Good morning everybody, Im going to relate the experiences of an environment activist
working in a remote, small area which is Sihunta sub tehsil, of the most backward district,
Chamba. You know, forests are the backbone of mountain ecology. And the Himalayas is the
most fragile mountain chain of the world. But, very vital for determining the climatic
function for providing so many environmental services, ecological services to Indian sub
continent. Unfortunately the department managing our forests in mountain areas and India as
a whole as well , with a colonial baggage on its head, was even after Independence managing
these forests, for shear commercial ends. And the basic strategy for that was improvement
forestry in the name of scientific forestry. It was more of a commercial and improvement
forestry, not at all scientific forestry because for this improvement forestry, most of the
natural forests areas were being clear felled, full of bio-diversity, multiple species, which
were giving, rich livelihoods to the local people, and conserving water and soils of
the Himalayas, they were being converted into, Pine and Eucalyptus monoculture in lower hills
and into Deodar in higher hills. This was on one hand damaging the livelihood of the
local community and on the second hand, it was damaging the capacity of this great mountain
to give ecological services. I, as a young man of 23, could understand that there is something
wrong is going on. And as a social worker, with my few friends, wanted to work on this
and fortunately one day, at Pathankot, in Prasthan Ashram, an ashram established by
Vinoba ji, while he was on his travel for Bhu-daan movement, I met Shri Sunderlal Bhuguna.
He was on his way to Srinagar, to start world famous Kashmir - Kohima CHIPKO foot march.
I found the answer for my questions. And I put myself to join him and I did that. And
right from Langera village at J&K and Himachal border to Kundni in Jaunsarbadar, the then
UP border for another two and half months, I remained with him in that foot march. That
first hand interaction with the people convinced me all the more that whatever I was feeling
that was right. All the people around Himalayas are suffering from the same problem, threat to
livelihood and threat of ecological disaster. I decided to start my work from Sihunta area.
We raised nursery and replaced the forest plantation of Pine and Eucalyptus monoculture,
which was being taken up by clear felling the natural forests and girdling the local
species. These are the two images, where the tree had been debarked, to artificially dry
trees, to make space for a commercial specie plant. So we raised our nurseries, of local
species, of fruit, fodder, fuel, fiber, fertiliser and maximum species. And replaced the forest
plantations every season for two years. But that needed big effort because plantations
were quite spread in farflung areas. So one of my very wise but illiterate friend gave
a beautiful advise. Instead of replacing the plantations in these areas, why cant we replace
the nursery. So we collected seeds of the required species, of multiple use , food,
fodder, fiber species and replaced the nurseries in whole of that sub tehsil, Sihunta, in 18 37 00:06:32,000--> 00:06:42,000 panchayats. The forest department hit back. Cases were registered against 43 of us. But
people were involved in thousands, so they called the police station at Sihunta, but
the police couldn't arrest us. But ultimately, we were called to negotiate, by the government,
to Shimla, by then Chief Minister. I could meet him on 22nd March 1984 in the assembly
office. Mr Ranjit Singh, MP in Chamba region was also sitting there. I could prove my point
by showing these pictures, This is how their forest department is destroying the natural
forests and livelihoods are at threat. And why this clear felling, of the local species?
this is a clear felled forest of Bauhinia vahlii, a creeper. The department declares
it a parasite, but this is so useful for farmers that its used in 15 different activities,
including, making leaf plates, which is called PATTAL in this area. The Chief Minister was
shocked to see all this. Really! Forest department is doing this type of forestry! The Chief
Conservator, Forests, present there couldnt explain, he could only say that this is a
standard practice of improvement forestry. How funny it was! This was the types improvement
being done to our forests. Our demands were accepted. The orders were issued to stop this
improvement forestry. And plantation of eucalyptus was stopped in government forests, because
it is highly water depleting species. The pine plantation in and around villages was
stopped. This is the copy of the letter and second one is the order. The pine plantation
was banned in and around villages and pasture area because pine destructs all grasses and
undergrowth. It is a highly aggressive specie destroying all biodiversity. So that was also
banned. Oak and Rododendron were declared protected species. And surplus dry fuel which
was being exported, (converted into charcoal ,and then exported), it was also banned from
the area where fuel scarcity is there. This was one achievement which enthused us to work
more vigoursly. We were quite aware that the mainstream development model is destroying
the ecology of Himalayas. The recent catastrophe of Uttrakhand,has proved beyond doubt, had
there been no this type of aggressive development, which converted 30,000 hectares of land in
last 12 years, in Uttrakhand for these development projects. Vishnuprayag power project when
collapsed increased the havoc manifold. This is the time, when we should be humble enough
to respond and try to levy from these bad experiences. But the irony of the age is,
that instead of looking for alternative development model , we are going to replay the same follies.
Its not only the hydro power, the cement industry, the unmindful road construction, unscientific
road construction, throwing the debries down the slow, destroying all the forests mercilessly.
We must prepare to find technological alternatives, and activity based alternative as well, where
we cannot construct a road without destroying long stretches of forests. We can build ropeways.
Where road is possible to be constructed, we can construct with a better technology,
that is cut and fill technology is quite acceptable that way. And when we are going for generating
electricity, because we need electricity, we need industrial growth, but there is a
limit to the exploitation of Himalayas. And we should determine the limit. Recognise that
limit and should never cross that limit. We should decide, that one river should not be
exploited more than 60%, say for example, but our rivers are going to die 100%. Ravi
a small river, flowing in district Chamba, it runs 76km in Himachal Pradesh. But when
all the proposed and all on going projects are completed, only 4km of this river will
be flowing independently. Rest of it, either will be in impoundment or in tunnels. So do
we expect our rivers to die like that? Can Himalaya bear this type of manmade disaster
to our riverine systems? And this is just one example. We are behaving everywhere like
that. The cement plants we are running after them. Everywhere government is declaring that
11 of them are in pipeline. And now one is coming up at Andora, may be some grinding
unit from the power project being constructed at Chamba. This type of destruction and destructing
development we are going to bring, but the same time we want that large scale of employment
could be build in tourism. Tourism and cement industry, cannot go together. No one will
come to Himachal to see denuded, destructed landscapes. So we while going for this development,
development is not a thing which just has started after industrial revolution, its a
regular process. The idea of India, the message of India, was always respecting nature along
with development. Gandhi ji said, that we must learn to differentiate between need and
greed. Nature has enough to fulfil the needs of everybody but has nothing for the greed
of anybody. That can be a guiding principle. So we must aspire and plan and struggle, especially
everybody of us, but especially the young amongst us, for a type of development, which
is ecologically sustainable. Because we are not the last generation on this earth. We
should strive for development which is ecologically sustainable and which is full of equity, intra-generation,
and inter-generation equity. We must spare enough for our generations to come. The resources, of
the nature, should be conserved for them, so that the life process, the life cycle,
goes for ever , goes on forever, forever, forever, unhindered. That would be the real
development. WE can redefine development not as affluent which is done today, affluence
is for not development. Happiness, peace and prosperity, with contentment can be best development.
Contentment should be the resultant of any development. Lets us rethink. Thank you.