscapes ever pass over in their peregrinations. Deltas local extinctions before the advent of since their appearance upon the evo- were another example, where rivers colonialism awaiting excavation and lutionary stage, there remained sharp reconfigured the landscape annually, exegesis. Meanwhile, a more nuanced limits to the kind of change that could to which humans had to adapt.12 view of colonial transformations was be brought about. It is perfectly possi- subsequently set forth by Mahesh ble to convert a forest landscape into Rangarajan.7 savannah through cyclical burning The final limiting factor was demo- (as happened in Australia and East graphy, which has been calculated at Africa); or manage woodlands so 35 human beings to a square kilome- More recently, Kathleen Morrison intensively for timber as to make tre for Mughal India in the mid-17th has suggested the polar opposite of them essentially anthropogenic (as century13 in contrast to 434 today. This Gadgil and Guha’s original thesis: in happened in England).10 Yet, for the staggering contrast can only be com- her view, since environmental degra- most part, what this involved was the prehended against the background of dation has occurred throughout the replacement of one kind of vegetation, far-reaching transformations set in whole sweep of South Asian history, and the faunal assemblages associated train by colonialism. By destroying and the very concept of climax vegeta- with it, by another. large swathes of pre-modern industry, This argument can be extended, it forced more and more people back 3. Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, albeit to a much smaller extent, to cer- upon the land – an effect to which gran- This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India. Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1992. tain types of cultivated landscapes. diose projects of land reclamation 4. Sumit Guha, ‘Claims on the Commons: Pre-modern agriculture in South Asia (Punjab, southern Tamil Nadu) and the Political Power and Natural Resources in general disarming of rural groups con- Precolonial India’, in Mahesh Rangarajan and 7. Mahesh Rangarajan, Fencing the Forest: tributed.14 It inaugurated a process of K. Sivaramakrishnan (eds.), India’s Environ- Conservation and Ecological Change in mental History, Vol. 1: From Ancient Times to India’s Central Provinces, 1860-1914. Oxford the Colonial Period. Permanent Black, University Press, New Delhi, 1996. 11. Jos Gommans, ‘The Silent Frontier of Ranikhet, 2011. 8. Kathleen D. Morrison, ‘Conceiving Eco- South Asia, c. 1100-1800 CE’, IEH, Vol. 1, 5. Shibani Bose, ‘From Eminence to Near logy and Stopping the Clock: Narratives of pp. 217-244. Extinction: The Journey of the Great One- Balance, Loss, and Degradation’, Shifting 12. See Rohan D’Souza, Drowned and Horned Rhino’, in Mahesh Rangarajan and Ground, pp. 39-64. Dammed: Colonial Capitalism and Flood K. Sivaramakrishnan (eds.), Shifting Ground: 9. Kathleen D. Morrison, ‘Environmental His- Control in Eastern India, Oxford University People, Animals, and Mobility in India’s tory, the Spice Trade, and the State in South Press, Delhi, 2006, for a reconstruction of Environmental History. Oxford University India’, in M. Rangarajan and K. Sivarama- the traditional system of flood plain agricul- Press, New Delhi, 2014, pp. 65-87. krishnan (eds.), IEH, Vol. 1, pp. 296-326. ture in the delta of the Mahanadi. 41 6. Divyabhanusinh, ‘Lions, Cheetahs, and 10. For a classic statement of the latter, see 13. See the introduction to IEH, Vol. 2: Colo- Others in the Mughal Landscape’, in Shifting Oliver Rackham, Woodlands. Collins, London, nialism, Modernity and the Nation. Permanent Ground, pp. 88-108. 2006. Black, Ranikhet, 2013, p. 7.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 demographic expansion despite regu- of forests unable to support subsist- theory – though undercut in practice lar setbacks caused by famines (whose ence use as they had once done. This by the financial control exercised by effects it exacerbated). It introduced does not, of course, alter the essential state governments.15 From the 1950s, new crops and methods of cultivation problem or make solutions easier to dissatisfaction with Assamese hege- (such as tea and coffee). The net result find, but it does allow us to apportion mony provoked demands for full state- of all these developments was agrar- the blame more equitably. hood in a growing number of councils; ian expansion on a massive scale the fear of Naga secessionism becom- throughout the 19th and much of the ing a template finally forced the cen- 20th century – probably the biggest sin- A nuanced understanding of envi- tral government to act. By the early gle factor contributing to habitat loss. ronmental histories might help con- 1970s, most ADCs had been sub- servation practice reach out more sumed into new states and union terri- effectively to poor and marginalized tories carved out of undivided Assam One of the most obvious gaps in the communities. Much like history, poli- – Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, historiography of environmental change tical economy remains absent from Mizoram. But this merely shifted the is the absence of studies straddling conservation debates. Most ecologists problem to a new institutional terrain as the dividing line of independence. If would doubtless argue that economic political competition coalesced around we accept that the colonial period did and social questions (except under the electoral framework whereby state constitute a watershed (albeit not of narrow and restricted definitions) fall governments are formed and power the kind of envisaged by Gadgil and outside the remit of the discipline. exercised. ADCs remained a second- Guha), and recognize its essential con- Even if this was once true, the rapidity ary arena, almost as subservient finan- tinuity with developmental processes of climate change should force us to cially and politically as before, though after 1947, it might be possible to take think anew: a thoughtful debate about the new social composition of power a more self-critical view of current the ideology of indefinite economic meant that crossing over from one problems. For only a nuanced under- expansion is one to which ecology to the other – from a position in the standing of ecological change at differ- could contribute much more than it ADC to one in the state government – ent times in the past, under different now does. However, in the Indian case became easy. technological frameworks, can help at least, I would argue that there are us to arrive at a fair judgment on the narrower, more immediately relevant effects of subsistence use upon natu- questions of political economy that The sixth schedule does grant a meas- ral landscapes today. conservationists have ignored so far, ure of control over natural resources The argument that human beings and at some cost. to ADCs. This is partly an artifact of have always modified nature does not Both are structural in nature, and forest governance – over much of the distinguish between different intensi- have to do with systemic flaws in Northeast the forest department is a ties of resource use by different socie- governance. The first is an adminis- much smaller presence than else- ties, or help us determine under what trative framework that actively alien- where. In Arunachal Pradesh, roughly circumstances patterns of subsistence ates adivasi communities from natural 62 per cent of forests in 1990-91 were use become ecologically unviable. It is resources and landscapes, and in so under community ownership and des- theoretically possible for the techno- doing makes conservation goals much ignated as unclassified state forests; logy and practices of a small group to more difficult to achieve. Adivasi or only 37 per cent were reserve forests, remain unchanged and yet become tribal communities are not, of course, managed by the forest department.16 environmentally wasteful (or much the only ones living in or close to for- This gives local communities much more wasteful) thanks to increasing ests but they form a significant propor- greater control over a key resource intensity of resource use by adjoining tion of this category. In the Northeast, societies. This probably happened most live in regions governed under 15. See David Stuligross, ‘Autonomous in the Western Ghats once tea and the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution; Councils in Northeast India: Theory and Prac- tice’, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political coffee were introduced in the 19th in peninsular India, the Fifth. 24(4), Oct-Dec 1999, pp. 504-5, for a useful century, leaving a shrinking remnant The history of the sixth schedule summary. is contradictory and open to interpre- 16. Amitava Mitra, ‘Environment and Sus- 42 14. Some of the relevant evidence is marshalled tation in different ways. The powers tainable Development in the Hilly Regions in Shashank Kela, A Rogue and Peasant Slave: of North-East India: A Study in Arunachal Adivasi Resistance 1800-2000. Navayana, granted under it to autonomous district Pradesh’, International Journal of Social New Delhi, 2012, pp. 41-45, 255-265. councils or ADCs are wide ranging in Economics 25(2/3/4), 1998, p. 198.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 than would otherwise have been the over natural resources. Essentially it against familiar obstacles. Joint for- case. However, other social and eco- grants the governor of each state vague est management embodied the first nomic developments ensure that this and theoretically unlimited authority to recognition of the problem in early stewardship is not necessarily benign. protect the interests of inhabitants ’90s. Its chequered history and ulti- In Meghalaya, forest and mineral of schedule five regions (an authority mate failure demonstrate the forest royalties provided as much as 40 per never exercised). In every other res- department’s obdurate refusal to sur- cent of the budget of the Khasi pect they are subject to the authority render any authority over its domain. Autonomous District Council in the of state legislatures, central laws, and 1990s. Illegal logging on a massive the forest department. Unlike the sixth scale was routine and a great deal of schedule, these regions possess no More recently, the Forest Rights forest land has also been destroyed by separate apparatus of governance. Act of 2006 was hailed as a potentially limestone quarrying and coal mining.17 However, the day to day lives of their transformative law. However, its util- inhabitants are also influenced by the ity in obtaining land titles is limited forest department, in whose jurisdic- since relatively few individuals can In Arunachal Pradesh, the state gov- tion most communities happen to fall: muster the necessary proof. Its most ernment’s eighth plan outlay (1992-97) in that case all other laws and institu- radical provision – community forest budgeted less than Rs 300 crore for con- tions become secondary. rights or CFRs that enable local com- servation and protection, but almost munities (in theory at least) to manage Rs 674 crore for extractive forestry forests with the agreement of the (plantations, logging and the like).18 The problems are familiar, beginning, department – has either been ignored More recently, it has signed dozens of in many cases, with the lack of formal or subverted. The Panchayati Raj MOUs with private corporations for title to land. In addition, every aspect Extension to Scheduled Areas Act of hydroelectric projects, unmindful of of forest use – grazing, firewood 1996 is even less effective, for the their environmental impacts on the collection, foraging – is technically for- gram sabha (to which extensive pow- fragile ecology of the eastern Hima- bidden. Meanwhile the state strip- ers are devolved on paper) must rely layas. A recent study from Mizoram mines the resources communities are upon the existing machinery of state shows the very significant impacts on prevented from using. The practice of to carry out its decisions. This effec- biodiversity of the state government’s auctioning bits of reserve forests for tively leaves local representatives of drive to discourage traditional jhum or wood and charcoal (coupe cutting) the executive branch free to ignore it. shifting cultivation in favour of oil palm continued until the 1980s. Concessions As far as its negative powers – such and teak plantations.19 These govern- were, and are, freely granted to indus- as withholding assent to land acquisi- ments are composed of members of try – it took a Supreme Court judgment tion – are concerned, the state either indigenous groups who have inter- to halt logging in the Northeast. Huge refuses to accept their exercise or nalized the conventional rhetoric of swathes of forest continue to be des- whittles them away by providing for development to the point where the troyed by dams, mining and infrastruc- exceptions. ecological problem of the Northeast is ture projects, quite apart from illegal It is striking that every attempt shifting from the familiar phenome- felling by the so-called timber mafia to reform forest governance by legis- non of empty forests (denuded of wild- with the active connivance of forest lation, leaving institutions and institu- life by over-hunting) to the integrity of staff. tional processes untouched, has failed. the physical landscape itself. All this has the inevitable conse- Which brings me to my most crucial The experience of the fifth sche- quence of spurring popular hostility point – it is the institutional structure dule points to a very different lesson to conservation, which tends to be of the forest department that alienates – the danger of depriving local com- regarded as an instrument of exclu- communities and renders conserva- munities of every vestige of control sion on other grounds. This feeling is tion goals very difficult to achieve. 17. David Stuligross, pp. 513, 509-10, op. cit., exacerbated by forcible displacement This has two aspects. The first is a very fn. 15. from protected areas (or the denial of long colonial and post-colonial his- 18. Amitava Mitra, p. 201, op. cit, fn. 16. rudimentary services with the aim of tory of preserving forests in order to 19. Jaydev Mandal and T.R. Shankar Raman, forcing communities out). These are exploit them commercially, embodied ‘Shifting Agriculture Supports More Tropi- familiar tropes that require little discus- in extensive forestry operations to 43 cal Forest Birds than Oil Palm or Teak Plan- tations in Mizoram, Northeast India’, The sion. What is more interesting is that change their floristic composition by Condor 118, 2016, pp. 345-359. every attempt at reform has run up planting commercially valuable spe-

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 cies. Tellingly, very little research has beyond protected areas, if for no other (artisanal) extraction – while provid- been done on the subject and even now reason than that many species consis- ing no incentive at all for conserving it is impossible to determine whether tently overflow their boundaries. them. these operations have ceased com- Tigers, leopards, elephants and wolves pletely. It is only in the 1980s that this move across cultivated landscapes; in orientation haltingly begins to change riverine and marine environments, This is not to argue against protected – but the structure of the forest depart- the very notion of a physical boundary areas (within which any resource use ment remains unchanged, and it is this becomes absurd. If conservation is to would have to be more vigilantly super- structure that fosters both ineptitude move beyond a few flagship species, vised in any case). It is merely to sug- and authoritarianism. human use must be reconciled and gest that questions of governance and reoriented towards conservation goals institutional reform need to be added to a greater or smaller extent. to conservation discourse as a key area The problems begin with a recruit- of discussion and concern. This would ment process that is rife with corrup- also involve moving beyond the tradi- tion at lower levels and marked by lack However, I do not believe that it is, tional reluctance to address questions of accountability and specialized by itself, enough. The aim of this of economic policy even when their knowledge higher up. Conditions of essay is to argue for a politically sharp- ecological relevance is obvious: the work and housing for field staff remain ened view of conservation, one that very questionable utility of big dams or abysmally poor, and a great deal of takes structural problems of govern- industrial trawling, for example. Eco- arbitrary corruption is condoned, if ance into account. Without tackling logical critiques of both have been not actively encouraged. Budgets are institutional processes and discus- made, but they tend to remain narrowly geared towards spending money so as sing institutional reform, I do not believe conceived, avoiding any wider conclu- to allow skim-offs (such as in construc- that participatory conservation can be sion.21 A process of sustained dialogue tion contracts): long-term planning and scaled up or be successful in more than with other interest groups, such as scientific expertise (whether inde- a few isolated cases. The problem of adivasi movements, would be useful pendent or in-house) are conspicuous conceptualizing more democratic and too, in order to convince them that sub- by their absence. There is no mecha- equitable arrangements that give local sistence use does not become environ- nism to impart effective training to the communities a voice in resource man- mentally benign simply because it is forest guard or ranger, and no system agement (with adequate safeguards), based upon traditional knowledge: to hold him accountable for abuses of and of reforming the structure of the there are wider social and economic power. forest department to make it more forces at work too. These fault lines – lack of ecolo- accountable and less opaque (to com- Funding and time impose obvious gical knowledge and lack of account- munities and scientific expertise) constraints, as does the necessity of ability – run all the way to the top, for should be regarded as integral to the concentrating upon urgent short-term the department is organized as a success of conservation outcomes. problems – the imminent loss of this closed caste of bureaucrats (rather Doing so would not automati- species or that habitat. Yet, in the long- than experts in conservation, ecology, cally lead to sustainable use – as the term, a wider focus, the contours of anthropology etc.), answerable only experience of the sixth schedule which I’ve tried to delineate here, to their superiors. The result is an shows. But it might alter the current might conceivably help conservation authoritarian administrative machine incentive to use resources to depletion science and conservation practice deal designed to process money in order to on the assumption that somebody else more effectively with their myriad (ineffectively) preserve a handful of is bound to do so. Besides, it seems challenges. species, and extend what is nebulously paradoxical to prevent communities 21. See Nachiket Kelkar and Jagdish called tree cover. from using resources – or, in the case Krishnaswamy, ‘Restoring the Ganga for its The concept of participatory con- of fisheries, actively encourage large- Fauna and Fisheries’, in NWB, pp. 58-80, and Aaron Savio Lobo and Rohan Arthur, ‘Trawl- servation represents a salutary cor- scale (industrial) over small-scale ing the Shorelines: Fished Out and Squan- rective to earlier paradigms based on 20. The editors’ introduction to Mahesh dered’, also in NWB, pp. 41-57: the latter is exclusion and punishment (what has Rangarajan, M. D. Madhusudan and Ghazala exceptionally clear sighted on the effects of 44 been described as the fences and fines Shahabuddin (eds.), Nature Without Borders, industrial fishing on the marine environment, 20 Orient Blackswan, New Delhi, 2014, contains yet refrains from any regulatory conclusion approach). It seems eminently sen- the best paradigmatic description of the (apart from expanding Marine Protected sible to suggest that we should look concept. Areas).

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Recycling end of life vehicles N.S. MOHAN RAM OUR perspective of the world, under- The United Nations defined standing of problems and approaches sustainability, a part of the concept of to solving them, are inevitably coloured sustainable development: ‘sustainable by our background. Having worked as development is development that an engineer for nearly six decades, I meets the needs of the present with- naturally tend to perceive issues from out compromising the ability of future an engineer’s perspective. generations to meet their own needs.’ For nearly five decades, my eco- Sustainability rests on three inter- nomic model was linear: using resou- linked pillars – society, environment rces, materials and energy, applying and economics. The intercept of the engineering science to manufacture three creates a socially acceptable, products and services for consumers, economically feasible and environ- who would discard them at the end of mentally tolerable paradigm of sustain- their life as ‘waste’. The impact of the able development. manufacturing system on environment The description ‘environmen- and nature was of little concern. This tally tolerable’, concedes that ‘toler- hands-offs attitude is characteristic of able’ environmental degradation is most in the engineering profession. the price to be paid for sustained econo- I have now started looking at the mic development and improvement in larger picture of the impact of techno- the standard of living of people, espe- logy on society, depleting resources cially in developing nations. and degradation of nature. Many engi- Is a truly circular economy feasi- neers are beginning to devote attention ble? The honest answer is a clear no. to the challenge of producing goods There is nothing one can do to fully and services in a sustainable manner, return natural systems to their original with concern for the environment. state. The folly of mankind was in an The problems confronting India’s acceleration of the adaptive change of fast growing automobile industry in dis- natural systems by a mindless applica-

posing of vehicles which have reached FIGURE 1 the end of their life, and the role of recycling in achieving it in an economi- cally viable and environmentally sus- Social tainable manner, is the theme of this article. The automobile industry is a sub- Bearable Equitable set (albeit a major one) of manufactur- Environment ing in India. Its success or failure in Viable Economic 45 ensuring sustainability will majorly impact and influence other industries.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 tion of technology. The best we can or strategic minerals is not a feasible etc. which can be further processed and now do is to mitigate the situation and option in India. Our per capita con- used as feedstock for manufacture. reduce the damage. sumption of steel, aluminium and Whatever is left over, to the extent The second law of thermody- energy is very low and has to increase possible, can be converted to provide namics, a basic law of physics, states if we are to improve the living stand- energy. The residue left over is mostly that the total entropy of an isolated sys- ards of our people. To achieve this dumped in refills. tem always increases over time. This India has to make trade-offs and hard Savings by Recovering Metal by increase is a measure of the irreversi- choices. The bottom line is that pro- Recycling Versus Mining Virgin Metal bility of natural processes, and the duction of any engineered product or from Ores

asymmetry between future and past. service consumes energy and natural Metals CO2 Energy Without an external input of energy, resources. It is not physically possible Reduction Savings there is no way one can return to the to make anything which uses up zero Aluminum > 92% > 93% original state of a system. (The ulti- resources and is energy neutral. The Copper > 65 % > 65 % mate external energy machine for best one can hope for is to minimize Iron/Steel > 58 % > 74 % our earth is the sun!) A truly circular resource use and reduce waste. Zinc > 76 % > 60 % Lead > 99 % > 95 % economy in which nature returns to its Recycling of engineered pro- original state is a utopian dream; it is ducts yields significant gains. Recy- A proper regime of recycling of physically impossible. cling conserves materials, reduces engineered day-to-day products like mining, reduces consumption of cars, bridges, aircraft, ships, refrigera- energy and results in large reduction in tors, washing machines, microwave Developing nations and the third pollution, especially release of green- ovens etc. in an environmentally friendly world are striving to improve the qual- house gases. It can only reduce and not manner can greatly reduce energy con- ity of life and standard of life of their eliminate consumption of energy and sumption and release of greenhouse citizens. This quest is fraught with resources. gases. severe and adverse consequences for the global environment if they do not adopt sustainable practices. Their The hierarchy of waste (Fig. 2) has Designers are increasingly using share of the world economy is show- three components – Avoidance: action engineered plastics to save weight and ing an increasing trend. Global actions taken to reduce amount of waste gene- reduce costs. However, most of these to mitigate environmental impact of rated by households, industry and gov- long chain carbon molecule polymer economic growth will necessarily ernment; Resource recovery: reuse, plastics are virtually indestructible. have to factor in their legitimate aspi- recycling, reprocessing and energy There is an urgent need for research rations. recovery efficiently; and Disposal: in an to develop biodegradable plastics. Advanced nations cannot expect environmentally responsible manner. Rubber (used extensively in tires of the developing world to slam the brakes The hierarchy of recycling cars and aircraft) also poses similar on their quest for a better quality of life consists of the so-called three ‘R’s problems, especially development of for their citizens on grounds of sus- stages (i) Reuse, (ii) Recycle, and non-toxic processes for recovery of tainability. The world has to find a way (iii) Recover energy. useful components. of reconciling the needs of nations Metals are recovered from for improving their economies while end-of-life products by the physical FIGURE 2 working towards sustainability. process of melting as opposed to bene- Hierarchy of Waste Developed nations passed faction of metals from ores which is Most preferable Avoid and through stages of urbanization, defor- the chemical process of smelting. reduce waste estation, growth of extractive indus- Melting requires less consumption of tries like mining and mechanization energy, uses less natural resources Reuse waste before reaching their current stage of and causes less environmental dam- Recycle waste development. If they did not mine in age. The most resource and energy Recover energy their own countries, they accessed efficient approach is to reuse a part or Treat waste 46 metals and energy from their colonies component. If it is not feasible, the or through commerce. For instance, a part can be recycled to separate basic Dispose of waste blanket ban on mining of coal, iron ore materials like metals, plastics, rubber Least preferable

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 accounts for close to 7% of the national being a cheap and convenient public Recycling of means of transport, GDP and nearly 40% of the manufac- conveyance. New permits and a rise such as ships, aircraft and automobiles turing GDP. It is by any standards a in CNG filling infrastructure have fur- is easier than dismantling and recycling success story. ther buoyed demand for three wheel- of static structures like power plants, ers. Given this background, vehicle bridges, and fixed offshore platforms. sales are expected to touch 35 million In nuclear power plants there is the India has added over 174 million by 2020 (Feedback consultancy’s added problem of disposal of radioac- vehicles over the last twenty years estimates of 2014-2015 sales at 23 tive waste. Ships which have reached (128 million, i.e. 73%, having been million were higher than projected!) their end of useful life are beached or added in the last 10 years), with an dry docked to recover useful materi- estimated vehicle population in excess als, mainly metals and steel and equip- of 200 million. Over 75% of the popu- From market studies one can obtain ment like generators. Aircraft are lation comprises of two wheelers. information on the average life of increasingly being recycled in special A growing middle class, demographic different classes of vehicles before facilities like the one at Tulsa, Oklahoma changes, increasing disposable incomes, scrapping and estimate future scrap- in USA. (http://magazin. lufthansa. higher aspirations of consumers and ping volumes from past production. com/de/en/aviation-en/aircraft-recy- easy financing are creating a huge The figures will be approximate but are cling-new-life-in-the-desert/) demand for four wheelers. The manu- good enough for planning purposes. By far the most ubiquitous trans- facturers are aggressively aiding this port vehicles are automobiles; two process through introduction of new Vehicle category ELV age (years) wheelers, three wheelers, cars and models, low cost cars (to replace two Passenger vehicles 18 commercial vehicles. They consume wheelers), innovative financing mod- Commercial vehicles huge resources at production stage and els and buy back options, etc. LCVs 12 large quantities of fossil fuels and other India is a two wheeler nation. M & HCVs 10 Two wheelers depleting resources during their oper- More than 75% of the vehicles on the Scooters 12 ating lives. They have great potential road are two wheelers. Cars are still Bikes 12 for recycling and saving energy and beyond the reach of the vast majority. Mopeds 12 raw materials. Poor public transport infrastructure, Three wheelers 15 Automobile populations are low/affordably priced two wheelers, growing. The world vehicle population higher mileage levels without sacrific- It is estimated that 8.7 million topped one million in 2012 (http:// ing power and easy manoeuvrability vehicles will reach their end of life by wardsauto.com/news-analysis/world- have helped drive sales of two wheelers. 2020 and 26.6 million by 2030 based vehicle-population-tops-1-billion- Three wheelers comprise both on the current estimate of lifespan of units). The fastest growth is occurring passenger and transport vehicles. Pas- vehicles. in middle income countries like China senger carriers constitute 80% of the Automobiles are among the most and India. The growth is driven by three wheeler market and have wit- recyclable of products, consisting of higher prosperity levels, growing nessed a rising demand thanks to their metals over 75% and also recyclable populations and more intense eco- FIGURE 3 nomic activity. Penetration levels of Total Automobile Sales Forecasts vehicles is low in developing nations as opposed to developed nations where vehicle populations are saturated. The automobile industry was moribund in India till the early eighties. The advent of Maruti Udyog and Japanese bike makers in partnership with Indian partners, gave a fillip to the industry in the eighties. The industry took off after being delicensed in 1991. 47 Today India has a vibrant automotive industry, growing at a frenetic pace. It ELV estimates.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 TABLE 1 excess of five million tons. Due to an Year Passenger Total LCV M & Total Scooters Bikes Mopeds Three Total increase in ELV population @ about vehicles com- HCV two wheelers vehi- 10% year, the gains will also increase mercial wheelers cles vehicles by 10^% every year, more than trebling by 2030. 2020 0.68 0.46 0.22 0.24 7.23 1.05 5.77 0.41 0.31 8.68 2021 0.71 0.52 0.20 0.32 7.41 1.15 5.83 0.43 0.53 9.17 2022 0.90 0.64 0.29 0.35 9.37 1.46 7.34 0.56 0.51 11.42 Despite an increase in ELVs, auto- 2023 1.06 0.63 0.36 0.27 11.77 2.06 9.01 0.70 0.54 14.00 mobiles are recycled in India by the 2024 1.14 0.66 0.46 0.20 13.41 2.56 10.07 0.78 0.48 15.69 informal sector, which employs over 2025 1.38 0.73 0.52 0.21 13.80 2.92 10.09 0.79 0.44 16.35 100,000 people all over the country. 2026 1.55 0.64 0.43 0.21 14.81 3.60 10.48 0.72 0.53 17.53 These units are located in crowded 2027 1.55 0.72 0.50 0.21 16.42 4.15 11.49 0.79 0.56 19.25 residential areas of cities and use 2028 1.95 0.80 0.58 0.22 18.23 4.77 12.60 0.86 0.59 21.57 crude methods resulting in poor 2029 2.50 0.90 0.67 0.22 20.24 5.49 13.82 0.93 0.62 24.26 hygiene, unsafe practices, and pollu- 2030 2.63 1.01 0.78 0.23 22.48 6.31 15.15 1.02 0.51 26.63 tion of air and ground water and low yields. They need to be relocated away plastics and rubber. Europe and Japan Using these ratios, potential from residential areas. The labour has using modern methods have achieved gains from effective recycling of to be trained in modern techniques of useful recovery of materials and ELVs by 2020 is estimated to be: recycling. energy in excess of 95% by weight of Material recovery 2.1 million tons of NATRiP under the Ministry of a car, minimizing the residues going steel, 200,000 tons aluminum; Forex Heavy Industry, in cooperation with into refills to less than 5%. saving close to $1 billion; Energy sav- the automobile industry, has set up a Broad brush estimates of mate- ings 2.95 million mwh from steel and demonstration centre near Chennai to rial and energy savings and environ- 4.5 million mwh from aluminum. (One develop improved methods to suit mental impact can be made on the ton of recycled steel conserves 1.5 tons Indian conditions, recycling of two basis of the weight of the category of of iron ore, 0.6 tons of coke, 0.25 tons wheelers and training and upgrading vehicle. A thumb rule for car equiva- limestone; reduces slag by 0.3 tons and labour in the informal sector. There is lents is: 2.5-3.5 tons of furnace gas containing an urgent need to create and nurture 8 motorcycles = 1 car. 50 kgs of dust.) Effective recycling of an economically viable and environ- 3 three wheelers = 1 car. one typical car saves 1.6 tons of green- mentally friendly recycling industry 2 cars = 1 LCV. house gases in material recoveries. using modern methods and tech- 5 cars = I HCV. The potential for savings by 2020 is in niques. The informal sector has to be relocated away from crowded areas in specially designated recycling parks with better hygiene. Deteriorating air conditions in the cities are alarming with Delhi claim- ing the dubious distinction of being the most polluted metropolis in the world, overtaking Beijing. About a third of the atmospheric pollution is attributable to automobile exhaust. Many older vehicles built before emis- sion norms were tightened are running on our roads. The courts have become active in regulating vehicles. The Natio- nal Green Tribunal has banned older 48 vehicles from Delhi and restricted die- sel vehicles. The Ministry of Transport Recycling area at Shivaji Nagar, Bangalore. is also working out a proposal for fleet

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 A recycling shop in Madurai. Crude methods of breaking up a truck. modernization and retiring older pollut- and have to move. Similar problems revealed that a similar situation pre- ing stock. were experienced when relocating vailed in many developing countries, This rare confluence of judicial other utilities like the vegetable mar- such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, activism and executive will promises ket in Chennai which was moved to a Laos, and Philippines etc. India’s action soon in banning older vehicles more spacious market twenty kilome- efforts at solving the problem can on the road. But the retired vehicles tres away from the city centre. serve as a blueprint to other develop- have to be recycled efficiently to get The numbers of refrigerators, ing nations. maximum benefit to society. There is washing machines, microwave ovens an urgent need to create a modern and other domestic appliances coming recycling infrastructure and upgrading for scrapping has also increased. Many In conclusion, I would recommend the the informal sector. of the technologies and techniques following: (i) The creation of a viable used for scrapping cars are applicable regime for recycling of ELVs should to these goods also. In some units abroad, be taken up as a priority task by the A major constraint in creating a white goods are scrapped along with central government along with the recycling infrastructure is the avail- automobiles. automobile industry in mission mode. ability and high cost of land. Recycling (ii) Existing informal sector units ope- units require hard paved impervious rating in residential areas need to be floor, water purification facilities, IT After dismantling, the steel hulks of relocated to recycling parks and up- support and specialized equipment for cars are shredded abroad. India is yet graded and trained in modern methods. neutralizing air bags and seat restraint to get shredders. It is only a matter of (iii) Tax breaks and duty concessions systems which contain explosives. time shredders become necessary and should be given for new units entering A practical approach is for state gov- economic. Ferrous and non-ferrous the business. (iv) Land should be ernments to acquire land away from elements are separated by magnetic made available for recycling parks at the cities and provide common expen- and eddy current separators. Earlier concessional rates. (v) Inspection and sive facilities and relocate existing units the 15 to 20% residue after shredding maintenance regime has to be streng- from crowded areas. The area released and separation went into landfills. In thened; vehicles which are unfit should can be converted into green parkland, Europe and Japan residue has been be scrapped. (vi) Recycling of end of providing much needed lung space mandated to be less than 5^% and post- life vehicles should form part of the for our cities. The park may also be pro- shredding techniques have been imple- curricula of automobile engineering vided with a large baling press which mented. The US with abundant land courses. (vii) Centres of excellence can be shared between the units. still uses landfills as the more economic should be set up to research efficient Relocation of units will inevita- option. Land usage in India is intense. recycling of rubber, plastics and post bly be opposed by current operators Landfills for municipal waste are run- shredder treatment. (viii) Recycling supported by interested political ele- ning short. It is therefore essential that parks should be set up away from 49 ments and NGOs. They cannot be India adopts post-shredding technolo- cities by governments with shared allowed to operate in residential areas gies from the beginning. A recent study facilities for new and upgraded units.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 At nature’s end ROHIT NEGI

‘Can a set of ontological rights – layas, chir pine behaved as an hyper- such as breathing, actually chal- object: a hybrid entity with intersect- lenge or even displace economic ing biophysical, political and economic hegemony?’1 logics, extremely difficult to grasp intellectually, and even harder to ‘con- IN her recent work, Tania Li shows trol’ in practice. how some villagers in the Indonesian It is increasingly apparent that uplands moved ever deeper into pri- much of our theorizing is unable to mary forests to survive enclosures keep up with the multiplication of wrought by the privatization of land, such things. The Muir-Pinchot debate, but after a point, with no more forests which formed the background to envi- remaining, found themselves at ‘land’s ronmental thought over the previous 2 end’. In the immediate, there was no century is more or less redundant land left for them to colonize, and in today, for neither are there any spaces the larger sense it was the end of a left that are worth keeping away from generational relationship with land humanity, nor is science able to model as the basis of social reproduction. the world with enough confidence to This intervention suggests that we are ‘save’ it. Faced with entities that tran- similarly at ‘nature’s end’; there is no scend the nature/society divide, we are pristine nature out there anymore, and left with two options: holding on to nature as ontological comfort space the warm and fuzzy but progressively is undermined by the proliferation useless ideas about saving nature, of (tricky and scary) entities like glo- with their quasi-religious undertones; bal warming, plastics, super bugs and or, second, reorienting thought around toxic air. actually existing phenomena, that is, These ‘hyperobjects’, as eco- viewing the present as the prolifera- critic Timothy Morton calls them, are tion of things that do not have a ‘prior’ viscous (we can feel them) and non- state that they may be returned to, that local (they are at once here and else- will be around for the long haul, and where) phenomena that underline the with whom we must learn to coexist. continuities between humans and Developing this line of thought, in what 3 non-humans in a fundamental way. follows, I comment on nature’s present During the recent episode of massive through a critical analysis of the cur- forest fires across the Western Hima- rent atmospheric crisis in India. Since 2014, Delhi’s – and to a 1. Alber Pope quoted in Stephen Graham, somewhat lesser extent India’s – air ‘Life Support: the Political Ecology of Urban Air’, City 19(2-3), 2015, pp. 192-215. has been the object of debate, the con- 2. Tania Li, Land’s End: Capitalist Relations tours of which provide a revealing on an Indigenous Frontier. Yale University vantage point on to the larger land- Press, New Haven, 2014. scape of nature’s present. Positions on 50 3. Timothy Morton, Hyperobjects: Philoso- the air debate diverge sharply, leading phy and Ecology after the End of the World. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, to the construction of what Kim Fortun 2013. calls ‘enunciatory communities’, or

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 FIGURE 1 Experiencing Air Through Representational Devices: AQI Graphic in China7

Excellent (0-50) Good (51-100) Slight Pollution Moderate Pollution Heavy Pollution Serious Pollution (101-150) (151-200) (201-300) (301-500) collectives that come together in spe- around the word, air may not be taken Quality Index (AQI), which boil a cific circumstances not as ‘a matter of for granted. As Peter Sloterdijk notes, deeply complex phenomenon down to shared values, interests or even cul- air stopped being the passive backdrop a number, and in one of its new ava- ture, but a response to a temporally to life when, during the First World tars, an emotion on the face of a little specific paradox’.4 Constituents in War, the German army poisoned the air girl (see Figure 1). In this manner, air Delhi include environmental advocacy with chlorine, causing hundreds of seems to straddle the objective/subjec- groups like the Centre for Science and enemy casualties, whereupon the pro- tive divide. As Gernot Böhme notes, Environment (CSE) and Greenpeace; visioning of gas masks became a com- atmospheres are ‘neither something scientists affiliated with the state, mon feature of warfare. objective, that is, qualities possessed by academic institutions and research This ‘airquake’ marks a turning things, and yet they are something groups; policy makers at various admi- point for Sloterdijk: ‘If, in their his- thing like… Nor are atmospheres nistrative scales; journalists who have tory to date, humans could step out at something subjective, for example, taken up the issue as media activism; will under any stretch of sky, in or out- determinations of a psychic state. And and several ‘air entrepreneurs’ look- of-doors, and take for granted the yet, they are subject like, belong to ing to market new products like masks unquestioned idea of the possibility of subjects in that they are sensed in and purifiers. breathing in the surrounding atmos- bodily presence by human beings… phere… they enjoyed a privilege of Atmosphere is the common reality of naivety which was withdrawn.’5 Those the perceiver and the perceived.’8 One interesting feature of the debate of us who live in Indian cities have had has been its data-driven nature. In our privilege withdrawn for a while addition to official state data, private now, given that we experience air as a The representational mediation of organizations have created their own, mixture of gases with significant air was apparent at an event in Delhi relatively inexpensive, air monitoring human induced footprint, and more- organized by CSE where the Delhi stations, while many (well-off) urban over, which poses serious health risks. Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal was to residents carry around handheld PM speak. As the packed arena awaited 2.5 devices imported from China. the CM’s arrival, an expatriate activ- Others rely on the several competing Modern air may then be considered ist next to me exchanged greetings with apps and twitter handles that provide a hyperobject. We experience it daily a fellow traveller, who walked towards ‘real-time’ air quality data to interested and have built affective relations us, mobile phone in hand. He showed users. around our interactions, but it appears us a histogram with hourly AQI trends To the extent this is an environ- withdrawn from us: no one is fully in Delhi. It had been building up since mental concern, can we think of air as sure they’ve captured its essence. As the morning, and had shot up to about ‘nature’ in the sense of being pristine Morton writes, ‘We see signs every- 250 by that afternoon. Another indi- and asocial? Hardly. To be sure, there where, but not the hyperobject as vidual, an adviser to the Delhi govern- may be places that replicate to a fair such.’6 In this scenario, our relations ment, also joined in the conversation. degree the pie chart of atmospheric with air are mediated by things like gases that we’ve all seen in our pri- laser eggs, masks, nebulizers and puri- 6. Timothy Morton, 2013, p. 152, op. cit., mary school textbooks. But for many fiers. We ‘view’ air through various fn. 3. representational devises like the Air 7. http://datadriven.yale.edu/files/2013/01/ 4. Kim Fortun, Advocacy after Bhopal: ShanghaiAQI2-21qacna.png 51 Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global 5. Peter Sloterdijk, Terror from the Air. Trans- 8. Germot Böhme, ‘Atmosphere as the Orders. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, lated by Amy Patton and Steve Corcoran. Fundamental Concept of a New Aesthetics’, 2001, p. 11. Semiotext(e), Los Angeles, 2009, p. 48. Thesis Eleven 36, 1993, p. 122.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 The three of them speculated on the The nodal state agency, i.e. the Minis- and presumably shame, to the country reasons for the spike in the reading. try of Environment, Forests and Cli- rather than the ‘many cities in the west- ‘Maybe they’ve set fire to crops around mate Change, draws its philosophical ern countries… which are suffering… Delhi,’ said the expat activist, a con- underpinnings from the same debates in different categories and degrees.’10 clusion that the adviser doubted. The around protection that defined 20th In response to the IITM study, Java- discussion ended as the CM walked century environmentalism. But what dekar released a press statement, later in, but the incident suggested not only about things like air, nuclear waste retracted, where he argued that ‘the the devise-mediated relationship with and chir pine that render the ‘conser- problem of pollution is being faced by the object of concern, but also the ving nature’ imperative moot? These cities across the world…The study simultaneity of consensus (on the read- objects cannot be managed through focusing only on India and creating ings) and disagreement (on the cause) the precautionary principle either, sensationalism is not creditworthy.’11 in air activist spaces. since they are already here. Rather Such a response might have passed for than a Ministry of Environment, what being thoughtful in a previous era, but we perhaps need is a Ministry of now it simply suggests lameness. The Air is moreover shot through by class Tricky Things. minister’s statement is unconvincing and other social differences. The vast and uninspiring in the way it aims to use population of urban subalterns is more comparison as a device for deflection. exposed to toxic air, while also having To Morton, the time of hyperobjects It moreover draws on a geopolitical poorer access to quality health care. is marked by hypocrisy, weakness and imaginary of siege, which might be an During the turn-of-century debate that lameness. Weakness is the simplest to extension of lameness to the modern led to actions like industrial relocation recognize – confronted by objects like nation state framework. and CNG conversion in Delhi, social nuclear waste (half-life of thousands activists decried the entire chain of of years), we become acutely aware interventions as anti-poor. Scholarly of limits to our knowledge and avail- One must concede the minister con- critiques then gave birth to concepts able actions. Hypocrisy in turn results sistency of stand: a year before these like ‘bourgeois environmentalism’9 from knowing fully well that our exp- two reports were out, Javadekar had that still find traction. Environmental lanatory narratives are unable to grasp blamed ‘vested interests’ with con- collectives and activists have conse- or articulate messy realities, but we nections to ‘forces that do not want quently been forced to engage with this keep up the pretence. This is as true of India to progress’ for the supposed criticism, and the language of social the state as it is of academia. The ‘safe brouhaha over air, adding that ‘no justice now permeates their work. And distance’ of scholarship from what’s media…no other NGOs raised the yet, any air related protest or action out there collapses in the time of toxic issue of Delhi air quality’ during the sees a motley group of expats, elite air – we breathe as we think and write! ten years of the previous regime.12 residents, and certain ‘star’ air experts Lameness, as we will shortly see, Javadekar’s public positions may not gleefully interviewed by media person- marks the end of conviction. be dismissed as uniquely reactionary. nel in attendance. This is the aporetic A recent study by scientists at Even the popular environment minis- space activists must continually nego- the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteo- ter during the previous regime, for all tiate – the more they incorporate rology (IITM) estimated that an aver- his well meaning rhetoric, presided social justice into their discourse, age resident of Delhi loses over six over what observers have considered greater the anxiety they feel about years of his/her life due to air pollution, a business-as-usual phase of Indian their own composition and about the extrapolating from similar studies environmental governance. This shows marginalizing technical language they of health risks of PM 2.5 in Europe. that there is something more at work must adopt to reach other publics (the A month or two earlier, a World Health here: the larger growth at all costs state, judiciary etc). Organization (WHO) report, based rhetoric has governance and thought State responses to hyperobjects once again on particulate matter, had 10. Asmita Sarkar, ‘WHO Report on Polluted like air follow along predictable lines noted that thirty of the world’s most Indian Cities Misleading: Govt’, International and are progressively off the mark. polluted cities were in India. The Business Times, 18 May 2016. Environment Minister Prakash Java- 11. Statement by HMoEFCC, 7 June 2016. 52 9. Amita Baviskar, ‘Between Violence and dekar’s response to the WHO docu- 12. Quoted in Liz Mathew and Amitabh Sinha, Desire: Space, Power, and Identity in the ‘Why Did no One Raise Air Pollution Issue Making of Metropolitan Delhi’, International ment was that by focusing on India, for 10 Years…Vested Interests Doing it Now, Social Science Journal 175, 2003, pp. 89-98. such reports brought public attention, says Javadekar’, Indian Express, 2 May 2015.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 in a vice-like grip, which tends to con- sidered with critical empathy as the and was made costlier by interventions dition responses to entities like air. pivots around which alliances are built like stricter emission norms, the decon- and movements sustained. centration of industry, and restrictions on the sale and use of automobiles.17 Air is not simply a matter of pollution Moreover, the cost of labour power but raises questions about the nature The preceding discussion points to a tends to rise too, given the increased of knowledge on the one hand, and crisis; how might we begin to approach social expenditure on respiratory ail- the fragmentation of atmospheres in it? Political economy comes to mind as ments and allergies on the one hand, cities and regions on the other. In the a strong explanatory frame. David and highly skilled workers looking to 1990s, during an earlier wave of air Harvey, for instance, views capitalist move out of affected city-regions on related activism and court mediated crisis as the forces behind disposses- the other. The end of cheap air in places action in Delhi, the city’s public and sion, as well as imperial projects.15 To like Delhi is then articulated with the para-transit fleet was converted to Harvey neoliberalism, as a response to global system, and contributes to its Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), the so-called ‘long downturn’ since the overall crisis. It is beyond pointless, in which in the process went from a sup- 1970s, has generated a tendency to this scenario, to keep harping on the posedly ‘clean’ fuel to an ‘environmen- profit from the enclosures of commons development/ environment binary – the tally acceptable’ one, presumably to and the privatization and commodifi- crisis is not economic, it emerges where keep the door open for alternate accep- cation of nature. Drawing on a world growth encounters its own materiality.18 table fuels like low-sulphur diesel.13 history approach, Jason Moore calls More recently, the precise role for thinking through what he terms the of vehicular emissions in comparison ‘Capitalocene’, that is, the present In sum, nature’s present is also with roadside or construction dust has epoch marked by the fusing of capital- nature’s end. We are face-to-face with been hotly debated. One would expect ist and ecological forces.16 In this period, objects that have proliferated through more (or ‘better’) data to settle such four cheaps have been central to the human interactions with the physical epistemic contentions. On the contrary, system’s reproduction: labour power, world. It is not possible to return them as Timothy Choy notes in the case of food, energy and raw materials. The to a prior – natural – state. Instead, the an atmospheric controversy in Hong appropriation of these social-ecological correct move is to view them as neigh- Kong, ‘navigating layers upon layers cheaps, through patriarchy, colonialism bourly entities. The limits to our under- of differently scaled data, yields a and the unbounded extraction of fos- standing and actions need not be sensation of incomplete knowledge, a sil fuels, is immanent to capitalism. considered a weakness to be hidden vertiginous sense that there is always Crisis follows when bottlenecks in the away, but the knowledge of limits is something in excess of the explana- supply of the cheaps begin to add sig- critical to a more meaningful engage- tion.’14 nificant cost to the system. ment with the present. Uncertainty, then, marks our It seems to me that an atmos- The narrative of inexorable and knowledge of hyperobjects. A single- pheric sensibility must be supplied to teleologically defined development minded and self-confident stand, for Harvey and Moore. Air escaped enter- has simultaneously produced dispos- instance CSE’s against diesel, is con- ing the balance sheets until the 1960s sessions and environmental destruc- sequently open to criticism for its and thereabouts, when regulations tight- tion. If there is one thing that has manufacturing of certainty and on ened and technological shifts were challenged the reign of the growth at the ground of hypocrisy, since the gap made mandatory. Given the increased any cost ideology in the recent past, it between knowledge and posturing is possibilities of mobility, capitalists used is air. As Albert Pope suggests in the precisely what activists criticize cor- the uneven atmospheric and regulatory opening quote, and to paraphrase Lenin, porations and the state for. But since environments to move to regions where air may just be the weakest link in the hypocrisy is the very mode of being in these costs could be externalized. In due discursive chain of development where the present, such stands must be con- course, however, air became a major the (ecological) revolution may strike. biopolitical concern even in these places 17. Eg. lottery for new cars in Beijing; on/off 13. Thanks to Prerna Srigyan for this insight. or odd/even in both China and India; ban on 14. Timothy Choy, ‘Air’s Substantiations.’ 15. David Harvey, The New Imperialism. sale of diesel SUVs in Delhi. Paper for Berkeley Environmental Politics Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003. 18. Rohit Negi, ‘In the Time of Toxic Air’, 53 Colloquium, 2010, p. 4, http://globetrotter. 16. Jason Moore, Capitalism in the Web Himal Southasian 28(3), 2015; also available berkeley.edu/bwep/colloquium/papers/ of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of online at http://himalmag.com/time-toxic-air, ChoyAirEP.pdf Capital. Verso, London, 2015. accessed 7 July 2015.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Friction along the fringe MEERA ANNA OOMMEN

ANTAGONISTIC interactions bet- of problem species went hand in hand ween people and wildlife in India are with respect, reverence and propitia- by no means exclusive to the (recently tion of the offending crop raider, cattle coined) Anthropocene.1 Longer-range lifter or maneater. Over the centuries, histories of landscapes, people and ani- local communities have explored and mals dispel the notion of a pristine past, evolved numerous strategies to over- revealing shared spaces where close come, cope and rationalize when con- cohabitation entailed conflict and dis- fronted with marauding wildlife. This harmony along several levels. Yet, in tension between conflict and coexist- many of these engagements, non- ence has been a defining feature of lethal management and lethal control human-wildlife entanglements in 1. Although there is no formally accepted forested landscapes. start date, many scientists consider this pro- The cultural core of modern posed epoch roughly coincides with the start conservation in India, however, pays 54 of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-19th little attention to this diversity of century. P.J. Crutzen and E.F. Stoermer, ‘The “Anthropocene”,’ Global Change Newsletter worldviews, opting instead for a prima- 41, 2000, pp. 17-18. rily exclusion centred, fortress conser-

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 vation approach.2 Under this dominant how to manage problem species, land that are incongruous with local prac- ideology, an adherence to Edenic phi- and resources.5 tices. In this respect, conservationists losophies3 and animal rights orienta- Although the first form of con- have gained territory, playing the game tions of conservationists intersect flict has been researched ad nauseum from the top, while largely being unaf- easily with the exclusionary byproducts by conservation biologists (albeit with fected by the day-to-day problems of princely and colonial governance a narrow lens), it is the results of a that local communities face. This situ- which also precipitated contemporary small number of recent studies work- ation of being out of range while being mechanisms of control. Here, context ing from the vantage point of ‘histories beneficial for short-term control has specific, situated knowledges embed- and perspectives from below’ that been increasingly problematic in con- ded in local traditions, culture and have begun to highlight the broad spec- temporary India. experience (i.e., knowledges that are trum of socio-cultural and non-mate- partial, local and embodied) are given rial elements relating to human-wildlife short shrift and remain marginalized interactions.6 These studies have Top-down insertion of extra-local in favour of a privileged, disembodied, interrogated political ecologies, multi- morality and authority changed the modern science, or of political interests species ethnographies, animal geogra- nature of conflict from one primarily masquerading as science.4 Together, phies and longer-range histories of a between people and animals to that these factors have engendered a strong number of large vertebrates involved between different groups of people preservationist enterprise from whose in conflict, without falling prey to the with contrasting viewpoints on how to standpoint differing ethical leanings moral extensionism that typically coexist, manage and conserve. The and traditional use systems fall under accompanies this form of conserva- divergence from the colonial practice the category of forbidden ‘third rail’ tion scholarship. The results from of eliminating pestilent wildlife to that topics that dare not be spoken of. Hunt- such explorations are critical in show- of enforced protection also entailed a ing, culling and consumption of species casing the complexities of local con- shift in conservation perspectives are prime examples of such themes. texts and in linking them with the whereby an urban conservation ethic more challenging issue of contem- increasingly imposed itself on local porary conservation conflict. livelihoods. An exploration of these In the following paragraphs, high- linkages shows that mainstream con- lighting the case of one of the most servation approaches are likely to be common mammalian crop raiders on Some of these studies also show problematic for modified landscapes the subcontinent, I address two related that in many areas residents actively on account of their tendency to gene- forms of conflict that have, for good oppose extra-local influences imposed rate and reinforce inequalities and measure, been confused with each on their landscapes by the state as power differentials. In those areas of the other. The first relates to the direct con- well as those by powerful conservation forest fringe where species spill over flict between people and animals lobbies. The issue is particularly rele- to cause conflict, protection accorded which has a long, centuries-old history, vant as the latter are no longer under- to wildlife is considered as a form of whereas the second is a problem reflec- dogs, but active political agents capable expanding territorialization by the tive of the contemporary situation – of exerting pressure on marginalized state and environmentalists, and one that of conservation linked conflict groups to conform or to behave in ways which privileges animals over people.7 – between different groups of people Conservation in such spaces, there- holding contrasting viewpoints on 5. S. Redpath et. al., ‘Understanding and fore, needs a nuanced, context specific Managing Conservation Conflicts’, TREE focus, a wider appreciation of ethics 28(2), 2013, pp. 100-109. 2. D. Brockington, Fortress Conservation: and the development of locally accept- The Preservation of the Mkomazi Game 6. Examples include, A.G. Gold and B.R. Gujar, In the Time of Trees and Sorrows: able solutions. Reserve, Tanzania. Indiana University Press, In the following paragraphs, I Bloomington, 2002. Nature, Power and Memory in Rajasthan. Duke University Press, Durham, 2002; attempt to outline a series of insights 3. P. Robbins and S.A. Moore, ‘Ecological S. Ghosal and D.J. Kjosavik, ‘Living With Anxiety Disorder: Diagnosing the Politics of Leopards: Negotiating Morality and Moder- 7. N.L. Peluso, ‘The Politics of Specificity and the Anthropocene’, Cultural Geographies nity in Western India’, Society and Natural Generalisation in Conservation Matters’, Con- 20(1), 2013, pp. 3-19. Resources 28, 2015, pp. 1092-1107; servation and Society 1(1), 2003, pp. 61-64; 4. D. Haraway, ‘Situated Knowledges: M. Barua, ‘Bio-Geo-Graphy: Landscape, J. McGregor, ‘Crocodile Crimes: People Ver- 55 The Science Question in Feminism and the Dwelling and the Political Ecology of Human- sus Wildlife and the Politics of Post-Colonial Privilege of Partial Perspective’, Feminist Elephant Relations’, Environment and Plan- Conservation on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe’, Studies 13(3), 1988, pp. 575-599. ning D 32, 2014, pp. 915-934. Geoforum 36, 2005, pp. 353-369.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 from these lines of enquiry using the in this widely distributed practice has amalgamated into the several strands ubiquitous Indian wild boar as a case been the subjugation of crop raiding of religious iconographies of peninsu- in point. I begin by providing a broad pigs by humans (and their hunting lar India. As a result, pigs figured in brush historical outline of the complex dogs) or vice versa. Even in the north- propitiation rituals and sacrifices nature of human entanglements with eastern part of India, where the spe- seeking enhanced agricultural produc- the wild boar in India and their rele- cies is one of the most valuable sources tion and fertility, and protection from vance for contemporary conservation. of meat, pestilence by pigs was still a misfortunes. For numerous malevo- This is followed by a brief exploration problem for local farmers. lent villages goddesses in southern of select case studies that explore the India, sacrifices of domestic swine genesis of conservation conflict in were integral to propitiation. which wild pigs are scapegoated as Conflict, however, has been only one the main offenders, but the conflict is aspect of these local relationships. In actually between different groups of peninsular India, where the boar was A long view of the past and a broader people. I conclude by offering a few a destroyer of agriculture, it simulta- interrogation of human-animal relation- ideas towards taking the discussion neously appears to have been incorpo- ships therefore provides evidence to a forward in reconciling some of these rated into several other spheres of wide network of interactions that are issues in present day human modified everyday existence and cultural net- far from purely antagonistic. It could landscapes. works. The wild boar appears on the be inferred that people and wildlife Indus seals as an animal of some cohabiting in a region can be located importance; pig bones appear in seve- within networks of relations, with each A widely distributed species causing ral post-Harappan sites signifying actor performing its own specific role extensive damage to agriculture, the their use as food. In the Vedic pharma- typical of its species while at the Indian wild boar (Sus scrofa) has been cology that considered the ‘universe as same time accounting for reflexive involved in complex entanglements a kitchen’ and in the ancient Indian and reciprocal interactions with others. with historical as well as contemporary zoology that was a ‘catalogue of meats’, The interpretations of these actions local communities. In the oldest known boars on account of their residence in have been historically constituted, artistic rendition from the Bhimbetka anupa (marshy) lands were endowed with local communities evolving a cave complex in central India, a mutant with a ‘heavy’ meat that had power- variety of practices and justifications giant boar is depicted to be rapidly gain- ful therapeutic values for strengthen- to understand nature and to deal with ing ground on a tiny fleeing human. ing the body. adversity. Stretching back several thousand In the iconography of mains- For example, hostility towards years, this depiction perhaps belies tream Hinduism, Varaha, appears as a wildlife and propitiation are compati- the destructiveness of the boar and the boar-headed (or zoomorphic) avatar ble and often go hand in hand. Direct helplessness of the human in the eyes of Vishnu (and Brahma) as well as attacks on people and livestock, or of the primeval artist. This notion is several other forms.8 Worshipped crop raiding, are often interpreted by reinforced in a number of regional widely across the length and breadth communities in terms of punishment mythologies (as is the case in several of peninsular India, during the first by the animals as response or recipro- Old World cultures) where the legend ten centuries of the first millennium, city to socio-moral misdemeanours of a ferocious giant boar ravaging crops Varaha was considered the saviour of calling for propitiation measures and is a frequent one. the earth. His consort, the sow-headed rituals as corrective initiatives. Reci- In the Tamil Sangam bardic Varahi appears as a complex deity with procity thus can be used to question as poetry at the turn of the Christian era, Vaishnava, Sakta and Tantric attributes well as resolve immoral aspects of local people battled pigs that raided in Hindu Dravidian and Buddhist both human and animal behaviour.10 millet fields but their damages were mythologies.9 Granting boons and also offset by the provision of delicious offering protection, the goddess is 10. C. Scott, ‘Science for the West, Myth for pork. Other representations too reiter- the Rest: the Case of James Bay Cree Know- ledge Construction’, in L. Nader (ed.), Naked ate the problematic nature of con- 8. H. Rangarajan, Varaha Images in Madhya Science: Anthropological Inquiry into Bounda- flict. Scattered throughout Karnataka, Pradesh: An Iconographic Study. Somaiya ries, Power, and Knowledge. Routledge, Lon- Publications, Bombay, 1997. 56 veeragallu or ‘hero stones’ comme- don, 1996, pp. 69-86; J. Knight (ed.), Natural 9. H. Rangarajan, Images of Varahi: An Icono- Enemies: People-Wildlife Conflicts in Anthro- morate important events and deeds of graphic Study. Sharada Publishing House, pological Perspective. Routledge, London, valour. A frequent theme of depiction Delhi, 2004. 2000.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Although in contemporary times, beneficial to local communities was could initially be exterminated and communities may not literally relate to also significantly problematic in some served as a welcome supplement to punishment and propitiation, the rela- regions. While European colonialists impoverished settler diets, with the tionships between people and pigs are revelled in pig-sticking, they prohibited implementation of conservation laws, definitely more complex than that of local communities from hunting even pigs thrived. the species as just a problematic pest. crop raiding animals; additionally they Due to cumulative hardships in In addition to their utility as food or also called for more protection in the form of elephant raids and chronic draught animals, animals have been places where wild pig was believed to wild boar depredation, settlers suffer integral to various Indian cultures. The be on the decline. significantly in terms of hidden impacts cultural importance accorded to them In Rajputana, princely rulers and psychological consequences. In is by no means insignificant as no- practicing their own specific form of these landscapes, while proposals to where else do animals acquire such pig-sticking prohibited impoverished cull wild pigs have been mooted, it has extensive representation as they do in villagers from harming their pigs, been met with strong opposition from religious and mythological iconogra- even though the latter destroyed their the animal rights and conservation lob- phy of the Indian subcontinent. crops.11 As exclusionary policies bies.12 Frequent skirmishes between The erosion of these underlying related to colonial hunting practices settlers and state officials (pigs are socio-cultural features either by way segued into the post-independence seen as belonging to the government) of gentrification, assimilation or coer- conservation phase, conservation leg- have been observed in these land- cion can lead to a simplified argument islation and associated restrictions scapes. Retaliatory attacks on other that just treats animals as problematic. resulted in even more stringent pre- species of conservation significance Without the rich diversity of cultural servationist measures. too have been precipitated as a result backdrops, these could eventually of local disenchantment against the affect tolerance and coexistence, and Forest Department. precipitate the ultimate separation of In these situations, local human- humans from nature. As opposed to animal relations are typically ignored industrialized societies of the West, the as communities at the fringe are in As pointed out by several others, the levels of tolerance for problem species many cases already disadvantaged investigation of conservation conflict are significantly higher in places such groups with poor negotiating capabi- is often plagued by a poor understand- as India. The contrasts in responses to lities. Agrarian communities are the ing of local contexts and situations fatalities by wolves and other preda- most affected in the face of wild boar that bring about these conflicts.13 Con- tors in North America and Europe to depredations. For example, settler servationists often tend to ignore local that of large cats and elephants in communities in the Western Ghats of histories of marginalization and numer- Africa and Asia are examples. This Kerala (Travancoreans who migrated ous other political ecological chains of simplification also relates to conser- to farm the forest fringe during the explanation that bring about these vationists’ tendency to assume that war-induced famine of the 1940s) situations. In the case of the Western peoples’ problems with marauding were already marginalized and impov- Ghats, the political motivation for wildlife will be assuaged by simple erished on account of past trauma in bringing migrants to the fringe was utilitarian benefits such as monetary their native villages and uncertain land backgrounded by World War II, the rewards and compensation. tenure in their new settlements. While Bengal famine and the cessation of frequent raids by elephants in the ini- rice imports from far away Burma, tial years catalyzed a shift in crops and resulting in a desperate situation for Across India, the disruption of tradi- further clearing of the landscape Travancore. Recent recommendations tional entanglements with species such (which reduced the frequency of ele- for increasing ecological security in as pigs have catalyzed a more perni- phant visitations), the new crops were these landscapes14 are seen as increa- cious form of conflict that typically conducive for wild boar. While boars pitches local communities against the 11. A.G. Gold and B.R. Gujar, 2002, op. cit, 12. e.g. http://www.fiapo.org/newsandevents/ state as well as against more power- fn. 6; J. Hughes, ‘Environmental Status fiapo-unites-over-a-100-ngos-to-oppose- ful interest groups. Historically, these and Wild Boars in Princely India’, in moefccs-move-to-unabatedly-kill-wildlife/; http://www.fiapo.org/our-campaigns/not-ver- included practices such as colonial and M. Rangarajan and K. Sivaramakrishnan 57 (eds.), Shifting Ground: People, Animals and min/ princely hunting traditions such as Mobility in India’s Environmental History. 13. N.L. Peluso, 2003, op. cit., fn. 7, pp. 61-64; pig-sticking which though partially Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2014. J. McGregor, 2005, op. cit., fn. 7.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 sing territorialization by the govern- some lessons can also be imbibed from wildlife are mediated by various religi- ment. Pigs play a central role in these traditional pig hunting communities in ous, occupational and cultural affilia- contests between people and the state. places such as the Andaman islands. tions. Political and historical exigencies The prohibition of traditional In the Andamans, where traditional have not only brought migrants into practices such as hunting or that of cull- hunting by communities such as the these marginalized landscapes, out ing of problem species are also brought Jarawa and the Ongee are outside the migration too is a feature of the rural about under the pretext of questioning purview of the Wildlife Protection fringe. Simple labels of fringe dwell- the ecological sustainability of such Act, pig hunting remains of paramount ers as peasants, agriculturalists or practices. In the context of proposals importance with strong rituals and tribals are insufficient to understand for culling, there were fears that such a practices that regulate consumption the engagements between people and practice would lead to local extinctions and ensure long-term availability of wildlife in these dynamic landscapes. and in the trade in wild meat.15 In the this key species. Context specific explorations, particu- politics of conservation, it is common- larly those that look at local, historical place for animal rights activists and and political ecological explorations, conservationists to use science as an As we have seen above, pigs and and result in the advancement of speci- excuse for pushing personal agendas people share a complex relationship. fic, contextually appropriate solutions, without actually backing their claims A number of other studies such as are required for resolving conflicts in with research. The entanglement of sci- those on leopards and elephants also these regions. ence, politics and ethical leanings needs show similar results. Both human- to be further interrogated as success- animal conflict and conservation con- ful conservation in any place is likely to flict in India needs to be re-examined Recent scholarship has highlighted result in a spillover of species outside in the light of this complexity and diver- the existence of local practices and cul- protected areas, and bringing in its wake sity of relationships. A more nuanced tural attitudes that mediate relation- conflicts with local livelihoods.16 interrogation of conflict calls for a ships between people and wildlife in renewed emphasis on multidisci- shared spaces.17 Though derived from plinary explorations towards avoiding different ethical backgrounds, such As one of the most fecund species recommendations solely based on traditional practices are nevertheless of mammalian herbivores, the wild single dimensional research (e.g. just synergistic with conservation. More- pig is quick to breed and multiply, and compensation), and for a symmetrical over, unlike fortress conservation, among the most unlikely species to go evaluation of both people and wildlife which creates and reinforces dualisms extinct in the face of population con- in zones of contact. between people and nature, they offer trol measures. Moreover, pigs are On the ground, such an approach more inclusive relationships with clever animals and are known to out- calls for the exploration of other nature and are also advantageous on wit hunters. However, despite their aspects such as the hidden dimensions account of their legitimacy in local huge impact on agrarian landscapes, of conflict as well as the incorporation origins and lived experiences. To for- wild pigs remains poorly studied, dem- of multi-sectoral planning (e.g. health, malize some of these engagements, onstrating the problematic aspects of education, environment) and dialogue. there is a need for shared decision asymmetrical research interest on Multi-sectoral planning necessitates making beginning with the democrati- charismatic species. While settler not only the integration of different zation of knowledge and action. practices are difficult to formalize in components of conflict but also the While exploring nature’s pre- terms of traditional rules for hunting, treatment of conservation and deve- sent, it is perhaps useful to look into the lopment as linked enterprises in these potential of older, more efficient local 14. These include the reports of two high level areas. Negative perceptions of dis- models that deal with conflict. Such a committees headed by Madhav Gadgil and tributive justice which play a key role process not only entails the acceptance K. Kasturirangan. in catalyzing contemporary conflict are of diverse ethical perspectives, but also 15. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ kerala/order-on-wild-boar-shocks-conserva- often backgrounded by uneven deve- an openness to solutions, some of which tionists/article6079714.ece lopment and marginalization of local may be unpalatable to diehard preser- 16. See Jay Mazoomdaar, 10 June 2016, http:/ communities. vationists or might seem ‘unscientific’ 58 /indian express.com/article/explained/environ- India’s forest fringes are popu- to the foot soldiers of modern science. ment-ministry-culling-controversy-cant-take- away-the-farmers-right-to-life-and-livelihood- lated by a diverse constituency of local 17. e.g., S. Ghosal and D.J. Kjosavik, 2015, 2845157/ communities whose relationships with op. cit., fn. 6.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Historicizing mutinies against nature AARTHI SRIDHAR

THE urgency of halting the destruc- elements drew the attention of natura- tion of nature and the rational settle- lists and scientists in the 18th and ment of human conflict over natural 19th centuries and also the site where resources has become a hallmark of the first marine biological research contemporary discourse in the public station was established in 1914. This sphere. Conservation problems appear coastline bears many impressions of a as irrational mutinies against rational much longer history of various com- governance and scientific manage- munities’ interactions with the sea – ment, and its perpetrators’ actions through enterprises such as boat and are often explained as self-interest or ship building, maritime trade, large- ignorance couched in discourses of scale pearl and chank fisheries which, identity, honour, tradition and entitle- incidentally, finds mention in Sangam ment. Does the future of conservation literature from 300 BCE. then simply demand an intensification A very brief sketch of four con- of earlier efforts by secular environ- troversies that transpired over the last mentalists, either for better communi- decade will illustrate how the present cation and education strategies, or does crisis is commonly perceived. I later it call for strengthening conservation identify the common narratives in such battles in courts or on the ground? Per- controversies that intensify struggles haps a reflection of contestations over over nature in a markedly different way nature in present times can expand our than before. I end with some ideas on conception of the ambit of environ- how to perform such environmenta- mentalism in future. lisms and the work it entails. This article attempts at such Illegal transboundary fishing and reflection, drawing from marine exam- the politics of identity: The Palk Bay ples in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk fishing conflict has dominated recent 59 Bay region along the south east coast news reports about this region. The of India. This is a region where nature’s years following the bloody defeat of

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 the LTTE in 2009 witnessed serious ‘integrity’ of government officials In 2016, the Madras High Court conflict in these territories – the ten- who look the other way when mega- took cognisance of a petition filed by sions centred around the charge of sized trawlers are illegally given fish- the Nagai Seafood Catchers Associa- ‘illegal transboundary fishing’ placed ing licences. tion for lifting the WLPA imposed on Indian trawlers transgressing into ban. Fishers engaged in breath-hold Sri Lankan waters. Here, ethnic iden- diving for the collection of sea cucum- tity and economic stakes collide with Endangered species and traditional bers claim that it has been a traditional strong geopolitical posturing over the vocation: In 2001 the Indian Ministry activity which they must be allowed porosity of the International Boundary of Environment and Forests (under to practice. They also lay the blame Line (IBL). the NDA coalition government headed for depleting sea cucumber numbers by the Bharatiya Janata Party) intro- on unregulated bottom trawling in duced a ban on the collection and sale this region. Several actors on both sides (includ- of all sea cucumbers and sea horses ing fisher leaders, scientists and activ- (all Holothurians and Sygnathidians) ists) have denounced the technology under the Wildlife Protection Act of Technological innovations as tradi- of bottom trawling, whether in India or 1972, presumably on account of worry- tion: Over the last three years, a group in Sri Lanka (where only gill nets are ing concerns about their depleting of fishers from the Terespuram quar- operated). Tamil trawl fishers from stocks. Since then, there have been ter of Thoothukudi city began using the India on the other hand have not only regular instances of illegal catches of controversial ‘hookah diving’ system stiffly countered these charges of eco- these items. In 2004, the confisca- to scrape the sea bottom and collect logical damage but importantly, that tion of a Singapore bound container, dead chank (Turbinella pyrum) shells. of illegitimacy. At times denying that with over two metric tonnes of dried The fishers argue that diving and col- transgressions occur at all, one of seahorse, at the Chennai Port was lecting shells is a traditional vocation their dissenting arguments has been widely reported in the press. In 2015, practised by the Catholic Parivar and to claim that the waters and lands the online edition of the news net- Kadaiyar castes but also by the Hindu between the two nations have known work NDTV, reported that the Coastal Muthurayar caste and Muslim Labbai longer histories of common use for the Security Group (Marine Police) in Tamil or Marakayar in this region. The use Tamil fisher community than the cur- Nadu found 600 kgs of processed sea of this technology, their leaders argue, rent separation of use enforced by the cucumbers in a raid of godowns in is merely a technological innovation, a artificial boundary of the IBL. They Nagapattinam. mark of naveenakaalam or ‘the new point to a diversity of categories of In 2014, 16 Sri Lankan fishermen times’ that they have to go along with, ‘trawler owners’ stating that economic were reportedly arrested by the Indian and that technological innovation is imperatives lock-in their fishing beha- Coast Guard for catching sea cucum- central to the practice of fishing. viour since indebtedness awaits them bers in Indian waters (the item is not The risk to life in the hookah sys- if they reduce the intensity of fishing. banned in Sri Lanka). Further, follow- tem is considerable where, unlike with Some trawler representatives ing protests and petitions from various the scuba diving apparatus, hookah will admit that technology has detri- fisher representatives, 2016 saw not divers use long rubber pipes directly mental effects on the ecosystem, but just the Tamil Nadu wing of the leftist connected to compressors that pass on complicate this narrow view by also All India Trade Union Congress openly unfiltered air. Often working for a cou- pointing to the possibilities it has offered support the sea cucumber fishers but ple of hours at a stretch, the ‘compres- – where such activity has fed India’s also the former ally of the BJP in the sor divers’ do not follow standard scuba export capabilities, sustains many NDA, the AIADMK Member of Par- diving protocols such as controlled local and regional seafood companies liament Anwar Raja argued publicly descents or ascents, bottom time limits, and employees and other chains of against the ban. In March that year, making decompression stops or dive livelihoods in which coastal people are The Hindu reported that Anwar Raja times. Reports of deaths resulting from employed today. In the current debate had offered a wide range of reasons decompression sickness have been around the banning of bottom trawling, in support of lifting the ban – chiefly the noted but are not openly discussed. they raise important questions about impact on the livelihood of fishers but The practice of chank collection by this 60 the silence of the state which actively also the harassment by the Sri Lankan method has brought down the price of led them into adopting this technology navy and the ‘age-old’ tradition of live caught shells which involve greater between the 1960s till the 1990s and the breath-hold diving for fishing. labour for cleaning and polishing aside

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 from the labour involved in breadth It was finally resurrected in the years honour and community feature promi- hold diving or free diving. Compressor of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam nently. Workshops, meetings and pub- divers and their leaders passionately (DMK) rule in Tamil Nadu when it was lic hearings that debate the present argue that this is a risk they are willing a coalition partner with the UPA-I controversies display very little insight to take in order to feed their families, government at the Centre (where into how each actor came to forge somewhat akin to labour in foundries DMK leader T.R. Baalu controlled the these ideas about nature. and mines. portfolio of the Ministry of Shipping, Thus, meetings on tackling bot- In 2015, the Jayalalithaa govern- Road Transport and Highways). SCCP tom trawling are not informed by an ment also announced a limited subsidy was introduced by Prime Minister environmental, economic or social for the purchase of scuba diving equip- Manmohan Singh in 2005 in Madurai history of bottom trawling on this ment to carry on this work which soon city as a project that would bring glory coast. Nor is there sufficient under- turned unviable. Leaders of the divers’ to the Tamil Nadu state and economic standing of how each of the actors associations argue that they have benefits to the nation. Significant por- (‘trawl owners’, ‘the maritime nation’, obtained licenses from the fisheries tions of his project inauguration speech ‘illegal fishers’) themselves emerged departments (which does not specify were dedicated to the ‘great and glo- and the operation of power and injus- technological limits in this case) and rious maritime tradition’ of Indian tice in aiding their emergence. Thus, that the true source of the depletion merchants, boats and trade, arguing despite multiple actors shaping current of chank is bottom trawling introduced that the SSCP would help revive this fisheries (either around key species, by the state in the first place. fading glory. or techniques), its regulation is not discussed using legal principles that bring into play history, such as a Com- Maritime infrastructure impacts An examination of these present-day mon But Differentiated Responsibi- and reviving maritime glory: Despite controversies reveals a range of actors lity (CBDR). Precisely since ideas like heavy criticism and protest from coas- (scientists, environmentalists, fisher- CBDR require an acknowledgement tal communities, the Ministry of men, government officials and policy of injustice and power differentials Environment and Forests awarded makers), each of whom contributes to which are sometimes complicated to environmental clearance in 2006 to the at least three intersecting narratives – make, and because they broaden the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project of nature, modernity and technology. number of actors who are complicit (SCCP), a dredging project to widen But absent from most claims related in forging a crisis, it is unpalatable to and deepen the shallow channels of the to these narratives is their open powerful actors as an acceptable legal Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay and Palk historicization. Thus, they only allude principle. Strait between India and Sri Lanka. to a past, but shy away from an active Thus, public hearings or environ- Technically, SSCP involved an annual engagement with how power and mental clearance processes for the dredging of the seabed for approxi- injustice in the past may have contri- SCCP did not witness a debate on the mately 167 km to make a navigational buted to the making of such claims. meaning of, or the truth or social costs channel about 300 metres wide and Common to all these accounts is around, ‘India’s past maritime glory.’ thereby support ships with a draft the discussion over nature – whether It also failed to mitigate the social and of about 10 metres. The channel route it is impacted or not impacted by a par- environmental costs arising from the is only a few kilometres away from ticular set of human interventions, project objective of remaking mari- the Gulf of Mannar National Park and whether the impacts are justified or not, time glory in the present. In short, within a portion of the larger 10,500 sq and who bears culpability for crimes the historical operation of power in km Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve. against nature. While some actors producing various actors and the his- It aims at bypassing transhipment at appear to speak in nature’s terms (bio- toricized costs of their relations with Colombo port and promoting coastal logical or oceanographic descriptions nature is absent in environmental shipping in India. such as increased sedimentation from governance processes around marine The idea of a navigable canal dredging, fishing down food webs, issues. in this region can be traced to James mesopredator release or the endan- Rennell in the late 18th century and gered status of marine species), others subsequently, multiple though aborted describe their relations with nature The second narrative that is common 61 attempts were made to revive it, extend- through non-science cultural catego- to all actors but not separate from the ing into the post-Independence period. ries where economic life, tradition, discourse of nature is that of moder-

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 nity. This modernity is articulated in Once again a turn to a historicized Thus, ‘India’s past maritime multiple ways. Secular environmental- view is inevitable if claims to moder- glory’ is as much a contemporary cul- ists claimed a modern understanding nity must be explored. tural expression that arises from a par- of nature when they argued that the ticular reading of historical accounts, SSCP had to be stopped because of but also from the omission of other ecological impacts of dredging and A final common narrative in the accounts that qualify the meaning of not on account of the putative destruc- above sketches relates to technology. the entity ‘India’, or those that high- tion of the Rama Setu Bridge (which Not only is there a tendency among light the intricate contingencies of nationalist Hindutva affiliated groups conservationists to speak of techno- social relations, maritime labour and claimed was a sacred site built by Lord logy as neutral, but the assault on status, technological engagements that Rama’s army of monkeys over a mil- nature is seen as the ‘misuse’ of tech- shaped maritime trade in the past. lion years ago). They also argued for nology (of underwater diving gear, of a modern conception of equality and bottom trawling technologies, of dred- justice as constitutional rights, claim- ging equipment, of market information, Contemporary controversies over ing that SSCP would jeopardize the use of mobile phones by sea cucum- nature, argued through intertwined livelihoods of hundreds of small- ber poachers, and so on). However, narratives of nature-modernity-tech- scale fishers. seen in conjunction with the narrative nology, are therefore historically On the other hand, the propo- of modernity and that of relations with shaped. Thus, an environmentalism in nents of the SSCP argued for the mod- nature, we come to appreciate the con- the present will not only have to ac- ernization of the shipping industry in a trol that technology has over society. count for justice with regard to nature- double movement – a step away from All maritime enterprises today culture relations in the present but also economic backwardness but also a are replete with technological artefacts injustices in such relations in the past. step towards a status of past glory. The and materials. The introduction of tech- A possible way at understanding injus- hookah divers’ claim that their use of nologies in the field of fisheries was tices in the past is by (a) being atten- high-risk compressor diving technolo- closely enmeshed with the discourse tive to the framing behind particular gies was both traditional and modern of modernity. From fishing, to conser- historical engagements with nature ‘innovation’ for them, is a particular vation, to dredging – all activities are (e.g. the ‘improvement’ of fisheries representation of modernity. mediated by multiple technologies. through the introduction of trawlers) However, in adjudicating their impacts and (b) interpreting multiple historical on nature, we will need to simultane- sources to understand the distribution Environmental governance does not ously examine possible effects on iden- of the fruits and costs of such activity. enquire into the full sets of effects of tity and the differential relations of Actively looking for omission and such claims (except that on nature), people with technology through time. silences from historically weaker actors or why such claims arise in the first Idealized versions of environ- in contemporary accounts will illumi- instance. A broader conception of mental governance and management nate where injustice in the present is justice in relation to nature, or a more of marine resources are structured likely to emerge. This double vision can political ecology, might ask in what around simple and ahistorical catego- help expand the idea of environmen- way does the claim to a particular ries of actors and actions. However, talism to account for justice not just in modernity privilege certain groups in in practice, a number of other logics nature but also in culture, over time. the way they relate to nature? And do surrounding cultural categories such This does not call for jettisoning they choose particular representations as identity, ethnicity, or nationalism nature altogether, but rather a revision or are there alternative states of being are put into play while negotiating of relations with nature based on the that these groups could equally have nature based decisions. While self- mediating effect that the attention to claimed? Could the hookah divers interest and ignorance are not unlikely history can produce. Hopefully, this find alternative ways of expressing explanations of the multiple mutinies will lead to a more wholesome appre- their modernity in a manner not just against nature, they are not genera- ciation of how rights and wrongs are acceptable to an external community lizable as explanations for the cultural constituted in these relations and but also feasible in the context of over- expressions regarding nature and its what shape justice should take. Such 62 fishing and social immobility? How do use. Cultural categories emerge from a maritime environmentalism that the other actors constrain or privilege the representations of historical expe- brings social relations and history to each other’s claims to modernity? riences. the fore is not diluted but goes deep.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Urban commons in a globalizing city HITA UNNIKRISHNAN, B. MANJUNATHA and HARINI NAGENDRA

HUMANITY is said to now live in the tion paid to urban nature and the eco- Anthropocene,1 an epoch with a heav- system services it provides. At the ily pervasive human footprint. Land- same time, the city has expanded scapes are continuously transforming rapidly by engulfing peri-urban areas and processes of urbanization drive a surrounding it – areas that even today large part of this transformation.2 In retain agrarian lifestyles, heavily depen- fast growing countries such as India, dent upon urban ecosystem services.4 the influence of urbanization is highly However, unplanned urbanization visible, particularly with respect to the leading to the acquiring, conversion, distribution of urban centres that often encroachment and pollution of many grow by engulfing rural spaces into of these urban commons have trans- themselves. One such example is the formed landscapes, drastically impact- rapidly globalizing south Indian city of ing the ecosystem services that may Bengaluru, the country’s second larg- be derived from them. est city in terms of area and third larg- In this context, this paper tries to est by population.3 understand the current scenario of Historically an agrarian land- urban dependence on ecosystem ser- scape, Bengaluru has transformed vices derived from lake based com- drastically in the intervening years, mons, and link this to the scenarios of being variously called a ‘garden city’ the past to understand the trajectories and India’s ‘Silicon Valley’. Most of and processes that have shaped the the city’s growth has been uncharted, change we observe today. unplanned, and with very minimal atten- The landscapes in and around the present day boundaries of the city 1. F. Biermann, K. Abbott, S. Andreson, of Bengaluru have been occupied as K. Bäckstrand, S. Bernstein, M.M. Betsill, H. Bulkeley, B. Cashore, J. Clapp, C. Folke, far back as 6000 years ago as is evi- J. Gupta, P.M. Haas, A. Jordan, N. Kanie, denced by the presence of tools, A. Kluvánková-Oravská, L. Lebel, D. Liverman, implements and fossils dating back to J. Meadowcroft, R.B. Mitchell, P. Newell, 5 S. Oberthur, L. Olsson, P. Pattberg, R. Sánchez- that era. Over time, this city with its Rodrguez, H. Schroeder, A. Underdal, naturally undulating terrain has seen C.S. Vieira, C. Vogel, O.R. Young, A. Brock and the rise and fall of many dynasties R. Zondervan, ‘Navigating the Anthropocene: including the Gangas, Cholas, Hoysalas Improving Earth System Governance’, Science 335, 2012, pp. 1306-1307. 4. H. Nagendra, H. Unnikrishnan and S. Sen, 2. N.B.Grimm, S.H. Faeth, N.E. Golubiewski, ‘Villages in the City: Spatial and Temporal C.L. Redman, J. Wu, X. Bai and J.M. Briggs, Heterogeneity in Rurality and Urbanity in ‘Global Change and the Ecology of Cities’, Bangalore, India’, Land 3, 2014, pp. 1-18. Science 319, 2008, pp. 756-760. 5. T.V. Annaswamy, Bengaluru to Bangalore: 63 3. H.S. Sudhira, T.V. Ramachandra and M.V.B. Urban History of Bangalore from the Pre- Subrahmanya, ‘Bangalore’, Cities 24(5), 2007, historic Period to the End of the 18th Century. pp. 379-390. Vengadam Press, Bangalore, 2003.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 and the Vijayanagaras.6 It was a stra- livestock owners, as well as wander- sources of information ranging from tegic location in the Deccan and this ing nomadic communities. Grazing recorded and remembered (oral) histo- importance is revealed through the lands or gomala sacted as community ries, historical maps, and other second- many inscriptions that detail the battles pasture lands particularly to inhabitants ary sources of information to construct fought for the control of this landscape. of the surrounding villages, while tem- a picture of change in the landscape, The foundations of the city were laid ple tanks (kalyanis), open wells, and and in access and availability of eco- in 1536 AD by Kempe Gowda, a vas- ponds (kuntes) served as secondary system related benefits from the com- sal of the Vijayanagara dynasty.7 water sources used for a variety of mons. Our research has shown that This long history of occupation domestic and occupational needs of beginning roughly from the start of the and mostly agrarian settlement is highly the community. Communities were long-term colonial occupation of the unusual for a semi-arid city such as entirely responsible for the maintenance city (from the early 19th century), the Bengaluru that lies within the rain and upkeep of these structures and the distribution of these urban commons shadow of the Deccan hills, and which undertaking of such activities was con- has seen a steady decline. For instance, is distant from major rivers.8 Early sidered to provide spiritual merit.12 the number of open wells which stood residents and rulers overcame this Specific community roles were in at 1499 in the city and cantonment in shortcoming by making use of the natu- place regarding the use of these com- 1885, reduced to 500 in 1935, 150 in ral topographic gradient of the city to mons, as well as their maintenance and 1973, and 49 in 2014.14 Several lakes, create a system of networked tanks or upkeep.13 Communities had a sense of including Dharmambudhi and Sam- lakes, used for rainwater harvesting.9 connect with these urban commons as pangi lakes, were converted into pub- is evidenced by the continued pres- lic utilities such as bus terminals and ence of worship and bonding associ- sports stadiums during this period.15 In addition to these water bodies ated with these structures. Similar changes were observed in were other specialized land uses – vil- other urban commons including graz- ‘This lake belongs just to the villages of 16 lage groves (gundathopes), cemeter- Dasarahalli and Rachenalli. We are the cus- ing lands and village groves. ies, ponds (kuntes), temple tanks todians of this lake. The boundaries of this (kalyanis), open wells, grazing lands lake touch each of our villages and therefore (gomalas), and others. Together with villagers in both villages are our own. This ur archival research finds that the lake nurtures us.’ O the lakes, these structures were man- Community elder, Rachenahalli lake deterioration in urban lake commons aged as common pool resources,10 and began with the initiation of centralized were integral to sustaining the life- Our research has delved into the piped water supply drawn from ever styles of the agrarian communities who changing role of the urban commons distant sources around the year 1893.17 depended on them.11 Village groves within the city. We draw on multiple Lakes began to be seen as secondary (gundathopes) acted as shelter for sources of water, and neglected or pol- 11. S. Mundoli, B. Manjunath and H. Nagen- luted with sewage being let into them. dra, ‘Effects of Urbanization on the Use of 6. B.N. Sundara Rao, BengalurinaItihaasa (in Lakes as Commons in the Peri-urban Inter- Lands below the lakes were often inha- Kannada). Ankita Pustaka, Bangalore, 1985. face of Bengaluru, India’, International Jour- bited by poorer sections of the society 7. H. Nagendra, Nature in the City: Bengaluru nal of Urban Sustainable Development 7(1), in the Past, Present, and Future. Oxford Uni- 2015, pp. 89-108. versity Press, New Delhi, 2016. 14. H. Nagendra, Nature in the City, op cit., 12. B.L. Rice, Epigraphia Carnatica fn. 7, pp. 170-174. 8. H.S. Sudhira, T.V. Ramachandra and M.V.B. (Volume IX): Inscriptions in the Bangalore Subrahmanya, ‘Bangalore’, Cities 24(5), District. Mysore Government Central Press, 15. H.S. Sudhira, T.V. Ramachandra and pp. 379-390. Bangalore, 1905. M.V.B. Subrahmanya, ‘Bangalore’, op. cit., fn. 8, pp. 379-390. 9. G.S. Dikshit, G.R. Kuppuswamy and 13. G.S. Dikshit, G.R. Kuppuswamy and S.K. Mohan, Tank Irrigation in Karnataka. S.K. Mohan, op. cit., fn. 9; Specific roles such 16. H. Unnikrishnan, S. Mundoli, B. Manju- Gandhi Sahitya Sangha, Bangalore, 1993. as the neerganti (village waterman), and natha and H. Nagendra, ‘Down the Drain: 10. Common pool resources are a group of the Patel (village headman) were designated Tragedy of the Disappearing Urban Commons goods which are characterized by joint use, to community members and whose roles of Bengaluru’, South Asian Water Studies 5(3), and where the withdrawing of benefits by revolved around the maintenance and upkeep 2016, pp. 7-11. one user, reduces the total pool available to of the resource. For instance, the neerganti was 17. H. Unnikrishnan, B. Manjunatha and others. They have been traditionally managed responsible for the release of sluice gates H. Nagendra, ‘Contested Urban Commons: by communities with specific rules and regu- thereby ensuring adequate water for irrigation. Mapping the Transition of a Lake to a Sports 64 lations in place governing their access and The Patel acted as a overseer for all operations Stadium in Bangalore’, International Journal use. See E. Ostrom, Governing the Commons: regarding the lake, gave directives for its of the Commons 10(1), 2016, pp. 265-293; The Evolution of Institutions for Collective maintenance and ensured that the directions H. Nagendra, Nature in the City, op., cit., 2016, Action. Cambridge University Press, 1990. are carried out diligently. pp. 170-174.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 creating unsanitary conditions near the which ranged in size and in exposure for maintenance (Kelaginakere), crea- water bodies. This necessitated the to urbanization. In field interviews, tion of public parks with paid entry draining of lakes such as the Miller’s local residents state that by about 1985, (Madivala lake) and Public Private tank series, on grounds of sanitation many lakes had become highly polluted Partnerships (Hebbal and Agara lakes). and health related concerns. In other with sewage and agricultural run-off. Another way in which ecosys- parts of the city, lakes were converted Connectivity between lakes was lost tems have been enclosed is after state through a gradual process of elite due to encroachments and building initiated rejuvenation (such as in reconceptualization of the utility of the over of the channels that connected Yelahanka lake) where restrictions in water body. A case in point is that of various lakes. This ensured that the timing of entry, patrolling by home the Sampangi lake,18 where conflicts water, which was once associated guards, and active discouragement of arose about the prioritization of liveli- with motion and flow, became stagnant traditional activities were reported hood uses such as agriculture over and polluted. Uses of lakes that were and observed. Along with these res- urban upper and middle class pursuits dependent upon this seasonality too trictions, the ‘development’ of the of aesthetic and recreational values. halted. Rapid urbanization that took enclosed lakes proceeded, with an This led to bureaucratic reimagining place around most lakes within the emphasis on promoting the aesthetic of the resource as a space for morn- urban and peri-urban landscapes of and recreational value of the water ing walks, a scenic landscape for bun- the city further reduced agricultural body. galows, a polo ground, and a carnival dependency upon lakes. The polluted These dominant perceptions ground, eventually transforming into status of lakes, especially from about inherently distanced traditional uses its present day form of a sports stadium, 2000 to mid-2014 has discouraged such as brick making and pastoralism, reflective of notions of aesthetic and fishing. Lakes no longer meet the drink- which were seen to be against the ethic recreational utility that held sway in ing water needs of communities depen- of ‘development’. Local residents of the colonial past of the city. dent upon them, except in some cases villages around these lakes narrated a (such as in Kalkere lake) where pasto- strong disconnect from the water ralists and their cattle still consume the body, with formerly integral cultural Such changes also resulted in the dis- heavily polluted water. Domestic uses practices including forms of worship19 placement of entire communities from such as bathing and washing vessels being discontinued. Many interview- the landscape – communities that had too ceased around most of these lakes. ees expressed a hesitation to go near strong livelihood and cultural ties to Pastoralism, brick making and com- rejuvenated lakes, while expressing a the commons. Traditional institutions mercial laundering of clothes, how- feeling of being powerless to effect responsible for the maintenance and ever, constitute traditional livelihood any change. upkeep of lakes too saw a decay begin- activities that persist even today, pos- ‘We do not wish to go near the lake as it is ning around this period in time. Lakes sibly because of the availability of the now fenced and we and our cattle are kept were managed by the state, with cen- resource to meet these requirements. away. It is the government’s lake now, not ours. tralized decision making of a techni- Earlier, we had the power to change our lake, ‘Earlier, the lake was our own. Now it belongs keep it clean, graze our cattle, and see that its cal nature. Communities gradually to the governments. We are not important channels are free and flowing. Now the gov- became alienated from water bodies, any more. We are not allowed to graze cattle ernment makes those decisions for us… we with a weakening of the link to liveli- or cut grass. They have fenced it so we can- are kept out, our cattle are unwanted. They not go there. Why should we go where we just want to let well dressed people inside the hoods derived from these commons, are not wanted? Why should we even care lake. According to them, we make our own and the decay of cultural traditions about it?’ lakes dirty.’ associated with lake protection and Former agriculturist, Agara lake Livestock owner, Kogilu lake worship. How do urban lake commons particularly provide benefits to urban Village commons such as sacred This trend of distancing long-term populations, especially to the urban groves (gundathopes) around the village residents from their lakes has poor who often live around them? In lakes too were converted into built up continued into the present day. How- this context, we undertook field based structures, further reducing user diver- ever, while leasing out of lakes and studies around twenty lakes of the city, sity around these water bodies. Around Public Private Partnerships20 have dis- the early 2000s, certain lakes within the 65 18. H. Unnikrishnan, B. Manjunatha and 19. One example of such worship is the prac- H. Nagendra, ‘Contested Urban Commons’, study area underwent differing pro- tice of Gange Pooje. After a day of festivities op. cit., 2016, pp. 265-293. cesses of enclosure such as leasing out and offerings made to the deity of the lake,

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 continued mostly due to civic society commercial laundering and grazing of fodder grass, and paddy. In situations protests and PILs, newer forms of cattle are prohibited within the fenced of drought and scarce resources, and enclosure continue to prevent tradi- perimeter. However, our interviews when water levels in the Agara lake are tional users from accessing benefits indicate that arrangements have been low, women recall collecting Onagane from these water bodies. Due to high made to allow entry for fodder collec- soppu (Alternanthera sessilis), a local pollution in many lakes (such as those tion. This has created implications green. This was used both to supple- at Rampura, Bellandur, and Varthur for gendered relations with the water ment local diets as well as income lakes for example), only provisioning body. While grazing cattle has tradi- through selling them. Fishing, once a services that make use of the lake tionally been a masculine domain, traditional activity of the Bestharu banks and shallow water – pastoral- the cutting of fodder from lakes has community, is today tender based. ism and the collection of fodder grass been associated with women. This It provides an important source of – are currently practised. means that additional stress is placed income to those dependent upon this upon women who not only have to resource. Water from the lake is inte- contend with domestic chores but gral in supporting the livelihoods of Over the last decade, there has been also have to provide fodder for their the dhobhi (washerfolk) community. much discussion in the media of the livestock. In addition, mud and water from deterioration of lakes within Bengaluru. These restrictions have further the lakes is used to manufacture Legal action has also been taken to reduced the diversity of provision- bricks, another important livelihood clear lakes of unauthorized construc- ing and cultural ecosystem services based activity dependent on the urban tion around water bodies. Keeping derived from lakes, while at the same commons. with this larger climate of attention to time catering to the dominant ethic of water bodies, the city has seen the rise enhancing recreational and aesthetic of a number of lake protection groups utility of the resource. Lakes and village groves also form comprising of middle to upper middle an important resource for many of the class urban residents living around city’s poorer migrants who set up tem- lakes. In collaboration with the city Our research has shown that while porary hutments near them. While government, a number of restored the diversity of ecosystem services lakes provide water for domestic acti- lakes have been earmarked for reju- obtained from lakes has reduced vity, the vegetation on the banks of venation and subsequent maintenance owing primarily to changed ecological the lake, as well as the village forests, by these groups. These include the conditions and forms of ecosystem provide an important source of dried Kogilu lake, Sawlkere, Rachenahalli enclosure, lakes, and other urban twigs used as fuelwood by these com- lake, and the Jakkur lake, some of commons continue to be integral to munities. Local children enjoy fruits which have been landscaped to include supporting lives and livelihoods of from the village forests, while the grove parks and jogging tracks, while being people dependent upon them. They itself functions as a temporary shelter fenced and patrolled by guards. In provide many important provisioning for visiting nomadic communities.21 many lakes, restrictions on access are and cultural ecosystem services to Many non-material benefits now imposed, with most timings of communities living around and depend- too are provided by urban commons. access between 5 am and 9 am in the ent on them. They provide a connection with nature morning, and between 4 pm and 7 pm Vegetables, fruits, herbs, fish, through various aesthetic and recrea- in the evening, to encourage access fuelwood, water and fodder provided tional benefits. Walking, jogging, fish- for exercise and recreation. In several by urban commons are important for ing, exercise are common activities lakes, traditional occupations such as both subsistence and livelihood app- to be observed around these spaces. ropriation by groups living around However, aesthetics and recreation numerous lit oil lamps made of powdered rice them. Livestock owners make use of are not the only benefits provided by were set afloat on the water body accompa- water from lakes for washing and urban commons. They contribute to a nied with a ritualistic sacrifice of a goat or hens. This was an annual affair, and versions watering their animals. At the same sense of belonging to communities of this may be found in and around some lakes time, vegetation growing along the because of the many religious and cul- in peri-urban Bengaluru. lake’s banks and on the water surface tural relationships that residents have 66 20. H. Unnikrishnan and H. Nagendra, ‘Pri- are used as fodder. Wetlands surround- forged over time and even generations, vatizing the Commons: Impact on Ecosystem Services in Bangalore’s Lakes’, Urban Eco- ing lakes support cultivation of ragi 21. S. Mundoli, B. Manjunath and H. Nagen- systems 18, 2015, pp. 613-632. (Eleusine coracana), various types dra, op. cit., fn 11, pp. 89-108.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 with the resource. For instance, every nities living around lakes have reported these rejuvenated commons rests lake has a temple and a deity asso- a sense of powerlessness (the per- deeply on community stewardship.25 ciated with it, most commonly a mani- ceived inability to effect change), while Community stewardship of social- festation of Shakti,22 to whom prayers at the same time feeling isolated (the ecological systems is also an important are offered seeking protection from feeling of being cut-off both from factor that enhances the resilience of diseases or blessings such as prosper- using the resource as well as the com- the system to changes. ity, and an abundant supply of water. munity structures that have evolved Ritual offerings to ancestors are com- around it).24 monly seen in many of the lakes along However, as this paper shows, the with the immersion of idols following notion of community is a deeply hete- religious festivals. Different occupa- Greater research on the urban com- rogeneous one, with imbalances in tional groups like pastoralists, fisher- mons is needed to provide inputs power among the various stakeholders. men, farmers and washermen also towards understanding how social Consequently, the ‘community’ which have their own spiritual relationship relations and dependence on the urban is responsible for the stewardship of with lakes, linked to their livelihood commons has changed as a function the resource is not representative of needs. These are marked by specific of changing ecosystem quality and the diversity of its dependents, and only ceremonies performed by each group governance mechanisms. Our research represents those stakeholders who for the preservation of their liveli- lends voice to perceptions of change identify with dominant perceptions of hoods.23 as experienced by the subaltern, while the utility of the resource. This creates being useful in identifying actors a situation wherein the resource begins vulnerable to exclusion. It demon- to be identified only by the perceptions Lakes are and have been produced strates that the politically pervasive of those community members involved spaces – produced with the intention notions of aesthetics and recreational in its management. This identifica- of supporting agrarian landscapes. Yet, utility have operated upon and con- tion with a certain worldview around today, the very people who helped tinue to do so in shaping the landscape a resource is reflected through exclu- shape this landscape have reported a of the present day. It emphasizes the sionary managerial regimes such eco- strong disconnect from the resource. importance of understanding historical system enclosures. At the same time, In other words, they have become dependencies on urban commons as it alienates stakeholders who have alienated from their resource base. well as trajectories of development different relations with the resource (in This alienation of communities is an followed by them over time in order to this case, utilitarian as against recrea- ongoing process that is influenced by capture the range and diversity of eco- tion and aesthetics). the degree of urbanization around lakes system services they provide. The question that is therefore across the city. Long-term resident The alienation of communities clearly posed by this narrative is ‘who communities around the lakes attribute from a resource base has grave impli- are urban commons meant for?’ It is this phenomenon first to changing cations for the notion of community clear that excluding and alienating lake ecologies, and more recently to stewardship of resources. Traditionally, certain actors from the resource base various manifestations of ecosystem while the state undertakes restoration can have serious implications on the enclosures. At the same time commu- and rejuvenation of urban commons effectiveness of community steward- 22. Shakti – a feminine spirit believed to be a such as lakes, the onus of maintaining ship of that resource, and therefore protector from disease, misfortune, and on the larger issue of social-ecological ravages of nature. Around the lakes of Benga- deity, Uppudyaavaru, invoking his protection system resilience. It is also necessary luru, she is most commonly represented as a both for the clothes entrusted to them as well manifestation of one or all of seven sisters as for their children who are often left unat- to identify actors vulnerable to exclu- (known as Akkammanavaru, Akkandiru and tended on the banks of the lake. Similarly, fish- sion in order to construct inclusive Saptha Maathrikeyaru), worshipped together ermen refuse to take their footwear into the policies governing the use and man- with their brother and protector, the God coracle used for fishing as being symbolic of agement of urban commons.26 Muneeshwara. Representations of one or all their respect for the water body that nurtures of these deities are worshipped around every their livelihoods. Pastoralists and agricultur- lake in the city as the lake deities. ists too worship the seven sisters, but with 25. H. Unnikrishnan and H. Nagendra, 2015, 23. Different occupational groups have dif- different rituals characteristic to their specific op. cit., fn. 20. ferent spiritual relations associated with the occupational group. 26. T. De Moor, What do we have in Com- 67 lake. For instance, we have learned through 24. V. Narain and S. Vij, ‘Where Have All mon? A Comparative Framework for Old our interviews that the dhobhis or washer- the Commons Gone?’ Geoforum 68, 2016, and New Literature on the Commons’, IRISH folk perform a yearly dedication to a specific pp. 21-24. 57, 2012, pp. 269-290.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Woh jangal hamara hai ANAND VAIDYA

ELITE imaginations of India’s forests to claim rights under the 2006 Forest rarely leave much room for Dalits liv- Rights Act – rather than the residence ing in them – or for caste at all. A vocal since 2005 required for members of group of hardline preservationist con- Scheduled Tribes. The result is that servationists demand that people Dalits are especially vulnerable to the leave the forests altogether. More pro- threat of dispossession faced by all gressive critics of these hardliners forest dwellers. often subscribe to what Paul Greenough Uncounted millions of Dalits live has called ‘the standard environmen- and work in India’s forests.2 Most of tal narrative’ of the Indian environ- them, like most other forest dwellers, ment: the forests’ inhabitants are – or Adivasi and otherwise, did not see should be – exclusively indigenous their property or use rights recognized Adivasis living out of time and politics as the Forest Department claimed and in harmony with their surround- some 23% of the country’s land area ings. Conservation comes intuitively to from the late nineteenth to the late Adivasis, this narrative holds, because twentieth century.3 How would forest they are as natural as the trees and hills politics look if we took these millions around them.1 of people into account? How do the The assumption that Dalits don’t politics of forests look when viewed live in forests isn’t only a discursive through a caste lens? What forms do problem. The assumption has had pro- Dalit forest politics take? found legal and political consequences, I am in no position to answer this from the exclusion of members of question on behalf of the many Dalits Scheduled Castes from the protection who live in forests, but Dalit political and political rights provided by Sche- movements are actively answering dules Five and Six of the Constitution, this question themselves every day. In to the requirement that they prove three this essay, I trace the contours of one generations of residence in the forest 2. No complete survey exists of the number 1. For work on the sociological and legal of people who live in India’s forests and are framing of Indian indigeneity, see Virginius eligible for rights under the Forest Rights Xaxa, ‘Tribes as Indigenous People of Act, let alone the number of such people who 68 India’, Economic and Political Weekly 34(51), are Dalits. 1999, pp. 3589-3595. Bengt T. Karlsson and 3. Madhu Sarin, ‘Scheduled Tribes Bill 2005’, T.B. Subba (eds.), Indigeneity in India. Economic and Political Weekly 40(21), 2005, Routledge, London, 2006. pp. 2131-2134.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 such political project, a landless Dalit I would encounter it many times more tics are consistently framed in terms and Adivasi movement in southeastern over the following years – in official of conservation and preservation? Uttar Pradesh that seeks to reclaim invitations and in conversations by the forest land through the 2006 Forest fireside with the women and men Rights Act (FRA). What emerges struggling for land in eastern Uttar The women and men of the Sanga- from attention to their demands is a Pradesh. The members of the move- than hold a monthly rally for forest challenge to two taken for granted ment belonged to a range of jatis that rights in a nearby town, in which block- analytical distinctions: the movement were classified as Scheduled Castes level government offices are located. challenges a separation of questions of and Scheduled Tribes – Chamars, I travelled with two activists to one land and political economy from ques- Gonds, Agarias, and others – but nearly such rally in 2010. We parked our jeep tions of the environment, and it simul- all of them, whether SC or ST, would in the town centre and sat under an taneously challenges an assumed describe themselves as Dalit Adivasis. awning that stretched into the street. absolute distinction between Dalits and Why was the distinction between Residents of the forty villages in the Adivasis, between Ambedkarite anti- Dalit and Adivasi not being maintained area that had been organized by the caste politics and politics of indigenous here? For one, in the 1950s, Govind Sangathan began to trickle in – first a sovereignty. Ballabh Pant’s government did not few, then a dozen at a time, and finally classify any of Uttar Pradesh’s com- hundreds. Most of the people arriving munities as Scheduled Tribe, maintain- were women, talking excitedly. The I did two years of research, from 2010 ing that the forms of absolute social and mood was festive. Winter was arriv- to 2012, with a movement of women cultural difference that the category ing, but as the sun rose higher in the sky and men struggling to claim rights to implied did not exist in a state that was the temperature still climbed into the forest land in southeastern Uttar framed as standing in for the nation. high 30s Celsius. These villages had all Pradesh, which I will call the Sanga- Communities that were classified as been established by landless Dalits than. I first met the activists associ- Scheduled Tribes in neighbouring and Adivasis who were seeking to ated with the Sangathan in 2009, at a Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, such as claim rights to the forest under the forum held in Lucknow. The forum Gonds and Agarias, were thus assigned 2006 Forest Rights Act, a historic law was being organized in association to the Scheduled Caste category.4 It which recognizes the use and tenure with the Bahujan Samaj Party (or the was not until 2002, as a bid to further rights of forest dwellers after more BSP) state government in order ‘to incorporate them into the BSP’s coali- than a century of dispossession. In begin a process of dialogue and inter- tion politics, that Chief Minister none of the forty villages had the action between levels of administra- Mayawati reclassified a number of attempt to claim rights gone smoothly, tion as well as people, to dispel lack of Adivasi communities in eastern Uttar however, and each had faced obstruc- knowledge about the act, and ensure Pradesh as Scheduled Tribes. tion from local higher castes and a that those Dalit Adivasis who have hostile Forest Department. been deprived of their rights for gene- Soon after we arrived, a large rations be granted these rights.’ Dur- Their incorporation into BSP-style group of women came on to the road, ing the meeting, forest dwellers from Dalit politics did not end in 2002 marching towards us and chanting: across the state shared stories of their however. Critical to the Sangathan’s ‘Mahila shakti zindabad!’ (Long live attempts to gain rights to their land project is a politics of land that has deep womens’ strength!), ‘Inqilab zinda- through the FRA and the resistance continuities with a longer history of bad!’ (Long live the revolution!), and they had to face, in the form of harass- Dalit struggle, drawing on the BSP’s a slogan carried from Dadasaheb ment and violence from higher castes projects as well as older, pan-Indian Gaikwad’s Dalit land occupations in and the Forest Department. BSP repre- histories. But what happens when Maharashtra in the 1950s through the sentatives pledged their support to the those struggles are transposed to the BSP to the forests, ‘Jo zameen sarkari forest dwellers and their movement, forest? What happens when a politics hai, woh zameen hamari hai!’ (The and promised a number of measures of land redistribution and caste aboli- government’s land is ours!). to ease the process of applying for tion is brought to a domain whose poli- ‘Jo zameen sarkari hai, woh rights through the new law. zameen hamari hai’ has its origins The invitation to the Lucknow 4. H.S. Saksena and Chandra Sen, Putting in Gaikwad’s push to extend the 69 People Last: Tribal Displacement and Reha- forum was the first time that I had come bilitation. Inter-India Publications, New Delhi, Ambedkarite Dalit movement into across the phrase ‘Dalit Adivasis’, but 1999. rural areas after Ambedkar’s death.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 The slogan is a critique of and a chal- majority of the Bahujan Samaj [‘majo- ment’s forest is ours). ‘Van vibhag lenge to government administered rity society’] is still without any pro- jangal chhode!’ (Leave the jungle, Bhoodan redistribution – landlord land perty. BSP now refuses to tolerate the Forest Department!) Other chants that had been ‘gifted’ to the landless, conspiracy which made our people who referenced the ongoing legal battles often to Dalits, but which in many cases till the land to feed us are prevented with the forest and police depart- was never transferred to its intended from owning the land, our people who ments, which had filed cases against recipients. Land occupations, the slo- labour to build magnificent mansions in the villagers not only for occupying gan implied, were not a morally neu- our cosmopolitan cities are not helped forest land, but also for gathering tral matter of redistribution, but the to own a roof over their own heads.’7 sticks and other forest produce: ‘Farji claiming by the landless of what was Lerche describes the role of the muqadama wapas lo, wapas lo!’ theirs to begin with: a gift that had never BSP, after coming to power, in sup- (Withdraw the false cases) and ‘Police arrived, held by a government that had porting Dalit land occupation move- prasashan murdabad!’ (Death to the not fulfilled its representative promise.5 ments through the use of the state Police Department). machinery.8 The party never engaged in land redistribution itself, but backed The BSP picked up Gaikwad’s slogan independent and organized efforts to A few onlookers in the market joined and deployed it in rallies across Uttar claim Bhoodan and other land. Jaoul and, except for one moment when Pradesh. As Kanshi Ram explained in has shown how the statues erected by we marched pass a shop blaring loud 1993, in a booklet titled ‘Concept of the BSP government of Ambedkar pop music that overpowered the chants, Bahujan Samaj Party’, the party would and other Dalit leaders themselves the chants continued to grow louder. simultaneously address social and eco- were part of these struggles over ‘Adivasi ekta zindabad!’ (Long live nomic inequality through two means: urban public and agrarian space.9 But Adivasi unity), ‘Dalit ekta zindabad!’ through land redistribution and by how did these tactics and Gaikwad’s (Long live Dalit unity!). ‘Dalit’ and encouraging migration for work in slogan arrive in the forest? And what ‘Adivasi’ both appeared in the chants, industry. ‘BSP seeks to put the inter- happened to the tactics and to forest back to back. est of the lowest of low, the landless politics after they arrived? To answer The slogan had travelled to the peasant as high on its economic agenda these questions, let us return to the forest, where jangal had replaced as that of the farmers who are the vic- Sangathan’s rally in the town centre. zameen. The politics that Lerche des- tims of our prevented policies. A vast cribes, of Dalit-led redistributions of majority of these people will need to be land, sometimes organized by left orga- helped to move away from a depend- As the sun rose and the day grew nizations with critical backing from ence on the land to primary industries warmer, we started marching, the the BSP government, seemed to have and related business.’6 women in front, and a group of three – been transposed. The government’s Kanshi Ram went on to explain a flag-bearer, a lone man, and a woman land and forests belonged to the land- the slogan, ‘Jo zameen sarkari hai, woh wearing all red and carrying a taut bow less here as they did in UP’s plains. zameen hamari hai’, which the BSP and arrow – walking abreast in the lead. Forest land is not Bhoodan land, had resurrected in order to encourage The group grew to be thousands strong, though, and in travelling to the forest, Dalits to occupy residential and agri- and the chants echoed in the small trad- the specific property relations and the cultural land in Uttar Pradesh. ‘Baba ing town: A twist on the Gaikwad slo- configuration of state and movement Saheb Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar gave gan appeared, ‘Jo jangal sarkari hai, actors had shifted in crucial ways. The to every Indian, through our constitu- woh jangal hamara hai!’ (The govern- land to be redistributed was no longer tion, the fundamental right to property. divided among a handful of large land- […] Four decades have passed, in spite 7. Kanshi Ram, The Editorials of Kanshi Ram. lords and state agencies, but was held of many land reform schemes, the vast Bahujan Samaj Publications, Lucknow, 1997, by one large landlord: the Forest pp. 158-163. Department. Land occupations here 5. R.S. Morkhandikar, ‘Dilemmas of Dalit 8. Jens Lerche, ‘Politics of the Poor: Agricul- Movement in Maharashtra: Unity Moves and tural Labourers and Political Transformations did not come at the expense of others After’, Economic and Political Weekly 25(12), in Uttar Pradesh’, Journal of Peasant Studies trying to cultivate the land, but at the 1990, pp. 586-590; Prahlad Gangaram 26(2-3), 1999, pp. 182-241. expense of a state agency. Jogdand, Dalit Movement in Maharashtra. 70 9. Nicolas Jaoul, ‘Learning the Use of Sym- This transposition of Dalit land- Kanak Publications, New Delhi, 1991. bolic Means: Dalits, Ambedkar Statues and 6. Quoted in H.S. Saksena and Chandra Sen. the State in Uttar Pradesh’, Contributions to less politics to the forest had an effect 1999, op. cit., fn. 4, p. 159. Indian Sociology 40(2) 2006, pp. 175-207. at the level of discourse as well. The

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 categories ‘Dalit’ and ‘Adivasi’ and explained to me that the Forest Rights the movements and political projects Act had in fact been written by Through the Sangathan, the tempo- that have harnessed them have widely Ambedkar, as part of India’s original ralities and discourses of Adivasi and divergent histories and associations. Constitution. The Forest Rights Act, he Dalit politics are available to be drawn The just future imagined in Niyamgiri told me, said that the Dalit Adivasis upon,chosen between, and combined. by members of the Dongaria Kondh were the original inhabitants of India, The preamble to the Forest Rights and Kutia communities is not the same and that the jal, jangal, aur jameen Act frames the law in the terms of as the future imagined by Dalit Pan- belonged to them. Ambedkar was Greenough’s standard ecological nar- ther poets in Mumbai in the 1970s – just meant to be the first prime minister too, rative: the preamble says that the law as the analyses underpinning the two but then ‘the brahmin Nehru’ took the reverses the ‘historic injustice’ of the projects are broadly different. Intellec- prime ministership from him and hid dispossession of India’s forest dwel- tuals associated with the Ambedkarite the true law, which would have restored lers, who have been responsible for the Dalit movement have emphasized Dalit Adivasi sovereignty over India. conservation of India’s forests. The a modernizing, rationalist, future- In the meantime, Dalit Adivasis were leaders of the Sangathan say that oriented project, one that weighs tra- forced to work for foreigners, for the they, as the indigenous residents of dition on the scale of social justice Forest Department and for higher the region’s forests, are the victims of before deciding to adopt or discard it. castes who owned land in the area. the historic injustice, or itihasik anyay. Land redistribution has been critical Mayawati had found the FRA and given They simultaneously frame their strug- to such movements, as in Gaikwad’s it to them, he told me, and now they gle, however, as one against caste campaign, the Kilivenmani land occu- were reclaiming the land that belonged oppression and capitalism. Dalit and pation in 1968, and others. Adivasi to them, escaping caste oppression, Adivasi are not, for them, opposed or movements on the other hand, like indi- and reclaiming their country. exclusive identities, but tools to under- genous movements in Latin America stand their situation, to build alliances, and elsewhere, have grounded their and to work toward a more just future. claims on an assertion of cultural dif- My friend was drawing upon both ference, lost territorial sovereignty discourses and both temporalities: a References Badri Narayan, The Making of the Dalit Pub- and, not infrequently, environmental temporality of historic indigenous lic in North India: Uttar Pradesh, 1950- 10 stewardship. The two traditions could sovereignty as well as a future-oriented Present. Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2011. be said to be working within different temporality of caste abolition through Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Annihilation of temporalities of justice, both demand- property redistribution. But the dispos- Caste: Speech Prepared for the Annual ing justice, but one in terms of the future session and redistribution of property Conference of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal of Lahore, But Not Delivered. B.R. Kadrekar, 11 and the other in terms of the past. here were tied, critically, to a once lost Bombay, 1936. and now regained indigenous sover- Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, The Essential eignty. William Cronon has pointed Writings of B.R. Ambedkar, in V. Rodrigues Given these diverging temporalities, out a property relation is a right that A (ed.). Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2002. how can we understand the work done has over B, recognized and enforced Jotirao Phule, Selected Writings of Jotirao Phule, in G.P. Deshpande (ed.). Manohar 12 by the Sangathan to bridge the move- by a third element, C. In other words, Publishers, New Delhi, 2002. ments and the categories, Dalit and every property relation implies the Oliver Mendelsohn and Marika Vicziany, The Adivasi? To answer this, let us return existence of a sovereign which will Untouchables: Subordination, Poverty, and to southeastern Uttar Pradesh, to a recognize and enforce it. My friend’s the State in Modern India. Cambridge Univer- sity Press, Cambridge, 1998. conversation I had with a friend there analysis brought both sovereignty and Paul Greenough, ‘Naturae Ferae: Wild Animals who had been deeply involved in the property into play: primitive accumu- in South Asia and the Standard Environmen- struggle for rights for his village. He lation had been enabled by the loss of tal Narrative’, in James C Scott and Nina the state, and the reclamation of the Bhatt (eds.), Agrarian Studies: Synthetic Work at the Cutting Edge. Yale University 10. Megan Moodie, We Were Adivasis: Aspi- state and their property would proceed ration in an Indian Scheduled Tribe. The Uni- Press, New Haven, 2001. versity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2015; hand in hand. Sudha Pai, Dalit Assertion and the Unfinished Ronald Niezen, The Origins of Indigenism: Democratic Revolution: The Bahujan Samaj Human Rights and the Politics of Identity. Uni- reestablishment of lost indigenous sover- Party in Uttar Pradesh. Sage Publications, versity of California Press, Berkeley, 2003. eignty was never central to their political goals. New Delhi, 2002. 71 11. This is of course a simplification. 12. William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Sumit Guha, Environment and Ethnicity in Ambedkar and Phule made claims to Dalit and Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New India, 1200-1991. Cambridge University non-Brahmin indigeneity themselves, but a England. Macmillan, New York, 1983. Press, Cambridge, 1999.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Reimagining aesthetics of the wild in Delhi MAYANK VIKAS

THE imagery of urban spaces embod- Since the environment is a dyna- ies a city’s politics, economic function- mic actor with multiple constituents, it ing and social hierarchies. Identifiable responds to anthropogenic and climatic features that constitute habitations changes in unpredictable manners also illustrate the aesthetic and spatial that may produce unintended conse- manifestation of power structures, quences. As ecologies respond to both and the hegemonies they uphold. The natural and anthropogenic changes, meaning of a cityscape is not limited the way in which people interact with to interpreting its lived spaces, but also landscapes also alters.3 The ability of interrogating the societal role of its people to reinvent themselves per their open expanses. As historian Upinder varying environment is an important Singh observes, people have deve- reason for the resilience of many com- loped deeply intimate relations with munities and their ways of life. their landscapes over an inter- Cities like Delhi boast of millen- generational timescale.1 Even though nia old antiquity and an enduring geo- ecology and topography of an area political importance within the Indian may not be determining factors, they subcontinent. As dynasties have come do contribute towards shaping entire 2. David Ludden, The New Cambridge History regions, influencing what crops are of India. IV. An Agrarian History of South Asia. grown, coalescing people culturally, Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 278. and formalizing means of resource 3. Minoti Chakravarty-Kaul, ‘Village Com- 72 production and exchange.2 munities and “Publicness” in Northern India: Self-Governance of Commom Property 1. Upinder Singh, Ancient Delhi. 2nd ed. Oxford Resources and the Environment, 1803-2008’, University Press, New Delhi, 2006, p. 114. in Haruka Yanagisawa (ed.), Community,

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 and gone, myths and histories of the 35 km into the city. Since the plains of pressures.11 Some purport that Delhi’s past have been accumulated in the Delhi are bound by the ridge from three original vegetation was composed of collective consciousness of communi- sides and the Yamuna river from the subtropical and deciduous trees, which ties. These memories often create a fourth, it was favoured for habitation was deforested during the Sultanate mythic idyllic past, including a eulo- since it provided natural resources, period12 or towards the end of Mughal gized imagination of nature. good agricultural land in the flood rule.13 While it is difficult to conclu- In recent years, there have been plain and a natural protective bound- sively confirm these claims, Delhi’s concerted attempts to restore vegeta- ary. Delhi’s floral composition is forests are admittedly a result of cen- tion in Delhi (and neighbouring diverse and includes many microha- turies of manipulations, geo-climatic Gurgaon) to its ‘original state’ through bitats,7 with the ridge primarily catego- vicissitudes and anthropogenic influ- extensive afforestation.4 However, rized as semi-arid scrub forest (although ences. The changes include not only representing Delhi’s historical ecology the valleys can support dense vegeta- deforestation, but also significant accurately is a difficult endeavour.5 tion).8 The foliage in the thorny, sec- afforestation measures since British To recreate Delhi’s environment, it is ondary forests (rakh) of the hills is colonization. important to not only gauge its historical sparse, humus content is low, and very The most commonly found native contours from available material, but few areas can support agriculture. The trees are Babul (Acacia nilotica) and also analyze how afforestation policies ridge has uneven terrain, with numer- Kikar (Acacia arabica), thorny trees are impacting local communities today. ous ravines and rocks interrupted by typical for dry climates. Other indig- sandy soil (bhur) typical to desert/ semi- enous tree species like Rong (Acacia desert regions that support growth of pri- leucophloea) grow on hills and Dhau Delhi’s continued historical impor- marily grass, shrubs and stunted trees.9 (Anogeissus pendula), which are tance stems from both its strategic found in some portions of the ridge in positioning in northern India and its own neighbouring Gurgaon.14 Vilayati Kikar topographical features. India’s capital The ridge was once crisscrossed by (Prosopis juliflora) is a common is placed as a gateway between the several streams, including six palaeo- invasive tree that was first introduced Himalayas in the North, the Aravali channels of the Yamuna that aban- in India in 1877 by the British and has range in the West with the Thar desert doned the hills 4000 years ago.10 proliferated since then. beyond, and the vast Indo-Gangetic Maheshwari conjectures that the ear- plain to its East. Delhi’s geography is lier ecology of Delhi may have been primarily shaped by two natural fea- different from its current state, and that Stone age settlements from the lower tures, the Aravali hills (commonly it gradually retrograded into a thorn Palaeolithic period (roughly 100,000 called ridge, kohi or pahari), and the scrub forest because of anthropogenic years ago) and rich collection of micro- Yamuna river. The ridge is part of the lithic artefacts have been found across Mewat branch of the Aravali mountain Menon and Ghazala Shahabuddin, The Delhi the Aravalis, when the hills may have range that extends over 800 kms from Ridge Forest: Decline and Conservation. been steeper, more densely wooded, Kalpavriksh, New Delhi, 1991, p. 49. Gujarat, across Rajasthan and culmi- and with a different floral and faunal 7. Pradip Krishen, Trees of Delhi: A Field 15 nates in the city. The hills enter Delhi Guide. Dorling Kindersley, 2006, p. 360. composition. Late Harappan sites from its southern region contiguous 8. J.K. Maheshwari, The Flora of Delhi. with Haryana,6 forming a 5 kilometre Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 11. Maheshwari, 1963, op. cit. wide rocky tableland that extends New Delhi, 1963, p. 447. 12. Jaweed Ashraf, ‘Centralized and Decen- 9. Unlike the subsidiary edaphic type of dry, tralized Paradigms of Development: Case Study of Water Management in Medieval and Commons and Natural Resource Manage- tropical forests of the Aravalis in Rajasthan (sub-type E-6 Anogeissus pendula), Cham- Modern Delhi’, in Studies in Historical Eco- ment in Asia. NUS Press, Singapore, 2015, logy of India. Sunrise Publications, New pp. 82-110. pion (1936) records Delhi with a few pock- ets of dry, temperate sub-type of Anogeissus. Delhi, 2004, pp. 201-40. 4. Shubhra Gururani, ‘When Nature Goes Parker (1920) holds that the natural forest 13. Varsha, ‘Delhi Ridge’, in G.N. Sinha (ed.), Green: The Story of Pastures and Parks in cover of Delhi was primarily a scrubby for- An Introduction to the Delhi Ridge. Depart- India’s Urban Peripheries’, paper presented est of Anogeissus pendula and Acacia senegal. ment of Forests and Wildlife, GNCTD, New at the Centre for South Asian Studies, Uni- Since the tree is now only found in certain Delhi, 2014, p. 28. It may be noted that there versity of Michigan, Ann Arbor, November patches, it may be possible that human are contrary reports as well claiming the 2012, p. 16. exploitation of the tree for wood and livestock ridge was accorded some protection during the 5. Singh, 2006, op. cit. feed has reduced the geographical extent of the later years of the Mughals. G.N. Sinha (ed.), 73 6. Ashish Kothari, Aditya Arora, Pallava tree. Maheshwari, 1963, ibid. ‘Prologue’, ibid., 2014, p. 9. Bagla, Nandita Hazarika, Ranjit Lal, Subhadra 10. Singh, 2006, op. cit. 14. Kothari, et al., 1991, op. cit.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 have been discovered in Delhi; places in medieval Delhi were the Tomar were being cleared over large areas like Bhorgarh showing continuous Rajputs, who constructed forts on the across northern India,21 there are con- habitation from late Harappan time Aravali hills (southern Delhi-Faridabad). temporaneous records of Firoz Shah (second millennium BCE) right till Some scholars opine that the location Tughlaq undertaking afforestation medieval times spanning 2,500 years. may have been selected because of the measures in the ridge and even fenc- The ancient history of Delhi is mired ‘bare and barren’ Aravalis’ relative ing some portions.22 Medieval texts do in local traditions, mythology, and isolation and the security it offered. record deforestation having forced complicated by political appropriation. Some inferences about the vegetation rulers to travel to far off forests for The epic Mahabharata, oral tra- and topography during that period can hunting.23 The presence and recorded ditions, and many people from the be drawn from archaeological remains. hunting of animals like the black- medieval era onward hold that the first buck and chinkara24 that prefer open city of Delhi was Indraprastha, identi- expanses, suggests that Delhi’s ecology fied with the present site of the Purana The rocky hills of Aravalis have many was largely arid, scrub forest during Qila. It is possible that orally trans- reservoirs that were built during Raj- this time period. There are numerous mitted histories are legends that have put rule by making embankments or medieval and colonial paintings as been embellished and woven around bunds, like Surajkund and Anangpur well that depict Delhi’s hinterland as actual historical events;16 note that a dam, probably to collect rainwater open grasslands.25 village named Indrapat continued to run-off that did not easily percolate exist in the Purana Qila complex till the into the ground. Bunds are also found late nineteenth century CE. during the following Sultanate rule; Although it is speculated that Delhi In the Adi Parva, the first book the southern side of Tughlaqabad fort was deforested during the late Mughal of the Mahabharata, Indraprastha is (built in 1321 CE atop a rocky hill) was period, paintings and textual records described as a city built on the banks a reservoir made by constructing bunds suggest that the scenery had been of the Yamuna after burning down the between the eastern hills.19 Firoz arid scrubland at least from the early Khandava forest, and hunting animals Shah Tughlaq was fond of hunting trying to escape the fire. The descrip- and built many hunting lodges like 21. R.C. Jauhri, Medieval India in Transition – Tarikh-i-Firozshahi: A First Hand Account. tion of thorns and prickles in the for- Malcha Mahal, Bhuli Bhatiyari ka Sandeep Prakashan, New Delhi, 2001, p. 293. 17 est suggests xerophytic conditions. Mahal, and Kushk Mahal close to 22. Kothari et al., 1991, op. cit.; Varsha, 2014, A.K. Sharma conjectures that the city bunds that retained rainwater and could op. cit. of Indraprastha may have been estab- lure game. Numerous references to 23. The Tarikh-i-Firozshahi records, ‘Most lished after monsoon patterns changed, water catchments indicate extensive of these animals have their habitat at places full of forest, grass and water. Such a location leading to scant vegetation in the area. run-off because of sparse vegetation could not be near Delhi because the Sultan had, Excavations at the Purana Qila led to and impervious, rocky soil. on account of his affection for the subjects, archaeological discoveries from the Some scholars have suggested already populated and ended the desolation Harappan time period; however, no that Delhi was thickly forested during of the regions. Only the region near Badaun was left desolate for the purposes of hunt, structural remains have been found as Rajput rule, especially in and around otherwise that region too could have been yet that match the description of the city. the Mehrauli region.20 These forests deforested and populated. Every year, the were reportedly cleared on a large Sultan proceeded on hunting expedition from Firozabad to the reserved forests in the scale by the Khilji and Tughlaq dynas- neighbourhood of Badaun and hunted innu- The history of Delhi for almost a mil- ties during the Sultanate period, and merable animals.’ Jauhri, 2001, op. cit. lennium after the date of Harappan replaced with orchards. While forests 24. Blackbucks (Antilope cervicapra) are settlements is unclear, although there antelopes that prefer grasslands and open is evidence of Delhi being continually 17. A.K. Sharma, Prehistoric Delhi and its country. D.P. Mallon, Antilope cervicapra. Neighbourhood. Aryan Books International, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 18 inhabited. The first recorded rulers New Delhi, 1993, p. 56. 2008: e.T1681A6448761. http://dx.doi.org/ 18. Y.D. Sharma, Delhi and its Neighbour- 10. 2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T1681A 6448761.en . Chinkara (Gazella bennettii) are 15. Singh, 2006, op. cit.; Mudit Trivedi, ‘On hood. Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 1964, p. 128. gazelles that primarily inhabit arid areas, dry the Surface Things Appear to Be... (Perspec- scrub and light forests. D.P. Mallon, Gazella tives on the Archaeology of the Delhi Ridge)’, 19. A.K. Sharma, 1964, op. cit. bennettii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened 74 in Upinder Singh and Nayanjot Lahiri (eds.), 20. Jaweed Ashraf, ‘Ecology as Culture’, in Species 2008: e.T8978A12945880. http:// Ancient India: New Research. Oxford Univer- Jaweed Ashraf, Studies in Historical Ecology dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS. sity Press, New Delhi, 2009, pp. 39-70. of India. Sunrise Publications, New Delhi, T8978A12945880.en. Both downloaded on 16. Singh, 2006, op. cit. 2004, pp. 1-34. 14 July, 2016.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 medieval period. The ridge area around scape as generally bare and ‘unattrac- present-day Mongolpuri, and village Mehrauli (southern Delhi) may have tive’, quarried with a few stunted fields33 also allude to the presence of had more foliage due to human inter- trees.30 The ridge and fallows were abundant wildlife in the region. Delhi’s vention, since there are references covered with Pala or Beri (Zizyphus wildlife had survived hunting by that Mughals built summer homes and nummularia), a small thorny bush- earlier rulers like the Mughals for cen- exploited the microclimatic coolness weed that was an important source of turies, but could not endure the mas- that dense foliage offered to escape the firewood and fodder for livestock and sacre unleashed by the British, who heat. It is alleged that although Delhi goats herded by pastoralists like not only hunted them recreationally was deforested, it did not lose its green- Gujjars predominating the hill vill- but also marked them as vermin and ery since the forests were replaced ages. Apart from grazing, an important paid bounty for their heads. The Gaz- with verdant orchards, the fruits being economic use of the rocky hills was etteer records payments having been an important source of revenue.26 the stones and gravel that were exten- made during a 5-year period for kill- Whether both afforestation and defor- sively quarried by the local population, ing 10 leopards, 367 wolves and 1,128 estation were simultaneously under- and the Gazetteer records 24 opera- snakes.34 taken in specific areas for different tive kankar mines yielding 933,000 reasons will need further investiga- maunds annually. tion. However, it can be conclusively These colonial records are key since said that Delhi and its environs sup- they clearly identify Delhi’s topogra- ported wildlife that was rich enough to Despite the sparse and quarried land- phy as scrub forest that failed to meet qualify for royal hunts. The Padshah- scape, the Gazetteer describes Delhi the aesthetic standards of beauty for namah records Shah Jahan hunting teeming with wildlife. Delhi’s fauna the British. Despite its negative per- 40 blackbuck in one day in Palam; even included large numbers of wild pigs, ception, this sparse vegetation sup- tigers were encountered in the ravines foxes, hares, though antelopes and ported a rich array of wildlife and was along the Yamuna close to Delhi.27 peafowls were ubiquitous. While important for Gujjars. British rulers gazelles were plentiful in the hills, initiated several tree plantation exer- wolves were found in smaller num- cises, with municipal records from the The dawn of British rule in Delhi was bers. Leopards frequented outlying time indicating that approximately marked by large-scale afforestation villages and the Tughlaqabad area. The 3000 Neem (Azadirachta indica) and activities.28 British records speak of banks of the Yamuna were forested, Babul trees were planted between Delhi being denuded of greenery, and and the Yamuna is described as a river 1878 and 1879 alone and foreign the landscape described as ‘a desolate in which hundreds of crocodiles and species like Prosopis juliflora were plain’, ‘a desert’ and a ‘country of gharials abound. Similar descriptions introduced because of its drought stones and dust’.29 The Delhi Gazetteer of wildlife can be found in the Delhi resistant properties. Initially, affores- of 1883-84 also describes the land- land settlement report31 and other tation was limited to the northern accounts.32 References to British hunt- ridge which was close to English set- 25. Delhi’s open landscape is depicted in ing expeditions near Humayun’s tomb, tlements. After Delhi was selected as Mazhar Ali Khan’s (active 1840-55), A Mini- the site for the new capital for impe- ature Panorama of Delhi with the Fort in the Distance. Ca. 1845. Watercolour on ivory. 28. Michael Mann and Samiksha Sehrawat, rial India in the early 20th century, Approx. H. 23/8 x 31/8 in. (6x8 cm). The Vic- ‘A City With a View: The Afforestation of afforestation efforts started in earnest toria and Albert Museum, Iso.3563. William the Delhi Ridge, 1883-1913’, Modern Asian in 1912 in present day central ridge. Dalrymple and Yuthika Sharma (eds.), Studies 43(2), 2009, pp. 543-70. Princes and Painters in Mughal Delhi, 1707- 29. H.K. Kaul (ed.), ‘Ruins and Landscapes’, The intention was, ‘forming an area 1857. Asia Society Museum in association in H.K. Kaul, Historic Delhi: An Anthology. which will be dustless and pleasant to with Yale University Press, New Haven and Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1985, London, 2012, p. 212. Also see J.P. Losty, pp. 10-17; Mann and Sehrawat, 2009, op. cit. Oswald Wood, Esq. and Completed 1878-80 Delhi 360o: Mazhar Ali Khan’s View from the by R. Maconachie. Esq., C.S., Victoria Press, 30. Punjab Government, Gazetteer of the Lahore, 1882, pp. 2-5. Lahore Gate. Lustre Press, Roli Books, Delhi District 1883-84. p. 215. Published as Delhi, 2012, p. 92. Delhi District Gazetteer, 1883-84, by Gazet- 32. H.K. Kaul (ed.), ‘Flora and Fauna’, in 26. Jauhri, 2001, op. cit. teers Organization, Revenue Department, Historic Delhi, pp. 189-99. Kaul quoted from Haryana. Chandigarh, 1999, pp. 20-21. C.F. Gordon Cumming, In the Himalayas 27. Mahesh Rangarajan, ‘The Hunt and the and on the Indian Plains. Chatto and Windus, Wilderness in Mughal India’, in Mahesh 31. Oswald Wood, General Aspect of the Dis- London, 1884, p. 220. 75 Rangarajan, India’s Wildlife History: An Intro- trict, in Oswald Wood, R. Maconachie, Final duction. Permanent Black, New Delhi, 2001, Report on the Settlement of Land Revenue 33. Kaul, 1985. p. 135. in the Delhi District Carried in 1872-77 by 34. Punjab Government, 1884, op. cit.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 the eye…’ primarily for European from Town and Country Planning continued by the post-colonial Indian settlers.35 Afforestation particularly Organization in 1982 quoted a study state.42 Of the total 6200 ha of Asola harmed pastoral communities like that 40% of the ridge had been des- Bhati Wildlife Sanctuary, 4207 ha is Gujjars, who were being systemically troyed, much of it due to government ‘surplus uncultivated land’ of various pushed towards a sedentary lifestyle action.38 Today, five fragments of the gaon sabhas that was transferred to by the British. former ridge remain: northern ridge the forest department. The government (87 ha), central ridge (864 ha), south- fenced the forest to carry out affores- central ridge (626 ha), southern ridge tation and set up an eco-task force for At the time of independence, the (6200 ha), and Nanakapura south- its management, restricting grazing northern ridge had become an iso- central ridge (7 ha).39 Delhi also has rights of villagers. Densification of lated segment; however, much of the 40 old and new ‘city forests’ planted by trees is an important component of ridge remained broadly contiguous.36 the forest department mostly on gaon the biodiversity parks in Delhi and Details of ridge management policies sabha or village common lands.40 Gurgaon, and a stated goal of the for- in the following decade are scant, Two biodiversity parks have also been est department of Delhi.43 The eco- except some information like the soil set up in Delhi, and one in Gurgaon, logically harmful invasive Prosopis conservation officer being notified as with several others in the pipeline. juliflora having gone rouge over the forest officer in 1958, and the Delhi ridge gives legitimacy to efforts to Development Authority (DDA) being replant the ‘original’ indigenous trees. charged with ridge management.37 British interests in the expansion Trees are also viewed as a panacea for In the next few years, plantations of agricultural revenue land had led to the city’s noxiously polluted air; the and fencing began at northern and cen- open scrub lands preferred by pasto- more the merrier. tral ridge. In the first master plan for ralists being categorized as waste- Delhi after independence for the land, although the fallows were ‘public years 1961-81, the ridge was planned spaces’ with important economic uses A fforestation measures in the to be protected as a forest, and set up for villagers. British intervention not Gurgaon Aravali Biodiversity Park has as a regional park on the lines of New only led to the extinguishment of also been undertaken on former York’s Central Park. However, no many land rights, but also transformed chargah or village common land for- clear guidelines or steps were spelt land use and ecology of the region. The merly used for grazing livestock and out. The plan also set out contradictory carefully balanced agro-pastoral land quarrying. The park has been fenced goals; while the plan proposed that use shifted heavily towards agricul- and plantation of indigenous flora has the forest should be retained in an ture, and canals transformed fallows been carried out in a scientific and ‘undisturbed’ state, regular weeding into cultivable land. Shrinking com- methodical manner, involving local and clearing of undergrowth was also mon property resources and increasing companies that sponsor afforestation. recommended. livestock numbers led to overgrazing Given the open public access to the Ridge administration was also and degradation of the commons.41 park for recreational use, the restric- divided amongst several bodies (for These measures of usurping and tions on livelihood based activities in example, Central Public Works De- fencing village lands were faithfully the park is an interesting example of a partment was given charge to maintain 38. Kothari et. al., 1991, op. cit. public park also partly functioning as 44 the southern ridge to create parks and 39. Varsha, 2014, op. cit. a private one. The historical bareness gardens). In fact, the forest depart- 40. Forest Department, ‘Recorded Forest 41. Chakravarty-Kaul, 2015, op. cit. ment currently administers only about (Notified Forest Area in Delhi’, Government two ha in the northern ridge as a nurs- of NCT of Delhi. Accessed at http:// 42. Much of Aravali hills in the neighbouring delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/doit_forest/ state of Haryana was also village commons ery, while the rest is managed by DDA. Forest/Home/Forests+of+Delhi/ that were privatized in the last three decades. And fragmentation of the ridge has Recorded+Forest on 14 July 2016. In 1994 Since then, these hills have suffered land continued unabated. A ‘secret’ note all 7,777 ha of the ridge was notified as fragmentation, change of land use and land ‘Reserved Forests’ pursuant to directions grabbing in the neighbouring district. Direc- torate of Consolidation of Holdings, Haryana, 35. Mann and Sehrawat, 2009, op. cit. from the Supreme Court in Writ Petition (Civil) no. 4677/1985 (MC Mehta vs. UOI 23 August 2012. Order: De-notification of 36. Map titled ‘Delhi and Locality’, dated & Ors.). This is a temporary arrangement, Village KOT (Hadbast no. 16), District 76 1950 (third edition). Survey of India, Delhi and a final notification can only be issued Faridabad. Archives, Department of Art and Culture, after the Forest Settlement Officer has passed 43. Department of Forests and Wildlife, Government of NCT of Delhi. all settlement orders determining ownership accessed at http://www.environment.delhigovt. 37. Varsha, 2014, op. cit. of forest land. Sinha, 2014, op. cit. nic.in/ppt/forestppt.pdf on 14 July, 2016.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 of Gurgaon45 is invoked to contrast negotiable state that can mutate into the former emptiness of the landscape legitimacy through leveraging poli- with the verdant vegetation of new tical and economic power.49 As land settlements. Shubhra Gururani warns become more contested, conflicts that by declaring Gurgaon to be noth- over green spaces too will be negoti- ing before settlement, the discourse ated within the existing power matrix also wipes out the existence of villages, of a deeply hierarchical society, and their inhabitants and way of life. The mediated by factors such as class, and xerophytic Aravali hills and the linked caste.50 agro-pastoral economy are being replaced by greenery based on west- ern envisioning of cities. Similar to the This intention to refabricate Delhi’s British usurpation of public spaces topography is not merely an ecologi- like Qudsia and Roshanara Gardens by cal or historical exercise, it is a socio- restricting access to Indians,46 urbani- political project that seeks to serve the zation and urban conservation in city’s political and economic elite. peri-urban regions like Gurgaon is Whether Delhi was once a thickly functioning through elite capture, res- forested tract is not as relevant as tricting access to the commons and acknowledging that it has primarily causing environmental problems been a predominantly semi-arid land because of land use change.47 Loss of for centuries. Although without luxu- employment opportunities, decrease riant vegetation, the landscape per- in agricultural land, expansion of built formed numerous socio-ecological up area and increased use of water functions for local communities and have exacerbated problems for local supported wildlife endemic to arid farming and pastoral communities. areas. Delhi’s landscape needs to be representative of these historical and There have been many incidents ecological truisms. For the just recrea- where illegal construction on the tion of Delhi’s wilderness, the distinct ridge by the rich has been allowed on material and cultural meanings of the grounds of its ‘planning’ and architec- ridge for its diverse populace needs tural aesthetics, while an unplanned to be recognized. Delhi’s reimagined slum cluster has been demolished in forests have so far embodied an aes- the same breath.48 Given that most thetic manifestation of power and pri- of the construction in Delhi violates vilege, but for justice to reflect in some statute, illegality has become a the greenery, forests should illustrate the varied meanings of nature for its 44. Gururani, 2012, op. cit. peoples. 45. Punjab Government, Gazetteer of the Gurgaon District 1883-84. Arya Press, Cities: Asian Experiments and the Art of Lahore, 1884, p. 150. Being Global. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 46. Narayani Gupta, Delhi Between Two 2011, pp. 279-306. Empires 1803-1931: Society, Government 49. Shubhra Gururani, ‘Flexible Planning: and Urban Growth. Eastend Printers and The Making of India’s “Millennium City”, Oxford University Press, Calcutta and Delhi, Gurgaon’, in Anne Rademacher and K. Siva- 1981, p. 304. ramakrishnan (eds.), Ecologies of Urbanism 47. Sumit Vij and Vishal Narain, ‘Land, Water in India. Hong Kong University Press, Hong and Power: The Demise of Common Pro- Kong, pp. 119-43. perty Resources in Periurban Gurgaon, India’, 50. Rene Veron, ‘Remaking Urban Environ- Land Use Policy 50, 2016, pp. 59-66. ments: The Political Ecology of Air Pollu- 77 48. D. Asher Ghertner, ‘Rule by Aesthetics: tion in Delhi’, Environment and Planning World-Class City Making in Delhi’, in 38, 2006, pp. 2093-2109. Ananya Roy and Aihwa Ong (eds.), Worlding 51. Ibid.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 In memoriam Dileep Padgaonkar 1944-2016 IN the final chapter of Don Quixote, Miguel de medical reasons too. To paraphrase Auden, the pro- Cervantes portrays a defeated, ill, sad and dying Don vinces of his body had revolted and the squares of his Quixote. In his final moments, Don Quixote admits to mind were empty; silence did invade the suburbs and his mistaken belief in the existence of knights errant in the current of his feeling failed too. But the physical the world. Witnessing his transition from madness to decline was just one reason. sanity, a distraught Sancho Panza implores Don Quixote Don Quixote of La Mancha was mad but reverted not to die. A man like him, pleads Sancho, must die a to being Alonso Quixano the Good in his dying days. glorious death at the hands of someone rather than be This passage from madness to sanity is not about killed by his own melancholy. morality or ethics but a reflection of the complexity of Dileep Padgaonkar too died of sorrow, defeated life and of the world. Dileep lived this complexity by a world that was crass, intolerant, cynical, disen- throughout his life and it defeated him in the end. chanted and unreasonable. Like a knight errant, he He was resolute and compromising, convivial and believed in a world that never approximated to reality; reserved, snobbish and down-to earth, cerebral and his ‘madness’ consisted in believing in one that was trivial, giving and acquisitive, sensitive and indifferent, inhabited by books, music, taste and conversation. formal and friendly. In later life, he frequently spoke of When he died on 25 November 2016, he had spent a an individual inhabiting multiple selves, a phrase 78 life in trying to defeat a world he detested and working that became for him a shorthand for explaining his towards realizing one that spilled out from the pages of own contradictions arising out of complex choices in a fiction, philosophy and poetry. Of course, there were hostile world.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 For Dileep, the Times of India was such a choice. powerful person on earth not like to sing and listen to In his first stint as editor, he admitted that he had the thumri, he wonders. Dileep increasingly lived in a world satisfaction of building the paper into a meaningful and where politicians, bureaucrats, CEOs, corporate modern newspaper. But those of us who witnessed his honchos, and journalists never read, watched great cin- second innings at the TOI saw him reduced to serving ema or listened to khayal or thumri. The names of a paper that was nothing more than an advertisement Isaiah Berlin, Ustad Amir Khan, M.S. Subbulakshmi, broadsheet with spaces left to fill incidental content. Ritwik Ghatak, Kurosawa or Kiarostomi did not He lived with this shrunken mandate, often fighting for matter to them. Therefore, despite his abstract and good writing and stories but also often enough capitu- unrequited love of power, he feared the mediocrity of lating to the pressures of post-literate wealth creators. the powerful. For him, the phrase ‘barah pachaas’ signified the state Dileep rejected the distinction between ‘high’ and of the ‘times’. This was part of the long and protracted ‘popular’ culture conventionally offered by those in pricing meetings for the paper resonating continuously power to pander to the lowest common denominator. and resoundingly with the banality of the ‘barah Nor could judgement of culture be relegated to reductive pachaas’ phrase (the significance of the offending obsessions of our time like postmodernism or the mar- phrase lay in ensuring that the weekly collections ought ket. Hence, rising to his feet, Dileep danced around a not to fall below rupees twelve and fifty paisa for the small room after hearing Ganapathi Maharaj singing paper to remain eligible for auditing by the bureau of abhang and paused to say: ‘This is our pop music.’ circulation). All meaning, all purpose, all effort and all Another time, after hearing a long discourse in the TOI questions of quality and relevance, it seemed, flowed on the perceived toxic effects of ‘high culture’, he effortlessly into this vast and capacious ideal of ‘barah emerged from the room and said in a voice that signi- pachaas’. Taking a cue from this, all anecdotes and fied both exasperation and fatigue: ‘Man doesn’t live narratives conveyed to close friends would invariably by Dada Kondke alone.’ A few days after this particu- be suffixed with Dileep saying ‘barah pachaas’. As lar meeting, he approvingly copied and sent across a Siddharth Varadarajan has evocatively written, Dileep quote from Godard which said: ‘Art is the exception remained a ‘Times Man’ long after the paper had while culture is the rule… it is part of the rule to want ceased to be itself. Truth no longer prevailed, as the the death of the exception.’ motto of the TOI suggests. Rather, all that prevailed was To navigate contradictions, complexities, and necessarily true. The talismanic ‘barah pachaas’ had identities sometimes took its toll. His friends bore the won. Dileep invoked it as a joke to hide his hurt and brunt of this more than most people, especially if they disappointment. also happened to be his colleagues. Some of Dileep’s The sense of loss came not from a loss of sense choices and actions surprised, angered and alienated of power. Despite the intellectual laziness of perenni- his close friends. This would lead to communication and ally associating Dileep with the ‘second most impor- contact ceasing for short or long periods. Always, with- tant job’ quote, there was nothing in him that was out exception, Dileep would initiate the process of self-righteous and sanctimonious. He had a strange fas- reconciliation. He did it in a way that resembled reclaim- cination of power. Making sure but hesitant overtures ing of something that was rightfully his, and his alone. to power, his resolve to court the powerful invariably This act of reclaiming friendships was what defined failed at the crucial moment. Fear that his freedom to Dileep. Sometimes, it seemed as if insignificant think and express might be smothered was one reason things mattered to him. More so, the compromises he never managed to become a full-time courtier like he made to attain those were larger than necessary. a few of his epigonic contemporaries. But there was But no ambition and no compromise for him was large another more compelling reason. enough to merit losing a good friend. I once asked Dileep was a cultural evangelist. One evening, him about this. He said he will answer the question in handing over a copy of Satyajit Ray’s screenplay of his next trip to Hyderabad. When he arrived a few The Chess Players to me, Dileep spoke of his favour- months later, he came armed with a copy of Robert ite scene in the film. The British resident asks Wajid Musil’s Diaries. He opened page 91, entry 30.V, Ali Shah to desist from singing and dancing in the court handed the book to me and asked me to read it aloud. because Empress Victoria disapproves of it. On hear- This is what it said: 79 ing this, Wajid Ali Shah (played in the film by Amjad ‘With the regularity of some law at work the following Khan) is shocked and devastated. How could the most process runs full circle within me: I am arrogant, dis-

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 missive, reticent, refined, happy. Some or other sense he was constantly examining his own position, inviting of power takes territorial hold. I have taken too much colleagues and viewers to do so as well. pleasure in my muscles while I was rowing or I am Now that Dileep is gone, I wonder what was on working at philosophy with an intensity that blunts the his mind. Was it to tell me that he was very unwell, not senses. I feel first that my arrogance, with its concilia- just upset that we had not met on my last trip to Pune? tory frontage on the outside world, is deserting me. I am Did he want to say adieu and that there may be few no longer so friendly; I am less witty. I feel empty and occasions left for us to discuss, dispute or relish the work out of sheer desperation. My behaviour in com- moments of truth that we most often did on the streets pany deteriorates. I suffer a defeat. I feel that, by com- of Paris and in the auditorium of the Cinemathèque parison with some other person, I am stupid. I behave Française at Trocadero? with spectacular ineptitude, I cannot find an appropri- I had first been introduced to him in the foyer of ate rejoinder to some insult. A few hours later I am, once that auditorium, where the founders themselves again, arrogant, dismissive, reticent, refined, happy.’ (Madame Meerson and Henri Langlois) sometimes Having finished reading, I looked up. There was sat and ‘sold’ the subsidized tickets! a moment of awkward silence, a quiet acknowledge- Dileep lived within walking distance of the place, ment of the accuracy of the writing but also of Dileep’s at Avenue Kleber, completing his thesis in a chmbre- deep identification with the description. The talismanic de-bonne in an attic room meant for the maids of the ‘barah pachaas’ came to our rescue, dissolving both of bourgeoisie that had yet to consolidate its glory, us into loud guffaws. often rented out instead to students and artists from all In the twenty years I had known him, I never called over the world. It was a classy address, soon to become him ‘Dileep’. He was always ‘Mr. Padgaonkar’. The the location of the Vietnam peace negotiations between only concession to this formality, something that he Le Duc Tho and the pugnacious Kissinger. heartily approved, was an act that we would perform While Dileep theorized over verisimilitude and mimicking the various new-age gurus that we regularly cut the onions appropriately for a Sindhi bhuna gosht met as part of our job at the TOI. In this act, he was to be had the next evening, our illustrious neighbours ‘prabhu’ and I was ‘baalak’. The prabhu-baalak duo quarrelled over the seating arrangements for the peace emerged only to offer social satire and political criticism. talks for days before they began. In the meantime, the And now, the act is over for ever. And there will never bombing of Vietnam escalated, making a mockery of be another one like him: refined, cerebral, generous, the mise-en-scène, the narratives of democracy and witty, and complex. Towards the end of the prologue to la condition humaine. his fine book on Roberto Rossellini in India (Under Andre Malraux, the celebrated freedom fighter, Her Spell: Roberto Rossellini in India, Penguin/ had taken to whitewashing monuments and institu- Viking, 2008), Dileep sums up Rossellini as a man and tions as De Gaulle’s Minister of Culture. No longer a filmmaker by quoting a line from Walt Whitman: oscillating between action and meditation, he who had ‘I am large enough to contain all contradictions.’ These gifted to France the voices of silence from far away lines could as well have been written for Dileep. shores like Elephanta, had clamped down on the very foundations of the secular, the critical, the activist. Jyotirmaya Sharma Diderot, Rivette, Langlois. Godard, for whom he had been a source of inspiration, called him a coward. We had all joined a satyagraha at the Place de Adieu Dileep Trocadero around two or three months before the ‘We have to repair the web of time when it is broken…’ events of May 1968. – Chris Marker, Sans Soleil In that context alone, one must congratulate the French for giving Dileep the highest civilian award – AROUND ten to twelve days before he was admitted the Legion d’Honneur, many years later. into the ICU, Dileep called to ask if I had ever met Chris In 1971, during Indira Gandhi’s trip to Paris, I think, Marker, once upon a time his favourite film maker. For Dileep was both charmed and amused by Andre me, as well, he stands out as the finest ‘documentarist’, Malraux’s touching offer to relive his heroic participa- 80 along with Joris Ivens. With an exchange of a few words tion in the Spanish Civil War by leading a liberatory Dileep and I agreed that Chris Marker was perhaps the march from India, across the Padma to Dacca in what most significant of the Left Bank cineastes, because is now Bangladesh and was then East Pakistan.

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Indira Gandhi was building her charisma at that By coincidence, in Delhi, I had sometimes seen time and almost everyone I knew – including Dileep – him handle – at public functions and private parties – was under her spell. As she ‘shyly’ sat on edge through the dubious postures of these gentlemen-criminals those tumultuous years of a growing nexus between that have been ruling us. He was calm and dignified Nixon and the Gang of Four, the oil crisis that has per- while they wished to ensnare him with their threaten- petuated the Crusades into our days, the dollar denomi- ing charm or strident rhetoric. The only public figure nation of world trade that is perhaps mimicking who matched his dignity was I.K. Gujral. Rauschenberg’ s art object – the Machine that Destroys When Dileep agreed to chair the Kashmir itself. interlocuters’ group, I wondered if he were exposing Nobody really understands the entropy signalled himself to the violent and crude shenanigans of terror by the virus, self-generated by the system into which that coil the citizens from all sides, alienating the nation we are wired in, not even the designers of manga com- from the state, the people from the nation, snatching ics. I think that Dileep had to deal with that entropy from sovereignty from the individual. I believe that he and the very first steps that he took to enter the halls of his team met the challenge with the true elegance of a power: to become ‘the second most important person classical liberal. in the country.’ He was, of course, ironical about it all His manner and his tastes were catholic in more through, as he was about everything personal, above senses than one – multicultural like his well-wisher all of ‘insights’ generated by ‘false consciousness’ of Pere Deleury (the translator of Tukaram’s poems), who all sorts, from any vantage point of view. In his last days, had inspired his initiative to pursue his studies in poli- I am told by Arun Khopkar, he joked about all his assets tical science and cinema in France. Dileep loved the that were turning into liabilities – the heart, the liver and abhangs of the great poet especially as rendered by the kidneys. Bhimsen Joshi. Thus it is with the fourth estate, since words and The last time that I met Latika and Dileep in images themselves lose significance under dispensa- Pune, as we looked out from their magnificent balcony- tions of monopoly ownership and management control. verandah, he hummed one of Tuka’s creations that he Thus, it happened during the notoriously cruel Emer- used to sing out loud, above the din of traffic in Paris and gency and the parallel times that we are living through New York, to feel at home and at peace with the world. now, on a scale that includes more individuals, more Beyond the lights of these bustling cities, he has nations, across the globe. The triumph of technology reached that ‘elsewhere – over human interaction, the failure of society to evolve Là,tout n’est qu’ordre et beauté. restorative citizenship in the ever growing electronic Luxe, calme et volupté. supremacy within the nature-culture continuum can lead to more than mere asymmetries of fiscal and mon- Kumar Shahani etary policies, the unprecedented attacks on the insti- tutions and instruments of justice. We run the risk of losing our limbs, the synapses that interconnect our senses Javeed Alam 1943-2016 and give us our prise de conscience, our empathy. I remember quite vividly the first time I read something Dileep kept his friendships alive across conti- written by Javeed Alam. It was an article written early nents and decades. When he and Latika decided to leave in 1983 in Social Scientist on the approach to the peas- Delhi and relocate in Pune, Aruna Vasudeva almost antry and Marxist historiography as represented by the broke down. It was a long and sustained relationship inaugural volume of Subaltern Studies. The article was, over a span of nearly fifty years, cemented by what they of course, combative and very critical of the latter trend. valued in the cinema and the publication of Cinemaya I did not quite know the context of the provocation or from Defence Colony, where they resided for years. understand the significance of Javeed’s robust defence It was always great to be hosted by them together of ‘Marxist historical understanding in India’. I was almost every time, to savour the wine and food, ranging completing my postgraduate studies in sociology then, from kotambir wadi, through lotus seeds to the delicious and my initiation into Marx and Marxism was structured plateau of cheeses. Very often, we also met in Mumbai, accordingly through the placid terrains of ‘classical’ to savour the delicacies of the subcontinent’s western sociological thought. But I was seized by the prospect 83 coast, while Dileep regaled us with mimicries of the that I was confronting something distinctive: a sharply honchos and politicians that he had most recently met. honed mind, argumentative and polemical, formulating

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 a line of critique in a language that was nuanced and ity to overcome their former selves. Even as his father, theoretically stringent. It was a analytically charged and the venerable Alam Khundmiri exhibited this in good yet historically nuanced kind of Marxism. measure as reflected in his life and work, Javeed Many years later in the mid-1990s, as I found my seemed to take this capacity to another level. Thus, foothold in academia, I met Javeed in person – literally while retaining his Marxist credentials, he displayed an on the road to Shimla. Needless to say, I was both sur- unusual measure of sociological and ethical sensitivity prised and delighted. Could the extraordinarily warm to the socio-political realities of India’s public life (spe- and gracious man across from me at the roadside dhaba cifically, the peculiarities of caste and its associated be reconciled with the combative ideologue of ‘Marx- structures of discrimination/oppression). This is an ist revolutionary theory’ in the polemic just alluded to? aspect of Javeed’s work within the Marxist intellectual This was the puzzle of Javeed Alam, or rather, his tradition of our contemporary times that awaits consoli- achievement: a gracious man whose generosity of dation; it also means coming to terms with a specific spirit flourished in concert with others, and could do so ethical twist to Marxism and the structures of its theo- even as he articulated, in person and in print, the sharp- rizing in contemporary India. est of arguments. It was a mixture that won him the loyal I shall now in what follows pass over personal and adoring friendship of many people in a long and suc- reminiscences, important as they are to the remember- cessful life straddling academia, politics and adminis- ing process. I would like to highlight the manner in which tration. In his final years, in private conversations with Javeed’s distinctive approach to Marxism has a lesson his friends and admirers, Javeed seemed to take pride for all of us, given over to articulating rival and compet- in the fact of reconciling the organized Marxism of a ing ideas of India. We can see Javeed Alam working revolutionary left with the traditions of liberalism and towards a renewed understanding of the ethical impera- social democracy, and was increasingly given over to tives of Marxism in India in his India: Living with consolidating his insight into what he publicly proclaimed Modernity (1999), and I shall here dwell at some length as the ‘indispensability of secularism’. Equally, it is not with this axis of his philosophizing. In this complex piece surprising that Javeed devoted his years to theorizing of work, geared to reworking modernity as a ‘living the peculiar alchemy of democracy and equality in con- need’, Javeed raises the possibility of disturbing the iden- temporary India. tity of modernity by opening up to its untapped poten- I take it that ours – Javeed and I – was a strange tial, and in doing so actively strives to transform that and anomalous friendship that both spanned and trans- potential into a necessity, at once moral and political. formed our mutual lives. To be sure, and quite unlike The logic of this inversion is Marxian, of course, albeit me, Javeed enjoyed gossiping about others, trading recuperating ‘modernity’ both as a historical condition anecdotes about the celebrated and the famous, often and as an ideological claim: the condition of moder- offering rich insight into the making of personalities. nity and the claims of modernity upon that space. More than everything, yet, he delighted in talking phi- (Incidentally, the central point of developments inside losophy – specifically the modern and early modern India’s electoral democracy that Javeed later explored western philosophical tradition – while also striving to in his strongly charged ‘tract’ entitled Who Wants embody a philosophical approach to the political in Democracy? (2004) similarly takes off from a thought modern and contemporary India. Of course, Javeed’s about a process of change detaching itself from the ‘personal’ life – I mean his romance and ‘inter-religious’ infirmities and inconsistencies surrounding it and marriage with Jayanti Guha – is the stuff of legend and acquiring an ‘autonomy of its own’. historical commentary, and I will not rehearse that part It should by now be evident that Javeed wanted of his journey here. But more emphatically, even as his his critique to meet two seemingly incompatible objec- upbringing and youthful years in Hyderabad in a family tives (and there perhaps lies the methodological chal- and public milieu sensitive to questions of armed strug- lenge of his philosophizing). On the one hand, his theory gle, minority and class politics were crucial to the shap- of modernity is designed to account for the transition ing of his leftist commitments, I am inclined to think of to modernity as a process, among other things, of his evolution as a Marxist intellectual and activist as a individuation. Indeed as Javeed constantly reminds, singular combination of philosophical culture, ethical precisely in order to do this, it must incorporate a dif- 84 moorings and enormous generosity of spirit. ferentiation between a condition of modernity and the It has been said that what distinguishes the saga- claims of modernity upon that very space. On the other cious is their extraordinary strength of will and capac- hand, his theory must also account for how context-

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 specific developments within the space of the modern such contextualism: namely, that the concepts mediat- are thematizable. Javeed is here astutely clear that an ing India’s experience of modernity – such as rights, idea (or an ideal) will be logically compelling, and secularism and the nation – have never been put through serve to justify a politics, if and only if one could rea- ‘the prism of a grounded critique’ so as to take care of sonably reject it as a foundational principle: if and ‘the linguistic or cultural specificities, regional peculi- only if it is, in that sense, contingently irresistible. arities or historical memories’. This failure in turn, Thus his insistence through the space of his philo- Javeed is convinced, has put enormous strain on the sophically charged work that modernity is now being Indian polity to cope with questions of national unity conditioned as much by its own consequences in the and secular integrity. course of its historical development. With the neces- Without doubt, this synoptic commentary encap- sity historically entailed by modernity having accord- sulating aspects of Javeed’s philosophical work trans- ingly been rendered contingent, modernity is now open late into the point that there could be Marxist accounts to correction; much of it can be reassembled in new of modernity which operate at a different level of analy- creative ways, ‘integrat(ing) and harmoni(zing)’, as he sis from the concepts of Marxist political economy; and, writes, ‘the best in different cultures around the world’. what is more, that ‘modernity’ could yet be served as For Javeed, then, there is no going outside modernity to our primary secular category of historical totalization. live-in and rework modernity. Obviously, much work needs to be done to fill out this Undeniably, given the configurations of our picture of the structure of Javeed’s philosophizing political present, it is by no means clear that the battles about the ethical imperatives of Marxism and the about the nature and object of India’s modernity are not historicization that he effects about modern India in entirely pointless. But, as with every question of particular. But hopefully it is clear that in traversing this modernity in which an ethical and political charge is space, there is more than simply friendship (or com- concealed, it makes sense to add to the question: to radeship) in remembering our departed colleague. attempt understanding how the development of moder- What matters is that we intellectuals and acti- nity causes a flutter in the fabric of social relations and vists alike, whether adhering to a Marxist intellectual situations, and also to look for threats to modernity tradition or otherwise, develop a philosophically and and the logic which provides their rationale. For every empirically acceptable account of how historical and question of India’s modernity, therefore, as Javeed pas- ethical complexity is built into the structure of our theo- sionately reminded us, we need to supplement a more rizing. There are lessons yet to be learnt from the pre- crucial and complex question, that of the trajectory and cise contours of Javeed’s Marxist philosophizing and sequence of modernity’s ethical promise. The issue must historicization. Precisely because nothing would be now arise of how, or whether, independently perceived more futile than mandating another set of imperatives sequences (of histories) might be related to each other to judge the legitimacy of how modernity is represented – the idea of connected and contingent histories – and and invoked, it is all the more important to consider whether, in order to apprehend the specificity of these Javeed Alam on his own terms. Adieu, my senior friend connected histories, it might be necessary to institute and comrade, I hope our conversations will continue in certain distinctions and analytic separations as a guar- that little hilltop where you now rest. antee of ethically charged modes of investigation and argumentation. Sasheej Hegde Controversies accordingly about whether certain terms currently in use in discourse have been illicitly borrowed from the West are sterile. In fact, this is the Sulabha Brahme 1932-2016 primary reason, as Javeed affirms, why a contextualist Sulabha Brahme passed away quietly at her residence determination of modernity is persuasive. As he puts on the morning of December 2016. Her death emulated it in India: Living with Modernity: ‘For a society on much of her life – alone in her Pune bungalow, quietly, the path to modernity, there is a sense of unfamiliarity without fanfare, surrounded by her books. Not that she and strangeness to the individual experience. How does was lonely. The multitude of people who gathered to this experience become (socially) communicable? Can pay their last respects reflected the vast spectrum of the earlier languages and their conceptual reserves political and social movements that she maintained 85 articulate this experience?’ This goes hand in hand with close contact with for over five decades. Whether it a second reason which, for Javeed, allegedly supports was activists of the organized left parties, women’s

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 organizations, Dalit groups, the People’s Science Move- and rights! Her 1966 visit to the USSR to study regional ment, trade unions, peasant cooperatives and organic and urban planning left a deep and lasting impression farming collectives, or environmentalists, writers, on her about the socialist system, especially its people- poets and cultural activists not just from Maharashtra centred programmes and its emancipatory impact on but across the country, Sulabhatai, as she was popu- women. larly known, reached out to all, and equally. That was a But Sulabhatai’s academic career did not deter hallmark of her relationship with them – she treated her from active involvement with people’s issues, which each with respect for their ideas and work, yet never led her to found several initiatives. One was the yielding ground and compromising on the core humani- Purogami Mahila Sanghatana, a progressive organiza- tarian values that she held dear to her heart. tion of left oriented women, and the bimonthly Marathi She inherited these values from her parents. Her journal on women’s issues, Baija that she edited father was the Cambridge educated Dhananjayrao from 1977 to 1984. Another was the Lok Vidnyan Gadgil, eminent economist and Deputy Chairman of the Sanghatana, with the objective of promoting scientific Planning Commission, who strongly believed in people attitude among the masses and popularizing science. centred development. Her mother Pramila Kale was Her deep interest in agrarian issues and the problems actively involved in the education of girls, widow remar- of the peasantry led to the formation of the Maharashtra riage, and initiatives for greater dignity and ‘empower- Dushkal Nivaran and Nirmulan Mandal to the tackle ment’ of women as part of the social reform movement the question of drought that Maharashtra experiences in Pune during the early part of the 20th century. Born from time to time. But she never hankered after on 2 February 1932 in Satara, young Sulabha grew up posts and positions, preferring to play a supporting in a liberal atmosphere that eschewed casteism and yet definitive role in the policy and practice of these religious bigotry, espousing the values of scientific tem- organizations. per, women’s emancipation and the dignity of labour. While she firmly believed in activism, she She remained fiercely uncompromising about these was equally clear that it had to be accompanied by a core values throughout her life. She was an avid reader, thorough study of the problem, analysis in the Marxist delving into her father’s rich library of literature, his- framework, and most importantly, concrete people tory and autobiographies that exposed her to progres- oriented alternatives. It led her to write and publish a sive thought. Her quiet rebellion started in her school plethora of pamphlets and booklets of several impor- days at Hujurpaga, with a refusal to adorn herself tant issues, particularly in Marathi, aimed at field with ‘kumkum’, as was the practice with Hindu girls level activists and ordinary people and, therefore, also of her age. distributed at highly affordable prices. Some were After finishing her schooling, she followed in her polemical, like a somewhat little-known but important father’s footsteps and went on to study Economics at essay she wrote with another Marxist intellectual, the SP College, Pune. After her Masters, she joined the Rajani Desai, called the ‘Materialist Basis of Women’s Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics, and sub- Liberation’ or on imperialism, world peace, nuclear mitted a doctoral thesis on the textile industry. She energy, communalism, people-centric development went on to do post-doctoral studies at the London School models, and so on. Many were on immediate problems of Economics in 1958. She also visited Harvard Uni- facing ordinary people, like price rise, unemployment versity to undertake special studies in planning. It was and the agrarian crisis, or privatization of education. during this period that she imbibed Marxism, first as And several were centred around ongoing struggles, a philosophy and method of research, and eventually like the one against the Enron power plant at Dabhol, as an ideology that shaped her way of life. or the nuclear power plant at Jaitapur in Maharashtra. Her strong belief in the need for socially relevant One of her most important recent contributions research led her to undertake some pioneering studies was on issues around the ban on cow slaughter. of the political economy of Maharashtra while at the Each booklet was written precisely, every fact and Gokhale Institute. These included the landmark reference verified. There is a story of how she wanted Regional Development Plan for Marathwada, and a to include Vivekananda’s views on the subject; being Report on Land Use in Western Maharashtra. She was unsatisfied with the secondary sources available 86 a Reader, and also a Registrar at the Institute, but that in Marathi, she asked for the original Bengali and had did not deter her from organizing researchers and staff it translated before including it in her text! The long list members to strike in order to protect their autonomy of references she always included at the end are testi-

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 mony to this painstaking research, but they were also She had a zest for life that was not always appar- intended to encourage the reader to go beyond and ent, especially because she led an amazingly frugal and read further. simple lifestyle. But she had a love for poetry, painting It was these concerns that inspired her to start the and the fine arts, and an extraordinary appreciation of Shankar Brahme Samajvidnyan Granthalaya, a lasting Indian classical music. When some of her family mem- memorial to her late husband who died tragically young. bers took the initiative to organize a series of celebra- But Sulabhatai bore her loss stoically, putting all her tions for her 80th birthday, she participated in them with energies and material belongings into establishing it a childlike enthusiasm that left many of us dumb- as a centre for radical thought, where left, secular and founded. It only showed that her intellectual stature could progressive activists and intellectuals could gather to not take away her immensely human nature. discuss and exchange ideas, and plan struggles and Age was never a problem for her, and she was movements. The span of her contacts was staggering; active till her last days. Just a week before her death, and it was as if each one of them knew but one facet she had visited Purandar block in Pune district, partici- of her personality. Yet she had an individual relation- pating in late night meetings to listen to the people and ship with each one of them, and none of their personal particularly the peasants affected by the proposed travails escaped her attention. international airport in the area. Her enthusiasm never Equally, she believed in showing the way through once waned, and she was always ready with a new set concrete alternatives. In 2004, she launched ‘Lokayat of ideas and plans, seeking out people who would sup- Vyaspeeth’, a project she started in Khalapur and Pen port them. Revolution may be a distant dream for many blocks of Raigad district of Maharashtra to develop an of us, but for Sulabhatai, it was always an achievable ecologically friendly and people-centric development goal, if only one made the effort! Laal Salaam to a model in agriculture, education and health and cultural ‘Quiet Revolutionary’! values. Its basic purpose was to build a cooperative organization of rural working people to make agricul- Kiran Moghe ture sustainable and to improve their quality of life. She spent a considerable amount of her personal ener- gies as well as resources in supporting such initiatives. Anupam Mishra 1948-2016 For her, the political was truly personal. ON Anupam Mishra’s chair at the GPF (Gandhi Peace Of late, Sulabhatai was deeply troubled by the Foundation) is a sticker from an anti-dam campaign of negative impact of caste and religious identity politics the 1980s, its edges worn. Power Without Purpose, it that continues to pose a big hurdle to the class unity of reads. Three words that encapsulate the attitude of the working people. The rise of Brahmanical forces to this low-key man who spent his entire working life – power in the Indian Republic was required to be coun- 47 years – in a low-key organization like the Gandhi tered, as she wrote in a detailed note that she circulated Peace Foundation (GPF). Yet, since his death on to several activists for discussion and debate, ‘by an 19 December 2016, after an 11-month battle with alternative secular order’ based on ‘the principles of cancer, a string of condolence meetings have been liberty, equality, fraternity, social justice, dignity of held, numerous obituaries written, and even TV chan- labour, gender equality, scientific temper and harmo- nels have talked about him. nious relations with nature.’ The Buddha Dhamma Mishra’s death, just like his life, is a testament to identified by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar was one such the power of purpose. It’s a lesson he learnt from alternative. But for those who did not wish to embrace Banwarilal Choudhary, a friend of his father’s. An an established order, she proposed another concept, that agriculture scientist in Madhya Pradesh who led the of a Manavta Dhamma based on the above principles Mitti Bachao Andolan in the early 1970s (which segued and in consonance with the values of the Indian Con- into a wider anti-dam movement), Choudhary stressed stitution. She was keen that people at large turn their that good work does not rely on resources. Mishra, then backs on Brahmanical Hinduism, and adopted one of cutting his teeth as a social activist and journalist, was these alternatives, especially because she felt that this among the first to write about the farmland being would, over a few generations, also help them to destroyed by waterlogging due to the canals from the escape the shackles of the Brahmanical caste system, Tawa dam. 87 which she deeply despised. In turn, this would help to An inspirational person for many, Choudhary effectively fight the forces of neoliberal capitalism. made a deep impression on the young craftsman. That

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 was another quality of Mishra’s: he saw himself as an A third remarkable quality of this purposeful artisan, patiently working to produce something useful craftsman was his eye. Not just his observation, but the and attractive to another person. From his house to his motive and mode with which he went about his research, office to each wall, each surface that he could access his writing and his editing. Mishra was deeply averse – most people he met – bore a mark of his craftsman- to the kind of academic eye that, in the name of objec- ship. Not just gifts, but each little note, memo, letter, tivity, objectifies other people. He used to often warn postcard, official file was embellished with a little hand- about how academic research can boil down to the vic- drawn motif, a tastefully made border with a discarded tors studying the vanquished, the powerful analyzing sketch pen. He was adept at taking useless things, the powerless. For all that he knew and learned over even garbage, and turning them into something useful nearly five decades of work, he had a deep interest in and beautiful. ignorance. He was always mindful of what he did not He did this with people too. Numerous people know, and he respected the unknown. As the editor of went to meet him in his office for recourse, for advice, GPF’s bimonthly publication Gandhi Marg, he was for hearing something deep and worthwhile, delivered always on the lookout for material that talked about the with a light touch. His doors were always open to every- attitude towards the unknown. He published the body. Among his regular visitors were a few mentally thoughts of Vinoba Bhave on the subject, as also mod- disturbed people. He used to patiently hear their bab- ern scientists such as Stuart Firestein. ble, soothe them with his gentle manner, help them in Several obituaries have described his extraordi- some small way, and come back to his seat. If he had nary humility, his regard for other people that used to any visitors, he used to tell them this is a tax he must sometimes make them uncomfortable. Some have said pay. He never forgot a kind turn anybody did for him, that, on meeting him initially, they thought such humility and considered it his duty to extend the same regard to can only be affected. Those who knew him well knew others. If he was at the end of somebody’s anger or its origin. His mother Sarla, a redoubtable matriarch to a distasteful deed, it ended with him; there was no not just the family but an extended social world, had response, no carry forward. Colleagues who mistreated soft eyes and compassion for everyone. Mishra was him were at the receiving end of his compassion. raised by a hand that sought the divine in others. He took this craftsmanship to his language. When Mishra began working in GPF’s research Literary critics fawn over the quality and lucidity of and publication wing as a 22-year-old postgraduate in his prose in Hindi. And yet his writing was stripped of Sanskrit, he saw it as an extension of the world he was learnedness, of any pretension to a classical education. accustomed to at home. His first major assignment, He avoided using literary references or quoting weighty along with journalists Prabhash Joshi and Shravan Garg, knowledge. If he had to use it, he made it a point to was to negotiate the surrender of scores of dreaded dissolve it, to put it within the grasp of any ordinary per- dacoits in the Chambal region. It was around this time, son who could read. Abstract ideas were turned into in October 1972, that he met Chandiprasad Bhatt, images in his prose, all depth and loftiness brought up a Sarvodaya activist working for a bus union in or down to a level-headedness that is as rare as it is Gopeshwar, Garhwal. Bhatt had led popular protests appealing. Over his last decade or so, he had turned into against logging permits granted by the forest depart- a prized public speaker, who could hold the attention ment, because the people of this part of the middle of an audience for long durations. His speeches were Himalaya depended on the forest for their livelihood. often recorded and published and distributed by an Mishra took Bhatt to meet Raghuveer Sahay, ever-widening circle of admirers. editor of the influential Hindi magazine Dinman, and His sense of language owed much to his father helped prepare a special issue on the Garhwal region Bhawani Prasad Mishra, a storied poet in Hindi, the following month. From 1973, Mishra began travel- renowned for using the ordinary idiom and everyday ling in the Garhwal region to understand this unrest. words, as also an insistence that language is first and Not as a journalist or a researcher, but as an activist out foremost a spoken form; he asserted that it is possible to understand his society. Wherever he went, he stayed to write well by staying close to the spoken form. Mishra for a while, letting himself steep in the people and their was no poet like his father, but plenty of readers swear world. (Some of the relationships he built then are 88 by his lyricism and the grip of his prose. Journalist and still alive.) It wasn’t till much later that he began editor Prabhash Joshi, also a disciple of his father’s, was writing on what would come to be called the Chipko a big influence on his prose. movement, and which created a new environmental

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 consciousness in India and the world. Perhaps the first major reported feature on Chipko appeared two years later in Dinman. It carried a photo of Gaura Devi, one of the protagonists of the struggle. Some people call Mishra the first historian of Chipko. Mishra insisted that he was no historian or journalist or environmental- ist, merely a faithful messenger of ordinary folk. Through the ’70s and ’80s, Mishra travelled to places where people were engaged in environmental struggles, taking other journalists and activists along- side. One such location was Bikaner, where journalist Shubhu Patwa was leading a campaign for the protec- tion of common pastures. During such travels, he became familiar with the traditional means of water har- vesting in the desert areas of Rajasthan. This became his biggest project, which would consume most of his working life here onwards. Mishra was deeply impressed by the environmen- tal common sense of ordinary people, most of them illiterate, in harvesting rainwater through a range of com- plex and time-tested systems. He began to travel and understand these. The result of this was his 1993 book Aaj Bhi Khare Hain Talab. Free of copyright, the book had attractive production qualities – Mishra’s long-term friend and associate Dileep Chinchalker had illustrated it by hand. The book’s success has been overwhelming. More than 40 editions, translations in several Indian languages, not to mention Braille, French and English editions – an Arabic translation is in the works. It has sold more than 2,00,000 copies. Several readers have brought out their own editions. Newspapers and radio stations have serialized it. Its success made Mishra famous internationally. But what pleased him the most was ordinary readers writing to him, telling him that they felt inspired to revive and protect their waterbodies. Herein lies the most outstanding part of Mishra’s work. Because he wrote about traditional water man- agement as a son writing about his own society, he helped ordinary people imagine how their ancestors valued their waterbodies, how they maintained them – with love and labour. Mishra wrote about a society’s relationship with its environment in cultural terms, not in a technical manner. The craftsman – with a grand purpose and a com- passionate eye – described life, faithfully and vividly. His descriptions brought to life dead water systems in the hearts and minds of ordinary people. Not through prescription, but through imagination. 89

Sopan Joshi

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 Backpage HALF way into his term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Of far greater importance is the record on the arguably faces the toughest challenge of his somewhat economy – from giving a kick-start to investment, par- tempestuous political career. Most other politicians ticularly in infrastructure, creating new jobs, and con- would have been cowed down, if not broken, by the trolling corruption. These too have been shown up as scrutiny and criticism he was subjected to following the more hawa than substance. Even though economists 2002 ‘killings’ in Gujarat, not merely from the ‘secular’ and policy planners realize that the degrees of freedom opposition but by senior leaders of his party. Today, a available to any national government in an intercon- decade and half on, howsoever reluctantly, one needs nected global economy are low, and that the fate of the to admit that he has weathered that storm. His use of Indian economy rests on a pick-up in the US, Europe the entire repertoire available to wielders of power – and China, a restive populace which had invested high saam, daam, dand, bhed – without due concern for hope in Modi’s campaign promises, is less likely to be legal integrity or ethics to ‘discredit’ and ‘silence’ critics as understanding. while directing media and public attention to other, more Equally unclear is the impact of Narendra Modi’s proximate, concerns, could well serve as case mate- latest move – demonetization. At the moment, what rial for political analysts. It is thus instructive that cur- was claimed to be only a short-term disruption with rently many more, including his erstwhile admirers, significant long-term benefits – from extinguishing wonder whether the Modi mystique is fraying, and that black money and illegal currency, eliminating corrup- he might be on a slippery slope. True, given the thrall tion and by seeking to reduce the role of currency in he is held in, few are willing to openly articulate their our economy, putting into place a ‘cleaner’ India better opposition but there is little doubt that should he falter, equipped to attract investment and do business – the knives will be out. appears a chimera. What is evident is a significant Few other politicians in post-independence India slowing down of the economy and a loss of jobs, par- have shown as great a willingness to take risks. In his ticularly in the informal small-scale sectors and in embrace of a deliberate politics of disruption and agriculture, and a significant deepening of inequality, change by building on aspirations, opportunity and tech- with the poorer and marginal sections of society taking nology, Narendra Modi has unsettled the earlier certi- a far bigger hit than the well-off. tudes of Indian politics and changed the rules of the This is why the impending elections to five state game, not merely for opposition politicians but for those assemblies – Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa in his own party and affiliated organizations. Unfortu- and Manipur – have acquired such significance. In the nately, while so far successful in retaining his personal event that the BJP does not fare well, there is little doubt popularity, he has made himself the locus of all power, that both Prime Minister Modi and party chief Amit Shah a high-risk strategy since now there is no one but him to will be under severe pressure, both from an energized shoulder the blame should events not unfold as per plan. opposition as also dissident elements from within their Midway into his term, we are no longer dealing own party. More so since they have made the elections with the promise of Narendra Modi, the hard sell of – particularly in Uttar Pradesh – a referendum on the achche din. Citizens at large have by now had the prime minister, his government’s performance and his opportunity of assessing for themselves which one of style of ruling. his regime’s promises and programmes have delivered, Whatever the results, Indian electoral politics is and how much. Our relations with the outside world, likely to experience a qualitative change. A victory for neighbours and otherwise, are hardly less fraught then the BJP will greatly strengthen Narendra Modi, further they were when he assumed power despite his frantic centralizing power, with possibly a negative long-term travels abroad and keenness to demonstrate a personal impact on our democracy. His loss may well usher in a relationship with foreign leaders. And nothing captures phase of uncertainty, at least till the polity manages to this better than our now hot, now cold engagement with strike a new equilibrium. In either case, Narendra Modi Pakistan, significantly discrediting the claim of having will have lived up to his reputation of being a game 90 reduced the dangers of terrorism. Even the much changer, just not in the way he may have imagined. lauded ‘surgical strike’ against terror bases in Pakistan has been shown up to be a nonstarter. Harsh Sethi

SEMINAR 690 – February 2017