Sanctuary | The Last Word
Sanctuary | Last WordDon’t get angry... get involved. Follow us on http://www.sanctuaryasia.com I Facebook I Twitter I Instagram I YouTubeALIJAH MOHAMMAD
Alijah Mohammad was driving along
the buff er forests of Bandhavgarh when
he came upon two lone, ill-equipped forest
guards trying in vain to put out a forest
fi re that had engulfed both sides of the
road. In recent years, Central Government
budgets for forest protection have been
hacked by over 300 per cent at a time
when they should have been enhanced by
1,000 per cent.
This is inexplicable. One would
presume that Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s advisors might have brought to his
notice that forest destruction will seriously
cause the climate of the subcontinent to
spin out of control. This will undermine
India’s water security as forests not only
regulate climate, but also regulate around
90 per cent of over 1,000 cubic km. of
water consumed by one billion+ people.
The economic stability of India
depends on its ecological stability. And
our ecological stability depends on theTHE HEAT IS ON
stability of our politicians, businessmen and
planners. This latter fact worries me. Why
would stable planners invest over fi ve lakh
crores of rupees on dam infrastructures
under melted and melting glaciers? Why
would they invest comparable sums
on damming and destroying peninsular
forests (which feed fresh water into 600
major and minor rivers), the sources of our
water, to link rivers that will surely run dry
without their forest catchments? Why
would they build spanking new coastal
roads, airports and townships at sea level
when we need to future-proof past,
present and yet-to-be-built infrastructures
from sea level rise? India was once an
intelligent nation. Today, that intelligence
has been dulled into a stupor of
short-term objectives.
Denying Project Tiger the money it
needs to protect the very infrastructures
that are our water banks is rank
absurdity. A warming world means soilmoisture evaporation and erratic rains.
This translates into forest fi res that will
start earlier and end later. And the fi res
will burn at higher temperatures as they
consume the heartwood of trees, instead
of merely singe their barks.
Assassinating India’s forests and
natural ecosystems such as wetlands stops
them from sequestering atmospheric
carbon. Future generations will call
this collective suicide. Sanctuary Asia
celebrates the death of the oil and coal
sectors, but we caution planners that even
batteries of coast to coast solar panels
will not bring one tonne of carbon back
down from the atmosphere without the
regeneration of natural ecosystems such
as this up-in-fl ames Bandhavgarh forest.
Wake up India! We have no time to
lose. The heat is on! tA forest fi re consumes biodiverse
Bandhavgarh, as politicians sitting far away in
Delhi cut Project Tiger’s protection budgets.