Wake Up Call - Now or Never!

Chennai is facing the biggest flood of the century now. All roads have converted into canals, houses are converting into ponds and ponds are becoming over flooded pools. So many people have lost their life, many people are still missing, many are relocated. Totally mess up in the area. And top of that, no news of such mess from rural area of Tamilnandu. 

We all are know what happened there. But dont know, how it happened?? why it happened? who is responsible for such massive disaster?? 

India is facing regular disaster since many years. 2012 Uttarkashi Flood, 2013 Kedarnath Flood, 2014, Kashmir Flood, 2015 Chennai Flood. All disasters has a common issue - ISSUE IN WATER RELEASE CHANNELS!

What happened in Kedarnath! Excessive rain fall happened and rive Mandakini could not absorb the entire water into its existing river bed because of the encroachment on its river bed. Similar thing happened in Kashmir where river Jhelam was encroached for so called development and water could not get way to get release. The same kind of thing happened in Chennai. The excessive rain fall converted into huge water which could not get release due to encroachment into various ponds, Adyar river. And water entered into the town. 

We have played a lot with our water bodies in every part of country. See the situation of River Bindaal and Rispana in Dehradun, River Sonali in Roorkee, Hindon in Ghaziabad,Yamuna in Delhi/Noida etc. List is so long. You can find the river bed of any river in any part of the country. You will find such rivers every where. Even small ponds in small towns, villages are washing away on regular basis. See their diameters now and check 50 years ago's too. Every where the situation is same. 

We need to see where our development goals are carrying us? Where we want to see ourselves 50 years down the lines from now? Will be comfortable to use MNC's agenda of air purifier, water purifier (already using), tension purifier etc or we want to live natural organic life?? These are the regular Wake Up Calls from Nature. This is the high time to introspect ourselves. Otherwise be ready to face more Chennai, Mumbai, Kashmir, Kedarnath in your own town.

An Emerging Challenge Created By Human: Call For Action!

Pollution is becoming the bigger problem in the world now which is the direct impact of the years long human intervention for DEVELOPMENT! We have seen Delhi fog and Beijing fog in last weeks. 

Many new ideas are coming from various Governments, Organization, International Agencies, People to reduce the effect of such human created pollution. I must congratulate to these for this concern. If they would have taken the timely action, it would not be the situations anywhere!

Last week, Delhi State Government took the decision that the EVEN & ODD number's private cars will have the roster. The only even and only odd cars will run 3 days in week on Delhi's road. It might be a good decision. But my concern is bigger than that!

If the government is really concern, they should consider the various dynamics of this. They should consider that private cars and jeeps contribute less than 10% of particulate matter (PM: which is the parameter of pollution control). Road dust and construction dust are the biggest contributors - up to 46%. (Researched by IIT Kanpur)

A big contributor to Delhi's air pollution is road dust that accounts for about 35% of tiny particles, followed by vehicles. 

The other big contributors include domestic cooking, power plants and industries. Vehicle emissions account for an average of 25%. Trucks and two-wheelers account for larger chunks of PM 2.5 pollution than passenger cars' contribution of 14-15% to overall vehicle emissions. 

Along with that, if we implement the even and odd roster, are we ready to work upon it properly. Have we taken the proper steps such as, strengthen the public transport system, proper coordination with all concern authorities, Various legal concern etc before implementing it? Will it increase the need of more vehicle in city or can ripple into malpractices (as duplicate number plates)? 

When we are really concern for this particular cause, we need to be very careful in every action, otherwise people make it mockery and the seriousness of the cause goes out. It hampers to the other serious small actions and its sustainability. 

This is the biggest concern emerging into the world. If this will not dealt with proper willingness, it will the biggest disaster of the world. And we need to be ready more Delhi, Beijing, Chennai for future. 

करोडो का खर्चा, गरीबो पर चर्चा (Spending Billions to SAVE EARTH)

Today the whole world is talking the Climate Change challenges and its solutions. All world leaders are doing brain storming in Paris today. Have we ever thought the basic cause of the problem? Have we ever to have the strong willingness to make the solution of it??

Indian traditional lifestyle of very friendly for such things. We had sustainability in our life. Our food chain to living habbits were corelated in such a balance manner, we did not require the Waste Management and Climate Change initiatives.

Peepal Tree (Ficus Religiosa) is one of the best source of oxygen which was very pious in Indian Culture. It significance the concern of our ancestors for climate.

People used to use the green waste as fodder for cattle and we did not have the culture of non degradable waste.

We preserved our rivers on the name of worship as mother which shows our concern for the water bodies. Not even only rivers but also the ponds, lakes etc. There are many stories and mythologies are famous for water conservation and purity.

We had very closed relationship with mother nature in terms of house building to food to fodder to earning. And it was a balanced approach. In fact people had very good observation with nature. I met with an old men in Uttarakhand in May 2013 who told me that this year they are going to face a bad flood. I asked the sources of the observation, he said to me, "Is saal Goraiya ne Ghosla upper banaya hai" (This year the sparrow made her nest on the upper side). And after a month Uttarakhand faced the bad flood of the century (June 2013).

I have many such stories to share of such observations. But why we are losing this relationship with mother nature and need of such kind of brain-storming and seminars? What are the reasons behind such disassociation??  Is Indian lifestyle was better, why do we require to follow other things. Why we did not adopt the other culture with its customized version for India.

We have to think and work upon it seriously otherwise world will face more Chennai, Mumbai etc.

राष्ट्रपति जी से 11 सूत्रीय मांगें...

सेवा मे,                                                                                                                                                       

महामहीम राष्ट्रपति जी

भारत गणराज्य 

महोदय,

मैं भारत का एक जिम्मेदार नागरिक होने के नाते आपको यह खुला पत्र लिख रहा हूँ| पिछले कुछ सालो मे हुए घटनाक्रम ने मुझे अन्दर से झाक्जोर रखा है और मैं सोचने पर मजबूर हूँ के कृषि प्रधान देश मे कृषि के प्रति असंवेदना क्यों है? कृषि के मानव संसाधन के विकास की बात योजना के केंद्र मे क्यों नहीं है? क्या दूरसंचार और सूचना प्रोद्योगिकी का प्रयोग कृषि के लिए नहीं किया जा सकता है? क्या हम बाढ़ और सूखे के लिए पहले से प्रयत्न नहीं कर सकते है? क्या असमय बारिश और ओलावृष्टि का हमारे पास कोई उपाय नहीं है? क्या कृषि बस कच्चे माल की फैक्ट्री बनकर रह गयी है? क्या गाँव केवल बाज़ार और लेबर हब बनकर काम करने वाले है? क्यूँ आज किसान अपने बच्चे को किसान नहीं बनाना चाहता है? क्यूँ किसान आज आत्महत्या करने पर मजबूर है?

महोदय, मैं इन सवालो के जवाब खोजते खोजते खो जा रहा हूँ| राष्ट्राध्यक्ष होने के नाते, भारत के प्रथम व्यक्ति होने के नातें, आप हमारे देश के सभी नागरिको के अभिभावक है| और अभिभावक से अपने सवालो के जवाब मांग सकते है| इस दुविधा की घडी में में आपसे मेरी प्रार्थना की कृषि के लिए निम्न बिंदूओं पर विचार किया जाये:

1. कृषि को एक पूर्ण व्यवसाय का दर्जा क्यों नहीं दिया जाता? क्या कृषि भूमि का किराया किसान की लागत में नहीं आता? क्या कृषि भूमि की अवसर लागत (Opportunity Cost) नहीं होती?
2. क्या न्यूनतम समर्थन मूल्य मे कृषि की वास्तविक लागत को पूरा नहीं करना चाहिए?
3. क्या किसान हमेशा उगाने का काम करके ग़रीब ही रहेगा या फिर उसको प्रसंस्करण (Food Processing) मे पारंगत करके बिचोलियों को हठाने का प्रयास किया जायेगा?
4. हम मानते है की मौसमी बदलाव (Climate Change) के असर को हम नहीं रोक सकते, लेकिन क्या हम इतने असहाय है कि अपने अन्नदाता को ऐसे तिल तिल मरते देखेंगे! क्या हम फसल बीमा पर पुख्ता काम करने का काम करेंगे? और बीमा कंपनियों की जवाबदारी तय की जाएगी?
5. क्या दूरसंचार और प्रोद्योगिकी का प्रयोग हम मौसम के बेहतर अनुमान और उसके जनता तक पहुच को संभव बना पायेंगे? यहाँ आपको अवगत करना चाहूँगा कि हिमालयी क्षेत्रों में डॉप्लर राडार आज तक नहीं लगे है| क्या सच में हम सुधार करना चाहते है?
6. क्या हम कृषि अनुसंधान को किसान केन्द्रित करना चाहते है या फिर किसान को खुले बाज़ार के हवाले करके उसको मर जाने के लिए छोडना चाहते है जहाँ उसको बीज, खाद और कीटनाशक के लिए बहुराष्ट्रीय कंपनियों का मुहं देखना पड़े?
7. क्या देश उन्नत कृषि के नाम पर जहर ही खाता रहेगा और कैंसर स्पेशल जैसी ट्रेनों में और इजाफ़ा होगा या फिर देश अपनी परंपरागत वैज्ञानिक खेती की और अग्रसर हो सकेगा जहाँ किसान को ना बीज खरीदना पड़ता था ना खाद ना कीटनाशक?
8. क्या किसान के दक्षता विकास की और कुछ कदम उठाये जायेंगे?
9. क्या किसान संगठन के लिए कुछ कार्य किये जायेंगे?
10. क्या सरकारों की जवाबदेही तय की जाएगी?

मुझे आशा है की मेरे देश के मुखिया होने के नाते, मेरे अभिभावक होने के नाते, आप मेरी इस दुविधा का समाधान देंगे | यह खुला पत्र भी इसी लिए लिखा है ताकि सोशल मीडिया के जरिये आप तक पहुँच पाए अन्यथा रास्ते मे बहुत बैरियर आते है |

जवाब की आशा मे!

आपका

रितेश गर्ग

Ritesh.garg01@gmail.com