Ram-da,
I am sorry I got mixed up with names of the journos killed. I meant Prahlad Goala and NOT Parag Das - as in the post below:
"the death of Prahlad Goala, who was apparently murdered on January 6. Goala had recently written a series of articles on corruption in the Assamese-language daily Asomiya Khabar that linked local forestry service officials to timber smuggling.
Local journalists told CPJ police arrested forest warden Zamman Jinnah in connection with the death."
Local journalists told CPJ police arrested forest warden Zamman Jinnah in connection with the death."
Umesh
Ram Sarangapani <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Umesh,You are totally off base here. Parag Das was killed some years ago, and it wasn't recent. And whats this connection that you are trying to make between forest officials and his death - have never heard that before?Yes, as Mayur said, you should ought to have done some research.Take care,-- Ram da
On 1/21/06, umesh sharma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:What about rhinos and elephants, tigers etc in Kajiranga Rhino National Park etc? WHen forest chiefs are accused of killing intrepid reporters like Parag Das recently who wrote about illegal activities in the jungle - there cannot be no smoke without fire, or whatever..any comments?UmeshEditorial: 2006: The tiger re-appears
=================================
2005 was definitely the year of the Indian tiger. The year began with
the tragic news of this magnificent animal's disappearance from the
Sariska tiger reserve, a protected space. This news became,
appropriately, the nation's obsession. I was asked to chair a Task
Force, and in three months we put out a report in the public domain.
The report drew attention.
When I introspect on what has happened in the name of the tiger this
year, I feel bereft. Not only because we continue to lose tigers, but
also because we continue to lose extremely precious time in holding on
to such entrenched positions regarding the tiger - and conservation in
general - that the statement "something has to be done about the tiger
and conservation" holds no meaning at all. We are losing ground
because we care: we care too much about our own stated positions that
we simply cannot agree to move on what needs to be done. The plight of
the tiger has become the country's biggest soap opera. It has drowned,
again, in its own cacophony.
Saving the tiger in 2006 will need us to change the terms of debate.
Let me explain. When I was asked to chair the Task Force - to examine
not only why tigers had disappeared in Sariska but also what needed to
be done in the future to safeguard the tiger - I returned with renewed
interest to an issue I was once deeply involved in. I had learnt after
years of seeing and listening, that conservation in a poor and
populated country like India could not afford to discount its greatest
asset, its people. Here, then, was an opportunity to test my belief
against reality, the situation on the ground.
What a test it turned out to be. I still do not know how to thank the
many people - wildlife researchers, conservation scientists, forest
bureaucrats (retired and in the field), activists - who told me what
needed to be done, in the short term and in the long term, to protect
the tiger and other wild creatures. We can never do justice to all the
voices of this complicated country. But the dots that exist must be
joined.
After 30 years of 'practical' conservation, people continue to live in
tiger reserves. India's track record of relocation is pathetic -
barely 80 of 1,500 villages in protected areas have been relocated.
Worse, this relocation has been done mindlessly in many cases, leading
to greater hostility between people and animals. This is definitely
not good for conservation, or the tiger.
So, can relocation remain a strong plank in the policy of the future?
It is clear we must work towards inviolate spaces - areas for the
tiger only - by identifying the villages that need to be relocated as
quickly as possible. Two caveats need to kept in mind here: one, such
relocation must be mindful of people's needs; and two, if all villages
cannot be relocated, we must work towards reducing the obviously
destructive hostility between people and tigers by learning to
practice better coexistence. Since pressure from neighbouring (fringe)
villages can often be great, so - even as we begin to relocate the
ones within - we must also repair the relationship with the people
outside.
The issue clearly now is to move the boundaries of 'debate' into
action. Can we identify habitations with maximum impacts on core tiger
habitats? Most importantly, how do we begin to do something we haven't
done in the last 30 years - relocate many more families, with speed
and sensitivity, in the next few years? Can we finally ensure benefits
of conservation to poor people, who will then agree to coexist with
the tiger?
Tough issues. Tough, because they have to be engaged with, and
resolved. And this is where I begin to feel bereft: instead of
engaging with these realities, the effort is still to keep the
positions polarised in the simplistic manner of a schoolboy debate:
those 'for the tiger only' against those who believe 'people and
tigers will coexist'. I can understand that a few conservationists
need to keep positions entrenched as they derive negative strength
from it. They need the 'enemy camp' to constantly deride and condemn.
But I cannot understand why the rest of the community of tiger
lovers - and there is a large but silent group out there - prefers to
keep the dogma, not the debate, alive.
It is equally clear that poaching is a real and deadly threat to the
tiger. The question is what needs to be done to contain (and
eliminate) this criminal activity. Here, the answer lies in re-writing
the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, amendments and all. It is today
so weak that even if a poacher is caught, he cannot be convicted. We
need to pressurise global institutions to take cognisance of evidence
that international trade in tiger parts is alive and kicking - under
their concerned noses. We need domestic institutions to investigate,
and stymie, poaching. We definitely need strengthened efforts to
protect the tiger by implementing carefully designed protection
strategies and by working not against, but with local people.
Here again, the agenda for reform is in danger of being lost to
emotion and destructive intent: I speak of the renewed cry for guns
and guards. The 'send-in-the-commandos' approach has been seriously
tried and has seriously failed. It is no surprise that Sariska had the
highest number of guards per square kilometre, Ranthambhore has armed
police to guard its beleaguered tigers and Panna tiger reserve (where
it is feared tigers are threatened) is one of the top spenders on
conservation. Clearly, the answers will lie in doing more, but
differently.
Epitaph: If 2005 was the year of the disappearing tiger, it was
because we allowed the tiger to become less important than the
personalities that desire its survival. In 2006, this must change.
Only then can the survival of the tiger be secured.
- Sunita Narain
< [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
Read this editorial online >>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=2
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:Please add CSE's fortnightly news bulletin to your Address Book so
this newsletter doesn't get filtered or tossed into your bulk folder
=============================
CSE's Fortnightly News Bulletin [Jan. 10, 2006]
=============================
An e-bulletin from the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE),
India, to oucar network of friends and professionals interested in
environmental issues. Scroll to the bottom of this page for
information on how to unsubscribe.
INSIDE:
- Still There: The Tsunami - A year after
- Final call: waste & water researcher network
- Editorial: 2006: The Tiger Re-appears
- Training programs : Library and information systems
- News: Three controversial hydel schemes violating human rights
- News: Opposition to Food Corporation India plans to trade futures
- Opinion: CAMPA reverses decentralisation trend
- Books & Films : Life cycle of Cement Industry
- Jobs: Researcher/writer for Gobar Times
=================================
The Tsunami : A year after
=================================
-----------------------------
Event : Still There
-----------------------------
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) invites you to 'Still There',
an event to mark the first anniversary of the tsunami.
Features an exhibition of photographs from the Tamil Nadu coast that
tells the story of disaster and rebuilding.
The photographer: Pradip Saha, Managing Editor of Down To Earth
Also scheduled is a talk by Annie George, coordinator, NGO
Coordination and Resource Centre (NCRC), Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu and
the screening of Children of Tsunami: Rebuilding the Future, a film by
Television Trust for the Environment (Asia-Pacific).
The Amphitheatre,
India Habitat Centre,
Lodhi Road,
New Delhi
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
5:30 pm - 7.00 pm
The photo exhibition will be displayed until January 16th.
For more details>>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/default20060115.htm
Amit Shanker < [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
Shachi Chaturvedi < [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
Tel : 011-29955124/29955125/29956110/29956394
-----------------------------
Cover Story
-----------------------------
In the wake of the Tsunami of December 2004, the prime minister
declined bilateral aid to help India through the biggest natural
disaster in recent history. India had the resources and the know how
to deal with the crises he said. A year on, Down To Earth visits the
fisherfolk of Tamil Nadu, those most badly affected by the Tsunami to
see how rehabilitation efforts have helped, or hindered, the people's
efforts to rebuild their lives.
Read the complete article>>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=1
=================================
Final Call : Water-excreta researcher network
=================================
CSE needs volunteers to help document the use of water in Indian
cities and the subsequent waste generated. We want to understand where
cities get their water; how much; who uses it; and where it finally
ends up. We need your help - include your city in the project. It does
not matter if your city is big or small. In the plains or in the
mountains. The fact is that your city is using water. And it also
generates waste. The riddle is, where does this waste go?
Volunteers from Kerala and the north-east especially needed!
For more information >>
R K Srinivasan < [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org
=================================
Editorial: 2006: The tiger re-appears
=================================
2005 was definitely the year of the Indian tiger. The year began with
the tragic news of this magnificent animal's disappearance from the
Sariska tiger reserve, a protected space. This news became,
appropriately, the nation's obsession. I was asked to chair a Task
Force, and in three months we put out a report in the public domain.
The report drew attention.
When I introspect on what has happened in the name of the tiger this
year, I feel bereft. Not only because we continue to lose tigers, but
also because we continue to lose extremely precious time in holding on
to such entrenched positions regarding the tiger - and conservation in
general - that the statement "something has to be done about the tiger
and conservation" holds no meaning at all. We are losing ground
because we care: we care too much about our own stated positions that
we simply cannot agree to move on what needs to be done. The plight of
the tiger has become the country's biggest soap opera. It has drowned,
again, in its own cacophony.
Saving the tiger in 2006 will need us to change the terms of debate.
Let me explain. When I was asked to chair the Task Force - to examine
not only why tigers had disappeared in Sariska but also what needed to
be done in the future to safeguard the tiger - I returned with renewed
interest to an issue I was once deeply involved in. I had learnt after
years of seeing and listening, that conservation in a poor and
populated country like India could not afford to discount its greatest
asset, its people. Here, then, was an opportunity to test my belief
against reality, the situation on the ground.
What a test it turned out to be. I still do not know how to thank the
many people - wildlife researchers, conservation scientists, forest
bureaucrats (retired and in the field), activists - who told me what
needed to be done, in the short term and in the long term, to protect
the tiger and other wild creatures. We can never do justice to all the
voices of this complicated country. But the dots that exist must be
joined.
After 30 years of 'practical' conservation, people continue to live in
tiger reserves. India's track record of relocation is pathetic -
barely 80 of 1,500 villages in protected areas have been relocated.
Worse, this relocation has been done mindlessly in many cases, leading
to greater hostility between people and animals. This is definitely
not good for conservation, or the tiger.
So, can relocation remain a strong plank in the policy of the future?
It is clear we must work towards inviolate spaces - areas for the
tiger only - by identifying the villages that need to be relocated as
quickly as possible. Two caveats need to kept in mind here: one, such
relocation must be mindful of people's needs; and two, if all villages
cannot be relocated, we must work towards reducing the obviously
destructive hostility between people and tigers by learning to
practice better coexistence. Since pressure from neighbouring (fringe)
villages can often be great, so - even as we begin to relocate the
ones within - we must also repair the relationship with the people
outside.
The issue clearly now is to move the boundaries of 'debate' into
action. Can we identify habitations with maximum impacts on core tiger
habitats? Most importantly, how do we begin to do something we haven't
done in the last 30 years - relocate many more families, with speed
and sensitivity, in the next few years? Can we finally ensure benefits
of conservation to poor people, who will then agree to coexist with
the tiger?
Tough issues. Tough, because they have to be engaged with, and
resolved. And this is where I begin to feel bereft: instead of
engaging with these realities, the effort is still to keep the
positions polarised in the simplistic manner of a schoolboy debate:
those 'for the tiger only' against those who believe 'people and
tigers will coexist'. I can understand that a few conservationists
need to keep positions entrenched as they derive negative strength
from it. They need the 'enemy camp' to constantly deride and condemn.
But I cannot understand why the rest of the community of tiger
lovers - and there is a large but silent group out there - prefers to
keep the dogma, not the debate, alive.
It is equally clear that poaching is a real and deadly threat to the
tiger. The question is what needs to be done to contain (and
eliminate) this criminal activity. Here, the answer lies in re-writing
the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, amendments and all. It is today
so weak that even if a poacher is caught, he cannot be convicted. We
need to pressurise global institutions to take cognisance of evidence
that international trade in tiger parts is alive and kicking - under
their concerned noses. We need domestic institutions to investigate,
and stymie, poaching. We definitely need strengthened efforts to
protect the tiger by implementing carefully designed protection
strategies and by working not against, but with local people.
Here again, the agenda for reform is in danger of being lost to
emotion and destructive intent: I speak of the renewed cry for guns
and guards. The 'send-in-the-commandos' approach has been seriously
tried and has seriously failed. It is no surprise that Sariska had the
highest number of guards per square kilometre, Ranthambhore has armed
police to guard its beleaguered tigers and Panna tiger reserve (where
it is feared tigers are threatened) is one of the top spenders on
conservation. Clearly, the answers will lie in doing more, but
differently.
Epitaph: If 2005 was the year of the disappearing tiger, it was
because we allowed the tiger to become less important than the
personalities that desire its survival. In 2006, this must change.
Only then can the survival of the tiger be secured.
- Sunita Narain
< [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
Read this editorial online >>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=2
=================================
Training programmes
=================================
Managing your organisation's information:
A Training programme on Library, Information Management &
Documentation
New Delhi,
February 21-24, 2006
Managing information for advocacy, dissemination and communication
requires special skills and calls for investments in strengthening the
information infrastructure and skills of the organisation.
CSE's Environment Resources Unit (ERU), among the largest
environmental documentation facilities in South Asia, offers a unique
training programme in the latest documentation and information
management tools and trends.
Course modules >>
- Sourcing & organising information (Classification and Indexing)
- Digital Library basics
- Managing Audio-Visual resources
- Information services & product planning
- Outreach & marketing
- Fund raising
Deadline: February 10, 2006
Limited seats
Register online or get more information>>
http://www.cseindia.org/misc/library_form.htm
All enquiries >>
Kiran Pandey < [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
Ms. Kiran Pandey
=================================
More in Down To Earth magazine
=================================
Damned Projects
State controversy surrounding three hydel schemes are causing
controversy. In the Uttaranchal hills there are allegations of
repression. In Manipur, protesters are shot at one dam site and
another project is pushed through without thought of impacts.
Read the special report>>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=3
-----------------------------
Speculating on futures.
Brokers are dead against the Food Corporation of India(FCI) trading in
the local commodity exchanges. FCI's wants to secure better prices for
it's surplus wheat and rice by buying futures which fix a price in
advance. But traders are worried about the impact Asia's largest
food-buying body will have on the market.
Read the complete story>>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=4
-----------------------------
Centre-state feud over the Supreme Court's CAMPA scheme.
Should the business of forestry be centralised under the Union
government or should states better manage their forests?
CAMPA(Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority), a
central authority, levies a hefty charge to states who divert forest
land and then send the funds back to states to improve the
'environment'. States say Delhi's control of these funds is
bureaucratic and threatens Centre-state fiscal relations. One state
even claimed the program is unconstitutional.
For more on the debate surrounding CAMPA >>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=5
-----------------------------
News: Bitter WTO pill
India, Brazil help the North force it's way in Hong Kong
News: Mine or yours
Three Jharkand forest officers challenge the state government and
fight to protect virgin forest from the steel industry's plan to mine
it.
Science and Technology: GM Tomato
We're not sure if it's a fruit or a vegetable, but it's drought
tolerant
Opinion: Stung society
11 members of parliament sacked for corruption. But corruption in
politics isn't news. What this episode is telling us is that our
'civil society' might be corrupt.
To read these articles and more subscribe to downtoearth online>>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/Subscriber_new.asp
=================================
CSE films and books
=================================
Concrete Facts - Lifecycle of the cement industry.
The result of an exhaustive two year effort to rate the industry. It
details the ecological challenges and rates how well Indian companies
address them.
Companies are benchmarked against global best practices at each stage
of the life cycle - from mining to use of waste materials. Ratings
also cover water and energy use, technology, dust emissions, and
corporate social responsibility.
The book also details the economic performance of the companies and
sees how socially responsibly these blue-chip companies are.
VCD & DVD. Region code free-PAL >>
http://csestore.cse.org.in/store1.asp?sec_id=1&subsec_id=14
For questions contact>>
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
=================================
CSE is hiring!
=================================
Researcher/Creative Writer for the Environment Education Unit
To write in print and digital media for Gobar Times, the Down To Earth
monthly supplement for youth.
Minimum 2-3 years experience in journalism and creative writing
To learn more about this and other opportunities at CSE>>
http://www.cseindia.org/joinus-index.htm
Email resume to: Jagdeep Gupta
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Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
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