Why should they spare whale, because it was a great profit? How to convince them and who will take initiative to make them understand, that they should stop this slaughter? To save these species getting extinct, a unique partnership was devised.
Public-private partnerships played a very important role here. Of course, all other partners were behind the curtain. Famous Ram Katha narrator and religious leader Mr Morari Bapu was roped in this and he was the only savior. His Rama Katha was organized. He explained that this shark whale is visiting Gujarat sea coast for delivering her young. A daughter comes home, to her parent's house in our society. It travels to many places, coming from African shores, how you can not treat her like your daughter. His religious appeal evoked the right sentiments among the local fisherman. The whale shark is saved.
Yes, the partnership is with the Forest Department, Wildlife Trust of India, Tata Chemicals and local fisherman community. Whenever a shark is trapped in the net, a whole gamut of machinery releases the shark in the sea and compensates this fisher community.
Life on land- the climate change has disturbed many life cycles.
Universally familiar in appearance, the widespread and once abundant house sparrow has become a mystery bird and is becoming increasingly rare all over the world. Perky and bustling, small, plump and cheeky, house sparrows have always been gregarious, mingling with finches in the fields in autumn and winter, especially when stubble is available to them. For years we felt irritated, but now weeks pass without a single one putting in an appearance. That took me to my school days when we read the well-known Hindi writer Mahadevi Verma’s story ‘Goraiya’. That time it felt surprising- neither a king nor a fairy nor a great leader was the subject of a story, but a small Goraiya! Because this drab brown and grey creature befriended us humans with its chirps and cute little ways and became part of our lives.
We might not be realized, but every quarter, our house requires spray of insecticides. Small, little worms and insects which were cleaned by sparrows have open ground in the house. Our mothers-house managers ask for a solution- we ask for an insecticide company to spray.
Why it disappeared? Goraiya used to stay with humans, in their houses, behind the furniture, inside the niche, side of the pillars etc. In modern living conditions, we have air tight houses to run air condition machines. We have closed the entry of house sparrow. Result? We are facing.
Another glaring example is of coexistence or dependence!
The Parsee community in Mumbai has been deeply worried about the last rites of their departed near and dear ones since the late 1990s. The Parsees, a small community in India follow the Zoroastrian faith. In keeping with tradition, they cannot cremate, bury or submerge their dead in water because a corpse is considered impure and Zoroastrianism does not permit defiling the elements with it. The Parsees practice sky burials wherein the bodies of the dead are placed on platforms atop Towers of Silence where vultures, kites and crows dispose of them in no time, leaving only dry bones.
Once, when the community went to place another one of their dead, to their horror they found the previous corpse in a decomposed state. The community and the city of Mumbai noticed the first signs of disappearing vultures!
Vultures are not disappearing only in India. In many parts of Africa, communities depend on vultures to dispose livestock carcasses because no carrion removal system exists. People in African communities also noticed carcasses strewn everywhere outside their villages for days on end. In Asia, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos have also observed rotting carcasses that no longer attract vultures because there are not many lefts.
Dead vultures were found in Nepal and Pakistan, and this heightened concern. A banned drug, diclofenac is used to treat suffering cattle. The endangered birds eat the remains of the carcasses of drugged animals and suffer kidney failure and visceral gout, which is usually fatal. The absence of vultures produces ecological imbalance, pollution and health dangers. Increasing urbanization, rampant use of pesticides in agricultural fields, mounting pollution and wide-scale killing of vultures are all contributing factors to vulture endangerment.
Sustainable cities – look at our own city! The Aravalli mountain Range, started near Delhi- in south-west direction, passing through Haryana and Rajasthan. How many hills and beautiful ridges are left? So, that green cover we have lost. We see different kind of mountains in and around the city. They are mountains of garbage collected from the city dwellers. Are people living around these mountains get good health and wellbeing?
There are tens of hundreds of such examples, which tells us- our lives are interdependent with all living beings and also panchmahabhoota.
There are goals of Sustainable cities and communities and Responsible Production and Consumption.
Here is a success story of The Magarpatta city. More popularly known as ‘Oxygen Zone’ is located in the city of Pune in the Western part of India. The moment one steps in this township, his/her head will spin in astonishment. The cleanliness, fresh air, zero pollution, everything is beyond one’s level of comprehension. One will feel, I am not in this country, I am abroad somewhere! Each house of the city is provided with a solar water heater. Additionally, there is a biogas power generation plant that converts two tonnes of organic waste into 10.7 million kWh of electricity every day. Other major activities such as rainwater harvesting, Waste water recycling, and solid waste management, are also implemented in the showcase city.
Magarpatta is a one-of its-kind integrated township developed by 120 families of farmers from Magarpatta who came together to pool in their ancestral land. Believe me, it is purely farmer-citizens effort. Approved by the Government of Maharashtra it is spread over 430 acres of prime land, which is planned on the core idea of ‘walk-to-walk, walk–to-school’ elimination the stress of travelling for both parents and their children.
The goal was to create a city where the needs of a family would be integrated into one campus. It emphasizes on environment, education, health care and fitness, and recreation as well. A brief status on the renewable energy technologies/devices integrated in the complex are Solar Water Heating System, Solar Passive Architecture, Solid Waste management, Sewage Water Treatment, Water harvesting, Extensive Landscaping and much more.
So, nothing is impossible to achieve. Collective wisdom, determination, perseverance is required.
There is a goal regarding clean water. Nature always gives us clean water, but we profit-hungry human beings, contaminating it. Why? To save taxes, to save expenditure on disposal, to increase profit!
And how? I will give you a small example. In South Gujarat, in a town, people started getting reddish-yellow water in the tap. It was not potable at all, not only that, it was harmful to the body- skin and abdomen both. People were surprised. How did it happen? The main industry of this town is the coloring of cloth and sarees. It was mandatory for each industrial unit to treat it, and dispose of it in a safe manner, away from habitation. If industry people install this treatment plants, it incurs expenditure, meaning profit will be reduced. They devised a homogenous method of disposing of this harmful wastewater. We are 'jugaadu', right! They started pumping this water deep in the soil, which polluted the groundwater river which was the source of the city. Now whom to blame- the industrialist who did not have a conscience? The officers or administration of the town-government machinery who ignored this activity because, they did not foresee the result of this or perhaps, their palms were greased?
I remember one incident of a handicapped child. It is an incident from Maharashtra. The state government had a policy, one deaf child of a house- or parents will be given all aid- medical- transport- hearing aid- how to use it, school admission etc. Students from Tata Institute of Social Sciences-TISS, were in the field, identified a child, and started treatment. It so happened that two children in the same family had a problem and BABU sitting in the secretariat refused to give aid for the second child. The Student from TISS fought tooth and nail and got the aid for both the children of the same family.
But remember, nothing comes easy and free. The student had to spend for conveyance from her own pocket to visit the doctor, gather required certificates from certain authorities, spend on transport for the 4 members of the family, skip lectures, forget lunch, feed those 4 members of the family,…but she finally won the case! So, perseverance…will definitely bring you good, desired results.
We have to create awareness- only law and law machinery will not bring good results! we have to be friends with them, one among them and change their wrong ideas, misinformation, and their heart.
Remember, every single person deserves equal respect and generosity. Perhaps a person who has been harassed either by human beings, circumstances or disaster, needs sympathy as well.
The stable functioning of Earth systems — including the atmosphere, oceans, forests, waterways, biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles — is a prerequisite for a thriving global society.
Human pressure risks causing widespread, abrupt, and possibly irreversible changes to basic Earth-system processes. Water shortages, extreme weather, deteriorating conditions for food production, ecosystem loss, ocean acidification, ozone layer depletion, and sea-level rise are real dangers that threaten development and trigger humanitarian crises across the globe.
Growing affluence and the right to development among the world's poor demand that people of all nations make the transition to sustainable lifestyles.
Sustainable development should meet the needs of the present while safeguarding Earth's life-support system, on which the welfare of current and future generations depends.
Our ancestors developed agriculture and modern societies since the ice-clad northern hemisphere, re-developed farming techniques, modified them, and brought them till the present date. This provides us a scientific reference point. Indeed, these are the only conditions we know that can support modern life.
When I am talking about our farming techniques of our ancestors, let me tell you, we have received an earthen pot full of grains from the excavation site of Harappa- There is an earthen, well fired jar within a jar, well designed, the outer-one is perforated, to enable air circulation, perhaps and the inner jar contains grains in very good condition. Late Dr S R Rao, a world-renowned marine archaeologist got this in one of his excavations. He discovered 50 sites of Indus civilization and excavated Rangpur and Lothal in Gujarat.
The ozone layer in the stratosphere shields life on earth from most ultra violet-B rays and Ultra violet-C rays. In this layer, ozone and oxygen molecules are constantly formed, destructed and reformed. Freely moving oxygen molecules when bumping into O2-oxygen, they form ozone - O3, and when bumping into the same oxygen molecule, they form oxygen- O2. This process is so fast that a layer of ozone is maintained in the stratosphere, it acts as a barrier to the ultraviolet rays which are harmful to the earth’s surface, its living beings, and its ecosystem. UV-B radiation can cause direct DNA damage and skin cancer.
British scientists are measuring ozone in the Antarctic atmosphere since 1957. The first time in 1976 at Halley Bay, Antarctica recorded a low ozone amount and they thought it was malfunctioning of their instrument and researchers were not much concerned. Sometimes one finds a low ozone layer, but it is seasonal and recovers fast.
But this phenomenon occurred every year and in 1985 the scientists were certain that this was a major problem. They found an ozone hole and it was identified as the world’s largest ozone hole. This hole actually is a thinning of the ozone layer through which UV rays penetrate and reach earth.
Again, an incident was reported in 1992 that in the southern part of Chile cattle became blind. Gradually cases of people suffering severe burns of skin from short exposure to sunlight were also reported. Trees in large parts of this area were wilted and animals died because of starvation. Either we fail to get registered or we ignore to take note of indications that nature gives us from time to time. NASA reported in 1992 that ozone-depleting chlorine is found at a high level in Northern Hemisphere and this could lead to an ozone hole similar to that over Antarctica. So, apart from Sun-rays, another factor was also there to deplete the ozone layer!
During the 1960s, industries started using a chemical compound called chlorofluorocarbons-CFCs in air conditioners, aerosol spray cans, industrial cleaning products, and Styrofoam. Once in the atmosphere, the CFCs drift slowly upward and are broken due to ultraviolet radiation, releasing chlorine atoms, which are able to destroy ozone molecules.
Once in the atmosphere, CFCs drift slowly upward to the stratosphere, where they are broken up by ultraviolet radiation, releasing chlorine atoms, which are able to destroy ozone molecules. And this process is so fast that free oxygen molecules in the stratosphere could not be built back up. The ozone hole was getting larger.
Aerosols – that is suspension of solids and or liquid particles in the air we breathe as dust, smoke and haze -affect cloud formation and patterns of atmospheric circulation-for example the monsoon systems in tropical region. They also change how much solar radiation is reflected or absorbed in the atmosphere. Humans affect aerosol loading by pollution and land-use change that increases the release of dust and smoke. Biomass burning is one of the significant global sources of atmospheric aerosols and gas emissions.
Added to this are forests fires are also major source of carbon dioxide. They release carbon di-oxide –CO2, Carbon Monoxide -CO, Methane CO4, Volatile organic compounds-VOC, nitrogen oxides and halogen compounds. The green house gases CO2 and CO4 directly influence climate and human health and global warming. In urban areas carbonaceous aerosols associated with vehicular combustion are major source of pollution and radioactive effect.
How will we reduce inequalities? This can be achieved by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in great regards. They must not remain on paper-which is happening these days. Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, this will lead you to greater equality.
Second suggestion is ‘Be a feminist’. In any corner of the world, when women are given more respect, treated equal, allow them to pursue their personal dreams and ambitions, many problems are solved, Life improves for everyone. Women are energetic, inspiring, biologically stronger than men, and help us to move forward and not backward- Work harder for those who are in the category of ’Have nots’, because they need more support than anybody else.
Industry, Innovation and Infra structure
The city of Ahmedabad was considered The Manchester of India in the footsteps of the
Manchester city of the UK, which was the king in the production of textiles started with the first mill in 1861. Economic conditions and attitudes helped in installing total 66 mills in radius of 8 to 10 kilometers. How did it achieve this status?
Investment in infrastructure and innovations are crucial drivers of economic growth and development. To attract and invite skilled artisans from all over India, the owners of the mills started constructing residential facilities with potable water and proper sanitation. These rows of houses are called chawls. The same pattern was followed in the city of Mumbai where the work force was provided cheap, housing in the down town area.
This helped them to access the work place easily. The mill owners did earn a profit, but not at the cost of poor laborers! With over half the population of the world live in cities, mass transport and renewable energy are becoming more important. Growth of new industries, information and communication technologies are all around us. So, let us not talk about why it is not top in textiles today. Many factors are responsible. But the point of infrastructure in context of human beings, I wanted to bring forth.
Three pillars of sustainable development are economic, social and environmental.
To achieve these goals, we have to take care of, rather control climate change; the rate of biodiversity loss (terrestrial and marine); interference with the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles; stratospheric ozone depletion; ocean acidification; global freshwater use; change in land use; chemical pollution; and atmospheric aerosol loading.
Image Caption –
- Author - Kalpana Palkhiwala - Source –author
- Mountain of waste, Tughalaquabad, Delhi - Source –author
- SDGs UN -17 symbols Source – UN.org
Kalpana Palkhiwala, Author, Communicator & Painter, New Delhi
Ms Kalpana Ben Palkhiwala, is a Gandhian who retired as Dy Director, Ministry of I&B after working long with AIR, DAVP, PD, PIB of MIB, and MEA which gave her experience in Print, Electronic & Digital Media and management; Working as an educationist through her project ‘BapuGeetika-Songs for the Mahatma’; Has translated about 400 books from English-Hindi to Gujarati and vis–vis; Has written extensively on Environment, Forests, Science, and Technology; pursuing diversified interests, one of them is painting; She is also a Guest Lecturer at Gujarat Vidyapeeth and also associated with the L.J. Institute of Media and Communication, Ahmedabad. Contact- vanikalpana@gmail.com