INSIGHT GREAT DIVIDE Resource conflicts, local resilience and innovation in the desert Forest conservation gets personal ■ Delhi’s informal waste economy ■ Solar powered mobility ■ At home in the wild ■ A local farmer stands over his village pastureland that is being mined for soap stone EditorialEditorial Editors: he environment-development nexus presents a Alice Hubbard great challenge: how economic and social Kamal Thapa Tprogress can be made without causing nega- Copy Editors: tive environmental impacts. As students and young Alice Hubbard professionals from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pragya Krishna Sri Lanka and the UK, we have attended the “Chal- lenge of the Balance” course in order to understand Design: these challenges from a South Asian perspective. Over Amruta Chaudhari three weeks at Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) we attended lectures, discussions and a Photographer: field trip to Rajasthan, which provided us with hands Pallab Regmi on experience of a variety of different environment and Reporters: development issues. Alice Hubbard Amruta Chaudhari Often, there is a clear divide between those who Kamal Thapa over-exploit natural resources for personal gain and Manoharan Saravanan those who depend heavily on the same resources for Natasha Israt Kabir their livelihoods. Rapid growth in the tourism, mining Om Katel and smelter industries cause land use conflicts and Owasim Akram result in severe environmental and social degradation. Pallab Regmi Boundaries can be geographical, social or economic Pragya Krishna but ultimately the great divide occurs between those Rabi Wenju who have and those who have not. Rajkumar Nagarajah Sarfaraz Banda From our combined experience on the “Challenge of Umesh Khanal the Balance” course we have gained valuable insights Upeksha Tuladhar into many environment and development issues. Here we present our insights into some of them. Special thanks to: Aditya Batra Sharmila Sinha D S Bains Surender Singh and Down to Earth team Magazine created as part of CSE’s “Challenge of the Balance” winter course, 2011-12. 2 Content 4 – 5 Other side of the fence 6 8 – 17 Great divide Stemming the flow ■ Effluent of the affluent ■ Land wars ■ White slurry, black future ■ Reviving Udai Sagar ■ ‘Pollution control board has been bought’ ■ Digging deep 18 – 20 Childhood wasted Delhi’s silent workforce 24 – 25 At home in the wild 21 – 23 Driven by the sun 7 ‘Not allowed a voice’ 26 Understanding the challenge of the balance 3 INSIGHT Other side of the fence Conservation hits close to home for forest officer Pragya Krishna “Forests are for people, people are not for forests!” nand Deval is an agricultural engineer from the 2004, his daughter Shailaja Deval passed the Indian Civil Udaipur area of Rajasthan, India, who loves to Services exam and was accepted into the Indian Forest Aplant trees. Years ago, he planted a variety of trees Services, and posted in Rajasthan. and plants in his sizeable backyard including teak and “It was April 1st” says Shailaja with a laugh, “He kept bamboo. Over time, and under his expert care, his saying that I was making an April fool out of him. But he backyard turned into a forest. was also very proud of me.” When he set out to cut some trees for maintenance As for the case: “My father and I don’t talk about it, and to make space to build a house for his daughter, ever. He has never informed anyone, in his many visits to however, he was informed the department, that he’s that doing so was illegal now. my father, and I don’t deal with His backyard had been his case.” classified as a forest which, The problem with the case, as per the amended 1996 she says, is that “it had no version of India’s 1980 Forest precedent. It was a completely Conservation Act (FCA), unintended consequence of meant that he needed a well-meaning act, and no permission to carry out one quite knew what to do. any felling. Eventually, my father came The 1980 version of to see that it was actually a the act only covered the con- beneficial situation.” servation of areas the gov- Mr. Deval got a ernment allocated as forest working plan approved by the land, regardless of whether government that allows him to there was tree cover or not. harvest 25% of the trees Not only did this lead to areas every year. This is more than that were not actually forests enough to meet his needs and coming under the purview of results in the protection of the act, it also left other his much-loved forest-garden sensitive areas unprotected. under FCA guidelines. His To protect real forests land is located on hilly, being degraded due to lack of undulating terrain, which best regulation, the Supreme serves as a forest as it is not Court of India passed a good for any other uses. He decision in 1996 stating that withdrew the case in 2008. the FCA of 1980 would also Shailaja Deval, meanwhile, include all areas that are is well known for her pro- forests in the dictionary people over pro-forest meaning of the term, defined approach. When asked by tree density. about it, she readily admits, Thus, Mr. Deval’s back- “Yes I am.” This is not to be yard fell into this category, confused with her being rendering it protected under pro-exploitation and environ- law. He could not fell any trees without getting a working mental degradation, however. plan for how he would go about it approved by the Central “There are misconceptions about the Forest government. department from all sides. We are not here to mark out all Obviously, he was indignant at first, and he lodged a the forestland for exploitation. But we are not here to stand case in court in 2003, arguing for his rights over the forest in front of the forests and refuse to allow development to he had grown himself. happen either.” Imagine his surprise and amusement then, when in “We are facilitators and speed breakers. The Forest 4 INSIGHT Rights Act is there to facilitate developmental works. I look heart will come out of your mouth. The children sit around at them as top priority. But the forest department is the fire in the winter, not sleeping, singing songs and also there to slow down the process of unregulated and prayers to the sun god so that the sun will come up and ill-planned development. We make the time it takes to plan bring heat and take the cold away. It’s been 50 years of and execute a project longer, so that the agents can be independence, and we haven’t succeeded in providing forced to think long-term in terms of the implications them with education, health, insurance or shelter. Yes, I am their projects will have on the environment, and what else very pro-people, and I think it is a joint responsibility to be it will take.” shared by more than just the forest department. It is the On the subject of unintended consequences of forest responsibility of the health, education, animal welfare and laws such as in her father’s case, she states, “In my tenure, others departments as well.” I have realized our system is not foolproof. While we “The whole world is after conservation, but what make good legislations, we miss out on certain things. In do they mean by it? You have to consume to survive – my father’s case, things fell into place very nicely, but that conservation should mean ensuring that the resources will is not always the case.” always be around for use.” “Our land records system is very faulty. Land that was “For example, in Rajasthan especially – one of our marked as reserved forest as long ago as 1964 is still under biggest characteristics is that we are fuel wood providers. that name, no matter how much it has changed since then.” No program has ever been devised to ensure fuel wood to “A bigger problem occurs when the same piece anybody till date. I don’t think we’ll be able to give all the of land, marked ages ago under someone’s name and people gas stoves for at least the next 50 years. How do forgotten, is allotted to somebody else. Then the people who you think they’re staying hale and hearty? It is because it has been allotted to dis- they have enough fuel wood cover when they start using it to cook their food and keep that they are in conflict with them healthy.” someone else who it turns “Everyone was up in arms against me about “Rules and acts are out, also owns the land.” that, but I said ‘those communities are for regulatory purposes. I “It’s a horrible situation, already sitting there. Act or no act, remember when we were in a and very agonizing for the village to talk to the locals people. It’s like a huge you can’t find another place for them to go. about avoiding using timber system failure. Someone’s They’re tilling literally tiny pieces of land, for fuel, the women asked me: mistake in the 70s or 80s, ‘Do you eat raw food? You demarcation of the wrong smaller than that of most small farmers, must cook it too, right? You tell land that the villagers need eking something out of them. What’s the us where to cook if we are not now and which takes a to use wood as fuel, and we lengthy and difficult process harm in it? They’re not murdering anybody!” will.’ That is the role of the to de-reserve.