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Dirt
Digest Cataloguing the rape of India's natural habitat. By Kinsuk Mitra STATE OF INDIA'S ENVIRONMENT The series of Citizens' Reports published by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) since 1982 has documented the voice of the people in an analytical framework to educate us about the true state of India's environment. The fifth report is a systematic compilation of the state of our natural resources, aspects of pollution, biodiversity, and their link to the livelihood of poorer sections of society. Much of the presentation is through in-depth case studies of representative samples. It begins with a touching investigation of the rise and fall of the (in)famous Sukhomajri project in Haryana, where innovations in forest management by local communities initially found unprecedented success, but later on thoughtless tinkering by inexperienced "facilitators" came in the way. Treatment of natural resources management continues with chapters on our polluted rivers and the failure of river conservation plans and a detailed exposition of India's threatened forests. Being one of the thrust areas of CSE's research, the coverage of air pollution is particularly vivid. The combined effect of the unplanned plundering of natural assets is captured in the chapters on health and the habitat. They report on the toxicity all of us living in cities, small towns and villages struggle to co-exist with. The chronology of anti-dam movements and management of protected areas show that our policy makers have learnt precious little from the prolonged experience. CSE's refreshing action orientation is evident throughout the book and converges in the chapter on Agents of Change, dealing with "judicial activism". The meticulous coverage (with pertinent photographs) of the thoughtfully selected topics and the comprehensive database in Part II of the volume are a product of rare commitment. Essay into the heart of South Asia's nuclear culture. By Madhu Jain COUNTDOWN Often the heart of a story seeps through the sieves that deadlines can sometimes become. May 11, 1998, the day Pokhran shook the world a second time, prompted mountains of newsprint. And unending debate, pitting those for the nuclear bomb against those who were anti-bomb more unequivocally. But the long-term implications of the nuclear explosions carried out first by India and then Pakistan -- as indeed the real impulses that pushed the finger on the trigger -- were largely ignored. In his slim but not slight book -- an amplified version of an article he did for the New Yorker magazine -- Ghosh sets out to answer for himself the critical question: why did we really do it? The other question he examines in his quirky and at times ambling journey through a post-nuclear India and Pakistan is: Would the explosions lead to nuclear deterrence or were the two countries heading towards mutual destruction? What did the explosions augur? Countdown's answers are chilling. Nuclear bombs were status-enhancing: India could finally become a "global player". It was, as Ghosh writes, "a primal scream for self-assertion". Equally chilling is the difference in how the two countries perceive their nouveau nuclear status. While N-bombs appear to be "harmless icons of empowerment" for many Indian experts, their Pakistani counterparts fear a nuclear conflagration. Ghosh is not playing polemicist: while his instincts have him on the side of the anti-nuclear, he starts out with an open mind. The novelist was in New York when the tests were carried out. The finger-wagging against India by countries already comfortable under their nuclear umbrellas made him "put my own beliefs on nuclear matters aside" and see for himself the "arguments" of both countries. Ghosh begins, astutely enough, at the Pokhran site itself. There is a gripping tale by the villagers of the 1998 nuclear tests -- and a horrifying account of the long-term consequences of the 1974 blasts, which caused cancers, rashes and natal deformities. The book, with its mix of anecdotage, interviews and reflections, is almost like an account of a voyage into the psyche of the two countries. And its politicians. And this is where the novelist in Ghosh shines. His portrait of Defence Minister George Fernandes is insightful. He hops on to helicopters while the post-Pokhran seemingly guilt-ridden minister tours Ladakh and Siachen. And in the long conversations that continue in Fernandes' South Block office, Ghosh exposes the contradictions of the former trade unionist and the despondency beneath his effervescence. "He had spent a lifetime in politics and the system had spun him around until what he did and what he belived no longer had the remotest connection... what had prevailed finally was vanity, the sheer vanity of power." Despite the occasional rambling, Countdown is an absorbing book. The Transforming of Goa When Generals Failed Caste, Society and Politics in India Theory of Indian Music Noblemen and Kinsmen Shadows of Truth |
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