Goa's other Films Fest & fruit Gene Bank By Valmiki Faleiro
June is when our thoughts turn to Mother Nature. June 5 is World Environment Day, but a day of special significance to Goa: when the heavens open with thunderous claps, to pour forth benevolence on a parched earth. And begin the process of regeneration of life. Farmers are out, nature celebrates, plants, insects and animals emerge, to increase and multiply. Environment is a many faceted term. Let us look at two events: a stellar effort to preserve for posterity the genes of Goa's unique mango and jackfruit varieties and the other, an upcoming one, 'Vatavaran,' Goa's environmental films fest. A Film Festival that, unlike IFFI, promises to splurge not tonnes of the taxpayers' money but pure entertainment and enlightenment for the old and young. Both events connect: they fuel on private initiative. 'Vatavaran' and the building of the plant gene bank, tell a story of tremendous effort by a few individuals, who work without ado or fanfare. It matters little if not all of them are ethnic Goans. We have come a long way from the 1970s, when indiscriminate mining went barely noticed. Goa's environmental consciousness was almost zero. Then came a man called Dr. Claude Alvares. I remember his 10-something page study of the rape of Goa via mining, published by a leading national magazine. Try polluting the atmosphere today, whether a spring in Bardez or an alcohol factory's effluents in Canacona. Goa now has several NGOs, committed to environment. It is events like 'Vatavaran' that further Goa's consciousness on environment. Vatavaran-2006 will exclusively showcase environmental films by independent filmmakers from across India. It is organized by Moving Images Film Club, in association with the Goa Science Centre, Miramar. The weeklong fest begins tomorrow, at the Science Centre. Expect an inspiringly delectable fare of some 50 films - from Nikhil & Niret Alva's "Lions of Gir" to Romulus Whitaker's "King Cobra," from Riverbank Studio's "Shores of Silence, Whale Sharks in India" to Mike Pandey's "Kalpavriksha," which traces India's medicinal plants and tribal wisdom. The ambit is vast, the films multi-lingual. (My one regret is that Rahul Alvares, who chased an unconventional dream and has written two books on reptiles, is yet to take to film-shooting wildlife.) So from tomorrow through next Sunday, you have more than the World Cup showing. Enjoy! At the fag end of Goa's mango and jackfruit season, it's time to recall some splendid work towards preservation of the unique varieties of both fruit. Two individual initiatives, even if one is under the namesake label of India's premier agricultural research institution. I do not have the space to do justice to both stories. So for today, I'll only tell you how I stumbled across them. I had this aunt, T.Olinda, dad's unmarried sister. Green fingers, she raised her own seedlings, made her own grafts. She used the bone of a particular deer's antler to make the inverted-triangle incision in the mother tree and anthill soil to 'bandage' her surgery - for success, she said. She counted with pride at least 22 fruit varieties at any given time in the family yard pink Grape Fruit (Pomelo), half a dozen types of Lime, both varieties of Chikoo and its cousin Adama (AdanvFoll in Konkani). A weakness for citrus and sapota! Then there were mango and mulberry, cashew and coffee the list is long, but of course, coconut, of which she had one from Seychelles and another that bore nuts 15 inches in diameter. All seeded or grafted with her own hands. While building a new house, the trees were rampaged by an army of labourers camped in the backyard. House now almost complete, I turned to the backyard. I must restore at least 22 varieties. This led to a search, and to two friends, Radharao Gracias and Johnny da Silva. If you think that law and politics are Radharao's only pursuits, think again. Try telling him about a new migratory bird sighted at some remote corner of Goa. He'll drop Dabolim and scamper to Mopa to catch sight of the bird. Other than his vast knowledge, Radharao is encyclopaedic on birds, India's and migratory - and mangoes. He has close to 30 of Goa's mango varieties planted at his Majorda orchard. Johnny da Silva is a successful interior decorator in Margao. Horticulture is his sheer labour of love. His weekend breaks are at the huge orchard in Cavrem, Quepem. Radharao led me to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and to mangoes. (Also to my esteemed friend, Dr. Romeno Faleiro, with the ICAR close to two dozen years - many of them in foreign lands, on loan, tackling pest outbreaks - now a Senior Scientist (Entomology) but could shortly be ICAR's Principal Scientist.) Johnny, on the other hand, led me to 'Bab Keni' and to jackfruits. More on that next Sunday. (ENDS) The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at: http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330 ============================================================================== The above article appeared in the June 18, 2006 edition of the Herald, Goa _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org)