A school for me too
The Nanagu Shaale programme of a Karnataka-based NGO shows why the national Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan's provision of home-based education for
children with special needs may in practice defeat the ideological objective of inclusion.
Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya
reports.
When legal redress isn't enough to protect children
Hospital-based Collaborative Child Response Units can go a long way in providing immediate medical attention, minimising secondary trauma, and
ensuring that children abused sexually get adequate social support.
Vinita A Shetty
looks at why these CCRUs are so critical for minor victims.
Tackling preventable blindness through screening in schools
Various independent studies and research reveal close to 20 per cent of students across India suffering from some degree of visual impairment. A new initiative from the Nayonika Eye Care Charitable Trust seeks to correct this through the combined efforts of a wider network.
NREGA workers kept waiting for wages
A performance audit of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Karnataka reveals delayed payment of wages, sometimes by three months or
more, to nearly five lakh workers under the scheme during the period 2009-12.
Himanshu Upadhyaya
looks at the key audit findings and connects the dots.
Life in uneasy forest terrain
In July this year, the B Marappa Memorial Trust and the Karnataka Forest Department honoured 14 professionals for their commitment towards
and excellence in forest and wildlife protection.
Bosky Khanna
talks to two of them about their work, motivation and challenges.
Reading beyond Siddaramaiah’s lines
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah presented the maiden budget of the recently elected Congress government on July 12, but does his populist package promise anything beyond mere intent?
Sridhar Pabbisetty
elaborates.
Vegetables in the backyard
A retired physician in small-town Manipal in Karnataka sets an example in kitchen gardening and highlights the many benefits it brings apart from the yield itself.
Shree Padre
brings us his remarkable story.
A 'pilot' that lost direction
While the government claims that an Aadhaar-linked system for direct transfer of social security benefits and receivables will soon be a reality
across India, a local experiment devised around reimbursement of LPG subsidy in Mysore fails to raise hope.
Bharat Bhatti
reports.
"I am neither an atheist nor a theist"
Karnataka's new chief minister Siddaramaiah is certainly more left-leaning than some of his counterparts in the Congress party at the Centre.
Fielding questions on Kannada TV's Suvarna News, he displays a calm demeanour to round off the tough-man image he has cultivated over the
years. India Together brings you translated excerpts from the interview.
What makes world class cities?
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised Bengaluru world class infrastructure on the eve of elections in Karnataka, recently.
Subramaniam Vincent
exposed the farce in a letter to him.
Both of India's politics on display in KA
There are two spheres of politics being played out in India at present. One is patronage, and the second, aspirational. During the just concluded Karnataka assembly elections, both were seen. More and more people are waking up to the aspirational one, writes
Subramaniam Vincent
Wanted: A clamour for better governance
Bangalore, once the poster-boy of new age India and its development, is now crumbling, having been sorely let down by the administration and politics of the state. As Karnataka heads for polls,
Subramaniam Vincent, discusses the prospects and necessary preconditions for change with independent MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
Diversion of forest land denounced
The grant of close to 10000 acres of forest land in Chitradurga district for non-forestry purposes threatens the ecology as well as the means of subsistence of local communities, leading irate villagers to decide to boycott the impending State Assembly elections.
Malini Shankar
reports.
Kannada TV channels cross the line
In a desperate bid to outdo each other in television rating points, regional news channels are increasingly resorting to celebrity coverage
bordering on tabloid journalism that infringes the right to individual privacy.
B S Nagaraj
comments on the trend.
Industrial corridors: Boon or bane?
The proposal to create two industrial corridors around Bangalore has generated heady excitement, but this needs to be tempered with
rationalism and transparency around water and land acquisition, says
B S Nagaraj.
Why is Naveen Soorinje still in jail?
Despite a political decision to drop charges against Kannada TV reporter Naveen Soorinje,
he continues to remain in prison. A PIL filed soon after the decision has put the case in limbo.
Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya
tracks and analyses the developments.
Cauvery: Preferring politics to solutions
Findings of a unique apolitical initiative that brings farmers from the Cauvery basin together indicate that a fair distress-sharing
formula may not be as elusive as it seems.
Shamala Kittane
reports.
Police forged complaint to arrest reporter
How did a journalist who covered the infamous homestay attack for his employer end up in jail with serious charges leveled against him? The Mangalore Police holds the answer, finds
Vaishnavi Vittal.
Bangalore's graduate MLC race has stark contrasts
Graduates are difficult to influence with money and liquor, says one BJP campaigner flatly about the race for Bengalurus MLC seat. The Lok Satta candidate meanwhile is targeting precisely the reform seekers amongst the elite.
Navya P K
reports.
A permanent poverty
Are the numerous benefit schemes really helping anyone get out of poverty, or are they merely petty politics that victimises
the poor, asks
R Balasubramaniam.
Bangalore NGO among Nobel nominees
For its work on child rights and participation in governance, Bangalore-based Concerned for Working children has received the big nomination this year.
Navya P K
has more.
Karnataka Lokayukta report may go in vain, feel some
Even as Justice Santosh Hegde credibly exposed the Karnataka government for its many scams, senior state politicans and Bangalore's academics worry that nothing will eventually come of it.
Sriram Vittalamurthy
reports from an October meeting in the city.
Measuring how netas perform
There is no data at the constituency level about how the development indicators have changed over the tenure of the local
elected MLA or MP.
Veena Ramanna
reports.
A flawed food security system
The unseen impact of corruption on the millions of the deserving poor does not seem to affect our collective conscience.
We are losing a great opportunity to show we care, writes
R Balasubramaniam.
A review of the KSHRC
Karnataka's Human Rights Commission's work suffers from many weaknesses - the composition, manner of operations,
and the lack of force of its recommendations to the Government.
Swagata Raha
writes.
Scientists bless betelnut leaves for cattle fodder
It has been known informally for long. But recently, animal nutrition scientists announced that areca leaf sheath fodder can replace paddy straw. This is timely, since paddy straw supply has been declining, notes
Shrikrishna D.
In north Karnataka, dried banana bits are a hit
For the last one year,
Parameshwara Hegde Tumbemane hasnt taken his banana crop to the market. He has instead used it to make sukeli, a delicious dried version and that is getting popular in the Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka.
Shrikrishna D
has more.
How an ex-lecturer turned around the land
With two decades of continuous research and wise management, this ex-lecturer in Karnataka's Udupi district has made a barren hillock into a model of rain harvesting.
Shrikrishna D
reports.
Was this tigress a man-eater or threatened?
A tigress recently attacked and killed a man inside the Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Karnataka.
Malini Shankar digs deeper to find answers for the inevitable question.
UN e-waste report spotlights India
Did you know that Titan Industries, the wristwatch major, does safe disposal of 600,000-700,000 of its old watches each year as part of e-waste management? Darryl D'Monte on a recent UN report that highlighted India's massive e-waste challenges and silver linings.
No home to take them in
Notwithstanding these hellholes called shelters, the state government has been going gung-ho about its swift action to resettle the flood victims in North Karnataka. A visit to one such shed revealed the officials heartless rhetoric writes
Savita Hiremath.
Blast bole and bloom together?
It takes more to feed the family amidst destroyed houses and ruined hopes. The flood-hit women in North Karnataka are putting up with more than what their menfolk could ever empathise with.
Savita Hiremath
has more.
How they pulled their farm back from the brink
"Trying to measure the success of water harvesting only with increased water level is not fair. The vegetation improves, so does the soil moisture.
Shree Padre
reports on an arecanut farming family's success.
First in RWH, but not self-reliant yet
Ankola railway station along the rainy Konkan coast is in a heavy rainfall area yet is suffering from water shortages.
Shree Padre
reports on half-hearted water harvesting efforts here.
Lokayukta slams mining in Karnataka's forests
A long history of questionable practices in the mining industry catches up with its practitioners, landing the whole affair in the Supreme Court.
Kanchi Kohli
reports.
Criticism rising on Karnataka's Gundia project
Karnataka's plan to harvest power from the Gundia river that runs through the Hassan and Dakshin Kannada districts has been criticised by environmentalists, farmers and the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.
Bhanu Sridharan
investigates.
The unkindest cut of all
Post October floods in North Karnataka, Dalits find themselves in a greater predicament. A century of struggle for equal rights and worse, fundamental faith in human progress, is at stake, writes Savita Hiremath.
Everybody loves a good flood
Sloppy and biased surveys of damaged houses and paltry compensation have made the flood victims in Koppal and Bellary districts run from pillar to post to get what is rightfully theirs, writes
Savita Hiremath.
Devastated by floods, but drowned by corruption
North Karnataka's flood victims feel that it was relatively easier to run away from raging waters than dealing now with a corrupt bureaucracy and eking out a livelihood fraught with imponderables.
Savita Hiremath
investigates.
Where Suvarna Jala fails, schools leap ahead
It's a classic headline: "Government-funded rainwater harvesting for public schools goes wrong, money wasted". However in one district, the tale is altogether different.
Shree Padre
records the positives and the lessons.
Once bitten, twice not shy
This is a bill that the Governor of Karnataka sent back to the state government in 2007 saying that it "evidently seems to undermine the Constitutional mechanism for rural development governance.." The same bill may be back in the state assembly soon, warns
Nandana Reddy.
Parastatals and task forces - the new decision-makers
In the name of good governance, decision-making powers in Karnataka are being given to parastatal organizations and non-elected task forces.
Kathyayini Chamaraj
asks for a re-look at outsourcing government.
Put in the water, take out the guarantee
Earlier, this tank was providing water for 600 trees only. Now 2000 trees are being irrigated from the tank itself for four months.
Shree Padre
as another success story, this one from southwestern Karnataka.
Softening hard water with rain
Rainwater harvesting need not be limited to household purposes. It can be successfully implemented to solve water problems in commercial establishments too, as demonstrated by an automobile dealer agency in Mangalore.
Shree Padre
has more.
The gift from the sky
Frustrated with the hardness of borewell water, H Ramesh and his family are harvesting rain in their Mysore house
for almost all their domestic uses.
Shree Padre
has more.
A village on the screen
Girish Kasaravalli's latest film is a beautiful celluloid essay on the trials and tribulations of a poor Muslim woman, Gulabi, as the world around
her changes in response to apparently unconnected events.
Shoma Chatterji
reviews the film.
Hug and save the trees
The 25-year-long journey
History was created on 8 September 1983 when people from villages around Salkani in Uttara Kanada district undertook an eight-kilometre-long trek to resist massive tree-felling operations underway at the Kalase forests. Hordes of men and women lay seize to the forest over the next three months, hugging the trees and forcing the perpetrators with little option but an unceremonious exit.
Western ghats, a biodiversity hotspot. Pic: From Paradise Lost, a report published by Prakruti, Uttara Kannada, Karnataka.
The news spread fast, catching the imagination of forest dwellers across the state in Kodagu, South Kanara, Chikamaglur and Shimoga districts. Appiko, meaning hug the trees, soon became a potent expression to counter violence against nature, reflecting empathy towards forests. It seems a cosmic force was fuelling indelible energy into each of us, recalls M N Mableshwar of Gubbigadde village in Sirsi.
The villagers of Gubbigadde and Balegadde, who were the first to lodge a formal protest against clear felling, wonder if Appiko could have found a better home than Uttara Kannada. Called the forest district, this region had an impressive 82 per cent of its geographical area under forests in 1950, earning the tropical evergreen forests in the Western Ghats the distinction of being one of the 16 global biodiversity hotspots in the world.
Despite hailing from the forest district himself, then Chief Minister of Karnataka Ramkrishna Hegde took six years to withdraw the timber concessions given to forest based industries and impose a moratorium on felling of green trees in the natural forests. Passed in 1990, the order has been valid till date. But for this order, the region would have long been shaved off its pristine green cover for filling the insatiable desire for industrial development mining, paper industry, hydro power and railways.
Dubious justifications for forest clearance have made a mockery of the order, laments Pandurang Hegde, who not only led the movement but continues to anchor it. Six hydropower projects including a nuclear power plant on the 184-km short stretch of river Kali have already accounted for loss of 21,000 hectares of forests. The irony is that of the 1800 MW power being produced in the district, local consumption doesn't exceed 18 MW.
New challenges
There are significant milestones that the movement recounts as it begins to prepare itself for the challenges that lie ahead. Given the fact that the global discourse on democracy toes the neo-liberal model of market economy, the future of social movements like Appiko face new challenges. As consumerism casts its influence on young minds, the next generation lacks the empathy to align with social causes.
With a view to convert present challenges into future opportunity and to showcase the significance of the Western Ghats from a wider perspective, it has been decided that the historic day of 8 September will henceforth be observed each year as the Sahyadri Day, so that the chants of Ulisu, Belasu and Balasu continue to echo in the region.
Success for Appiko
Appiko may have lost some ground to changing developmental priorities but the ethos of a movement guided by sheer grit and determination still persists. Three years ago, it organised a massive protest against the proposed 4,000 MW Barge Mounted Power Plant at Tadadi. Over 25,000 people protested the setting-up of a plant that could have devastated 1,800 hectares of estuary, created at the point where river Aghanashini empties itself into the Arabian Sea. The livelihoods of local fishermen came in handy in making a case against the proposed project.
The scrapping of the proposed seventh dam on river Kali and the holding back of the proposed rail link cutting across 2,000 hectares of tropical forests between Hubli and Ankola on account of environmental clearance are more examples of the success and continued relevance of Appiko.
Appiko has neither been opposed to growth nor development; it views nature conservation complementary to human growth and survival. While forests can be converted into monetary terms, there is no way the fundamental role of tropical forests in pulling the strong oceanic currents to offload their showers can have a replacement. As the threat of climate change becomes real, there could not be anything more pressing than protecting the monsoon gateway (i.e., Sahyadri) to the country.
With a view to convert present challenges into future opportunity and to showcase the significance of the Western Ghats from a wider perspective, it has been decided that the historic day of 8 September will henceforth be observed each year as the Sahyadri Day, so that the chants of Ulisu, Belasu and Balasu continue to echo in the region. From modulating climate change to maintaining river discharge and from maintaining biodiversity to enriching nutrient regime, preservation of tropical forests can open a new window of opportunity at the global scale to generate unique ecological capital. It is in this context that Appiko is repositioning itself for a major role in the coming years.
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Sudhirendar Sharma
Sudhirendar Sharma is a water expert and Director of the Delhi-based Ecological Foundation.
Write the author
It was 25 years ago this month when villagers in Karnataka undertook an eight-kilometre-long trek to resist massive tree-felling at the Kalase forests. In today's milieu, the Appiko movement is facing fresh challenges, writes
Sudhirendar Sharma.
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10 September 2008 - If your journey along the west coast still remains picturesquely green, thank the chants that had rented the air of this region 25 years ago, and which seemingly echo even today. Chanting the Kannada slogan of Ulisu, Belasu and Balasu, meaning save, grow and sustain, the forest-loving people of Uttara Kannada - the most green district in the country stood up against the tyranny of the state that was clearing the native forests to pave way for monoculture plantations.
Some good news on conservation
A familiar battle at Tadadi
Building a fresh engagement with the younger generation to sustain countervailing forces and contest the oppressive policies of globalisation is a formidable challenge, admits Hegde. The key word of ecology has been replaced by economy and conservation makes room for consumption. In the present context, environment versus development debate is considered anti-growth both by the state as well as sections of the public. Be it land, water or forests, each natural entity gets viewed through an economic standpoint. Obsession with growth has helped brew widespread apathy towards ecological conservation. Needless to say, times have changed and the challenges have been further compounded since Appiko movement was launched 25 years ago.
10 Sep 2008
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Blessed by water
Father Benjamin D'Souza's rain harvesting measures in four acres of the Tallur Church campus in coastal Karnataka have assured zero runoff for the last half a decade and watered neighbouring wells too. Shree Padre reports.
The new avatar of banks
Over the years, nationalised banks have had to buckle up and polish their looks to serve new generation customers and meet stiff competition from the private sector. But the personal touch, valuable to many customers, has been lost, laments
Sudha Narasimhachar
a former PSU-banker.