Green Options

Rainfall patterns altered by climate change and worsened by inequity in the water distribution system has led to a water crisis in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

This has led to a spurt in water related violence and conflicts so shocking, we thought they were predicted to take place only in the next 50 years. The local incident mentioned in the news report above was one among many where a mob of about six people killed a family for illegally drawing water from the municipal supply even as onlookers rushed back and forth to collect water before the pipe ran dry.

The incident, which occurred in a below poverty line (BPL) settlement, is yet another validation of how climate change is having much more impact on the poor, especially in the developing world.

In six years time, the number of people affected each year by the climate crises is projected to rise by 54 per cent to 375 million. This will not just be overwhelming for the humanitarian aid system it would also further the inequity that plagues the world and will make the fight for climate justice even more challenging.

Moving the Earth on Her Day!
When Earth Hour was celebrated on the 28th of last month, the city of Delhi saved 600 MW of electricity - the highest in any Metro city in India - just by switching off non-essential lights. In terms of Carbon emissions, it was as if 2.3 million small cars were taken off the road.  It was thus decided by the Chief Minister of Delhi that the Earth Hour will be celebrated every month in the city, and 22nd April - the Earth Day was appropriately chosen to be the day for this month.
Earth Day this year was also a landmark event for the city. Delhi faces several environmental issues most of which are actually the challenges of a rapidly evolving capital city of a country which is developing at an equal pace. Trees being cut almost every day, a polluted river only getting worse, the mobility crisis and the inequity, vehicular pollution and unplanned urban planning are all issues faced by citizens who wanted a solution to these by having a say in the decision making and access to basic information.

Tourism is the world’s largest and most promising industry. The concept of ‘eco-tourism’ is perhaps the most abused, little understood and least explored. Going to the mountains or a National Park and all other forms of natural tourism are often, though not always, marketed as ‘eco-tours’. While Ecotourism can be distinguished from nature tourism by its emphasis on conservation, education, traveler responsibility and active community participation, there is a severe paucity of efforts and attempts in the right direction for conducting such eco-tours.

Now, a youth led organization and an urban think tank in Delhi, India has taken to itself to research and explore ‘urban ecotourism’ as a means to connect the citizens back to their city, and raise awareness about the ‘nature in the city’. Underlying to this initiative is also the understanding that for the first time in human history, a majority of people live in cities or towns and that cities are the future of the world!

This could not have come at a more appropriate time. Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the greatest international cricketer to have ever walked the face of the earth dedicated his most recent Test century at Hamilton, to the tiger. Tiger conservation to be precise. He was later also quoted stating that the entire Indian cricket team supported the cause of the critically endangered species, whose numbers have been dropping alarmingly in the wild. Further in his message, Tendulkar said, “This majestic species is a symbol of India’s rich and diverse wildlife heritage. It is in our best interests to ensure that this magnificent animal is not wiped out.

The tiger population in India has dropped by another 17 since January 1st this year and poaching, poisoning, old age and infighting are the reasons cited by the officials. And even as laws are being tightened after each confiscation of tiger body parts, the massive demand of a market in China ensures tigers are valued more dead than alive and that poachers continue to be active. The message by Sachin is being seen as a shot in the arm for tiger conservation something that will be verified over time.

At the launch of the India Climate Solutions Road tour…
Not so long ago, and supported by Delhi Greens, the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) was formed to give a voice to the next generation of India in the climate dialogue. The Network called for youth to come together in order to ensure a clean, bright future. Several city summits amidst a National Youth Summit on Climate Change, and the first ever Indian youth delegation sent to the COP at Poznan ensured that the Indian youth got its voice heard both nationally and during the international climate negotiations.

Now, members of the Indian Youth Climate Network along with a solar powered band are traveling a distance of more than 3500 kilometers in the country in solar plug-in electric cars and alternative-fueled buses. The focus of this journey is to both raise awareness and convert awareness into tangible actions. Climate solutions would be documented all through the journey and the underlying objective is to communicate the message of working to bring down the Carbon concentration to well below 350 ppm.

An awesome Public EcoArt Project with the Metro Station in the vicinity
48° Celsius is the highest temperature that the city of Delhi, India has witnessed in its recorded history. 48° Celsius is also a reference to the exigencies of global warming - which can be felt in Delhi’s continuously escalating summer temperatures each year. Delhi, by any score, qualifies as one amongst the world’s most dynamic and complex urban settings. Like most other urban centers of this country and of the south Asian region, the city of Delhi is characterized by multi-layered historicity and multiple urbanisms that get expressed in varying conditions within its cultural and physical fabric.

With this as the backdrop, and as a combined Goethe-Institut and GTZ initiative, the 48c Public.Art.Ecology Festival was recently celebrated in Delhi. A large empty bucket, a tree hanging from a crane, a hanging garden for want of space, a crash landing, cycle-rickshaws as local story-tellers, a bamboo art, a step-well with a large inverted mineral bottle on top…Delhi witnessed it all this December!

With a population nearly as much as that of Australia, and having more automobiles on its roads than all the other three India metropolitan cities put together adding approx. 1,500 new cars to the road each day, the traffic situation in the city of Delhi is shockingly scary. The situation is fortunately been taken note of by the administration and a push to promote public transport in the city has been there since a long time now.

The city has seen the launch of a state-of-the-art Metro Rail which is now the pride of Delhi and carries lakhs of commuters daily. The city also saw the launch of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system which, owing to several reasons, did not go down well with the public (and/or the media). Now, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and the Delhi Integrated Modal Transport System (DIMTS) have launched a GPS enabled Public Information System (PIS) to not only enable the commuters waiting at the bus stand to find out the estimated time of arrival (ETA) of the bus they are waiting for, but also check the status of buses online!

A few hours from now, the world will witness the next UN Climate Negotiations take place in Poznan, Poland. A few hours ago - Mumbai, the financial capital of India was struck by a terrorist attack - one the most coordinated acts of terror the world has seen till date.

Though on the outset, the two events have nothing in common (save for the fact that the Mumbai attacks led to the cancellation of the Live Earth event) and that climate change and terrorism are two diffrent challenges faced by our civilization today, the cause and consequences of the two are in some way pretty much the same. And in order to ensure a peaceful world, it is important that both these challenges are tackled - the earlier the better.

It took a radical fast-unto-death decision by a Professor, playing the religion-political card and much activism, that the Government of India has now accepted the fact - otherwise as crystal clear as should have been the water of the Ganges - that the holiest of holy River Ganga is polluted, the Ganga Action Plan has failed and that constructing dams upstream of the river is only making matters worse.

Gangotri Glacier: Source of a River revered by millions
Earlier this year, pained by the unrelenting destruction of the Ganga river, Dr G. D. Agrawal, India’s pre-eminent scientist and a legendary Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at IIT-Kanpur went on a fast-unto-death to oppose the river’s continuing desecration.

His campaign was taken up by leader of the opposition party who called for stopping all dam constructions upstream of the river and the Government of India (GoI) was quick to commit itself to ensuring perennial environmental flows throughout the river while also informing Dr. Agarwal the same. Now, the GoI has gone a step ahead and declared Ganga a National River.