Hello Mr. Pandit:
Greetings from far off St. Louis.
I presume it is you who generated this cynical and taunting
post. Ordinarily I don't poke my nose into such things. It is far
from the region I came from and have little knowledge of the people,
terrain, its flora or fauna involved in this proposal for expanding
Sariska which will involve displacement and relocation of villages. I
am responding purely on humanitarian and ecological considerations;
considerations that do and ought to transcend geographical boundaries.
After all we are fellow humans and are ( or at least expected to be)
custodians of this planet's flora and fauna -- its ecology.
With that introduction, I must say I find this taunting of the
people who have taken a stand, often at great personal risk, against
the rampant displacement of some of your society's most vulnerable
sectors, most unfortunate and unbecoming.
It really ought not to take extraordinary intellectual abilities
to make a distinction between displacement of agrarian people from the
land they live on and get their sustenance from on account of
avoidable, unnecessary or poorly conceived 'development' projects,
such as high-dams and undertakings to save a species, such as tigers,
from extinction. I am sure you have heard the phrase that 'extinction
is forever'. It is much more than a cliche'. It is not something that
is avoidable. There are no alternative solutions -- for example if the
tigers of Sariska are gone for ever due to a loss of habitat, you
could not argue that a few could be placed at Udaipur or in the
Thar and start a new habitat. Or that house cats are but a
cousin of tigers, an acceptable replacement.
Similarly, if the riverlinkers go dam up the Manas river in
Asssam or Arunachal and cut a 100 meter wide canal across the Tiger
Reserve to ferry water to south India, you could not replace the loss
by putting in a few extra tigers in some zoo.
Therefore, regardless of whether those who stood up for the
rights of displaced people on account of QUESTIONABLE 'development'
/'infrastructure' projects oppose the Sariska expansion or not,
you cannot get away with implying that they are mindless
opponents of 'progress' or of ALL infrastructure projects.
Furthermore, WHY exactly do you find it so horrible that these
activists "---fight for
exacting standards of rehab " for dam building
displacement, that if they do not rise up with equal outrage for the
Sariska displacements they could be held up to be hypocrites or
mindless opponents of 'progress'? Is it unfair to hold the feet of
those who promise fair rehab. to the fire, if they don't deliver? Do
these displaced not count as humans deserving of the same quality of
life that the beneficiaries of these so called 'infrastructure'
projects seek? Are those displaced by dam-building children of some
'lesser gods' not deserving of receiving alternative accommodations
conforming to "exacting standards"?
>We will soon know.
You might have to wait to find out if your disgruntlement is
valid. But we won't need to wait to see the validity of your
insinuations against the activists who stand for the rights of the
displaced and the dispossessed.
Best,
Chandan Mahanta
At 8:59 AM -0700 7/19/05, IWRS Delhi Center wrote:
Hindustan Times (New Delhi 19-7-2005) has reported that a decision has been taken to relocate 11 villages near Sariska, for which 222 Ha. forest land has been de-reserved.
(for overseas recipients of this mail, Sariska is a wildlife habitat and the purpose of relocation is to protect the wildlife therein). The interesting question now is, how do our Saviors of the Environment And Poor (SEAPs) handle this situation.
For almost two decades now, the SEAPs have been shouting themselves hoarse that people, and particularly the rural poor, ought not to be displaced from their land, no matter what the reason. Taking that stand was easy because invariably the reason was infrastructure development, like a dam, or an expressway, or improving Mumbai, etc.
Assuming their concern against displacement of people was genuine, it would be reasonable to expect them to take the same rigid stand against displacement this time too. So are they now going to file a PIL in the courts and get a stay order against the proposed displacement as they did in case of Sardar Sarovar dam ? Are they going to fight for the same exacting standards of rehab as was demanded in case of Sardar Sarovar, Tehri, Indira Sagar dams ? Are they going to flood the media space with the kind of essays as were written when the town of Harsud was relocated ?
When they opposed displacement then, there were many skeptics who said that all that was only a ploy to oppose infrastructure development in India. Well, now the SEAPs have an opportunity to prove the doubt mongers wrong, by taking up the cause of Sariska-displaced as vehemently as they did for dam-displaced.
The slogan then was Koi Nahi Hatega, Bandh Nahi Banega. Will it be now modified to Koi Nahi Hatega, Bagh Nahi Bachega ?
We will soon know.
IWRS-Delhi Center
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