Down To Earth Sept 16-30

DownToEarth
16-30 SEPTEMBER, 2016
SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT

FORTNIGHTLY
ON POLITICS OFFORTNIGHTLY
DEVELOPMENT, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH
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OZONE DAY SPECIAL
01Cover.indd 1
&
MORINGA
TAMARIND
Two humble nutritious foods of India. One is going places,

the other languishes in the backyard. Why?
09/09/16 6:02 PM
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Tell us what you eat
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02Food-ad-english.indd 18
12/09/16 4:43 PM
EDITORS
PAGE
www.downtoearth.org.in/blogger/sunita-narain-3
GOPICHANDS
HEALTHY CHOICE
ULLELA GOPICHAND is a national hero, but not just be-
cause he has painstakingly coached two badminton

Olympic medalistsfirst Saina Nehwal and now P V
Sindhu. Gopichand is a national hero because he is the
only Indian sportsperson who has publicly shunned endorsing soft drinks. He has made it clear that these drinks are not
good for health and certainly not good for sportspersons, so he will
not promote the product, whatever the financial inducement. This
is important because these drinks are indeed junkempty calories,
which provide sugar without nutritionand are today indicted for
obesity world over. But the rest of our sports and film icons, from
Mahendra Singh Dhoni to Shah Rukh Khan, are happy to make
money by promoting products that are bad for our health.
Should they be allowed to do so? The government is considering amending the Consumer Protection Act to provide for five-year
jail term or a penalty of R50 lakh to hold celebrities
responsible for false and misleading claims. But
there is a catch. The same amendment provides
that there will be no liability if precautions are taken and due diligence is done before deciding to endorse a product. In other words, this amendment
really amounts to nothing. Even then brand ambassadors and their lackeys are busy opposing the
very idea of being held accountable, though they
are ready to take all the money. And the government, weak-kneed as it is before powerful brands,
has decided to take a relook.
Frankly, I believe this amendment was a distraction and is meaningless. What we really need
is clear regulations against celebrity endorsement of products that
are known to be junk and harmful to health. Marion Nestle, who
teaches at the New York University, has in her recent book, Soda
Politics, described the influence of marketing through which products that are literally flavoured water with loads of sugar have been
turned into symbols of fun, happiness and glamour.
The strategy is twofold. One, to manipulate policy so that the
health issues related to colas are obfuscated. Two, to unleash celebrity promotion so that the product is made aspirationalnot a drink
but a lifestyle choice. In her thoroughly researched volume, Nestle
explains that it was in 1942, when the US Council on Food and
Nutrition noted that a 20 per cent rise in soft drink consumption
since 1939 was showing up in ill-health and obesity. In 1977, its advice was followed up in the US governments dietary goals that asked
for a startling 45 per cent reduction in the intake of sugar to bring it
down to 10 per cent or less of calories in peoples daily diet. This was
16-30 SEPTEMBER 2016
03Editors.indd 3
to be done by eliminating soft drinks from diet, said US guidelines.

But this advice was not adhered to. Instead, it was turned convoluted. Straightforward words like avoid drinking became
choose and prepare. Sugar as a problem disappeared in the dietary guidelines to become one with solid fats such as butter and animal fat. A new word called sofassolid fat and sugarwas
brought in. The advice was lost and the guidelines were diluted. It
is interesting that the cola companies did the same in a recent Indian
government committee (in which I was a member) by insisting that
the word junk food be replaced by an acronym hfssfood high in
fat, salt and sugar. Business must go on as usual.
But when business learns that the writing is on the wallobesity is a massive problem in the world todaycompanies accept the
problem and change tack, but all to self-regulate. Nestle cites reports
by the Yale Rudd Center, first in 2011 and then in 2014, to show how
cola companies voluntary guidelines to restrict
marketing to children were meaningless. In 2014,
the two major companies, Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola,
spent US $866 million in the US alone to advertise
unhealthy drinks. This was four times what they
spent on their healthier options. There were 30-40
per cent more advertisements targeting children,
particularly Hispanic, than before. This was their
idea of being responsible. This is why there need to
be clear codes on celebrity endorsement of such
products. Governments are learning that self-regulation will not work. For instance, New Zealand
has a Childrens Code for Advertisement of Food,
which clearly states that persons or characters
well-known to children shall not be used in advertisements to promote food as to undermine a healthy diet.
In India, the brand lobby is out to ensure that this does not happen. In 2014, the High Court of Delhi had asked the Food Safety and
Standards Authority of India (fssai) to finalise and issue guidelines
on junk food, including celebrity endorsement. But fssai members,
for reasons best known to them, are sitting on the matter. Clearly,
our health is not their concern, company profits are.
So lets celebrate Gopichand. Hope his breed will increase. We
need him not just for sports excellence, but also for our health.
@sunitanar
www.downtoearth.org.in 3
15/09/16 1:56 PM
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Down To Earth travels to

Karahal village in Madhya
Pradesh's Sheopur district
to meet India's oldest living
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105. Pathak is a veteran
On web
The cloud: complete
coverage
freedom fighter and

tribal rights activist
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the rights of Sahariya
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ARCHIVE
media reports have talked

about how more than half of
Irresponsible
As Down To Earth enters its
the 460 firms that filed their
gaps
25th year of publication, we
annual reports on CSR as of
bring to you glimpses from
January 31, 2016, failed to
our archives
F
spend the prescribed amount
for 2014-15. In Irresponsible
gaps in corporate social
The Companies Act, 2013,
responsibility (1-15
makes it mandatory for listed September, 2015) Down To
and unlisted organisations of Earth pointed out that the
a certain size and net worth
rot is much deeper. Some
to spend at least two per cent 6,000 companies are required
of their average net profit
to invest in CSR under the
Affairs data, two-thirds have
towards corporate social
Companies Act. But according failed to meet the two per cent
responsibility (CSR). Recent
to Ministry of Corporate
spending mandate.
IN CONTEXT
GOVERNANCE
Over 6,000 companies are required to spend on

corporate social responsibility. But two-thirds
have defaulted and there is no penalty
SAVITA VERMA | new delhi
Irresponsible
OR INDIA'S corporate world, it is a unique

season. Chief executives have been nervous
about their annual reports, but for a
completely new reason. As a senior vice
president of an insurance firm says, companies are not
just monitoring the net profit, but another key aspect:
the spending under corporate social responsibility
(csr). For the first time companies are filing their
annual reports that will show their legally mandated
expenditure on csr.
On April 1, 2014, India became the worlds first
country to legally mandate csr. The Companies Act,
2013, made it mandatory for companies with a net
profit before tax of at least H5 crore, or a net worth of
at least H500 crore, or a turnover of at least H1,000
crore to spend two per cent of its average net profit
before tax of the preceding three years on csr. Some
6,000 companies are required to invest in csr
under this provision. But according to
the preliminary data with the Ministry of
Corporate Affairs (mca), two-thirds of the
companies have failed to meet the two per cent
spending mandate.
All eligible companies are required to constitute
committees to set csr objectives and monitor their
activities. They are also required to mention csr
details in their annual reports.The investment can
be made in areas like education, health,
sanitation and environment. The csr
activities can be channelised through a
foundation formed by the company.
SORIT / CSE
1-15 SEPTEMBER 2015
20-21CSR.indd 20
Down To Earth editorial does not

endorse the content of advertisements
printed in the magazine
4 DOWN TO EARTH
04Web & Credits.indd 4
24/08/15 11:17 am
08/09/16 6:04 PM
letters
Criminal complacency
Down To Earth welcomes

letters, responses and
other contributions from
readers. Send to Sunita
Narain, Editor, Down To
Earth, 41, Tughlakabad
Institutional Area,
New Delhi - 110062. Email:
editor@downtoearth.org.in
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Down To Earth for bringing out
the cover story on the deeper and wider implications of climate change as
highlighted in Amitav Ghosh's latest book, The Great Derangement (Tidal
Swirl, 16-31 July, 2016).
Ghosh makes a passionate
attempt to find an answer to
a most pressing question
of our times: In the face
of an unthinkable wall of
ignorance, should climate
change be debated in the
realm of morality? In India,
the dominant forms of religion
have become enmeshed with
consumerism and neo-liberal
ideology. One of the most
common traits exhibited by
every person is an utter lack
of sensitivity. This was on
display recently in my city,
Bengaluru, where in a meeting
with Ghosh at the Indian
Institute of Science (IISc),
some people were gossiping
and there was no sense of
urgency. Like commoners,
politicians too are busy with
their own agendas and it never
occurs to them as to what
the future holds for life on this
planet. Ditto for the rich and the
RAJ KUMAR SINGH / CSE
famous. And very few of these groups
commoners, politicos or celebritiesactually
work on the subjects of climate change and the environment. They are busy in
either cleaning lakes, clearing garbage or talking of better roads. All of these
activities have their own civic value. But they are utterly inadequate and fail to go
to the root of the problem.
This is the ultimate challenge staring at us in the face and yet many do not
think about it, let alone delve deeply into the issue. Maybe we can learn from what
visionary Jiddu Krishnamurti taught. He cautioned humans to tread lightly on
the earth, saw divinity in nature and called for the urgent transformation of the
human consciousness.
S DINNI
BENGALURU
05-07Letters.indd 5
08/09/16 6:08 PM
letters
It is good that famous

authors like Amitav Ghosh
are throwing their weight
behind the movement against
climate change, which has
manifested in more than one
way throughout the world.
The apathy regarding climate
change is well-known. World
leaders who met in Paris last
December did not commit
much to reducing emissions.
Developing countries like
India are being assailed that
they too should do something
positive to reduce their
emissions that increase
global warming, resulting in
climate change. Except for a
few countries, there is little
evidence that the "green"
movement has any support.
It is the development lobby
that overrules environmental
issues. Very few religious or
social leaders have shown
interest in environmental
issues, otherwise why should
our holy places, mountains,
lakes and rivers be so dirty?
Those who are affected by
development raise their
voice but ultimately, the
lure of monetary and other
compensation silences
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
their protest. Occasional

movements such as Chipko
hit the headlines but are soon
forgotten. There is no sign of
urgency from policy makers
that something drastic has to
be done to curb emissions.
There is still plenty of
scope to go green, such as
using solar energy extensively.
If we make up our mind and
strategise accordingly, we can
adopt and use alternative,
non-polluting technologies,
reduce consumption and

conserve resources. Instead
of looking to other nations,
Indians and India should set
an example by volunteering
to reduce emissions by all
possible means.
D B N MURTHY
BENGALURU
This is truly the age of

the Anthropocene. In the
past, when our numbers were
small, we did not influence
http://www.facebook.com/down2earthindia
Do you think the Motor

Vehicle (Amendment) Bill
2016, is the single biggest
reform in the transport
sector, as the government
has claimed?
6 DOWN TO EARTH
05-07Letters.indd 6
All this is okay. But what about the hefty

bribes that motorists pay to transport
officials? Why do we deliberately create
more and more earning options for our
corrupt bureaucracy?
SHYAMALA SANYA
It is a good legislation. But what about

the enforcement? No law works in India
without it.
A JAY KUMAR
Something must also be done about

encroachments which are an impediment
to smooth, safe traffic. They need to be

removed immediately.
NITA PAWAR RANA
I think it is a good law. I especially like

the provision that imposes a penalty for
letting young people drive.
MURALI KRISHNA
It is a good move. But compliance for

safety standards in town planning, road
building and maintenance must also be
addressed. I hope that will be done soon.
SANJAY SHYAMANUR
08/09/16 6:08 PM
nature significantly. With the world's

population projected to reach 9 billion by
2050, we will become a force that could
bring about major changes in the carbon
cycle, global warming, ocean acidification,
weather patterns and extinction of plants
and animals. Many of these changes are
happening right now. Weeds and cropdevouring insects are expected to be the
winners with climate change. The losers
will be us humans. The World Health
Organization has warned that large-scale
global warming will lead to environmental
hazards for human health. Warm climate
has a cascading effect on our lives. Insect
vectors tend to be more active at higher
temperatures. We see this with newer
threats like SARS, H1N1, Zika, Chikungunya
and Dengue spreading everywhere. North
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh receive
much of their fresh water from melting
Himalayan glaciers. Rising temperatures
are causing faster glacial melt.
Our leaders and scientists must
accept that climate change is a reality
and set up common goals to limit carbon
dioxide increase through behavioural and
technological changes. Will they do that is
the big question?
H N RAMAKRISHNA
BENGALURU
Restore green cover

This refers to the article A forest drought
no one is talking about (16-31 July, 2016).
The combination of long-term drought and
absence of viable livelihood opportunities
drive a terrible cycle of poverty and debt.
Ecological restoration and increase
in green cover in and around human
habitations, especially near forests, is the
need of the hour.
It is true that human interventions
to restore bio-diversity would never
equal the role of nature, and that humaninfluenced regeneration of green cover
will take time. Nevertheless, government
policies and schemes can be redirected
to ensure that local communities gain
livelihood and employment through
such restoration.
K ANAND
BENGALURU
05-07Letters.indd 7
have run riot in villages because there are

hardly any big carnivores to keep them
in check. Habitat loss also ensures that
there is not much forest flora to satiate
their hunger. The solution to the problem
lies in the balanced management of
herbivores, carnivores and agriculture.
All should coexist.
R C MISHRA
PALAMPUR
NOTICE BOARD
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Coexistence is key
This refers to the article Enemies of the
state (1-15 July, 2016). S K Khanduri has
presented a fairly balanced view of the
problem. Otherwise, most animal activists
are hypocrites. They profess to standing
up for wildlife protection while not talking
about the slaughter of animals for human
consumption. More importantly, in this
particular debate, animal activists do not
realise the cost to agriculture. Farmers,
who work very hard to raise crops, often
end up seeing them destroyed by animals.
The havoc caused by animals has caused
many a farmer to abandon agriculture
and move to urban areas in search of
other work. Those left behind do not get
adequate nutrition because they can
afford only limited fruit and vegetables.
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08/09/16 6:07 PM
contents
Tanking from
the start
The government's plan to dig
2 million farm ponds before
the end of the year has not
impressed anybody
16
THE FORTNIGHT
Brand new
forests
Maharashtra notifies
15,088 hectares of
mangroves as reserved
forest. It is the first
state in India to do so
11
24
World Ozone Day

India is yet to make a law
banning the use of super
greehouse gas HFC-23, a
byproduct of HCFC-22, the most
common refrigerant gas
COVER STORY
A tale of two
crops
Two drought-resistant,
nutritious foods of India,
moringa and tamarind,
meet different fates
Balancing act
Kenyan authorities are
caught between reviving
a dying lake and ensuring
livelihood to farmers living
in its catchment
Mystery illness
A strange malady is stalking

people across India. It resembles
dengue and chikungunya but
turns out to be neither
20
26
30
34
Cotton
charlatans
Some textile majors are
marketing ordinary cotton
fabrics as those made of
exquisite Egyptian cotton
Demolition city
Bengaluru residents question
the demolition drive by city
authorities in the aftermath
of floods
8 DOWN TO EARTH
08-09Contents.indd 8
09/09/16 6:07 PM
e
on
f
n
64
OZONE
DAY
SPECIAL
70
OPINION
52
Whither
probity?
CLIMATE CHANGE
Companies in
Karnataka
are providing
nutritional
supplements to
schoolchildren
in their mid-day
meals, flouting
rules
Inflated?
The IPCC may have got
it wrong in estimating
African livestock
emissions
58
DEBATE
REVIEW
Reviving
Humboldt
40
A new book
seeks to revive
the legacy of
the Prussian
polymath among
today's
generation
Politics of the
womb
Does the government has
its heart in the right place
on the new surrogacy bill?
Conscious
differences
There is, as yet, no
consensus on what is
human consciousness
FOOD
Wonder fruit
Dina
Majhi's
India
The Turkey berry has

medicinal, curative and
even spiritual uses
SCIENCE
Retained
US scientists find a way of
getting plants to retain pesticide
administered in small amounts
India may be
digital now but
it still could
not provide an
ambulance to
a poor tribal to
carry his dead
wife
62
51
37
68
56
Deer departing
Ahead of winter, Uttarakhand sets
out to protect its state animal, the
white-bellied musk deer, with no
definite plan or funds
08-09Contents.indd 9
74
For the fear of USA
Five government departments

tossed the ball to each other to
avoid a decision on revoking a
Novartis patent
09/09/16 6:08 PM
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12/09/16 4:07 PM
THE
CROSS HAIRS
BY SORIT GUPTO
These mangroves are now forests

after the Mumbai
High Court ordered it, the Maharashtra
government notified 15,088 hectares
of mangroves as reserved forest.
Maharashtra is the first Indian state
to do so. According to the notification,
the forest department will be in charge
of protecting the mangrove land.
Only mangroves on government land
ELEVEN YEARS
11-15The Fortnight.indd 11
FORTNIGHT
will be a part of the reserved forest

notification. Over 10,000 hectares
of privately owned mangrove land is
yet to be awarded reserved status,
news reports say. As per a 2013 Forest
Survey of India report, six districts
have mangrove cover: Mumbai city,
Mumbai suburbs, Raigarh, Ratnagiri,
Sindhudurg and Thane.
POINT
80%
The rate of growth of India's total installed

solar capacity in the past 12 months. India
added 3.6 GW capacity. Its total capacity now
stands at 8.1 GW
Source: Bridge to India, consultancy and knowledge
services provider in the Indian renewable market
09/09/16 6:10 PM
THE
FORTNIGHT
1 ,0 0 0 WO R D S
BY VIKAS CHOUDHARY
SNARED Workers of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation's dog catching squad capture a stray dog in the trans-Yamuna neighbourhood of Lakshmi
Nagar. They work with rudimentary instrumentsa wire noose attached to a steel rodand without any protective gear. In a day, they capture eight
to 10 problem stray dogs, and transport the animals to a non-profit in Lajpat Nagar for neutering. Stray canines were in the news recently after two
horrific incidents in Kerala. In one case, a 65-year-old woman was mauled to death by a large pack of dogs on a suburban Thiruvananthapuram beach.
In another, a four-year-old boy was hospitalised after a dog attack.
Beijing uses electric

sanitation vehicles
to curb pollution
C H I N A ' S C A P I T A L Beijing has launched
electric sanitation vehicles to replace gas-driven
ones, to cut down emissions levels in the city,
which has been battling heavy pollution. The first
set of vehicles was introduced in mid-August.
The vehicles include 26 models covering road
sanitation functions from road sweeping and
garbage transportation to garbage disposal.
Following the changes, the authorities estimate
that a 16-tonne electric-powered sweeping
truck will emit 80 tonnes less carbon dioxide
a year compared to the original gas-powered
truck. A total of 791 electric sanitation vehicles,
representing about 45 per cent of all the
sanitation vehicles in Beijing, will be seen in the
city by the end of 2016.
12 DOWN TO EARTH
Now choose the AC best suited to

your region
of Energy
Efficiency (bee) has introduced a new
star rating systemIndian Seasonal
Energy Efficiency Ratio (iseer)that
takes into account different climatic
zones in India. According to bee, the
new rating methodology will help
usher in higher energy efficiency
of appliances and reduce energy
consumption under different Indian
climatic conditions. This will enable
Indian consumers to choose an AC
that is best suited to the climatic
conditions of a particular region.
iseer measures energy efficiency
of air-conditioners based on a
weighted average of performance at
outside temperatures between 24
and 43C based on Indian weather
THE BUREAU
ISTOCK PHOTOS
data. As per the Indian Weather

Data Handbook of 2014, the weather
profile of 54 major cities shows that
65 per cent of the total number of
hours in a year have a temperature
above 24C. ACs in India have so far
been tested at standard operating
conditions of 35C.
09/09/16 6:12 PM
THE
I N FO C U S
PIB
Budget in January
The Union Ministry of Finance is considering

a proposal by the Department of Economic
Affairs to advance the presentation
of the Union budget by a month to

January 31 instead of February 28.
The government says if implemented,
the measure will help initiate revenue
mobilisation and capital expenditure

measures right from the beginning of
the fiscal year. Usually, the budget is tabled
in February end. But the release of funds
comes only by July. Three to four months
On August 22, the Supreme Court

ordered the Delhi government to
install radio-frequency
identification devices to facilitate
imposition of green cess on
commercial vehicles entering the
national capital.
If accepted, this could mean a second

major shift in the schedule of the budget
by the National Democratic Alliance
(NDA). The previous NDA government, under
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
had changed the time of presenting

the budget to 11 am, from the British era
practice of presenting it at 5 pm, in 2001.
The shifting of the budget is one of three
major changes the government is
looking into. It has formed a committee
under former Chief Economic Advisor
Shankar Acharya that has been tasked with
studying the shifting of the financial year
itself from the current April-March
period to January-December.
Union Minister for Railways, Suresh Prabhu has
also suggested that the Railway Budget be
merged with the Union budget.
On August 24, NGT ordered that the

2.2 km long wall around a golf course
in Assam's Kaziranga Wildlife
Sanctuary was illegal and should be
brought down within one month. The
wall was erected by the Numaligarh
refinery around the golf course built
for its officials.
Delhi
Uttarakhand
Gujarat
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra
Goa
On August 23, NGT

imposed a fine of
`100 crore on a Qatarbased shipping company,
Delta Navigation, for
pollution caused by an
oil spill off the coast of
Mumbai in 2011 by the
M V Rak.
of the fiscal year are wasted in completing the

formalities. By shifting the budget to January,
all ministries will get a full year to

spend what is allocated to them.
On August 19, the National Green Tribunal

(NGT) ordered the Alaknanda Hydro Power
Co. Ltd. to deposit `9 crore with the
Environmental Relief Fund Authority within
30 days as compensation to the victims of
the June, 2013, floods in Srinagar.
I N CO U RT
On August 24, the Gujarat

High Court issued a notice to
the National Highways
Authority of India (NHAI)
against the widening of the
national highway connecting
Ahmedabad with north
Gujarat. The notice has been
issued in response to the
petition filed by farmers from
Gandhinagar district.
SO FAR...
FORTNIGHT
Assam
On August 12, the Supreme
Court said that the
complaints of tribals in three
districts in Madhya Pradesh
regarding alleged
harassment by forest
officials and police inaction
would be taken care of by
the grievance redressal
authority set up by it.
On August 12, the Supreme Court held that an

approval was given to Talaulicar & Sons Pvt Ltd
for mining activity in the Saniem-Sacorda iron
ore mine in South Goa district in 2007 without
complying with the various requirements
under the Environment Protection Act,
including a public hearing.
Total cases on
environment and
development tracked
since January 1, 2016 till
August 24, 2016
SUPREME
COURT
HIGH
COURTS
NATIONAL GREEN
TRIBUNAL
60
100
539
NGT pulls up government on zero result

of Ganga cleaning
Green Tribunal (ngt) pulled up Uttar Pradesh and the Centre over
pollution in the Ganga. ngt said despite tall claims, zero result was delivered. ngt had
initially sought an action plan from Uttar Pradesh on steps taken to clean the Ganga from
Haridwar to Kanpur, part of the Namami Ganga programme's first phase. On the state's
inability to do so, ngt gave a final opportunity to the authorities to submit a report within
two weeks. Everyone comes here and tells us that they have done this and that but the
result is zero. What are your plans? How are you going to protect it between Haridwar and
Kanpur? a bench headed by ngt chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar asked.
THE NATIONAL
Compiled by DTE-CSE Data Centre. For detailed verdicts, visit bit.ly/1CIFrcf
09/09/16 6:12 PM
THE
FORTNIGHT
Cabinet proposes ban on commercial surrogacy

Cabinet has approved the Surrogacy (Regulation)
Bill, 2016, proposing a ban on commercial surrogacy. Seeking
to alter India's image as a surrogacy hub, it stipulates that only
childless, heterosexual Indian couples who have been married for
five years and are living in India can avail fertility treatment. And
if the couple need to find a surrogate to carry the baby, they have
THE UNION
EXTREME
to seek a relative who will do it out of altruism. Critics say the draft
bill negates the rights of parenthood to single persons, divorcees,
widowed persons, same-sex couples, live-in partners and others.
According to the draft bill, if a woman indulges in commercial
surrogacy, she would be sentenced to a jail term of at least 10 years
and a fine of up to `10 lakh (see `Umblical Discourse', p 64 ).
Q & A
70%
The proportion of women among the 1.3

billion people globally who live in absolute
poverty
900 million The number of women

who have incomes of less than $1 a day
66 per cent The proportion of the

world's work performed by women
50 per cent The amount of the world's

food produced by women
572 millionThe number of working
poor in the world
343 million The number of women
Not a solution
W H O : Shekhar Kumar Niraj
Head, Traffic India
W H A T : The Centre has proposed
stricter laws to stop wildlife trade.
One of the proposals is to increase
the penalties to `50 lakh for different
violations under the Wildlife (Protection)
Act, 1972, and making provisions for
imposing a separate penalty for offences
related to hunting in tiger reserves.
W H Y : This is not a solution to the

problem of wildlife crime. This is because
while the quantum of punishment
increases with such measures, there is
no corresponding rise in the conviction
rate. There are reasons for this. One,
the judiciary still remains insensitive
as it does not consider wildlife crime
to be big. Consequently, it does not
award serious punishment in such
cases. Second, the legal procedure is
very complicated. The prosecution staff
remains short of resources and cases
are not effectively pursued. Hence, the
punishment fails to act as a deterrent to
would-be offenders. The solution lies in
simplifying the legal process, providing
training to legal staff and sensitising the
members of the judiciary.
among the world's working poor
Habitable planet found near Earth
PLANETARY HABITABILITY LABORATORY
14 DOWN TO EARTH
A T E A M comprising European
scientists has announced the
discovery of an Earth-sized planet
orbiting Proxima Centauri, the
star nearest to the solar system.
Named Proxima b, the planet is
in a temperate zone and has liquid
water. The scientists presented their
findings, based on data collected
over 16 years in the journal, Nature.
The team worked with telescopes
of the Munich-based European
Southern Observatory in the deserts

of north Chile. They used Doppler
spectroscopy, an indirect method
for finding extrasolar planets, to
detect Proxima b and describe its
properties. Proxima b has a mass
of around 1.3 times that of Earth,
and orbits about seven million
kilometres from Proxima Centauri. It
is just four light years from the solar
system, meaning it is on the scale of
our galaxy, the Milky Way.
09/09/16 6:13 PM
THE
FORTNIGHT
C O N V E R S I O N O F forests into
agricultural lands is weakening India's
southwest monsoon, a study published
by the journal Nature says. Trees channel
moisture from the soil into the air through
transpiration. This contributes to around
25 per cent of total monsoon precipitation
during the monsoon's later stages.
Deforestation, however, replaces deeprooted plants with shallow-rooted vegetation
that cannot do the same job. The authors
compared two time periods in two Indian
regions to analyse the impact of land use and
land cover on change in rainfall. Between
the 1980s and 2000s, land cover in Central
India changed from woody savannah to crop
land and from woody savannah to evergreen
broadleaf in the Northeast. When the
precipitation received in the 1980s and 2000s
in the two regions was simulated, a decrease
in rainfall was found. The study, conducted by
scientists from IIT Bombay and the University
of Nebraska, is significant as the southwest
monsoon contributes up to 80 per cent of the
annual rainfall in the country.
BERING LAND BRIDGE NATIONAL PRESERVE
Deforestation
affects rainfall
Sea rise forces village to shift

tiny Alaskan
village on the Chukchi Sea, has possibly
become the first American settlement
that will relocate due to climate
change. Its 650 residents voted 89-78
in favour of a long-discussed proposal
to move the entire village to yet-to-bedecided new location. The 1.6 km-wide
island, on which the village is located,
has lost 914 metres of coastline in the
past 35 years. Rising temperatures
SHISHMAREF, A
have shrunk the sea ice, which buffered

Shishmaref from storm surges. At the
same time, the permafrost that the
village is built on has started melting,
with the shore receding at an average
rate of up to 3 metres a year. Thinner
ice has led to a surge in fatalities among
the seal hunter residents, who plunge
to their deaths through the cracks. The
cost of relocating Shishmaref will be an
estimated US $180 million.
L AT I T U D E
V E R B AT I M
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Human footprint
change
This map shows where

humans' impact on the
environment increased or
decreased from 1993 to 2009
A study has mapped the impact of humanity on the environment in the last 16 years. The researchers used various
kinds of satellite data to analyse eight different categories of human impacts between 1993 and 2009. These
include cropland, pasture land, population density, nighttime lights, roads, railways, and navigable waterways.
They found that while the human footprint had not grown in direct proportion to the population or economy, the
most intense pressure was being felt in the most biodiverse places such as the Amazon and the Arctic.
"Usain Bolt of
Jamaica was poor.
Trainers advised
him to eat beef twice
a day and he scored
nine gold medals in
Olympics"
Udit Raj, BJP MP and
Dalit leader. He was later
forced to retract his
statement
12/09/16 11:34 AM
WAT E R
Great farm
pond chase
As India crawls out of a severe drought, it plans to
construct 2 million farm ponds before the end of the
year. Why are farmers and water experts not thrilled
at the idea?
SUSHMITA SENGUPTA | new delhi
16-18Sp01.indd 16
HE CENTRE and state governments

have set an unprecedented target
to fight drought this year. It has
been decided that 2 million farm
ponds will be dug across the country before
the end of the year.
Farm ponds are small tanks, usually occupying a part of the farmland, to store rainwater for irrigation. In April, the Centre decided to construct farm ponds on priority
under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (mgnrega),
following which the states submitted their
own targets and programmes. In most
states, the construction started in the middle of the monsoon and the rain caused
heavy damage to ponds, making farmers
and experts question the idea and the break-
12/09/16 11:08 AM
WAT E R
www.downtoearth.org.in/water
neck speed at which the work was being

carried out.
Khukhra panchayat in Ranchi district
of Jharkhand is one such example. In May,
Jatru Oraon, head of the panchayat, was
helping village residents fight drought.
When the government decided to build
farm ponds, he championed the cause. But
after three months of monsoon, Oraon has
another challenge. The flood has submerged all the farms; many ponds are
damaged. I am not sure how many structures will emerge unscathed once the water
recedes, he says.
Facing a severe drought in April, the
Jharkhand government set a target of digging 100,000 farm ponds by June 10the
official date of the arrival of monsoon in the
KUNDAN PANDEY
Rudra Pratap
Mishra of
Ganj village
in Mahoba
district, Uttar
Pradesh, got
a pond dug on
his farmland,
but is unsure
about the
durability of
the structure
MGNREGA faces serious criticism over the quality of

more than 8 million water structures that have been
constructed under the Act in the past decade. Close to
40 per cent of these structures are not even complete
stateand another 50,000 by the end of the
year. Despite the mad rush to build ponds,
the government could not meet even 35 per
cent of the target by mid-June. Even during
the rains, instead of stopping work, as is the
usual practice, the government put pressure
on officials to meet the target. Media reports
say several farm ponds have collapsed due to
poor design and over 30 people have drowned in these structures between June and
September. Rajesh Lohra of Nihalu Bhartali
village in Ranchi, lost his six-year-old son
when a pond collapsed. This is worse than
drought. Officials are mindlessly digging
ponds and the excavated soil is heaped next
to the structure. Children account for the
maximum casualties, says Vinay Mahato,
member of Ranchi-based non-profit Jagriti
Vikas Foundation that works on issues concerning child rights. The officials even allowed the use of heavy earth movers to dig
the ponds, which is against the rules of mgnrega. They forced farmers to build ponds on
topographically unsuitable areas. Most of
the ponds dug on hilly slopes have been
washed away. We lost a part of our farm and
with it the hope to harvest water, says
Oraon. Though he did pursue people to allow the construction of these structures, he
accepts that farm ponds do not work in the
area because the terrain is rugged. He says
officials did not pay heed to his demand to
dig more wells in the village.
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the
two states that account for half of the total
target, also received heavy rains and there
were media reports of widespread damage
to ponds. Officials from these states,
however, have refused to comment on the
extent of damage. Once the monsoon is
over, we will compare the rate of construction of ponds before, during and after the
monsoon to know the exact impact, says an
Andhra Pradesh government official on
condition of anonymity. A Karnataka gov-
ernment official says there was some minor damage reported from the northern
districts of the state.
Chandra Sekhar Masaguppi, joint director, Rural Development and Panchayati
Raj Department, Karnataka, blames the
Centre for making the states undertake
this Herculean task. Other structures, like
check dams, are not being built at the usual
pace, he says. A K Sumbly, deputy secretary,
mgnrega cell under the Union Ministry of
Rural Development, however, says that the
Centre has not given any instruction and the
states themselves have been making tall
claims about their capacity to build ponds.
However, the widespread damage has
even made government officials raise an
alarm. The government allowed digging
during the monsoon, neglecting the fact
that many of the ponds were destroyed during construction, says Chandra Bhushan
Tiwari, district planning officer, Ranchi.
Moreover, the labourers whose names were
not in the official muster roll of mgnrega,
but who were deployed by the state government in its rush to meet the target with the
assurance that they would be remunerated,
are now demanding payment of their wages.
Flood of state programmes

The rush to build farm ponds was triggered
by the drought in 16 states of the country this
year. As reports of drought in Maharashtra
started playing out on television channels,
one state after another announced programmes to dig farm ponds. Finally, the
Central government declared that farm
ponds would be the priority under mgnrega. Sumbly says that the target under mgnrega is 1.2 million farm ponds. In addition
to this, the states have declared their own
targets, taking the total figure to 2 million.
Andhra Pradesh tops the list with a target of
0.65 million ponds this financial year. This
is 40 times the target the state had last year.
16-18Water.indd 17
12/09/16 12:35 PM
WAT E R
In Madhya Pradesh, this is the first time a

target has been set under mgnrega, says
Mahindra Kumar Jain, superintendant
engineer of mgnrega in the state. The
Centre has given the state a target of 50,000
ponds but, according to Jain, the state has
decided to build 76,000 ponds.
Questions over MGNREGA

mgnrega faces serious criticism over the
quality of more than 8 million water structures that have been constructed under the
Act in the past decade. Close to 40 per cent
of these structures are not even complete.
The latest spree may just aggravate the
problem. Experts say this not only impacts
the drought-proofing programme of the
country, but also discourages communities
from getting involved, which is crucial for
the success of such initiatives. Moreover, the
governments move to set targets under
mgnrega undermines the Act which allows
panchayats to set their own goals. For Prem
S Vashistha, economist and senior fellow at
the National Council of Applied Economic
Research, New Delhi, it is a concern for the
very sustainability of mgnrega. When a
government sets a target, communities do
not get to decide on what is most suitable for
them. If the communities are not involved,
then the projects under mgnrega will not
be sustainable, he says. Jharkhands experience of chasing targets also indicates this.
In 2011, the state undertook an initiative to
dig wells, just the way it embarked on digging farm ponds this year. Most of the wells
collapsed due to bad design and location,
and communities in several areas boycotted
the programme.
In many states, farmers are not willing
to give space to farm ponds on their land.
Officials in Telangana and Madhya Pradesh
say this is the main hurdle in the success of
the programme. B Saidulu, joint commissioner, Rural Development, Madhya Pradesh, who looks after farm pond work in the
state, says, This year, the target is very high
and farmers do not want to allocate land for
constructing ponds.
Pushing limits
States are chasing unprecedented targets to reach the goal of constructing
2 million farm ponds by the end of the year
Increase in farm pond
numbers in comparison
to last year
Bundelkhand region,
Uttar Pradesh
16-18Sp01.indd 18
83%
79%
Chhattisgarh
3,801%
Odisha
300%
Madhya Pradesh
1,785%
Andhra Pradesh
Karnataka
3,541%
478%
Source: Ministry of Rural Development data; Grammonnati Sansthan; NREGA cell, Uttar Pradesh
A Vaidyanathan, hydrologist and member of the erstwhile Planning Commission,

says that the ponds are rain-fed and it is unclear how they will be of help in drought-affected areas. He adds that there is no database to track the effectiveness of these ponds
in comparison to other water conservation
structures. For instance, the best option for
irrigation in Madhya Pradesh, which is a
plateau area, is open dug wells, says Jain.
Farmers in the state say that ponds cannot
store enough water.
In many states, farmers are unclear
about the wages they are entitled to under
these initiatives. While they receive a designated daily wage for their work on farm
ponds under mgnrega, for state programm-es they are being asked to share the
cost. In Jharkhand, for instance, the state
pays 90 per cent of the cost and the beneficiaries pay the rest. According to mgnrega,
the cost of construction of a farm pond is between R35,000 and R5 lakh.
Similar is the case with Maharashtra
In many states farmers are not willing to give land

for farm ponds. Officials in Telangana and Madhya
Pradesh say this is the main hurdle in the success
of the programme
18 DOWN TO EARTH
Jharkhand
where the subsidy for farmers to dig farm

ponds under the state governments Magel
Tyala Shettal scheme was reduced from
R80,000 in 2010 to R50,000 in 2016.
Ramesh Devidas Kale, Deputy Collector,
Employment Guarantee Scheme, Amravati
district, says farmers are not happy with the
reduction in subsidy.
In Uttar Pradesh too the beneficiaries
have to contribute around 50 per cent under
the Khet Talab Yojana in drought-hit Bundelkhand. Apart from this, the farmers have
to pay 3 per cent of treasury charges. The
total cost of each pond comes to around
R1 lakh. This is too much for farmers to bear.
Families are struggling to get food. How
can we pay such a huge amount for ponds?
says Kishan Dut, a farmer in Ganj village of
Mahoba district, Uttar Pradesh.
Sachin Chowdhry, associate professor,
Indian Institute of Public Administration,
New Delhi, says that when governments
start chasing targets mindlessly, it becomes
an exercise in vain. During his visits to rural
areas of Rajasthan in 2011-12, he found that
most of the ponds and trenches constructed
under mgnrega were of no use and had
been abandoned. Farm ponds can meet the
same fate, he warns.
@lakewarriors
With inputs from Kundan Pandey
12/09/16 11:08 AM
19NTPC Vertical ad English.indd 19
12/09/16 4:07 PM
HEALTH
www.downtoearth.org.in/health
Mystery fever
Doctors are clueless
about the viral strain that
has gripped several states
in India this monsoon
KUNDAN PANDEY | DELHI
UTBREAKS OF viral fever occur

with seasonal regularity during
the monsoon in India. For the
past few years, dengue and chikungunya viruses have been the predominant pathogens. But this year, the country
is in the grip of a strange fever. Its symptoms are similar to chikungunya and dengue but tests on patients show negative results for these mosquito-borne viral
diseases. Reena, a resident of Bhogal in

south Delhi, is one such patient. She ran
high temperature for 10 days and suffered
from severe pain in the joints, rashes and
swollen facesymptoms associated with
chikungunya. But the tests showed negative results. Similar was the case of Prachi
Nautiyal, a resident of Noida, Uttar Pradesh. In August, Prachi suffered from high
fever, body ache, joint pain and skin rashes
Officials of Delhi's Hindu

Rao Hospital say the
number of undiagnosed
fever cases has increased
manifold since July
20-22Sp02.indd 20
09/09/16 6:16 PM
TOUCHING 25,76,986 LIVES

THROUGH 408 NGO PARTNERS
COVERING 699 LOCATIONS ACROSS INDIA
WORKING TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE

AND ECO FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT
CREATING HEALTH AWARENESS
PROVIDING QUALITY HEALTHCARE FOR
THE ECONOMICALLY WEAKER SECTION OF SOCIETY
VILLAGE ADOPTION IN UTTARAKHAND ON HEALTH,
SANITATION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT
www.maxindiafoundation.org
21Max india ad.indd 21
+91 11 4259 8000 extn. 135
12/09/16 4:07 PM
HEALTH
but tests for dengue and chikungunya

showed negative results.
The phenomenon is not limited to
Delhi. Vivek Billampelly, former president
of General Practitioners Association, Pune,
says the city too has had a high number of viral fever cases. Samarjit Naskar, critical care
expert at Belle Vue Hospital, Kolkata, also
says that there is a huge number of patients
with undiagnosed viral fever this year.
Difficulty in diagnosis also increases the
treatment cost for patients because they
have to undergo several tests. Ajay Nagar
of Rajbeer Colony, Delhi, had to spend
R10,000 on treatment and identification
of the viral strain her mother was suffering
from. But the tests remained inconclusive.
Viruses mutate, emerge, re-emerge

World Health Organization (WHO) published a list of top emerging
pathogens likely to cause severe outbreaks in the near future. Other than
chikungunya, the list of pathogens includes Zika, Crimean-Congo haemoerrhagic
fever, filovirus diseases such as Ebola, coronaviruses like
MERS Co-V and SARS, Lassa Fever, Nipah and Rift Valley Fever.
In recent years, there is evidence that mutations have
become more common. In the case of Ebola, the virus that
caused the 2014 outbreak was different from those that
caused outbreaks earlier. It had accumulated more than 395
mutations between 2014 and 2016, when the researchers
collected the last samples. In 2003, researchers identified
eight mutations in dengue virus type 4. Chikungunya, which was largely confined to
developing countries in Africa and Asia before 2004, reached developed nations,
like France, due to a single amino acid change in the envelope glycoprotein.
IN 2015,
Experts clueless
Doctors have no clue about what could
be leading to this fever. Officials from hospitals in Delhi estimate that around 30 per
cent of all fever cases are undiagnosed.
S Chatterjee, internal medicine expert at
Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Delhi, says
that apart from dengue and chikungunya
there are two other kinds of fever cases this
yearone caused by normal respiratory infections and another which shows symptoms of chikungunya but does not get confirmed in tests. Naskar is of the opinion that
the virus could have changed its genetic pattern. R S Taneja, head of internal medicine
department at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Delhi, too believes that the virus could
have mutated. Billampelly says that since
symptoms are similar to chikungunya, the
virus could be its variant.
But there has been very little research on
mutations in chikungunya and dengue, says
P Jambulingam, director of Vector Control
Research Centre, Puducherry. For example,

a mutation in chikungunya was last identified in 2007. This mutated virus had caused
a high number of cases that year, he says.
However, Soumya Swaminathan, director
of Indian Council of Medical Research, says
that so far, the institute has not found evidence of the viruses being new or mutated
versions of older dengue or chikungunya
strains. The National Institute of Virology,
Pune, the key body on viral research in the
country, did not respond to phone calls and
emails on the state of research on the unidentified viral strains.
"So far, the

Indian Council
of Medical
Research has
not found
evidence of the
viruses being new or mutated
versions of older dengue or
chikungunya strains "
"Pune has had

a high number
of viral fever
cases this year.
The symptoms
are similar to
chikungunya, but the virus
appears to be a variant of the
disease"
Soumya Swaminathan, director, Indian Council

of Medical Research, Delhi
Vivek Billampelly, former president, General

Practitioners Association, Pune
22 DOWN TO EARTH
20-22Sp02.indd 22
Usual suspects
Dengue and chikungunya continue to plague several states. Chatterjee says that the
number of fever cases has increased at least
five times since July. A pathologist from
Bansal Hospital in New Friends Colony,
Delhi, says that almost 150 cases come for
diagnosis daily. The hospitals are incapable

of dealing with the rising number of patients. Apollo Hospital and Sir Ganga Ram
Hospital have allotted more beds for fever
patients. Safdarjung Hospital is using its
psychiatry ward to accommodate the rising
numbers. Till August 31, a total of 27,879
cases of dengue and 12,255 cases of chikungunya were reported in the country, according to data released by the Union Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare. In Delhi, the
figure stood at 487 for dengue and 432 for
chikungunya. Other states in the grip of chikunguya are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,
Telangana and Maharashtra, while states
with high number of dengue cases are Bihar,
Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal,
Karnataka and Kerala.
Environmental factors could be behind
the spurt in cases, says A C Dhariwal,
Director of National Vector Borne Disease
Control Programme. He warns that the
numbers could rise because September and
October are suitable for mosquito breeding.
P K Das, former director of Vector Control
Research Centre, Puducherry, points out
that the problem would continue till we do
not take steps to reduce the breeding points
of the vector.
Moreover, there is now evidence that
vectors which earlier bred only in clean water have developed capability to breed in saline water as well. Unless the government
takes steps to augment research and health
infrastructure, the signs are ominous.
@kundanpandey158
09/09/16 6:17 PM
GREENING OUR
MOTHER EARTH
Himalaya goes green in the Western Ghats!

Plants over half a million trees in an afforestation program.
80-85%
is the survival rate of
saplings planted.
50 lbs
Every year each tree
offsets 50 pounds of
CO2 on an average.
These trees offer:
Additional income
source
Fruits and fodder

Better soil quality,
greener earth
More than 25 local schools, 17

local NGOs, 27 colleges, and
several government ofces are
partnered for this initiative.
Principal Partner:
Society for Environment and Biodiversity Conservation (SEBC)
23Himalaya ad.indd 23
12/09/16 4:08 PM
OZONE
D AY
SPECIAL
www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change
Make polluters pay

India should urgently
enact a law to curb
HFC-23 emissions.
This will help the
government gain a
foothold at international
negotiation platforms
RAKESH KAMAL | new delhi
to reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons (hfcs) under the aegies of

the Montreal Protocol. Under the
protocol, which was adopted in the early
1990s to eliminate the use of ozone-depleting chemicals, the world aims to phase out
over 100 chemicals. So far, countries have
phased out chlorofluorocarbons (cfcs) that
were used as a refrigerant.
Chlorodifluoromethane (hcfc-22)
that is part of hydrochlorofluorocarbon
group of chemicals (hcfcs) was the main replacement for cfcs and is used as a common
refrigerant in India. But hcfc-22 is a moderately ozone-depleting gas and is being
phased out under the Montreal Protocol.
While developed countries have achieved
the target, developing countries like India
will have to stop using hcfcs by 2030. India
has put in place a law to curb the use of hcfcs in a phased manner. But there is no law to
curb the emission of trifluoromethane
(hfc-23), released during its production.
Though hfc-23 does not harm the ozone

layer, its global warming potential is 14,800
times more than that of CO2.
Developed countries have replaced
hcfcs with hfcs and developing countries
are following suit. But given the concerns
over climate change, countries now plan to
phase down the use of hfcs as well. It is in
this context hfc-23 is being discussed under the Montreal Protocol. As of now, hfc23 has no use and it is being destroyed or
emitted as a waste product.
In India, five fluorochemical companies
manufacture hcfc-22. They have incinerators to destroy hfc-23, which they had procured under the Clean Development
Mechanism (cdm) of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change. During
2007-2013, these companies destroyed the
gas and sold the carbon credits to developed
countries under cdm. For every tonne of hfc23 destroyed, they earned 14,800 carbon
credits. This translates into a profit of over
US $1 billion till 2012 -13. But it is not
CREATIVECOMMONS
Common refrigerant HCFC-22 depletes the

ozone layer. Its by-product HFC-23 is a super
greenhouse gas
OUNTRIES ARE negotiating a treaty
24-25Ozone Day Special.indd 24
12/09/16 11:21 AM
OZONE
DAY
SPECIAL
Status unknown
Manufacturers have refused to reveal the amount of super greenhouse gas HFC-23 released or incinerated in India
HCFC-22, the most commonly used
refrigerant in India, is produced by five
companies: Shri Ram Fibres Ltd, Gujarat
Fluoro-chemicals Ltd, Chemplast Sanmar
Ltd, Navin Fluorine International Ltd and
Hindustan Fluorocarbons Ltd
known if the companies continue to destroy

hfc-23 following the collapse of the carbon
credits market in 2012-13. When Down To
Earth contacted the companies, they refused to divulge the amount of hfc-23 they
make and if they still destroy it.
Such attitude of companies is not limited to India. Worldwide, 19 other refrigerant
facilities have installed hfc-23 incinerators
under cdm. These are in China, Argentina,
South Korea and Mexico. Destroying hfc23 was so profitable under cdm that several companies, mainly in China, increased
the production of hcfc-22 just to be able to
destroy hfc-23. This prompted New
Zealand to stop trading in carbon credits in
December 2012. The EU did the same in
January 2013. These were the two major
buyers of carbon credits.
The levels of hfc-23 in the atmosphere
have rapidly increased since the collapse of
the carbon credits market. This indicates
that hcfc-22 industries continue to emit
hfc-23. Estimates show that in the business-as-usual scenario, all the hcfc-22
manufacturing units in the world will
release more than 2 billion tonnes of CO2
equivalent of hfc-23 into the atmosphere
by 2020.
So far, China is probably the only country that has successfully managed to persuade its companies to destroy hfc-23.
Chinese checks
In China, when companies were making
windfall gains under the cdm regime, the
government imposed a 65 per cent tax on
cdm projects involving hcfc-22. While the
Montreal Protocol requires countries to
phase out hcfcs by 2030, China has collected enough money to incinerate its by-prod16-30 SEPTEMBER 2016
24-25Ozone Day Special.indd 25
No law to destroy
the super greenhouse
gas HFC-23, which is
released during the
production of
refrigerant HCFC-22
Capture and
destruction of HFC23 costs less than
`15-25/tonne of
carbon dioxide
equivalent
uct, hfc-23, for at least 50 years under the

business-as-usual scenario. Yet, after the
collapse of the carbon credit market, China
introduced a temporary subsidy in 2015 to
ensure that companies continue to incinerate hfc-23. Under this policy, the National
Development and Reform Commission,
Chinas top economic planning agency, provides subsidies to companies that are manufacturing hcfc-22 but have not had access
to cdm. Depending on the production ca-
If super greenhouse gas

HFC-23 is not destroyed
at source, all the HCFC22 manufacturing units
across the world would
release over 2 billion
tonnes of CO2e into the
atmosphere by 2020
pacity, new companies get up to 15 million
Yuan (R150 million) to buy hfc-23 incinerators. The companies that received funds
under cdm will also get subsidies up to 4
Yuan per tonne of CO2. The subsidy will be
reduced every year and end in 2020.
Why India shouldn't follow it

India did not impose tax on fluorochemical
companies when cdm was in place and allowed them to make huge profits. So unlike
China, the Indian government is not obliged
to incentivise companies to incinerate hfc23. But there is an urgent need to introduce
legislation so that the emission of this super
greenhouse gas can be prevented.
Realising the importance of controlling
hfc-23 emission, the National Green
Global
warming
potential of
HFC-23 is
14,800 times
that of CO2
The five companies made

a profit of over US $1
billion by incinerating
HFC-23 and selling the
carbon credits during
2007-13
Tribunal in December 2015 directed the

Ministry of Environment, Forest and
Climate Change and other concerned authorities to carry out a study on the units
that make hcfc-22. It also asked the ministry to provide guidelines on the storage,
emission and incineration of hfc-23.
An analysis by Down To Earth shows
that capture and destruction of hfc-23 is inexpensive and costs less than `15-25 per
tonne of CO2 equivalent. This means companies manufacturing hcfc-22 will have to
spend as little as R300 lakh a year, which is
0.2 per cent of the revenue they earn. Over
the next 15 years, they would require only
R25 crore to incinerate hfc-23 till they stop
producing hcfc-22 by 2030. This is 0.5 per
cent of the money these companies made by
selling carbon credits from hfc-23.
As countries negotiate to phase down
hfcs, hcfc-22 companies are demanding
money to incinerate hfc-23. Chinese companies are in the forefront, but Indian companies are also demanding this. Under the
Montreal Protocol, developed countries are
obligated to provide financial and technical support to developing countries to reduce the use of chemicals.
Asking money to destroy hfc- 23, when
these companies have made so much
money from it in the past, is not only unfair
but unethical. The Indian government
should not support this demand of its
industry. Instead it should enact a law
to make it mandatory for the companies to
destroy hfcs. This will not only showcase
Indias leadership position in dealing with
hfc issues, but also help the Indian government gain a foothold while negotiating its
phase down.
@rakeshkamal
09/09/16 6:18 PM
URBANISATION
Demolition overdrive
Clearing encroachments
on storm water drains
and lakes in Bengaluru is
adding to the mayhem
JIGYASA WATWANI |
yelahanka , bengaluru
26-28Sp03.indd 26
N THE morning of August 31, V

Krishna of Bengalurus Doddabommasandra locality tried to
kill himself because the Bruhat
Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (bbmp)
razed both his garment shops to the ground
earlier that month. He was one of the many
who were left homeless and anguished
after the civic body tore apart 15 shops and
22 houses in the locality as part of a demolition drive.
bbmp has been conducting a demolition drive since 2012, following a Karnataka High Court directive and a state government order to clear encroachments on
storm water drains and lake beds in the city
(see Razed in the city). But the drive acquired unprecedented momentum in the
first week of August this year. Extreme

rainfall in the last week of July and subsequent flooding awoke the state executive
and judiciary.
On August 3, bbmp said encroachments on nallas, lakes and water bodies are
the main reason for the floods, and accorded priority to the removal of the encroachments. In the first phase of the drive, which
will go on for the next three months, we will
target encroachments on storm water
drains. In the next, we will clear encroachments on lakes and other commons (water
bodies), says K Siddegowda, chief engineer, Storm Water Drain Department,
bbmp. The intensity of the demolition drive
this time can be guaged from the fact that
in August alone bbmp demolished 237 en-
12/09/16 10:57 AM
URBANISATION
www.downtoearth.org.in/urbanisation
croachments in all eight zones of the city,
whereas it had cleared only 822 of the 1,955
identified encroachments in four years.
Conservation groups have welcomed
the new-found momentum, but they fear
that the drive may lose steam as it is marred
by confusion and commotion. It has become more of a problem than a solution,
says V Ramprasad of Bengaluru-based
non-profit Friends of Lakes.
Unscientific methods
The problem lies in the way bbmp identifies
storm water drains. Siddegowda says his officials use the 2015 Comprehensive Development Plan (cdp) map of the city to identify drains. If they do not see a channel in
wetland or low-lying areas, they refer to village maps, prepared in 1905 and later updated in 1965.
But cdp is primarily a planning document with a focus on land useit designates
residential, commercial, industrial and green spaces but does not map them in their entirety. Besides, cdp maps are not georefer-
Razed in the city

A look at the storm water drains which the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike
aims to clear of encroachments
Villages which were notified by
the civic body to voluntarily
remove encroachments from the
storm water drains
Storm water drains
Yelahanka zone
(Byatarayanapura)
Dasarahalli
zone
Mahadevpura zone
West
zone
East zone
L U
South
zone
Rajarajeshwarinagar
zone
Bommanahalli zone
SRIKANT CHAUDHARY / CSE
Source: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
enced. cdp maps are prepared on the basis

of satellite imagery, and so merely indicate
the alignment and location of storm water
drains, says V Ravichandar, a Bengalurubased civic activist, who is also a member of
a bbmp restructuring committee.
The village maps are more accurate
than cdp maps as they were georeferenced
using the knowledge of those days, Ravichandar says. But builders and residents
question the practicality of using these
maps as the citys hydrological landscape
has changed dramatically over the century.
Unreasonable sanctions
237 structures, which

encroached on storm
water drains, were
razed in a month by
the Bruhat Bengaluru
Mahanagara Palike,
across Bengaluru
bbmps demolition drive also faces criticism

because quite a handful of encroachers have
the legal sanction to reside where they do.
I bought this land 40 years ago and built a
house on it 15 years ago, says R Prakash of
Doddabommasundra. I have the sale deed,
the kaata or a revenue document, the proof
of having paid property tax to bbmp and approval of the construction plan. Yet, bbmp
demolished my house, saying there is a
drain beneath it.
Like most of his neighbours, Prakash
Map not to scale
plans to sue the man who sold him the land

and the bbmp engineer who approved the
construction plan.
In fact, the drive exposes the alleged
role of government officials in approving
several housing societies on low-lying areas and giving builders a free hand to change
the natural gradient of the region.
Consider the Kodichikkanahalli locality near the Madiwala lake. The Bangalore
Development Authority should not have
approved the layout of Kodichikkanahalli.
bbmp should not have sanctioned construction plans of buildings in the area, says
Ramprasad. Today, housing societies in the
locality have mushroomed on channels that
used to drain excess rainwater. The locality
got severely affected due to the recent
floods. Clause 26(b) of the Karnataka Town
and Country Planning Act says town planning must make provisions for filling up
low-lying areas. Small wonder, 98 per cent
of the lakes in Bengaluru are encroached by
mafia, according to a March 2016 study by
T V Ramachandra of Centre for Ecological
Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science,
Bengaluru. In many parts of the city, layout
26-28Sp03.indd 27
12/09/16 10:58 AM
URBANISATION
plans have been approved for areas that

used to be lakes or storm water drains. The
Gandhi Nagar Bus Stand, Kanteerava
Stadium, Asian Games Village, Hockey
Stadium and Majestic Bus Stand are all situated on what used to be lakes.
Even the implementation of the drive
is marred by challenges. In Doddabommasandra, residents complain that they were
neither notified about the demolition nor
have they been compensated. The civic authorities just rammed their cranes against
the wall of our houses and left us to fend for
ourselves, says 68-year-old Govinda Raju,
who has been living with a relative since
bbmp demolished his house. There are others who have taken shelter under their demolished houses. Siddegowda says Section
288(a)-(d) of the Karnataka Municipal
Corporation Act of 1976 empowers bbmp to
clear encroachments on government land
without issuing notices. However, he assures that the joint commissioner of each
zone has been tasked with identifying people who need to be rehabilitated and the
process will begin soon.
BANGALORE BEATS
The demolition drive gained momentum following heavy floods in July this year
This bureaucratic bedlam is just the beginning as the authorities are yet to identify
structures on lake beds and those falling
within the buffer zones of water bodies.
To add to the confusion, the National
Green Tribunal (ngt) in May this year has
changed the definition of buffer zones
around lakes and storm water drains in
Bengaluru, in response to a petition by
non-profit Forward Foundation. The new
buffer zone is the area within 75m from
lakes and wetlands, 50m from primary
drains, 35m from secondary drains and
25m from tertiary drains. A back-of-the-
envelope calculation shows that 20-30 per

cent of Bengaluru would go for a toss if the
ngt order were implemented in retrospective, meaning if all structures in the buffer
zone were demolished. While the tribunals
order does not recommend the demolition
of existing structures in the buffer zone,
there is no clarity whether the existing
buildings can be renovated.
The tribunals order is a fine decision
because it seeks to bring some order to a
place of disorder. With the enforcement of
the order, it seems that the pendulum has
swung from one extreme (rampant encroachments and violations by builders) to
another (stringent no-development zoning
around water bodies). And just like all pendulums, this one too will find a middle
ground and in an iterative process, we will
get there, says Ravichandar.
"Demolition
should be
minimised
to target
structures on
vulnerable,
low-lying areas that put the
greater community at risk "
"While storm
water drains
are important,
there is also
a need to
consider
systems which reduce runoff
and recharge groundwater"
Need for stringent rules
Sridhar Pabbisetty, chief executive officer,

Namma Bengaluru Foundation
28 DOWN TO EARTH
26-28Sp03.indd 28
Shubha Ramachandran, water sustainability

consultant, Biome Environmental Trust
Finding the middle ground

According to Sridhar Pabisetty, chief executive officer of Namma Bengaluru Foundation, the middle ground is to moderate the
scale of demolition. Some demolition is inevitable, but it should be minimised to target structures on vulnerable, low-lying areas that put the greater community at risk.
Expenses should be recovered from realtors, property developers and conniving
government officials, he says.
Experts say instead of relying on conventional drainage systems like nallas, the
focus should be on sustainable drainage
systems (suds) for rainwater management.
While storm water drains are important,
there is also a need to consider vertical systems which reduce runoff and recharge
groundwater. suds do precisely that, says
Shubha Ramachandran, a sustainability
consultant who works with non-profit
Biome Environmental Trust. Unlike storm
water drains or horizontal methods, suds
focus not just on diversion, but also on storing rainwater by controlling its flow. This
helps reduce the risk of flooding, and also
pollution in water bodies. They also help increase the amount of precipitation received
by a region. Ramachandran says that to
strengthen flood management, the state
needs to use both conventional ways and
sustainable drainage systems.
@jigyasawatwani
09/09/16 6:19 PM
Advertisement
29WBPCB ad.indd 29
12/09/16 4:09 PM
PHOTOGRAPHS: MUCHEMI WACHIRA
AFRICA
www.downtoearth.org.in/africa
Farmers' livestock compete with hippopotamus for pastures around lake Ol' Bolossat
In strange waters
Kenyan authorities are
caught between reviving
a dying lake and ensuring
livelihood to farmers living
in its catchment
MUCHEMI WACHIRA
| nyandarua , kenya
30 DOWN TO EARTH
30-32Sp04.indd 30
OR THREE decades, James Wain-
ana has grown maize and vegetables along Ol Bolossatthe only

lake in the fertile Central Highlands of Kenya. But today he is no longer
sure of investing in his four-hectare (ha)
farmland. Like him, more than 0.56 million farmers, who live in the catchment area
of the lake, are anxious because of a plan to
conserve the lake.
In June 2014, Waithaka Mwangi, governor of the Nyandarua County, announced
the lake will be developed as a tourist destination. The revenue earned from tourism
would be spent to revive the lake, which is a
habitat for hippopotamus and many birds,
and the source of river Ewaso Nyiro, the
third longest in Kenya (see Land of beauty
and bounty, p32). The government believes

Ol Bolossat has degraded due to a sharp increase in human population and unchecked
farmingNyandarua is known as the bread
basket of Kenya. Farmers divert water from
streams and springs flowing into the lake to
irrigate crops. Continued tilling of land is
silting the lake, while pesticides are polluting the water. Farmers livestock also compete for pastures with hippos.
The tourism project requires the county government to acquire farmland and
plots encroaching upon the catchment and
riparian areas of the lake, which is protected under the Water Act, 2002. But the authorities are not sure which plots to acquire
and how to resettle the farmers. This is because the 43-km-long lake is yet to be gaz-
09/09/16 6:41 PM
Advertisement
31Indian Oil.indd 31
12/09/16 4:09 PM
AFRICA
zetted; meaning, it does not exist in government records and its boundaries and the
catchment areas are yet to be marked.
Besides, the county government has no
powers to acquire the land, says Gitau
Thabanja, county executive in charge of
land, housing and physical planning. We
are also not sure what to do with the communities occupying the catchment and
riparian land, says Thabanja. He adds that
the government has sought the advice of
the National Lands Commission (nlc) in
this regard.
nlc is a constitutionally sanctioned independent body that manages public land
on behalf of the national government. In
September last year, its chairperson
Muhammad Swazuri led a fact-finding mission to the area to assess the situation. nlc
was formed just four years ago and is not
aware of how the farmers were settled in the
lakes catchment and riparian areas, says
Abigal Mukolwe, vice-chairperson of nlc.
Slips of the past

The land in lakes ecosystem was initially occupied by European settlers, who grew
wheat and other crops on a large scale. After
Kenya attained independence in 1963, the
government allocated small tracts of land
1 to 4 hato farmers with small landhold-
Land of beauty and bounty
UG A N DA
Thompson
falls
Lake
Ol'Bolossat
Nyandarua
Y A
Satima
escarpment
Mount Kenya
Aberdare national park
Nairobi
TA N Z A N I A
30-32Sp04.indd 32
SOMALIA
It forms a wetland that

has hippos, Thompson
gazelles, leopards and
180 species of birds
It borders Satima
escarpment, at the edge
of Aberdare range, which
offers beautiful scenery
The escarpment and
surrounding hills is
where people are settled
and do farming
Map not to scale
ings through settlement schemes. Later in

1983, the government again settled more
people in the buffer zone demarcated between the lake and the settled areas. It was
close to the high water mark level. In the absence of a national authority to monitor activities near the lake, illegal structures
mushroomed in its catchment. Today, many
schools and shopping centres can be seen in
the area.
Farmers near the lake spray water on Irish potato. Nyandarua county is known as the bread basket of
Kenya for its high production of potato, cabbage, maize and bean
32 DOWN TO EARTH
Lake Ol' Bolossat is the

source of river Ewaso
Nyiro, which plummets
down Thompson Falls
ETHIOPIA
Need of the hour

Seven years ago, Kenyas environmental
watchdog National Environment Management Authority (nema) had warned that inaction to protect the lake can cause irreparable damage. The lake had dried up in 1960
and 1984, when Kenya experienced its worst
droughts, but it still came back to life. nema
said if the lake dries up again, it may never
reappear, given the ever increasing human
activities in its basin. The conservation of
the lake necessitates that farmers living in
its catchment surrender their land. But the
government should ensure they are resettled
and adequately compensated, says Lillian
Muchungi, who works with Green Belt
Movement, a conservation non-profit.
One such way could be to involve the
community in conservation projects. For instance, Olobolosat Conservancy, a conservation non-profit, asked Laikipia county government to provide land to set up a hippo
sanctuary near Manguo swamp, 10 km from
the lake. George Muchina, the Chief Executive Officer of the Conservancy, says the project can employ people from the community and can also mitigate the human-hippo
conflict. The farmers also prefer to stay and
earn livelihood from tourism and conservation. No one would be happy to be moved
out of his land. This is where some of us have
lived for years and not all of us were allocated land illegally, says Wainana.
@down2earthindia
08/09/16 6:36 PM
Advertisement
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12/09/16 5:53 PM
TEXTILE
www.downtoearth.org.in/economy
Cotton imposters
Companies like Welspun
India may be passing off
ordinary cotton fabrics
as Egyptian cotton ones
and there is no foolproof
method yet of detecting
the fakes
KARNIKA BAHUGUNA
| new delhi
A garment factory in Egypt. Experts say

the incentive to use lower quality cotton
in place of Egyptian cotton is high, opening
the door to mislabelling of products
N AUGUST 22, textile major

Welspun India witnessed a
big crash on Dalal Street. Its
US-based client, Target Corporation, announced it was terminating business with Indias largest home textile exporter, alleging that it had used another
variety of cotton instead of Egyptian cotton
in the production of sheets. Target sells luxury bath and bedding products under the
Fieldcrest brand in the US.
Reacting to the news, shares of Welspun India tanked and the companys market capitalisation declined by more than
R5,000 crore that week. Share trading was
suspended for two consecutive sessions and
Welspun had to arrange a conference call
with investors and analysts to clarify its po-
sition. In the manufacturing process, we

source a lot of raw materials, such as cotton,
cotton yarn or greige fabric, from various
vendors. We, thus, want to revalidate all our
supply processes and systems, Rajesh
Mandawewala, group managing director,
Welspun, said during the call. Welspun has
now appointed Ernst & Young to audit its
supply systems and processes. The controversy has spurred other US-based retailers,
such as Walmart and Bed Bath & Beyond,
to investigate cotton products sourced from
the company.
Proving authenticity
Though Welspun has not admitted to substituting Egyptian cotton with other varieties, the incident hints at rampant mislaREUTERS
34-36Textile.indd 34
12/09/16 4:23 PM
Advertisement
Consent and
Authorization from
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now easier than before
These reforms are implemented by State Pollution Control Board, Odisha for Ease of Doing Business in Odisha.
For details visit www.ospcboard.org, www.orissapcb.nic.in
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TEXTILE
The nuclear DNA in the

fibre gets degraded with
various stages of processing
of the fabric, making it
challenging to find the
level of contamination
36 DOWN TO EARTH
34-36Sp05.indd 36
Fall of Egyptian cotton

Today, premium extra-long staple cotton accounts for only 3 to 4 per cent of
global cotton products
400,000
350,000
Production in tonnes
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
2014-15
2015-16
2012-13
2013-14
2011-12
2010-11
2008-09
2007-08
2006-07
2005-06
2004-05
2002-03
2003-04
2001-02
2000-01
1999-00
1997-98
1998-99
1996-97
1994-95
0
1995-96
belling and counterfeiting in the industry.

In March, the Cotton Egypt Association,
the worlds only trademark and licensing
authority for the commodity, tested home
textile products labelled as Egyptian cotton
and found that around 90 per cent of the
products did not contain the premium cotton variety at all. Welspun was licensed to
use the Egyptian cotton logo too and the
Association has now launched an investigation following the Target case.
Counterfeiting results from the lack of
tools to verify the authenticity of Egyptian
cotton. Cotton Incorporated, a US-based
industry-funded body, says there is no
physical test to determine the authenticity
of cotton products once the fibre is converted into yarn. But agencies like the Cotton
Egypt Association have turned to dna
testing of cotton products. After years of
experiments, Mohamed A M Negm of
the Interregional Cooperative Research
Network on Cotton for the Mediterranean
& Middle East Regions and Suzan H Sanad
of the Cotton Research Institute, Egypt,
have developed the ctab (cetyl trimethylammonium bromide) method to extract
dna from Egyptian cotton fibres throughout the supply chain, from farming till the
finished product. The isolated dna is then
used to identify varieties of cotton, thus establishing the authenticity of the product.
In April, US-based company Applied
dna Sciences introduced a dna authentication technology which can identify premium extra-long staple cottons that have been
blended with shorter staple cotton, according to company claims. But it is still
early days for the technology. There are
only about half a dozen laboratories across
the world which can conduct such dna tests
with precision, says K R Kranthi, director,
Central Institute for Cotton Research,
Nagpur. The nuclear dna in the fibre gets
degraded with various stages of processing
of the fabric. It is challenging to find out the
level of contamination. With gaps in test-
Source: Mohamed A M Negm, general coordinator, Interregional Cooperative Research Network on Cotton for the Mediterranean &
Middle East Regions
ing, Egyptian cotton fakes continue to flood

the market.
Out of stock
The stakes are high. Egyptian cotton
(Gossypium barbadense), a product of the
countrys moderate climate and fertile soils
of the Nile basin, is considered as the finest
variety of cotton. Fabrics made of its extralong staple (els) fibre are softer, more durable and often fetch the highest prices.
With increased global pressure to produce
at the lowest cost, much of the els cotton
manufacturing and final assembly has migrated to other countries, mainly China,
India, Portugal, and Pakistan. The incentive to substitute lesser quality Upland cotton in place of the premium els cotton is
high and opens the door for mislabelling,
says Negm.
Declining supplies of Egyptian cotton
are to blame for the passing off of other cotton varieties as Egyptian. In the 1980s,
Egypt grew cotton on as much as 500,000
ha of land per year. But the area under cotton production fell to 223,000 ha by 200001, according to the US Department of
Agriculture (usda) (see Fall of Egyptian
Cotton). Negm says that currently, only
55,000 ha of land is under Egyptian cotton
cultivation. Correspondingly, the production of Egyptian cotton has reduced from
345,000 tonnes in 1996 to an estimated
45,000 tonnes in 2016. There is decline in
cotton production in Egypt because farmers
prefer to grow other summer crops such as
rice and vegetables which earn higher profits, Negm says.

Egyptian cotton is a long duration crop
as compared to other varieties. It is highly
susceptible to pests and depends on specific sowing, growth and irrigation conditions
which are not available everywhere. The
yield is almost half as that of other varieties,
explains A H Prakash, project coordinator
and head at the Coimbatore station of the
Central Institute for Cotton Research.Though Egyptian cotton commands a higher
price, the premium is not sufficient to make
up for the lower yield, he adds.
The slump in Egyptian cotton production has also occurred in other countries,
including India, China, Pakistan and
Brazil. Global production has decreased by
18 per cent to 21.3 million tonnes in 201516, according to Negm. A usda report
states that the drop in the production of
Egyptian cotton is mainly due to changes in
consumer preferences and new technologies. It explains that over time, consumer
preference has shifted to garments which
require short- or medium-staple cotton
such as denim and T-shirts. This shift in demand has overtaken the demand for clothing and bed sheets made of extra-long and
long-staple cotton varieties.
Such decline in Egyptian cotton production and slow technological advancements in counterfeiting detection methods
continue to threaten one of the countrys
most popular specialty products.
@_karnika
09/09/16 6:20 PM
C O N S E R VAT I O N
SURAJIT DAS
www.downtoearth.org.in/wildlife
White-bellied musk deer are highly vulnerable because of the musk pod they carry in their abdomen
Fading scent
of musk deer
With winters approaching,
Uttarakhand forest
officials set out to protect
the state animal, but
without sufficient funds or
a proper plan
ARPITA CHAKRABARTY
| kumaon , uttarakhand
37-38Sp06.indd 37
T'S HECTIC TIME for the forest offi-
cials of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary.

Before the snowfall begins in the second week of October, they need to finish repairing forest paths, improve the condition of watch towers, install camera traps,
and also enquire from restaurant owners if
anyone has packed dry food for a week. The
task at hand is to protect the state animal of
Uttarakhandthe white-bellied musk deer
(Moschus leucogaster).
The solitary animal, which roams the
high alpine region of the Himalayas at an
elevation range of 2,500-5,000 metres, is
extremely vulnerable during the harsh
season. As near-freezing temperatures wipe
out food sources in the upper reaches, they
move to valleys in lower altitudes. There
they fall easy prey to poachers who set fire to
block off their escape route or set wire snares

to trap the animal, and then kill them to
extract the musk pod.
Carried by the male deer in its abdomen,
the musk emits a sweet persistent aroma
and is highly valued for its cosmetic and
alleged
pharmaceutical
properties.
According to the International Union for
Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources (iucn), one kilogram of musk can
fetch US $45,000 in the international
market. A musk pod yields about 25 grams
of the brown waxy substance.
This demands comes at a huge cost to
the ecology. Indiscriminate poaching
methods mean three to five musk deer,
including females and young ones, get killed
for every male with a musk pod. This has
pushed the animal to the brink of extinction.
09/09/16 6:39 PM
C O N S E R VAT I O N
Who failed the state animal

Forests officials say checking poaching is
difficult because of insufficient funds, lack
of forest guards and difficult terrain.
Consider Kedarnath sanctuary. It was
set up in 1972 for musk deer conservation.
But we stopped receiving funds from the
Centre in 2004, says Akash K Verma,
former dfo of the division. For 10 years we
managed with whatever little was provided
by the state. In 2012-13, funds again started
trickling in, but the amount was less.
D V S Khati, chief wildlife warden of
the state, says, the protected areas where
musk deer can be found receive between
`2 and 5 crore, depending on their expanse.
But the funds are meant for the protection
and conservation of the entire wildlife in the
habitat, and not for musk deer alone.
Conservation works get further delayed
as sanctuaries receive money towards the
end of the financial year. Timely funding is
important because Kedarnath sanctuary
remains covered in snow for most parts of
the year, says Neethu Lakshmi. We get only
four monthsfrom June to Septemberfor
infrastructure development and to procure
38 DOWN TO EARTH
37-38Sp06.indd 38
Fall from grace
Over 1,000 musk deer used to roam

the areas a few decades ago
Protected areas where musk deer are found
Kedarnath
Govind Pashu
Vihar National Wildlife
Park & Sanctuary Sanctuary
Gangotri
Nanda Devi
National Park National Park
Valley of Flowers
National Park
Askot Wildlife
Sanctuary
Its number has increased in the last

few years, but only marginally
376
400
Number of musk deer
Kedarnath sanctuary was inhabited by

600-1,000 musk deer two-three decades
ago, show two PhD studiesone by M J B
Green from Cambridge University in 1985
and the other by S Sathyakumar from
Saurashtra University in 1994. It is now left
with less than 100 musk deer, says Neethu
Lakshmi M, divisional forest officer (dfo) of
the Kedarnath Division. In fact, there were
only 376 musk deer across the state in 2008;
258 of them were in protected areas. The
wildlife census by the forest department
shows a marginal increase in their numbers
over the last few years (see Fall from grace).
But Sathyakumar, who now works with the
Wildlife Institute of India (wii), says these
figures are not reliable as they are based on
visual encounter. Last year, wii along with
the forest department initiated a wildlife
population estimation exercise based on
scientific methods, which would yield some
reliable results, he adds.
As of now, the animal is listed as an
endangered species in the Red List Data of
iucn and has been placed in the Schedule I
under the Endangered and Rare Species of
the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
300
274
279
200
100
0
2003
2005
2008
Source: Uttarakhand forest department
tents, warm clothes and equipment like gps

trackers for forest guards who would patrol
the area during the winters, she adds.
Verma, now deputy director of Govind
Pashu Vihar National Park, says his division
did not receive funds till September.
The shortage of patrolling staff worsens
the situation. None of the protected areas
has adequate staff to prevent poaching. Only
six forest guards patrol the Gangotri
National Park, which spans 2,390 sq km. To
make up for the shortfall, the national park
has hired 20 people from nearby villages on
daily wage basis who occasionally patrol the
area. In Kedarnath sanctuary, one-third of
the posts lie vacant. Most of the forest
guards are nearing the age of retirement, but
no new recruitment is being done, says
Neethu Lakshmi, admitting that lack of

incentives for patrolling the difficult terrain
discourages people from joining the posts.
The impact is visible on the ground. Last
year residents of Munsiyari in Pithoragarh
district saw plumes of black smoke in the
foothills of Panchachuli at least six times
and tipped off the forest officials. Some
unidentified men had set fire in the forest to
trap the musk deer, says Kasutav Mishra,
sub-divisional magistrate of the region. But
they had fled by the time the police and
forest officials reached the spot, following an
arduous journey of two days. Small wonder
then there had been six seizures of musk
pods and teeth from Dehradun, Haldwani
and Pithoragarh between 2010 and 2016.
A lack of proper conservation policy has
also failed the state animal. In 1982, a
captive breeding centre was set up inside
Kedarnath sanctuary. From the initial five,
the number increased to 28. But by 2006, all
but one had succumbed to either snake bite,
pneumonia, stomach disorder or heart
attack. The last living musk deer, Pallavi,
was shifted to Padmaja Naidu Himalayan
Zoological Park in Darjeeling and the
captive breeding centre was shut down.
Forest officials say the centre would have
been a success had it been set up at a higher
altitude and after proper planning.
As of now, neither the forest department
nor wii has any conservation plan for musk
deer, admits V B Mathur, director of wii.
Orus Ilyas, professor of wildlife sciences
in Aligarh Muslim University, says involving
communities in musk deer conservation
may help curb poaching. I have observed
that local people kill it for the musk, meat
and tooth. The government should provide
them with proper employment opportunities to dissuade them from poaching.
Shekhar Kumar Neeraj, head of wildlife
trade monitoring network traffic India,
begs to differ. Musk pod is highly valuable.
So, the communities would continue to
poach despite proper livelihood opportunities. He suggests strengthening patrolling by
employing adequate number of trained
personnel and modern communication and
surveillance systems. Besides, he says, there
is a need for coordination between the forest
officials, Indo-Tibetan Border Police,
Sashastra Seema Bal and the state police.
@down2earthindia
08/09/16 6:38 PM
RFG_ad-final.pdf
24/05/16
10:55 AM
CM
MY
CY
CMY
39Mahindra rise ad.indd 39
12/09/16 4:10 PM
COVER
STORY
A worker collects pods at a

moringa farm in Telangana's
Zaheerabad town
SWEET N SOUR
Moringa and tamarind are popularly known as the trees of life for Indians.
Moringa is in fashion as the world eyes India to feed its frenzy for the new
superfood. Hardy tamarind shares the same versatility but struggles to find its
way out of the wood. KARNIKA BAHUGUNA and SHREESHAN VENKATESH travel to
the hinterland of eastern and southern India to make sense of this dichotomy
40-50Cover story.indd 40
12/09/16 11:36 AM
STORY
TEJASWI DANTULURI
COVER
12/09/16 11:36 AM
COVER
STORY
There are over

a thousand
scientific
articles on
moringa's health
benefits. The
most popular
moringa variety
is a hybrid that
has shorter
flowering period
42 DOWN TO EARTH
his grows even without rains, says Mahendar

Reddy, while he shows a tender moringa pod at
Rythu bazaar, a farmers market in Hyderabad. In
June 2015, the 29-year-old farmer from Telanganas
Damastapur village decided to ditch his tomato
plantation for moringa, a drought-tolerant deciduous tree that is native to the Indian subcontinent.
Reddy invested `3 lakh to grow moringa in
his 2.43-hectare (ha) farm and has already earned
`4 lakh from it. The region was under drought
last year and earning a profit of `1 lakh in such a
situation was difficult. Moringa requires less water
than tomato and even in droughts I am assured of
some yield.
Like Reddy, farmers across Andhra Pradesh,
Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat
are ditching traditional crops to grow Moringa
oleifera, the pod of which is popularly known
as drumstick. According to an industry report
in 2015 titled Present and Future Dynamics of
Global Moringa Market, India produces 1.2-2 million tonne moringa every year making it the largest producer of the crop in the world. The country is also the largest moringa exporter and meets
80 per cent of its world demand, says the report.
The new-found popularity for the vegetable is understandable when one considers the fact that
India suffered two consecutive droughts in 2014
and 2015, which badly affected farmers. In fact,
drought-tolerant crops hold the key to several
problems associated with droughts such as threat
to food security and livelihood opportunities.
What is surprising though is that while the business of moringa is thriving, other drought-tolerant
crops, many of which have been a part of our culture for centuries, have failed to take off. The most
obvious example is tamarind, a food item which is
an integral part of the Indian cuisine. Believed to
have originated in Africa, production of the hardy
Tamarindus indica started to peak in the 1990s in
India. But in the past six-seven years, the area under
tamarind has dropped by 10 per cent. Its production
too has stagnated at close to 200,000 tonnes during the same period.
SIMILAR YET SO DIFFERENT
A closer look at the two trees explains why the

demand for one has gone up and has slumped
for the other. The current size of moringas global
market is over $4 billion and it is expected to
cross $7 billion by 2020, says D P Maharshi,

ceo of Advanced Biofuel Centre, an agricultural
biotechnology institute in Jaipur which organises
an annual international workshop on moringa. He
says that this is because of an increasing demand
for moringa products in developing countries
like India, China and Brazil (see Globetrotting,
p44). Last year China procured huge quantity
of moringa seeds from India at `3,000 per kg
while the usual cost is between `800 and `1,000
per kg. This shows the great demand for moringa
in the global market, says Anil Ayyangar, an IT
professional who recently launched a start up
called Dr Moringas with partner Damyan Reddy.
Almost every part of the plant is being sold in the
market today. While fruits, leaves and flowers of
moringa are used in the food industry, its seeds
are being used to produce bio-fuels. Dr Moringas,
for example, uses moringa leaves to make cookies,
tea and ready-to-cook cereal. National and
international companies and startups alike are
all trying to get a slice of the moringa market,
something that is missing in the case of tamarind.
This remains one of the main reasons for
the stagnation of tamarind production. It is still
largely sold in retail in small quantities for domestic
consumption, says Vinod Kumar Gupta, manager
of Delhi-based Garg Traders that deals in tamarind
among other spices and condiments. Some
manufacturers have tried to diversify by introducing
tamarind products like seed kernel powder, fruit
pulp and even syrups but these rarely got popular
because processing tamarind is expensive and
consumers dont want to pay the extra cost, says
Gupta. Amit Bhatnagar, executive manager of
the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development
Federation of India Limited (trifed), says tamarind
jams and juices are quite popular globally, but in
India the potential just has not been developed.
At current prices and considering the investment
required for food processing, it is probably just not
economically viable to expand, he says.
A similar state of neglect afflicts the pharmacological utility of the plant. Tamarind has been
known, right through the ages for its medicinal
properties. Several of these properties have been
tried and tested. There is great potential and yet, as
far as I am aware, there has been no attempt to integrate these properties with western medicine in a
marketable way, says Milind Parle, dean of the faculty of medical sciences at the Guru Jambheshwar
University of Science and Technology in Hisar,
Haryana. The tamarind tree has been used for its
12/09/16 11:36 AM
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COVER
STORY
Globetrotting
India meets 80 per cent of world's moringa demand and 50 per cent of
tamarind demand
1,200
10
tonnes
per cent
Total moringa seeds
(400 tonnes) and leaves
(800 tonnes) exported
last year
11,336 per
52cent
tonnes
Average annual
growth in India's
moringa exports
Total tamarind exports

between July 2015 and
June 2016
United
Kingdom
United States
of America
The decrease in
tamarind exports in
the past five years
Nepal
Bangladesh
European
Union
Egypt
China
Middle East
Thailand Vietnam
Malaysia
Pakistan
Singapore
Major importers
Moringa
Indonesia
Tamarind
Source: Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics and industry sources
properties as a disinfectant, laxative, antioxidant

and pain killer. Different parts of the tree have been
effectively used for treatment of malaria, diabetes,
diarrhoea, asthma and snake bites. But at present,
the processing capacity is not available and this is a
gap that might take a while to fill. Unlike tamarind,
moringa leaves, flowers and fruits are being used extensively in health products because of their high
nutritional value. Mostly people consume just the
pods, but leaves and flowers also contain vitamins,
minerals and iron which can be used to treat malnutrition, says nutrition expert Salome Yesudas.
RESEARCH-BACKED DEMAND
The biggest reason moringa is gaining popularity world over is because studies have been carried
out over time that prove its biological, nutrition44 DOWN TO EARTH
al and health-promoting properties. At present,

there are over a thousand scientific articles on its
health and wellness benefits. A study published
in 2014 in the International Journal of Scientific
Study found moringa leaf can cure malnutrition in
children. The study was conducted in Karnataka
and it found 52 per cent of the children who were
given moringa gained weight in just two months.
Even the most commonly used moringa variety in
the country today is a hybrid that has reduced the
flowering period of the tree from four years to six
months. The pkm-1 moringa variety was developed
in 1989 by Tamil Nadu Agricultural Universitys
Horticulture College and Research Institute in
Periyakulam. The variety not only grows quicker but also has a high yield of 50-55 tonnes per
hectare. A higher yielding pkm-2 variety was in16-30 SEPTEMBER 2016
09/09/16 6:21 PM
COVER
isations to experiment with domestication of the

tamarind plant as a cultivated crop. Tamarind offers great potential as a dry-land crop since investment is one-time and the harvest is life-long with
negligible loss in productivity as the tree gets older. It is a great option to be grown to supplement
seasonal crops, says Narayan Hegde, principal
adviser at the foundation, which conducted various projects starting from 1985-86 in Karnataka
to 2006 to introduce tamarind as a cultivable option to farmers.
The idea was to collect good germplasm, clone
the genotypes through grafting and distribute them
among farmers. We even isolated genotypes from
five varieties that offered good returns. The project
was discontinued since there are several other challenges, says Hegde. For one, mechanical harvesting is extremely difficult. Another issue is the long
gestation period of 8-10 years before the first yield.
Most farmers are not willing to or simply cannot afford to wait for so long.
Institutes have also experimented with effi-
A customer buys moringa

at the Ghazipur wholesale
market in Delhi. The price of
moringa pods almost doubles
by the time it reaches cities
troduced in 2000, but it failed to pick up because

of the big size of the pods that made transportation difficult. While pkm-1 pods are 75 cm long and
there are about 218 pods per tree, pkm-2 pods are
125 cm long and there are 220 pods per tree.
G Rajashekar of the Centre for Sustainable
Agriculture in Secunderabad, Telangana, says
another reason farmers are happy with moringa
is that it requires very little fertiliser and chemical
pesticides. It is only infested by one pest called
hairy caterpillar which can be controlled by nonchemical methods. Even if a farm does not have
irrigation facility, the yield declines but the plant
survives, he says. (See Moringa v tamarind, p48)
Tamarind production, on the other hand, has
largely remained traditional, which is labour-intensive and has a long gestation period. This has
happened because tamarind research in the past
30 years has been at best sporadic. With an eye to
increase the dependability of farmers on tamarind
as a dry land crop, Pune-based baif Development
Research Foundation was among the first organ-
STORY
09/09/16 6:21 PM
Over 90 per cent of

tamarind in India is
collected from forests by
tribal communities
cient varieties of tamarind to make it economically viable for farmers. Among the newer attempts
to do so is the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree
Breeding (ifgtb), which has done research on sweet
and red tamarind varieties. A research team at ifgtbs Coimbatore facility has tried to expand the
scope of tamarind beyond the kitchen to industries.
Lack of commercial value has contributed greatly to the underutilisation of the tamarind plant. So
we narrowed down to two main characteristics
colour and sweetness, while choosing the genotypes
to be used to create grafts, says A Mayavel, a scientist working on tamarind at ifgtb. The red variety
can be used in the dyeing and food colouring industry due to the presence of anthocyanin, while the
sweet variety, with close to 45 per cent sugar content, is ideal for food processing and domestic use.
After over two years of surveying villages in
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh,
ifgtb selected 47 specimens of red tamarind and 30
46 DOWN TO EARTH
varieties of sweet tamarind. The selected genotypes

have been grafted and close to 3,000 grafts were
distributed to farmers in 2012-13 for plantation on
an experimental basis. According to our estimates
each tree could give an income of anywhere
between `8,000 and 10,000 per year compared to
an income of less than `4,000 per tree per year from
inferior qualities. We still have to wait a year or so to
gauge the success of the experiment, but the initial
indications are good, says Mayavel.
Thomas Matthew, a farmer from Karnatakas
Gundlupet town who is part of the ifgtb experiment, says, I planted the grafts about two years
ago and the plants are coming up really well. I am
hoping I will get 60 kg per plant at the first harvest.
I have found it good for intercropping. It has a great
survival rate in a rain-scanty area like Gundlupet
and the fruit has a long shelf life. ifgtb is also creating hybrid varieties of red and sweet tamarind with
high yields although this is still in the nascent stag16-30 SEPTEMBER 2016
09/09/16 6:22 PM
47 MAY31 2016
47EFRAC ad.indd 47
12/09/16 4:12 PM
COVER
STORY
es and would take 7-10 years for distribution and

cultivation to begin.
MINOR PROBLEMS
In the absence
of reliable farm
varieties of
tamarind, the
tree remains
a minor forest
produce and
is at the mercy
of the forest
department
In the absence of reliable farm varieties of

tamarind, the tree still primarily remains a minor
forest produce and is at the mercy of the forest
department. Since timber fetches better money,
forest department is more interested in it. So,
the number of tamarind trees in the forests is
reducing. Although timber might offer better
income, tamarind and other seasonal forest
produce are much better as livelihood options for
forest communities, says Amar Gouda, regional
manager of the Regional Cooperative Development
Corporation in Balangir, Odisha.
In fact, informal agricultural workers and tribal
people constitute the bulk of tamarind collectors.
The Forest Rights Act confers ownership rights
on minor forest produce like tamarind on tribal
populations and residents of the particular
forests. Today, about 90 per cent of the tamarind
produced in the country comes from the forests,
says Bhatnagar.
Tamarind works as a financial safety net for the
collectors who sell the produce at weekly markets
to private traders and middlemen. Collection
and sale of tamarind is done at both community
and individual levels. In Chhattisgarh, 40-50 kg
of fruit is sold at the weekly market per collector
per week. The collected tamarind is then stored in
a godown and sold to private bidders at the end of
the season. The entire process is facilitated by the
state and carried out by the state union of tamarind

collectors, says P K Panda, regional officer of trifed,
working at Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh. trifed
currently buys tamarind in nine states at `22 per
kg, which tamarind collectors say is of great help.
The introduction of msp for tamarind has helped
us. Earlier, we would not get more than `12 a kg,
says Sushma Dumdum, a tamarind collector from
Sambalpur district in Odisha. Dumdum is part
of a 104-member womens self-help group that
is involved in collecting seasonal forest produce
throughout the year. We usually collect close to 300
quintals (30 tonnes) of tamarind in a season. The
earnings are equally distributed. This arrangement
gives us livelihood support that is important to us,
she adds. But in states such as Jharkhand where
trifed does not have an msp for tamarind, the
collectors are left at the mercy of middlemen. We
collect around 350 kg of raw tamarind every year
during the season and sell it at the district centre
during the weekly bazaars at `16-20 per kg, says
Martha Toppo, who is one of the 12 women in
Turidih village of Jharkhand who collect tamarind
from around 30 trees in the vicinity.
NOT ALL GOOD
Like tamarind, the problem of middlemen also

plagues moringa farmers who are mostly small
and marginal and benefit the least. According to
the Agriculture Census 2010-11, 47 per cent of
the farmers who grew moringa were marginal
(landholdings less than 1 ha). Small farmers, with
landholdings between 1 and 2 ha size, accounted
Moringa v tamarind
A comparison of the input cost and income a farmer makes from the two crops
MORINGA
50-55 tonnes
K2,57,000
K23,000
6-9 months
14,683 hectares
Source: Vasudha Green Farms, Hyderabad
48 DOWN TO EARTH
TAMARIND
Yield/hectare
Average annual income/hectare
Cost of manure/hectare
Gestation period
Area covered in India
6-10 tonnes
K2,00,000
K28,000
8-10 years
54,740 hectares
Source: Thomas Mathew Farms, Gundlupet
09/09/16 6:22 PM
COVER
STORY
SHREESHAN VENKATESH / CSE
for 20 per cent of the share. The share of medium

farmers with landholdings between 4 and 10 ha,
was 12.4 per cent of the total area and that of large
farmers was a miniscule 2.9 per cent.
The farmers are not only losing out on
their due, but are also unaware of it. The handto-mouth situation of farmers in the country
keeps them so preoccupied that the idea of
expansion seems like a distant dream. Mahendar
Reddy says he is content with just recovering
his investment on moringa because he was not
even able to do that with tomato. Similarly,
P Sreenivasulu from Rayalaseema is happy even
with nominal profits in drought years. The two
farmers earn between `20 and 25 per kg at the local
markets. The price of moringa pods reaches around
`50 a kg when it finally reaches the city. In the case
of tamarind, tribals rarely earn more than `25-30
per kg regardless of the quality but tamarind can be
retailed up to `130 depending on the grade.
It is the middlemen who decide the price at the
local market and the small farmers have no say in it.
This happens because moringa is a perishable commodity and farmers cannot afford expensive storage options, says T Rajendran, assistant professor, Agricultural College and Research Institute at
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
The middlemen then employ labourers to seg16-30 SEPTEMBER 2016
regate and pack the produce in terms of quality and

this process immediately increases the cost of moringa. Rajendran says this circle can only be broken
if small farmers come together. The government
should educate moringa farmers about its valueadded products and the supply chain management
should be made efficient to ensure farmers get their
due share. Such education will also help farmers
like Jayarama Reddy, who is already cultivating
moringa in his 8.1 ha farm and wants to export the
crop on his own. I know that a single pod is sold for
around 7 euros (`520). I want to connect with other moringa farmers and form a group to export our
produce. However, there is little awareness among
small farmers on how to procure an export licence.
There should be government support in terms of
technical assistance to help farmers obtain exporting licence, says the 32-year-old farmer.
Experts also say another problem with both
moringa and tamarind is the seasonal price
fluctuations which leaves the farmers vulnerable.
Moringa prices fluctuate between `20 and 100
per kg within a year. This can be plugged if the
government comes out with msps and subsidies.
The government promotes popular crops by giving
hybrid seeds. If they can promote tomato and other
crops, then why not promote moringa? It is a super
food, says Rajashekar.
A Mayavel, a scientist
working on tamarind at the
Institute of Forest Genetics
and Tree Breeding, shows
a hybrid tamarind variety
that is being tested
09/09/16 6:23 PM
COVER
STORY
Experts also say the current demand for moringa is fuelled by international and not domestic popularity. The domestic demand of both moringa and
tamarind should be pushed through proper government support and sensitisation of people.
Minor forest produce not only provide livelihood options to forest communities and small
farmers, but also promise nutrition and health
to people, especially during drought years. This
is a major reason why government agencies and
non-profits should try to popularise them, says
S Jansirani, head of the department of spices and
plantation crops at the Tamil Nadu Horticultural
University, Periyakulam.
The right push

Four steps to make tamarind as popular as moringa
1
2
3
4
Develop hybrid varieties that have

high productivity, low gestation period
and can be used by the food and dyeing
industries
Sensitise forest communities to collect

tamarind together. Government should
also teach the communities basic valueaddition techniques like peeling and
deseeding to maximise profits
IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Develop affordable
processing machines
and techniques that will
reduce the high production
cost of tamarind products
Provide minimum
support price to
safeguard farmers from
monopoly of middlemen
SORIT / CSE
The government, in recent times, has been

involved in training tribal population in simple
value addition to increase the marketability of
tamarind. Our interactions with tribal collectors
and their feedback have enabled us to impart
some basic training to increase the profitability
of tamarind collection. The motivation has
always been there, but not the know-how
and we have been looking to bridge that gap,
says Panda. The training improves hygiene and
eases peeling, seeding and packaging into bricks
for sale. Traditionally, collectors will smash the fruit
with rocks to remove the peels and seeds, but under
the initiative the mechanical process of deseeding
is being introduced.
The training includes a small working capital
of `150 per person for self-help groups of up to
15 people which is deposited in the groups bank
accounts and a deseeding machine to each group.
These simple processes protect the collector against
being cheated and also fetches almost double of
what raw tamarind would have fetched in the
market, explains Panda. Although the government
does not procure the seeds, some private dealers buy
the seeds separately for around `2 per kg.
Another example can be found in Andhra
Pradeshs R Krishnapuram village where health
workers are giving free moringa leaf powder to create
awareness and impact community health. Behind
the initiative is a self-help group called Shrisha,
which has 10 women who collect leaves from moringa farms for free. The group now plans to start selling health products made out of moringa leaves.
The good news is that such initiatives have
started in certain areas, but a lot needs to be done
to benefit the maximum from them.
@_karnika, @shreeshanV
09/09/16 6:23 PM
SCIENCE
BYTES
ASTROPHYSICS
www.downtoearth.org.in/science-and-technology
Is there life out there?
Deflecting the bounce
A new retention system that

could reduce pesticide use
R E S E A R C H E R S H A V E developed a
new modeling technique that gives a clearer
sense of the chemistry of stars, revealing
the conditions present when their planets
were formed. The system could create a new
way to assess the habitability and biological
evolution possibilities of planets outside
our solar system. The study will analyse
around 800 stars, focusing on their ratio of
carbon to oxygen, and magnesium to silicon.
Astrophysical Journal, August 24
CREATIVECOMMONS
H E A LT H
Zika hot spots
VIKAS CHOUDHARY/CSE
ESTICIDE SPRAYING has a retention problem: only two per

cent of the spray sticks to the plants, while a significant
portion bounces off the plants into agricultural lands,
and the runoff eventually pollutes our water sources. Now
a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology has found a way which could allow farmers to
get the same effects by using just 1/10th of the pesticide.
They have developed a combination of two inexpensive
additives to the sprayeach prepared with a different
polymer substance. One gives the solution a negative electric
charge; the other results in a positive charge. When two of the
oppositely-charged droplets meet on a leaf surface, they form
a hydrophilic (water attracting) defect that sticks to the
surface and increases the retention. The researchers hope to
conduct field trials of the new system in small farms in India.
Nature Communications, August 30
51S&T Bytes.indd 51
I N D I A , C H I N A , the Philippines,
Indonesia, Nigeria, Vietnam, Pakistan and
Bangladesh may be at greatest risk of local
Zika outbreaks. Researchers have found that
areas that are populous; receive high volumes
of travelers from Zika-affected areas; have a
climate conducive to spreading the virus; and,
have limited resources to identify and respond
to the mosquito-borne disease may be more
vulnerable to the virus. Among the various
parameters the researchers analysed to arrive
at their conclusions included airline passenger
traffic data. The Lancet Infectious Diseases,
September 1
TECHNOLOGY
Faster transmission
SOON MANY smartphone applications like
gps and Wi-Fi will no longer need their
own antennas. Scientists have made a

revolutionary shift in antennas, from the
analogue to the digital world, which could
speed up data transfer and improve reception
and efficiency by as much as 100 to 1,000
times than current phones. The innovation
combines several elements to work together
as one antenna that can be made to operate
digitally with any frequency. IEEE Antennas and
Wireless Propagation Letters, August 24
08/09/16 6:40 PM
CLIMATE
CHANGE
www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change
Taking stock
A new study on Africa's
livestock emissions
challenges IPCC's
estimates, triggering
a call to incorporate
data from local
livestock systems
MAINA WARURU
| nairobi
The study is significant as nearly 65 per

cent of Africas population derives its livelihoods from farming, livestock and freshwater fisheries. According to ipcc estimates, though livestock emissions account for only
nine per cent of global carbon dioxide (CO2),
it generates 65 per cent of human-related nitrous oxide and 35 per cent of methane, the
global warming potential of which is 296
and 23 times that of CO2 respectively.
Ignoring local conditions
The scientists measured ghg emissions from

livestock waste in Kenya, using two common
breeds of cattlethe native Boran and the
exotic Friesian. They studied whether diet
could affect emissions in any way. Cattle
were fed different diets, consistent with
those frequently used in smallholder farms
in east Africa. The researchers then used
these locally derived factors to estimate emissions. The findings were published in the
ISTOCK PHOTOS
African livestock emissions could be as much as

two times lower than IPCC estimates
HE DEBATE over the amount of

livestock emissions contributing
to global greenhouse gases (ghg)
has always been contentious.
India had earlier challenged the calculations of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (ipcc) saying that it is unethical to compare survival emissions with
emissions from the industry. Now a new
study has further shaken the pot. Methodologies adopted by the ipcc in estimating
livestock emissions in Africa are now under the scanner.
Scientists at the International Livestock
Research Institute (ilri) in Nairobi, Kenya,
have found that African livestock emit as
much as two times lower than the ipcc estimates. The study found that as compared to
ipccs estimates, faecal methane emissions
are two times lower, 10-20 times lower for
faecal nitrous oxide (NO2) and two times
lower for urine NO2 (see Inflated?).
52-54Climate Change.indd 52
09/09/16 6:33 PM
Advertisement
43, 53 Sleek board ads.indd 53
12/09/16 4:11 PM
CLIMATE
CHANGE
Inflated?
The IPCC may have got it

wrong in estimating African
livestock emissions
IPCC Vs ILRI
METHODOLOGY: IPCC used
studies carried out in Europe
and North America to arrive at
its estimates though climatic
conditions, diets and breeds in
Africa are different
FINDINGS: As compared to IPCC's
findings, the ILRI study found that
faecal methane emissions were
two times lower, faecal nitrous
oxide (NO2) were 10-20 times
lower and urine NO2 were two
times lower
peer-reviewed Journal of Environmental

Quality in June 2016.
The researchers blame the discrepancy
in the Tier 1 model used by the ipcc to calculate emissions, which is primarily based
on studies carried out in Europe and North
America. The conditions under which livestock are reared in Europe, the feeds, climate
and breeds most probably have led to this inconsistency, says David Pelster, lead author
of the study.
In Kenya and most African countries,
we have wet, dry, cool and hot seasons, and
this changes the kind of feed that animals
consume in different seasons. Hence, the
amount of emissions in cattle manure varies. Animals used to low-quality feed tend to
develop highly-efficient digestive systems to
get the most out of the food, says Pelster.
Ironically, the ipcc collects little or no
data from the developing world for livestock,
barring Brazil. The real ghg emission scenario could possibly be very different from
what the ipcc has projected, says Lutz Merbold, a scientist with ilri. The scientists suggest that global averages for emissions must
take into account the different livestock systems in different parts of the world. This,
they say, will enable governments and global agencies to design accurate mitigation
54 DOWN TO EARTH
52-54Climate Change.indd 54
models to combat ghg. Getting the right

data for ghg emissions in different livestock
systems will also mean that it would be possible to know the stage at which the most-effective intervention mitigations can be made, adds Pelster. So there may be a need to
develop a Tier 2 approach to measure emissions based on locally collected data.
For accurate mitigation

Governments, on the other hand, may have
to change the way they measure livestock
ghg since they are now under obligation to
report to ipcc every four years, and there is
pressure to ensure that the emissions are
kept under check to develop mitigation
strategies. Wilbur Ottichilo, a climate expert and member of the Environment and
Natural Resources Committee of Kenyas
national assembly, agrees on the need to incorporate local emission factors in ghg estimates. Scientists should blend both local
factors as well as those of the ipcc, he says.
He emphasises the need for developing
countries to conduct more local studies to
generate data that can stand up to international scrutiny. There have been reservations in many countries that the ipcc may be
overstating emissions from livestock. So
conducting scientifically sound local stud-
ies could help in correcting the estimates,

he adds.
These findings call for further scientific studies to establish the accuracy of ipcc
data on emissions based on various livestock productions systems, thereby improving knowledge and reducing uncertainty, adds Merbold. The scientists hope
the study will trigger more debate on the
subject within the scientific community
and lead to more investigations. This is
just the first crack, asserts Pelster. We
need to invest in more studies in different
locations, he adds.
Evans Kituyi, senior programme specialist, climate change, at the Sub-Saharan
regional office of the International Development Research Centre in Nairobi agrees
with the studys conclusions, adding that a
Tier-2 method would be acceptable for
Africa. A consensus on livestock emissions
within the scientific community could also
help African nations to chart out a development path, not weighed down by the weight
of emissions from livestock. Countries preparing their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions could then take informed decisions on where and what they
need to reduce.
@downtoearth
08/09/16 6:44 PM
Advertisement
55Sail ad.indd 55
12/09/16 4:12 PM
FOOD
www.downtoearth.org.in/food
Divine
relish
A berry and its spiritual, medicinal
and curative branches
CHITRA BALASUBRAMANIAM
DRIED BERRY, fried in oil or ghee, is an intrinsic part of
meals in south India. Slightly bitter, the berries have a

peculiar taste, which one gradually gets accustomed to.
Solanum torvum or the Turkey berry is known by several
namesbrihati marathi marang in Sanskrit, bhurat, bhankatiya in Hindi, sundakkai and chundakkai in Tamil.
I was introduced to the berries at a very young age. I was told
by my mother, They are such holy berries that they chant Shiva
Shiva once they reach the stomach. And, with such blessings inside you, you can achieve anything. It is Gods blessing. What more
would a child want but to eat it before tension-filled maths and
physics exams! It was only later that I learned about the medicinal
properties of these humble, dried berries.
Hidden prowess
There is an old saying in Malayalam: the jasmine grown in ones
backyard does not smell as good as the ones bought from the market. Thats how I felt while researching on the Solanum torvum
CHITRA BALASUBRAMANIAM
Turkey berry is traditionally

used to break a fast. Its
digestive ingredients help
calm empty stomachs and
reduce acidity
56-57Food.indd 56
09/09/16 6:32 PM
RECIPES
Fried sundakkai
Take a handful of dried berries and

shallow fry it in oil till it turns brown.
Make sure the berries do not blacken.
This can be eaten with hot rice
topped with ghee. The fried berries
also make an excellent side dish with
the ubiquitous curd rice.
Sundakkai sambar
ISTOCK PHOTO
berries. Usually, we overlook or ignore the

medicinal value of what we eat regularly. In
Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the berries are commonly eaten, and probably thats why no one
has researched it in-depth.
The berries grow in clusters, and are
slightly smaller in size than cherries. They
have a nice green colour when picked for use,
but are difficult to consume at this stage as
they taste extremely bitter. But there are several ways to cook these fresh berries. Traditionally, it is dried and consumed in innumerable ways.
For instance, to make vathal, the berries
are washed thoroughly and then crushed
slightlyberries with literally half-open
mouths. They are then soaked in a solution
of sour butter milk, which helps reduce the
bitterness of the berries. And once again
they are dried in the sun. Most south Indian
shops stock the sun-dried berries, popularly
called sundakkai vathal (see recipes).
The berries have several curative powers. In Siddha medicineone of the five alternative systems of medicine promoted by
the Government of Indiait is used to make
what is called Sundavattral Choornam, which is excellent for digestion. This probably
explains the Shiva Shiva in the stomach, an
indirect way to make people consume it as it
keeps stomach ailments away.
Their digestive prowesses are exemplified by the fact that the berries have been
traditionally used to break a fast. A number
56-57Food.indd 57
The berries grow

in clusters, and are
slightly smaller in size
than cherries
of religious-minded individuals observe fast

on Ekadasithe 11th day of the Lunar fortnight, just before Amavasya, when the moon is waning. Not a morsel is eaten the entire day.
The next day, called Dwadashi, the fast
is broken. After prayers, sundakkai is eaten
as a part of the meal on the 12th day. It is
compulsory. Since people have been rigorously fasting the earlier day, the digestive ingredients of the berries help calm the empty
stomach and reduce acidity. Sundakkai is
also effective in fighting diabetes, anaemia,
anorexia, and can cure cold and cough.
Established cures
Solanum torvum is an important member
of the potato family. Its curative properties
have been proved in several scientific studies. A phytopharmacological review by Ashok D Agrawal and colleagues, published
in Der Pharmacia Lettre in 2010, reveals
that the fruits of Solanum torvum are used
commonly in traditional medicine for its
antioxidant, cardiovascular, anti-hypertensive and anti-platelet aggregation properties. The berries also possess anti-microbial, sedative and diuretic properties.
Solanum torvum is also added as an ingredient in various indigenous herbal medicines. Moreover, anti-cancer compounds
have also been found in the fruit and leaves
of this plant. The presence of various potentially-important compounds in the berries
INGREDIENTS
A fistful of sundakkai vathal

A handful of moringa leaves
A small-sized lemon or readymade
tamarind paste
1 cup boiled tuvar dal or arhar dal
A small piece of hing or asafoetida
1 tsp sambar powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp rice flour (optional)
1 tsp oil for seasoning
Mustard for tempering
Curry leaves and salt to taste
METHOD
Extract the tamarind juice. Add

turmeric, hing, sambar powder and
salt. Boil till the raw smell of tamarind
goes. Now add the washed handful of
moringa leaves, and wait for it to boil
for a couple of minutes. Smash the
boiled dal and add it to the sambar.
If the sambar is slightly liquid, add
rice flour to the boiled dal. This will
help thicken the sambar. Once the
liquid starts boiling, take it off the
flame. Heat a little oil in a kadai and
add the mustard seeds. Once it starts
crackling, pour it into the sambar.
Add curry leaves. Now shallow fry
sundakkai vathal in a little oil. When
it acquires a nice brown colour, take
them out and add to the sambar.
calls for more serious research of this wonder food.

@chitrabalasub
The author is a Delhi-based freelance
features writer. Among other things, she
writes on unusual food
08/09/16 6:46 PM
REVIEW
www.downtoearth.org.in/reviews
The `feeling' in nature

Andrea Wulf resurrects the forgotten intellectual explorer,
Alexander von Humboldt, whose work has left a lasting imprint
on our understanding of weather, ecology and geography
RAKESH KALSHIAN
INVENTION OF NATURE: THE

ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER
VON HUMBOLDT, THE LOST HERO
OF SCIENCE
Andrea Wulf | John Murray | 473 pages | ` 599
ORE THINGSrivers animals, plants, towns, museums and mountainsare named after him
than anyone else in history. American poet R W

Emerson described him as one of those wonders of the world. The New York Times portrayed him as
someone whose fame no nation can claim. And the first object to be named after him was a new plant species from India,
Humboldtia laurifolia!
Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian polymath, naturalist
and an indefatigable explorer, whose detailed accounts of nature
have left a lasting imprint on modern science. Andrea Wulf s narrative of this truly Renaissance man is so affecting that by the time
one finishes reading the book, one is left feeling at once dazzled and
puzzled. Dazzled because Humboldts sumptuously eclectic life
almost defies credulity; and puzzled, because one fails to understand how posterity forgot the greatest man since the Deluge
whose life and work inspired grandees no less than Goethe and
Darwin, not to mention a host of poets, writers and artists.
/C
RIT
SO
Humboldt was born in Berlin in an aristocratic family. His father

died early, leaving him and his elder brother in the care of his
mother. Humboldt loved collecting stuff even as a childplants,
shells and insects, a penchant that earned him the title of the little
apothecary. He also developed an incurable itch for travel: when
Humboldt was introduced to Fredrick the Great, the king asked
him if he wanted to be a conqueror like his namesake. Humboldts
repartee was: Yes Sire, but with my head.
However, he had to contend with two obstructions. The first
SE
Intellectual conqueror
58 DOWN TO EARTH
58-60Review.indd 58
09/09/16 6:31 PM
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the green cover.
ANDHRA PRADESH POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

AmArAvAthi
59Kalyani Ads.indd 59
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was his mothers insistence that he become

a civil servant. With no money of his own, he
had no choice but to acquiesce. Nevertheless, he found a way by enrolling himself in
a mining academy that would not only
assure him a mining inspectors job, and
thereby appease his mothers wishes, but
also allow him to indulge in his twin passion
for the natural world and travel.
As serendipity would have it, while
working as mining inspector in the culturally vibrant city of Weimar, Humboldt
became friends with Goethe, often described as Germanys Shakespeare. Wulf paints
a lovely portrait of their intellectual bonding, evoking with equal felicity the volatile
zeitgeist of the time. Humboldt rubbed off
his passion for science on Goethe, a caress
that inspired the character of Faust in his
famous eponymous play Faust. Reciprocally, Goethe taught Humboldt to look at
art, nature, rationality and imagination
through a single prism. As Humboldt wrote: nature must be experienced through
feelinga worldview that inspired all his
future journeys and reflections.
The second obstruction was the sudden
eruption of revolutions and wars in Europe
that aborted his travel plans. However, he
somehow managed to charm the King of
Spain into giving him a passport to travel to
South America. He was then 30 years old.
Wulf describes Humboldts adventures
in Amazonia in vivifying detail. How he navigated tropical jungles and climbed icy volcanoes; his crossing of the Andes on mules;
his horror at the sight of blacks being auctioned as slaves; his two-year detour to Mexico and the US, where he explored the relics
of Mayan civilisation, and communed with
Thomas Jefferson; and, amidst all his adventures, in some of which he had a close
brush with death, he could not let go of his
frenzied obsession for collecting, measuring, sketching, classifying, and questioning.
The human touch

He returned to Europe after five hectic years, armed with a massive collection of natural objects and measurements. He spent the
next two decades distilling his experiences
into a five-volume tract called Cosmos, in
which he weaved together various branches
of science and culture into one seamless tapestry. Besides, he also wrote the classic Per60 DOWN TO EARTH
58-60Review.indd 60
A U T H O R S AY S
Andrea Wulf on the significance of Humboldt
What are Humboldt's biggest

contributions to modern science?
There are many! One of the most
important contributions was that he
came up with the concept of nature as
a web of lifean idea that still shapes
our thinking today. He described
Earth as a living organism where
everything was connected from the
smallest insect to the tallest tree.
Understanding the natural world as
a web also allowed Humboldt to see
nature's vulnerabilityif one thread
was pulled in this tapestry of nature,
the whole might unravel. Today, as
sonal Narrative. Both these works have inspired a galaxy of scientists, writers, artists
and explorers.
Humboldt didnt fit the caricature of a
scientist concerned only with the world of
things, and unsympathetic to the life of
feelings and people. Wulf paints a humane
portrait of him as a generous man of liberal
values and progressive ideas. For instance,
troubled by the miserable working conditions of miners, he devised a breathing mask
as well as a lamp for them.
But, perhaps most strikingly, on his return to Europe, he wrote a scathing indictment of Spanish colonialism in Latin America in his widely-read Political Essay on the
Kingdom of New Spain. As Theodore Zeldin
wrote in his History of Intimate Humanity, The importance of Humboldt is that
he dared to make a link between know-
scientists are trying to understand

and predict the global consequences
of climate change, Humboldt's
interdisciplinary methods are more
relevant than ever before.
Why do you think history has
ignored him?
There are several reasons. One is
that there is no single discovery
attached to his namehe did not
come up with a theory of evolution
like Darwin or explained natural
laws like Newton. He came up with a
holistic worldview and his ideas have
become so self-evident that the man
behind them has disappeared.
Secondly, he was the last of the
great polymaths, and by the time he
died in 1859, the sciences had become
so specialised that scientists looked
down on thinkers like Humboldt as
being generalists. And thirdly, after
World War I, anti-German sentiment
became so strong in the Englishspeaking world that it was not
the time anymore to celebrate a
German scientist.
ledge and feeling, between what people

believed and do in public and what obsesses them in private.
One of Humboldts dreams was to travel
to India and survey the Himalayas so that
he could compare it to the Andes. Wulf gives
a fascinating account of his many aborted
attempts to obtain a passport to India, which, she tries to demonstrate, the East India
Company denied him because they were
aware of his strong disapproval of colonialism. Humboldts Himalayan dream remained unfulfilled. However, at the age of
60, he travelled over 16,000 km to the Altai
Mountains across Russia.
The book is a short trailer of Humboldts
incredible and inspirational life. It would be
a fitting tribute to Humboldt if he, as one reviewer suggested, is added to every school
syllabus in the land.
08/09/16 6:49 PM
61tata chemicals ad.indd 61
12/09/16 4:12 PM
COLUMN
H E D G E H O G TA L E S
RAKESH KALSHIAN
No consensus on consciousness
Despite fanciful theories by psychologists, physicists, neuroscientists

and computer scientists, consciousness remains an abiding mystery
F YOU are depressed, you could either take a pill that
tweaks the gray matter to induce a sense of euphoria, or you could opt for the talking cure in which
a therapist blows away the blues by finessing your
mind. However, even as we use the mind-brain yo-yo to
fight depression, our sense of how the brain gives rise to
the mind, or how the mind works on the brain, remains at
best a muddle, and a frustrating mystery, at worst.
This elusive play between mind and matterimmortalised by the French philosopher Rene Descartes aphorism I think, therefore I amlies
at the heart of the conundrum of consciousness. Its a little weird to imagine an I trying to unravel itself. But
the alternativeof alienating yourself from the very thing you want to
graspis no less freaky. Descartes tried
to jump over this treacherous mindbrain abyss, claiming both are autonomous spheres, albeit linked in the pineal gland. But he had no explanation for
why this tiny organ should be the privileged go-between.
Despite this inherent glitch, most
religions subscribe to some variety of
dualism. However, most contemporary philosophers and
scientists reject it in favour of a single fundamental material reality, even though there is no consensus as yet on
how the brain generates the mind. The Australian philosopher David Chalmers dubbed it the hard problem
of consciousness. He considers explaining cognitive attributes, such as memory, perception, and learning as the
easy problem. He believes science will eventually crack
all the easy problems, but the hard problemwhy and
how all these processes translate into experiencewill
never be solved by the human mind.
Last month, Edward Witten, a theoretical physicist at
Princeton University, added his voice to the chorus of naysayers, deprecatingly called mysterians, that includes
luminaries like Noam Chomsky, Roger Penrose, and
Steven Pinker. And yet, ironically, the field of consciousness studies has never been more vibrant and happening. Panoply of insights from disciplines as disparate as
psychology, biology, neuroscience, and computer science
62 DOWN TO EARTH
62Hedgehog Tales.indd 62
are coming together to conjure up the magic wand that

pulls the rabbit of consciousness out of the hat of brain.
In the early 1990s, Francis Crick, who along with James Watson and Rosalind Franklin unraveled the structure of the double helix, proposed that consciousness is
nothing but an emergent property of the collective feverishness of millions of neurons. Taking cue from Cricks hypothesis, biologist and Nobel laureate, Gerald Edelman,
proposed that consciousness could be explained as the
result of the Darwinian struggle amongst tribes of neurons. Around the same time, mathematician Roger Penrose equated
consciousness to the cold calculus
of subatomic particles in brain cells.
Likewise, some computer scientists
have likened the brain to a computer
and posited the existence of a neural
code that, like the genetic code, translates neuronal noise into the rhythms
of perception, memory, emotions, and
eventually into consciousness. As if
these flights of imagination were not
fanciful enough, neuroscientist Giulio
Tononi proposed the Integrated InfoTARIQUE AZIZ / CSE
rmation Theory, which claims that any
physical system, including the human brain, could be said
to be conscious if it crosses a certain threshold of complexity. Many scientists reject this idea for its occultist overtones as it resonates with the panpsychism of religious
philosophies such as Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism.
Nevertheless, frustrated by the lack of a cogent explanation of how the brain brews consciousness, some philosophers and scientists, including Chalmers, are veering
towards panpsychism. Clearly, there is a carnival of consciousness theories going on. As Chalmers said at a recent conference, There is nothing like a consensus theory or even a consensus guess. If mysterians like Witten are
right, scientists might be well advised to devote their intellect to more realistic pursuits. But if not, we can expect
more daring adventures along the mind-brain Mobius
strip. Who knows some day in the future, computers might become smart enough to hold interesting conversations with human minds, or we might be able to download consciousness into our computers.
08/09/16 6:50 PM
D E B AT E
UMBILICAL
DISCOURSE
The surrogacy market in India is worth
over US $2 billion. India is now
planning to regulate this trade. The
Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016,
which was cleared by the Union
Cabinet on August 24 this year, bans
unmarried couples, single parents,
live-in partners and homosexuals from
opting for surrogacy. It will now be
debated in Parliament.
Kundan Pandey speaks to a
cross-section of people to capture a
complex conversation
63-66Debate.indd 63
08/09/16 6:55 PM
for foreigners, not Indians. Also, illegal surrogacy has grown to become a $2 billion industry. We
want to communicate that surrogacy should be the last option, and
only for Indians.
But surrogacy
rescued our family
Can't allow
woman's body for
making money
ANUPRIYA PATEL,
Union minister of state for health

and family welfare
EOPLE OFTEN say that surrogacy is a womans conscious choice. Our stand is
that it is a very wrong notion of the family to use the womans
body to make money. Is she a childproducing factory? In many cases,
we have found that family members
coerce women into taking up surrogacy. The bill aims to ban commercial surrogacy and allow only altruistic surrogacy. In most countries,
commercial surrogacy has been banned, and a consciousness has been
created. Nobody wants to promote
this idea, so why should India lag behind? It is a menace.
Foreign nationals, who want
to escape tough surrogacy laws in
their own countries, come to India
in search of poor vulnerable women, who can be used for renting
their wombs to produce a baby for
a petty amount of money very easily in the absence of regulations.
After this bill is passed, they will be
unable to do so.
It is important to note that
80 per cent of babies born through
surrogate mothers are taking place
64 DOWN TO EARTH
63-66Debate.indd 64
AHILYA PARMAR,
(Name changed), a 28-year-old
surrogate mother from Anand
district, Gujarat
ITH THE help of
surrogacy, I earned
R600,000 in April,
2015, and bought a
house for my family. Earlier, we were living in rented room. My husband is an autorickshaw driver, and
I have two daughters. We want to
educate our daughters and help them live a dignified life. And to achieve this, I may need to go for surrogacy again. My husbands earning
is not even sufficient for food and
clothing. Except surrogacy, I dont
think I have any other option.
I know many families who, if
they dont opt for surrogacy, will
have to go to sleep hungry. In many
families, the male members are not
able to get job; some are drunkards. I also know families, where
members are sick, and the women
have to come forward and opt for
surrogacy to treat them.
We were also going through
a tough time, when one of my
neighbours suggested this idea.
Surrogacy rescued our family. And
everyone, including my husband,
agreed with my decision. At present, my mother is sick, otherwise,
I would have gone for surrogacy once again. If government bans
this option, it will be tough for us.
My daughters future is important
to me. I dont know how I will ensure their education.
A new `relative' kind

of gender exploitation
NAYANA PATEL ,
Medical director of Akansha
Infertility and IVF Clinic in Kaival
Hospital, Anand, Gujarat
S PER the bill,

commercial surrogacy
will now be banned,
and only altruistic
surrogacy will be allowed for
infertile Indian couples who
have been married for at least
five years. Moreover, only
females, who are close relatives,
can become a surrogate for a
childless couple.
The bill has been formulated

based on the myth that the practice
of surrogacy exploits surrogates.
However, endorsing altruistic surrogacy too will lead to emotional
and social pressure on close female
relatives and make them oblige to
be selfless, and not ask for any compensation for the loss of livelihood,
and the immense emotional and
bodily labour of gestation involved
in surrogacy. Isnt this another kind
of exploitation of females?
Any force on a close relative either emotional or otherwise can
amount to forced labour violating
Article 23 of the Constitution. The
bill bans surrogacy for live-in partners, single parents, homosexuals,
overseas citizens of India, persons
of Indian origin and foreigners.
The Supreme Court recognises
08/09/16 6:55 PM
65Ozone Day chattisgarh ad.indd 65
12/09/16 5:22 PM
live-in relationships, but the bill

does not. Why? Marriage, indeed,
is a very personal choice.
The compensation a surrogate gets only empowers her family. The government should not
rely on feminist views to articulate its position. Article 14 of the
Constitution guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of laws to all persons. Article
21 guarantees protection of life
and personal liberty of all persons. Restricting conditional surrogacy to married Indian couples
and disqualifying others on the
basis of nationality, marital status,
sexual orientation or age, does not
appear to pass the test of equality and there is no connection with
the intended objectives of the proposed legislation.
Further, the Right to Life includes the right to reproductive
autonomy, which includes the
right to procreation and parenthood. It is not for the State to decide the modes of parenthood.
Constitutionally, the State cannot interfere in the prerogative of
a person(s) to have children, naturally or through surrogacy.
It still supports the

reproductive market
HILE THE regula-
tory move restricts

who can access surrogacy, there is no
prohibition on the practice of surrogacy per se. Allowing surrogacy
only for heterosexual couples who
are childless, and have been married for five years, is discriminatory
towards people who remain outside
the framework of marriage in a
hetero-patriarchysingle parents,
couples in a live-in relationship and
queer people.
Only a few provisions of the
new bill have been communicated
by the government, while the bill it-
66 DOWN TO EARTH
63-66Debate.indd 66
SAROJINI N AND SNEHA BANERJEE,

Sama Resource Group for Women and Health, New Delhi
self is not yet in the public domain.
The regulatory rationale seems to
be centered on two axesthe notion of an ideal family and commerce in reproduction. In its legitimisation of altruistic surrogacy
within close relatives, the bill draws upon the patriarchal assumption of womens nature as being sacrificial and altruistic. It also seeks to
bring back reproductive labour
from the market to the family and
household levels, which are domains where womens labour is available as a free resource for consumption by close relatives.
If exploitation of women in the
market is a concern, then their exploitation within families is also a
reality that must be addressed. It
remains to be seen whether the bill
provides safeguards against coercion of women by family members
to become surrogate mothers, as
this would be yet another example
of gender violence.
It is interesting that the phenomenon of commercial surrogacy
is found to be objectionable only
because the woman acting as the
surrogate receives remuneration.
Apart from this aspect, there is no
difference between what is known
as commercial and altruistic surrogacy. In its modern gestational avatar, surrogacy is marketed as an
infertility treatment using the technique of In Vitro Fertilisation
(ivf). But the broader issue, which
must receive regulatory attention,
is the question of how such treatment is administeredthe use of

hormonal drugs and injections,
multiple ivf cycles, effects on the
physical as well as mental health of
women, whether informed consent
has been taken from them, their
right to reproductive autonomy
and the relationship between the
surrogate mother and the child she
gives birth to. In this somewhat
moralistic clamour over banning
payments to surrogate mothers, adequate discussion on these issues
has been sidelined.
The bill has also left out the
commercial and profit-driven industry of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (arts), which is
overwhelmingly found in the private healthcare sector. Infertility
treatment using arts and ivf has
been available commercially in
India for over three decades now.
Yet there is no regulation that governs this sector. Though guidelines
were formulated by the Indian
Council of Medical Research in
2005, they are not legally binding.
While it is important to debate surrogacy, at the same time, the arts
industry, which drives it, must also
be regulated.
@kundanpandey158
Down To Earth
To celebrate 25 years
of Down To Earth, we
will carry a debate
every month on an
emerging issue
08/09/16 6:56 PM
Training programme on
CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY PLANNING
AND IMPLEMENTATION
COURSE FEES
Rs 10,000 for CSR Foundations,
Companies, Public Sector
Undertakings, Consultants
Rs 7,500 for academicians, NGOs and
researchers, Rs 5,000 for students
Note: Accommodation can be arranged
nearby the training centre, would incur
extra charges
COURSE DURATION
November 14-16, 2016
TIMING
10.00 am to 5.30 pm
COURSE VENUE
CSE, 38, Tughlakabad Institutional Area,
New Delhi 62
LAST DATE FOR APPLYING
October 28, 2016
OPEN FOR ALL
CSR practitioners, officials from
companies, PSUs, consultants,
academicians, students, NGOs
Selection will
be done on first
come first
basis
entre for Science and Environment (CSE) recognisesCSR as a key business

process that helps organisations demonstrate their commitments to being
socially responsible. In fact, after the amendment of Companies Act in 2013
and promulgation of CSR Rules in 2014,addressing and reporting CSRperformance
has become mandatory.
This training programme is designed based on the provisions of the Act and
Rules. The training programme aims at giving practical exposure to participants on
CSR with specific reference to the regulatory framework, formulating CSR strategy
and policy, stakeholder engagement, methodologies for implementation, performance
evaluation and statutory reporting.
The objective of the programme is to build a cadre of CSR leaders and professionals
who would assist in effective development and implementation of CSR activities
of organisations for the benefit of communities as well as business. This training
programme will be relevant and effective for CSR heads, senior and mid-level
managers, CSR practitioners and implementation partners, NGOs, etc.
What participants would learn?
1. Regulatory Framework for CSR
Companies Act 2013 and CSR Rules 2014
International guideline and best practices
2. Developing CSR Policy
SWOT Analysis and Identification of Major Risks & Opportunities
Developing Strategy and CSR Policy
3. Stakeholder Engagement
Identification of Stakeholder
EngagementSocial Need Assessment
Prioritisation of Key Issues
4. CSR Planning and Implementation
Participatory Planning
Implementation (Social and Gender Inclusion)
5. Monitoring, Measurement and Evaluation
6. Grievances Redressal (Processes and Practices)
7. Guidelines for CSR Reporting
Training MethodologyLectures, case studies, class room exercises, discussions and
role plays
For registration: Kindly email at: digvijay@cseindia.org

For details contact: Digvijay Singh, Sr. Research Associate, Industry and Environment Unit
Centre for Science and Environment

Ph: 91-11-2995 5124 / 6110 (Ext. 204); Fax: 91-11-2995 5879
Mobile: +91 9891921959, +91 9899676027 Website: www.cseindia.org
67GRP CSR Course November 14-16 (digvijay).indd 67
12/09/16 4:14 PM
june15,16 BC
COLUMN
PAT E N T LY A B S U R D
L AT H A J I S H N U
How to evade a tricky patent call
Five government departments tossed the ball to each

other to avoid a decision on revoking a Novartis patent
HAT HAPPENS when a ministry or a gov-
ernment department is faced with a decision that would stir up a hornets nest, both
at home and globally? The easiest option is
to duck the question. Which is what the Department of
Industrial Policy and Promotion (dipp) did when Cipla
sought revocation of the patents granted to Swiss drug
major Novartis for its respiratory drug indacetrol. For
close to two years dipp hemmed and hawedas did the
Union Ministry of Health, which seems to have put out
contradictory comments on the issueand kept the generics companys plea for revoking the Novartis
patents in limbo.
The case is interesting because
Cipla was firing on all fronts against
the five patents that Novartis held on
indacetrol. This was in October 2014,
just a couple of years after the hue
and cry in the US over the first ever
compulsory licence (CL) issued by
India. The new National Democratic
Alliance government had made it
clear it did not wish to rock the boat
TARIQUE AZIZ / CSE
and had formed a joint working group
with US officials to look at intellectual property (IP) issues. Indacetrol was a pretty kettle of
fish for dipp to handle. Cipla had audaciously broken the
patents and launched a generic version of the drug at less
than a fifth of the cost at which Novartis was selling it under the brand name Onbrez. At the same time, Cipla had
made a representation to dipp, the nodal agency under the
Union Ministry of Commerce, seeking revocation of the
indacetrol patents under Section 66 of the Patents Act
which allows reversal in the public interest.
Cipla contended that Novartis was not working its
six-year-old patent in India or making available adequate
quantities of the imported drug at a reasonable price
Ciplas drug Unibrez was on offer at ` 130 for a strip of
10 pills against ` 677 for Onbrezfor a disease which it
claimed was prevalent in epidemic proportions. The
68 DOWN TO EARTH
68Patently Absurd.indd 68
revocation petition noted that Novartis was fulfilling just

0.03 per cent of the requirement of the drug. But curiously, Cipla also sought, simultaneously, a CL under Section
92 of the law which permits the government to override
patents in the event of a health emergency.
dipp began extensive consultations on the Cipla petition. It wrote to the Ministry of Health, the Department
of Pharmaceuticals (dop), a part of the Union Ministry
of Chemicals and Fertilisers and the Indian Council
of Medical Research among others. It was then that
Novartis sued Cipla for infringing
its patents, adding another tangle to
the knotted question.
Going by newspaper reports, it
appears that the Ministry of Health
was ambivalent on the CL for indacetrol although The Hindu said that it
had recommended revocation of
the patents and issuance of a CL to
Cipla from a public point of view.
dipp put the ball back in the ministrys
court by asking for a detailed explanation, according to a report in the
online IP website Spicy IP which recently got access to a series of Right
to Information (rti) queries made on
this issue. The ministry did send its comments to dipp
after many reminders as did dop which suggested that
dipp ask Novartis why it was charging so much for the
drug compared to Ciplas rate. It pointed out that Indias
Patents Act has a specific injunction that patents are
granted to make the benefit of the patented invention
available at reasonably affordable price. It was a suggestion that came more than a year after Cipla filed its petitionand one that dipp chose to ignore.
In the end it appears to have been a conscious decision by dipp to avoid taking a decision that would have
the drug multinationals up in arms and very likely invite
the wrath of the US lobbies. It should come as no surprise then that Cipla finally withdrew its representation
in June this year.
08/09/16 6:57 PM
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69NEERI advt..indd 69
12/09/16 4:14 PM
OPINION
THE BUSINESS
OF MALNUTRITION
How companies are supplying unsafe and unverified
nutrition supplements to children in Karnataka
SYLVIA KARPAGAM AND VEENA SHATRUGNA
SORIT / CSE
CURIOUS CASE has emerged in Karnataka. Well-known companies, including

Biocon, Jindal Steel and Scania, are supplying spirulina granules to undernourished and malnourished children enrolled in anganwadis (child daycare centres) under the Integrated
Child Development Services (icds), in direct contravention of a 2004 Supreme Court order which said,
Contractors shall not be used for supply of nutrition in Anganwadis.
Worse, no government agency has approved
the use of spirulina either as a drug or as a nutrition
supplement. On the contrary, there is evidence to
show that it is not safe. Over 15 years ago, a study by
the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, on
pre-school children fed spirulina for vitamin A deficiency was abandoned mid-way because the levels of beta carotene (precursor to vitamin A) in children fed spirulina dropped to less than 40 per cent
during the trial period.
Spirulina is an algae that grows on lakes and
ponds. If the water contains heavy metals such as
mercury or lead, the spirulina algae absorb the metals. When harvested and dried as a supplement, the
metals continue to remain inside the supplement.
Studies reveal that improperly processed spirulina contain significant amounts of cyanotoxins,
which can accumulate in the body over a period of time. One study reported the presence of
lead up to 5.1 parts per million in a sample from
a commercial supplement. It is important to remember that for children there are no safe limits for toxins and heavy metals in food, and, it is
unethical to give such foods to children.
The World Health Organization says cyanotoxins and heavy metal toxicity can cause irreversible
nerve, bone and tissue damage. The Chinese State
70-72Opinion.indd 70
08/09/16 6:58 PM
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71Kerla pollution ad.indd 71
12/09/16 4:15 PM
Food and Drug Administration reported that lead, mercury, and arsenic contamination
is widespread in spirulina supplements, and
recalled all spirulina products in 2012.
Pre-school children require between
1,000 and 1,500 calories every day. The
food calories must come from a variety of
food sources so that children get all the nutrients such as proteins, vitamins and minerals. Most cooked foods consumed by children have an energy density of less than one
calorie per gram of food. This means that
pre-school children require 1 kg of cooked
food from milk, rice, dal, eggs, fruits, nuts,
flesh foods and vegetables with an extra
dose of oil/fat, and even sugar every day to
meet their nutritional needs. It is, therefore,
laughable that two grams of spirulina daily
can provide enough macro or micronutrients necessary for a childs needs, as claimed
by the companies. Worse, since the introduction of spirulina, government agencies
in Karnataka have become irregular in providing normal foods to children.
mining operations in Odisha.

In July 2013, a six-year-old child, Meghala, died due to severe acute malnutrition
in D J Halli in Bengaluru. At a public meeting held in December that year, dwcd officials informed the jury that the Spirulina
Foundation from Tumkur had approached
them in early 2013, offering to distribute
spirulina free of cost to pregnant women
and children in anganwadis.
The fact that spirulina would be distributed free of cost was taken as adequate reason by dwcd to grant permission. The jury
took objection to this, and said children from poor communities are not guinea pigs,
and any intervention that lacks an evidence
base should not be introduced in the com-
Will companies be held

liable in the event of adverse
drug reactions, death or
disability among children
who consume spirulina?
Milking malnutrition
The story of companies going to bed with
corrupt health practices dates back much
earlier in Karnataka. For instance, Christy
Friedgram Industries (cfi) used to supply
raw material to icds between April 2009
and May 2012 at a cost of R600 crore annually. In April 2012, cfi was investigated by
the Karnataka Lokayukta police for fraudulent practices in the supply of supplementary nutritional foods to anganwadis in connivance with officials from the Department
of Women and Child Development (dwcd).
Investigations revealed that cfi was supplying roasted and powdered cereal mixes
with salt or sugar, which were stale and rancid. Most children refused to eat these cereal mixes. Parents too complained and wrote
detailed letters to authorities about their
children falling sick after consuming the
food provided by cfi.
Soon after the cfi fiasco, the Karnataka
government signed a contract with mining
company Vedanta to provide mid-day meals
to 200,000 schoolchildren in four districts
in April 2012. This was viewed by experts as
part of Vedantas public relations exercise
in the wake of bad publicity surrounding its
72 DOWN TO EARTH
70-72Opinion.indd 72
munity. Clinical trials must be conducted

and necessary laws must be put in place for
such interventions, says Clifton DRozario,
a member of the jury. The Justice N K Patel
Committee, constituted by the Karnataka
High Court following a public interest litigation, advised the Karnataka government
not to introduce new supplements just because they are free, and called for a clear
treatment protocol. Subsequently, Bruhat
Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the local
authority, stopped supplying spirulina to
mothers and children.
Against this backdrop, the state governments decision to take help from Biocon
to supply spirulina has come as a shock.
The government defends its decision saying its pilot programme, carried out in association with the Jindal Steel Works (jsw)
Foundation in Sandur taluk in Bellary district, had brought down malnutrition levels
from 33 per cent to 8 per cent. But there is
no validated evidence to back this claim. The
dwcd has even set aside R3.6 crore from the
states budget to supply two grams of spirulina for 180 days to 25,000 children in
Karnataka, as part of the Balposhna scheme
as recommended by jsw.
The fact that corporate firms have independently started distributing spirulina
to undernourished and malnourished children enrolled in anganwadis since 2012
raises several disturbing questions. Can
firms such as Biocon, Spirulina Foundation
and jsw independently access anganwadis
and unilaterally distribute spirulina? Will
they be held liable in the event of adverse
drug reactions, death or disability among
children who consumed spirulina? Does
Biocon have a formal permission from the
icds to distribute spirulina to children, particularly to children who are malnourished
and already vulnerable to organ damage?
The trend of balanced meals being replaced with fortified biscuits and spirulina
tablets seems to be driven by vested corporate interests. The government is abdicating its responsibility to guarantee food and
health rights to its people by entering into
partnerships with the commercial sector.
Corporations are only too happy to capitalise on malnutrition by supplying pre-mixed
food packets to anganwadis, and trumpeting their social responsibility even as they
create markets for their fortified foods, says
Radha Holla of the International Baby Food
Action Network and the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India.
A report by the Supreme Court Commissioners office in November 2012 says that
the contractor-corporate lobby has a firm
grip over the icds ration supply business,
worth R8,000 crore, with specific reference
to Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya
and Maharashtra. The commissioners recommended an independent investigation
under the apex courts supervision to investigate the possible nexus between politicians, bureaucrats and private contractors
in the provisioning of rations to icds, leading to large-scale corruption and leakages.
Only political will can ensure children, especially from poor and marginalised communities, are protected against this corporate-driven agenda of making a business out
of nutrition.
Karpagam is a Bengaluru-based
health practitioner and Shatrugna is
former deputy director, National Institute
of Nutrition, Hyderabad
08/09/16 6:58 PM
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THE WATER ENGINEERS
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73Triveni ad.indd 73
Earth
73
12/09/16
PM
Janmay31,16
15, 2011 Down
Down To
To
Earth4:15PB
LAST WORD
CIVIL LINES
R I C H A R D M A H A PAT R A
The rediscovery of India
Dina Majhi's 12 km walk with his dead wife on

his shoulders says a lot about `Digital India'
INA MAJHI, a tribal resident of Odishas

Kalahandi district, is well-known across India
today. He walked 12 km carrying his dead wife
on his shoulders as he couldnt afford a hearse
van. His inhuman and humiliating experience stirred
nation-wide sympathy; Delhiites in packed public buses and rain-caused traffic gridlocks forgot their inconvenience for a few minutes to talk about Majhi. The media reported the incident with the excitement they had
shown while covering the launch of Reliances Jio and
Digital India. In Delhis Press Club, a few spirited mediapersons attributed Majhis appearance in the national headlines to Digital India. Without
the smartphone, he would have
just been a local piece of news,
said a senior media professional who still remembers his
heart-breaking reportage on
Kalahandis starvation deaths
in the 1970s.
Afterwards, there was a
deluge of many similar instances on TV. But a month later, Majhis story, an ugly news
spell, seems to have been forgotten. Reason enough that it
TARIQUE AZIZ / CSE
must be retold. Because such
re-rendering of human stories in a news-dense country
like India almost amounts to rediscovering it.
I was born in Kalahandinear the place Majhi was
spotted by locals carrying his dead wifeat a time when
famine-like situations regularly killed people by the hundreds. Most died while on a long and uncertain journey
to search for food. Some would carry the dead on their
shoulders to the nearest point where they could give them
a decent burial. The lucky few who reached food distribution centres would narrate a story very similar to Majhis.
At the time, there was neither any ambulance service that
could be arranged with a phone call, nor any four-wheeler driving journalists empowered with wireless access
to the world.
74 DOWN TO EARTH
74Last Word.indd 74
But in the 21st century, Kalahandis painful past no

longer lingers in national consciousness as more than 60
per cent of Indias current population was not even born
then. Rather, newspapers have reported how this district
has witnessed a turnaround in its fate due to government
development programmes. Starvation deaths are now
very few in number.
But Majhis plight is still not an exception. It is a regular sight. One often sees many Majhis carrying people
dead or alive to hospitals, not in ambulances, but on cotsturned-biers lifted by relatives. People still walk many kilometres to get to government-run
fair price shops for foodgrain. They
often need three days to transport
25 kg of foodgrain. It is an equally common practice to walk long
distances to bribe elusive local officials to get the below poverty line status that gives access to
many benefits.
This is where the old and new
Indias look alike. Digital India
broadcast Majhis story in a few
hours. Moreover, like in every other
district across India, Kalahandi too
must have had four-digit helplines
to help people access government
services. Majhi must have crossed
at least four such signages on his 12-km walk to get to
an ambulance.
So, what failed Majhi? He doesnt carry a smart
phone that reportedly makes every government service
accessible now. But he was tending to his sick wife at a
district headquarters hospital from where all such helplines operate. His requests for transport to officials were
met with no response. We need infrastructure to work for
people at the right time. There is always a person sitting
behind a helpline phone to answer and arrange these services. They have failed Majhi. The digitally empowered
media used technology to tell his story but it will never report why such technology-driven solutions dont replace
the people who represent the system.
09/09/16 6:30 PM
NEW RELEASE
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Tel: 91-11-40616000, 29955124 Website: www.cseindia.org
75NIMBY ad-new.indd 75
12/09/16 4:15 PM
R.N.I. NO. 53588/92 POSTAL REGN. NO. DL(S)-17/3109/2015-2017
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Training programme
EIA PROCESS: SCREENING
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TIMING
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9. Evaluation of quality of EIA Report
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For registration: Kindly email at: digvijay@cseindia.org
For details contact: Digvijay Singh, Sr. Research Associate, Industry and Environment Unit
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Ph: 91-11-2995 5124 / 6110 (Ext. 204); Fax: 91-11-2995 5879
Mobile: +91 9891921959, +91 9899676027 Website: www.cseindia.org
76BC GRP EIA Course ad November 21-25, 2016.indd 76
12/09/16 4:15
PM
may31,16,
BC

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