THE FOURTH OF JUNE - AND THE DAY AFTER.

   I sincerely hope the Hon'ble Lordships who dismissed the petitions for mandatory counting of VVPAT slips (with wholly unwarranted aspersions on the petitioner, the Association for Democratic Rights) are able to sleep soundly these days. I also hope they have by now realised how misplaced their touching faith in the current Election Commissioners was.  For every round of polling brings fresh disturbing news of malfunctioning of EVMs, of only the BJP symbol being displayed no matter which key one presses, of EVMs being "captured" by ruling party goons with the connivance of the police, of Muslim voters not being allowed to vote, of a BJP candidate (who has no business being inside a polling booth except to cast her vote) forcibly lifting the burkhas of Muslim women to verify their ID, of CCTV cameras in strong-rooms being rendered ineffective by electricity "failure", of en mass deletion of names of voters of a particular community. All accompanied by the sepulchral silence of the Election Commission.

  In one of the laziest judgments delivered in recent times, the Hon'ble judges premised their order on a complete faith in the Election Commission and its impartiality. How wrong they were is being proved on a daily basis. For the present Election Commission is the most deplorable, partisan and incompetent one we have had since 1947. It is as transparent as a block of granite, as communicative as a trappist monk with a vow of silence, and as straight as a corkscrew. It takes no action on hate speeches, allows a communal video to be shown for four days before taking it down just hours before polling, it is petrified of even taking the Prime Minister's name, let alone calling him out for persistent anti-Muslim baiting, its "notices" are targeted mainly at the Opposition parties, it changes, without any explanation, the practice of revealing polling numbers instead of just percentages: it takes days to reveal even this information in the age of "digital India"! And, in order to leave no doubt as to which corner of the ring it is in, it castigates the President of the country's largest opposition party for raising just this issue in a letter! The credibility of this Commission has hit rock bottom but it continues to dig deeper every day. All of us knew this, but apparently the Hon'ble judges did not.

  I fear the nation may pay a huge price for this indefensible misjudgment of the Commission's character and intentions. The real mischief will happen on counting day.

*                                          *                                           *                                    *                                  *

  It appears that some of Mr. Modi's divinity has rubbed off on me too: these days, perched in my mountain home at 7000 feet, I feel like Moses on Mount Sinai, surveying the frenetic goings-on far below with cynical disapproval. Things haven't changed much since the days of Moses either- what he beheld was worship of the golden calf, what I see now is hysteria about the saffron cow (speaking metaphorically, of course). To provide a non-Abrahamic analogy, I feel a bit like Jamlu Devta of Malana village on the heights of Chandrakhani Pass, observing  the other inferior devtas of Kullu conducting their road shows (it IS election time, after all!), each trying to impress the voter- sorry, devotee- to be declared the numero uno. ( Incidentally, Jamlu Devta is not to be confused with Jumla Devta, the other reigning deity in Delhi).

  And what I see is that, notwithstanding the indulgence (if not worse) of the Election Commission, the misuse of the official apparatus and the thousands of crores of bribes as electoral bonds being allowed to be retained, the BJP is going to fall short of a simple majority by at least 30-40 seats. The rag-tag NDA allies may garner another 30 or so seats, but it is unlikely that they will bail the BJP out: as Parakala Prabhakar explained to Karan Thapar in a recent interview, these parties are "contextual" not "ideological" allies of the BJP, and when the context changes they will jump ship like the proverbial rats. And that is when the fun begins, or the shit hits the ceiling. It is something we all should be discussing and worrying about, because this moment will put to the test every single institution, conventions and laws we have so painstakingly created over the years.

  Mr. Modi has been in power continuously for the last 22 years, and has made no secret of the fact that he loves it so much that he is not likely to hand it over to any one else, election or no election. He has, after all, been ordained to rule by God himself. Moreover, he has much to lose and fear if he has to relinquish power. His atrocities and excesses have made him many enemies; having lived by the sword he can expect no quarter from them. His imperious decisions will be called into question and investigated- Rafael, demonetisation, PM Cares fund, Electoral bonds, Pegasus, the Panama and Pandora papers, the Hindenberg expose on Adani, the award of contracts, ports, airports, mines, railways to cronies. Cadavers from the past will be exhumed to point their gory fingers at him- the Gujarat riots of 2002, the NE Delhi riots of 2021, Judge Loya, the Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi encounters, the killings in Manipur, the imprisonment of Sanjiv Bhat and human rights activists: many more may emerge once the repressive lid is lifted off a citizenry and media muzzled for the last ten years.

  He will not, however, be without powerful allies who have been his accomplices in his megalomaniac excesses- bureaucrats, the police and defense forces, institutions like the Election Commission, Reserve Bank of India, Banks, SEBI and other regulatory bodies, even the judiciary. Just about every organ of government has, in the last ten years, been infiltrated by right wing sympathisers if not outright "bhakts", and for all of them this will be a moment that will endanger not only the continuance of Mr. Modi but  their own survival. They will provide the pushback to, and try to prevent, any change of regime, and, since they will continue to occupy positions of power in the system, they will constitute a potent challenge.

  With the kind of resources he will still have, and the strength of the backing from within the governmental structure, Mr. Modi can be expected to move heaven and earth to stay on in power. There will be no repeat of 1977 when Mrs. Gandhi handed over power peacefully, and for good reasons: our institutions and systems of checks and balances have been thoroughly eroded over the last decade, an independent media no longer exists, the character of our politicians has plumbed unimagined depths, and the very fabric of society has been torn and shredded. The engineering of large scale violence on the pattern of the January 6th violence in Washington cannot be ruled out, giving the present regime the perfect excuse to declare an Emergency, suspend all rights and call out the uniformed forces who have shown that they are not at all adverse to a touch of high handedness and have their own take on how best to preserve the "sovereignty of the nation". The fate of the nation will then depend on the President and the Supreme Court; somehow, however, I cannot muster up much confidence or hope in either.

  If, in spite of the election results (or because of manipulated results), Mr. Modi and the BJP/NDA  manage to retain power for the next five years, India will cease to exist as a genuine democracy. But then, as Satan said, for some it is better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven.

WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE ARE MANY WAYS

   April is the cruelest month, and not only for the reasons given by T.S.Eliot: it is also that dreaded month when we have to turn our minds to filing our income tax returns for the benefit of the lady-who-doesn't- have-money- to- fight-elections but, like Oliver Twist, is always asking for more. But this year April has been harsher than usual because of the introduction of two surprise imponderables: Inheritance tax and Covishield. The two, my CA tells me, should induce all of us to do a bit of "estate planning" and think of life after death.

  It is now undeniable that AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine had very serious side effects, and that they were actually bedside effects, i.e. they laid you out flat on your bed, never to rise again, not even in Jerusalem or Golgotha. After the emergence of damning evidence in a London court, it has been reported on the 7th of March that the vaccine has been withdrawn globally. That is cold comfort to the millions who might now be living under a death sentence. The possibility of an Inheritance tax has now been mooted by an emigre but influential Congressman, and Mr. Modi himself has explained it in his usual simple, crass language-namely, that if you have two buffaloes the Congress will take one away. He has not, however, explained what will happen if you have two wives. My well- informed CA tells me that that will depend on whether wives are regarded as assets or liabilities.

  Be that as it may, these developments have led me to seriously consider executing my will, since the afore mentioned bedside effect can come into play at any time and fell me in one fell swoop (I had taken two of the ruddy shots). Mr. Modi, I'm told, has already disappeared from the digital vaccination certificates and may soon disappear also from 7, Lok Kalyan Marg; as the poet said: If Modi goes, can Shukla be far behind? Which is why I'm now seriously considering the redistribution of my poverty (in the absence of any wealth), among my progeny and Neerja.

 The first obstacle you run up against when registering a Will is to prove that you are of "sound mind". The magistrate, having read some of my blogs, had serious reservations about that in my case. I patiently explained to him that soundness of my mind is a relative thing, has its ups and downs (as the Duke told the Duchess one unsuccessful night), and has to be seen in its context. I referred him to Mr. Modi's speeches about buffaloes and mangalsutras, Mr. Amit Shah's statement about a five trillion tonne economy, Surjit Bhalla's claim that the Modi govt. has ushered in true secularism, Jaishankar's boast that India was the leader of the global south-and then slipped in the knife: if these jokers could be considered sane enough to decide the fate of the nation, was I not sane enough to decide what to do with the accumulated fruits of my labours? His Honour, being of sound mind himself, immediately agreed and signed off with an RO+AC.

  For the record, I don't really have much to bequeath to my next-of-kin. The bank deposits and FDs will disappear soon at the current rate of inflation and taxation; whatever little is left will probably go to cyber fraudsters. The cottage in Purani Koti will probably have to be sold to pay off the inheritance tax. The car belongs to Mr. Gadkari anyway, what with fuel prices, the highway robbery legalised as toll fees, and the rule that requires it to be scrapped after ten years. But to be honest, I don't give a shit, as the honey badger confided to his mate: my family will probably live a better life without me lurking in the shadows. And, in any case, I would like to believe that these baubles do not constitute my real wealth and legacy.

  For, of all my possessions the ones I am most proud of, and which give me most happiness, are the trees I've planted on my land in Purani Koti, near Mashobra. I, along with my sister-in-law Anjali, had bought about 6 bighas (little more than an acre) of land there in the early 2000's and I decided to convert it into a little green oasis before the village was taken over by hotels and guest houses. The latter has happened but so has the oasis! I had the full backing of Anjali, who was keen to compensate for her otherwise Delhi based (carbon) footprint, which is slightly bigger than Godzilla's footprint.

                                            

                                                            [ A grove of robinia trees]

                                                                  [ Weeping willows]

  I did an enumeration of the trees on our lands yesterday and counted a total of 209 trees, of both the forest and fruit varieties. An examination of old photographs reveals that there were only about 15 fruit trees when we acquired the land, so we have added almost 200 trees, and they are all doing well, the fruit trees are all organic. The forest varieties comprise deodar, blue pine, robinia, horse chestnut, oak, weeping willows and chinar; the fruit variety are apple, pear (nashpati), cherry, plum. I have no sense of guilt in admitting that I have begged, bought, borrowed and stolen to get these plants from all corners of the state !- from the Jalori pass, Tirthan valley, Manali. The greenery is now a haven for birds of more species than I can recognize, and we even have visiting species like parakeets, swallows, Himalayan magpies, pheasants and barbets at different times of the year. The bulbuls are permanent residents and have bed-tea with Neerja and I on our terrace every morning (see photo).

                                                                   [ Horse chestnut ]

                                                   [ Our regular morning tea companion]

                                                               [ Cheer pheasant chicks]

                                                               [All photos by the author]

  This then is the possession I really value, my own creation without any embedded advantage of birth, education or inherited wealth, something I can be proud of. I would like to consider this my real legacy, not only for my family but for mother earth. It feels good to leave one tiny part of this planet a better place than one found it. And it needs no Will- just a dream!

THIS IS NOT JOURNALISM, Ms. SHARMA, IT'S COMPLICITY.

   I don't know what brain supplement Palki Sharma has been taking of late, some kind of Patanjali churan probably, but I would advise her to discontinue it immediately. It is detaching her from reality, causing her to hallucinate and making her colour blind to all hues except saffron. Till now, I had regarded her as an articulate journalist and presenter, who did immaculate research on her subjects, and made her points convincingly. No more, not after her sacerdotal (to the Supreme Leader) speech at the Oxford Union debate. With this one speech she has brought herself down to the level of those despicable prime time anchors of Republic TV, Times Now, Aaj Tak and News 18.

  In the year old video which has surfaced again and made to go viral, she proclaims that she is proud of being an Indian in Modi's India, recounted his "achievements" on the economy, defense, social cohesion, federalism, freedom of speech, religion, dissent, independence of institutions and the press etc., and was duly applauded by the Prime Minister himself, who usually reserves such plaudits for lynch mobs, rapists, bigots, and other assorted scoundrels. I hope she is comfortable in such company, because I would certainly not be. All that she said was a leaf from Mr. Amit Malviya's Book of Lies, and it is tragic that someone like her was taken in so easily by these untruths and half truths.

  No, Ms Palki Sharma, I am not proud to be an Indian in Modi's India. Of my 73 years the first 63 were spent holding my head high as an Indian because, for all our poverty and other shortcomings, we were at least one united nation. We revelled in our diversity (notwithstanding the occasional riot or two) and our Ganga-Jamuna "tehzeeb"; we held fast to our principles and values, we respected the values and aspirations enshrined in our constitution, and we did make steady progress up the economic ladder. We were a nation respected globally, not because we were just a big market or a counter-point to China, but because we were a genuine democracy which provided a moral compass and hope to the rest of the world. The last ten years of Mr. Modi have undone all this good, painstaking work, just because a vain, semi-literate, narcissistic demagogue thinks he is bigger than all his predecessors put together; indeed, bigger than the nation. I have reason enough not to be proud of being an Indian these days. Because the proof of the pudding lies in the eating, and Ms Palki Sharma's pudding is nauseating and poisonous.

  It is difficult, if not impossible, to be proud of a Prime Minister whose bat-like vision does not extend beyond hate for minorities, contempt for science and reason, malice towards the opposition, and whose only goal in life is to stay in office. One cannot be proud of a man utterly lacking in compassion, whose every second word is a lie, who makes a virtue of his profound ignorance and, in the best traditions of all fake God-men with which this country abounds, considers himself a messenger of God. The summum bonum of his life is contained in just one letter- M: Muslim, Mutton, Macchli and Mangalsutra. His language has plumbed depths never seen before of any leader, let alone a Prime Minister. Any civilized society would be ashamed of having a leader like him.

  Our economy too, which Palki Sharma extols to high heavens, is nothing to be proud of. Sure, it's growing, but what else would you expect of the most populous nation on earth? Even if our entire population was starving at two dollars a day (like our 220 million BPL families) we would still be a one trillion dollar economy. Every figure released by the govt. regarding the GDP is fudged, surveys which would say otherwise are either not conducted or kept under wraps. The real state of our economy is reflected, not in the GDP or even per capita income, but in other indicators: that 800 million people have to be given free rations, that 83% of our youth are unemployed, that even IITs and IIMs are unable to place 50% of their graduates, that bank deposits are falling and personal loans/debts have shown an increase of 66% since 2021, that more than 250000 MSMEs have had to shut down, that almost 240000 rich and educated Indians have surrendered their citizenship in the last eight years alone, that private investment has been falling every year, that 60 million people have had to return to agriculture because there are no jobs for them, that the share of manufacturing in the economy has declined to an all time low of 13% of GDP, that 1% of the population own 40% of the country's wealth and 10% own 70%, leaving only 6% for the bottom 50%, making India one of the most inequitable countries in the world. In the words of Parakala Prabhakar, Mr. Modi's economic ideology is a simple one: give five kgs of free rice to the people and five airports to his favoured cronies.

  GDP growth under Modi, which most respected economists put at about 6.2% and not the 7.4% touted by the govt., continues to lag behind the achievement of both UPA I and UPA II, and is driven, not by the private sector, but by massive state expenditure on infrastructure and capital intensive projects. This too has been on the back of unsustainable borrowings- our external debt has now crossed 150 lakh crores, three times what it was in 2014. The only beneficiaries of this model of economics have been the billionaires and millionaires whose tribe continues to multiply manifold. There is little to be proud of here.

  It is no surprise that, in her cloying veneration for the Modi era, Ms Sharma fails to notice the state of our institutions, their steady degeneration to camp followers of the ruling regime. They have become instrumentalities, not of the state, but of the BJP. One had never expected to see the three monkeys of the Mahatma resurrected in this modern era, but they have been reborn again: the CAG is blind to the loot of the exchequer going on all around him, the Election Commission never speaks, the judiciary is deaf to the entreaties of civil society and citizens. One can list out the instances where their silence, biases and helpful interpretations of the law have contributed to the hollowing out of our democracy, but that would require a whole book by itself. As Kapil Sibal has pointed out, history will judge them some day, but by then it may be too late.

  The lady is at her absurd best (worst?) when she claims that India is the leader of the global south even as we are completely isolated on the issue of Palestine-Israel conflict; that the world comes to us for advice whereas the fact is that we are a perpetual fence-sitter at the United Nations, never committing our selves to any principles or position; that we have forged close ties with our neighbours, even as in the Modi years we have lost Nepal. Srilanka, the Maldives and now even Bhutan to China; that Kashmir has never been so peaceful as after the abrogation of Article 370, whereas militant related deaths (of citizens, security forces and terrorists) have GONE UP since then. Even our strategic "friends"- the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany- have now begun to have doubts over both the internal repression in India and our gun-for-hire foreign policy. But Palki Sharma will not tell her audience about these uncomfortable home truths.

  Every single encomium handed out by her to the Modi govt. is contradicted by global surveys and indexes- Hunger Index, Press Freedom Index, Religious Freedom Index, Inequality Index, Environment Protection Index, Gender Equality Index, Electoral Democracy Index, Human Capital Index; and in all of them we have slid down the rankings since 2014. But Ms Sharma deliberately ignores them in a speech which is more a propaganda handout by the BJP's IT Cell than an address by a hitherto respected journalist. 

  I doubt if any advice would make Palki Sharma change her mind, but she would do well to remember, in the slightly adapted words of George Orwell, that journalists who support politicians, impostors, thieves and traitors are not victims...but accomplices. They too shall be judged one day. 

 

REWILDING INDIA (II)- WE CAN'T RELY ON GOVERNMENTS ALONE.

   As I have stressed in my last blog (Part-I), the job of rewilding is too big and innovative  for governments to handle. Globally, the responsibility is being taken up by individuals, retired corporates and environmentalists wishing to return to nature in some measure what they have extracted from it. There are various models which are being followed in the USA, Europe and Latin America. It would be illustrative to share a few examples with the reader.

  Perhaps the best known and most successful instance is that of Kristine Tompkins and her husband, both ex-corporate honchos. With their own money they have purchased 15 million acres of barren, degraded wildlands in Patagonia (Argentina and Chile) and manage them in PPP mode in coordination with the Wildlife wings of these countries and the cooperation of local natives in matters such as restrictions on grazing of livestock and felling of trees. Photographs show that these lands have been successfully restored to their former status, wildlife species which had disappeared have returned in ever increasing numbers; they include peccaries, swamp deer, the highly endangered green Macaws and jaguar. Out of these millions of acres 13 new National Parks have been established: the Tompkins have also promoted marine reserves. One Eoghans Daltun has purchased 73 acres of barren land in Cork, Ireland and rewilded it, hoping to make it a tourist attraction too.

                                    

                                           [ Colours of Pin valley in HP. Photo by author.]

There are a couple of notable examples in India too, by socially responsible citizens. Perhaps the best known is Jabarkhet Nature Reserve, just outside Mussoorie, established by environmentalist and ex-Programme Director of WWF for Nature, India, Dr. Sejal Worah and businessman J.P.Jain who is the owner of the land. Extending over 950 acres this private forest had gone to seed, overgrown with invasive plants, filled with trash, trees felled by local villagers, damaged by regular forest fires, devoid of any wildlife. It has now been restored with sustainable forest management practices: new planting, coopting locals into banning felling/lopping, removal of more than three tonnes of garbage, measures against forest fires, laying out of fire breaks and walking trails. All this has paid off big time, the forest has regenerated itself and all kinds of wildlife have returned: leopard, bear, red fox, ghoral, sambhar, jungle cat, and 140 species of birds. To make it financially sustainable, its owners have launched a membership drive, made it an ecotourism destination on a payment basis: it broke even in its third year itself!

Tiger expert Aditya "Dicky" Singh has bought 50 acres of wildland just outside Ranthambore National Park and restored its natural habitats and green cover, to the extent that the water table in his rewilded area is at 50 feet, whereas outside it lies at 500 feet. Naturally enough, wild animals including tigers, are regular visitors to his private forest and its brimming waterholes.

  A more humble example is in Majuli, Assam, at 550 hectares the world's biggest riverine island. Subject to biotic pressures and rampant tree felling, Majuli has lost half its area to erosion by the mighty Brahmaputra since 1917. One resident, Jadav Payeng (named the "Forest Man of India" by former President APJ Abdul Kalam), has taken it upon himself to replant the island and give it back to nature. He has been doing so, quietly and anonymously, since 1979, when he was just 16 years old, and has so far planted an area larger than the size of Central Park in NYC- an astounding 340 hectares! Native animals- rhino. elephant, tiger- have all started residing in Payeng's forest. Which makes one wonder- if one ordinary villager can do all this on his own, why can't our vaunted 140 billionaires, 150000 HNIs and $4.33 trillion stock market companies not do so too? 

  India's rapidly degrading eco-systems are in dire need of rewilding, especially in niche areas like the north-east, the Himalayan states and the Western Ghats. The root cause, of course, are the mindless "development" projects, in the teeth of opposition by local people and tribals, and the only beneficiary is Big Capital. The failure of govts, both central and state, to rewild nature is evident in the steady reduction of primary forests and increase in scrub and open forests. Corporates, rich individuals and socially minded citizens owe it to our country to step in and intervene.

                                          

                                    [ Puranikoti landscape. Photo by Geetika Khanna]

Of course, it is not easy to replicate the marvellous feat of the Tompkins in a place like India. Our forest departments and laws suffer from a colonial mind-set- that only the govts. can be trusted to manage forests and wildlife. The Forest Act, Forest Conservation Act, Wildlife Protection Act and various rules are so restrictive as to rule out the entry of any private player or organisation in this area. A prime example is ecotourism. Himachal was perhaps the first state in the country which developed an ecotourism policy in 2006 or 2007 and proposed to lease out forest areas to private entrepreneurs, under strict conditions and regulations, for the development of camping sites. This was shot down by the MOEF on the grounds that forest areas could not be used for non-forest activities! The Ministry has acknowledged its stupidity since then and this activity is now allowed, but we had lost precious years and confidence of the market by then. Another example: farmers who grow plantations on their own land (like "khair") have to struggle against a regressive forest bureaucracy to obtain permission for harvesting them.

  For the concept of rewilding to succeed this mindset has to change. Laws and rules have to be amended, the dog in the manger attitude will no longer work. Private players should be allowed-indeed, encouraged- to buy degraded wild lands, unfarmed farm lands and to rewild them; they should be allowed to mange them under strict rules and guidelines; they should be encouraged to develop their own Working Plans for these forests, reintroduce native wildlife species, and to make these ventures financially viable by setting up ecotourism projects in them. The role of the forest departments should be one of mentoring rather than intrusive and officious regulating.

  CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds can play a huge role in making rewilding possible, and this should be included in the CSR rules specifically as a permissible activity. More than Rs.15000 crore (almost US$ 2 billion) is spent annually under CSR: if even 5% of that went into rewilding it would be a huge step forward. And the icing on the cake would be if our 140 dollar billionaires spent just 1 million dollars every year in this sector, instead of just donating to political parties!

  Incidentally, rewilding should not be confused with the central govt's recently launched "Green Credit" scheme, which is a pure business investment, whereas rewilding is motivated by "wildlands philanthropy". Under the GC scheme, companies pay money to the state govts for greening of barren scrub lands (belonging to the govts) and in return get green credits which are set off against any payments they may be required to make for use of forest lands for their industry/ business purposes. Not only is this hare-brained scheme old wine in a not very new bottle (it is simply Compensatory Afforestation under a new label) like most of Mr. Modi's programmes, not only does it suffer from the same inefficiencies as the CA and CAT Plan schemes, not only have such schemes been discredited world wide, but it also does not conform to the voluntary and philanthropic nature of rewilding. Rewilding is an acceptance of the serial rape of nature by industry and the super privileged, an atonement and reparation for the wrongs inflicted by them on this planet. It cannot be a thinly disguised sop for industry. It cannot be a plea bargain. 

REWILDING INDIA - IS "VANTARA" THE FIRST BABY STEP ? [PART I]

   Amidst the extravagant obscenity of the Ambani pre-wedding in Jamnagar last month, there was, for me, one bright spot of hope. It was news of the establishment of Vantara, the "world's largest private zoo", spread over 1000 acres in which more than ten million trees have been planted, in Jamnagar, Gujarat. According to a very well researched article by Ayaskant Das and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in Newsclick [An Amazing Zoo Story, 29.2.24] the facility is a personal venture of one of the Ambani scions, Anant Ambani, and contains 1461 endangered and 3889 non- endangered species of animals, some of them imported. Vantara has a long history of litigation, objections and questions raised by animal activists. There are issues like: Is it (as it claims) an elephant rescue and rehab centre under the Wildlife Protection Act? Have wild elephants been shifted to the zoo in violation of the Act and rules? Have the rules been tweaked to accommodate the Ambanis? Are private zoos permissible at all?

  These questions will no doubt wend their way through our tortuous judicial system, and I am not commenting on them because they are not the focus of this piece. What I find welcome is that, perhaps for the first time in India, a prominent corporate entity has taken an interest in a matter relating to the natural environment, and in rehabilitating essentially wild species of animals. Even more heartening is the fact that this initiative is being partly funded by CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds which are otherwise disbursed more on political grounds than anything else. This may be the first baby steps towards the conservation and rewilding of our diminishing natural eco-systems, including their wild life.

  Rewilding is a concept and initiative which is gaining traction in many parts of the world, though it is yet to arrive in India in any meaningful way. What it seeks to do is to revive degraded habitats and their indigenous biodiversity which is being destroyed by mindless "development" (in India, think Andaman and Nicobar mega container/tourism/power/township project, the 20000 acre solar plant in Ladakh, Aarey forest in Mumbai, four lane highways through National Parks and tiger habitats, continued decimation of the green cover in the Western Ghats, just for starters). Restoring these areas is no favour to Nature, it is in our own interest. For wildlands provide four essential ecosystem services that sustain all life on this planet: provisioning (timber, food, medicinal plants), regulatory (climate moderation, water flows, carbon capture), cultural (sacred groves, tourism) and supporting ( nutrient cycles, pollination).

                                    

                                                

                                        [ No architect can replicate the beauty of this canopy ]

 There is an urgency to the "wildlands philantrophy" because forests and bio-diversity are disappearing at an alarming rate. Globally, 10 million hectares of forests are lost every year, about the size of Portugal. 30% of the Amazon rain forests are gone. India has lost 2.33 million hectares of tree cover since 2000 [Global Forest Watch]. 500 animal species have become extinct, and animal populations have plummeted by 70%, in the last 50 years. It is estimated that one million species of all life forms are staring at extinction, primarily due to anthropogenic interventions, including climate change. Rewilding could be a means to reverse these trends.

                                

  The job is too big for governments to do, even if they had the political will or aptitude to do it, which they don't. In India, particularly, our colonial minded forest departments, badly funded and poorly led, are ill equipped to meet this challenge. Just to provide an example, take our flagship conservation programme, Project Tiger: the NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority), which oversees 52 Tiger Reserves, has an annual budget of Rs. 50 crores, as compared to the Delhi Horticulture Deptt. which is provided Rs. 125 crores every year! Ranthambore National Park has just about one fifth of the number of Forest Guards it actually needs. It is no different in other countries, which is why the initiative for rewilding globally is being adopted and pushed by individuals and corporate entities. 

  There are many dimensions to, and models for, rewilding, including creation of National Parks, Wildlife sanctuaries and marine sanctuaries; removal of dams and allowing the rivers to flow freely again leading to revival of fish populations and restoring livelihoods of people who have traditionally depended on them(European countries have removed almost 700 dams in the last two years, according to figures compiled by Dam Removal Europe; the USA has removed 2119 dams since 2012); creating nature habitats in urban areas as more and more natural and farming habitats are taken over by sprawling urbanisation. Needless to say, India is an outlier and laggard in all these initiatives, except perhaps the first. Our governments are content to trot out fudged figures of forest cover and tiger populations, and to maintain that our forest area is increasing every year. Whereas the truth is that dense forests have been declining at an alarming rate and what has increased is open forests and scrub land, according to the Forest Survey of India reports. To maintain this statistical charade the definition of "forest" is being regularly diluted: the current one defines any area of 2.50 acres with a tree cover of 10% as Forest! As pointed out by conservationist Aditya 'Dickie' Singh, that would mean that both the Bombay Gymkhana and Delhi Golf Club are forests! (With the mandatory watering holes, of course, to cater to the wildlife which gathers there).

                                                    [Continued in Part II next week]

 

THE VANPRASTHA MOMENT IS ARRIVING, FOLKS !

 

  Notwithstanding that the BJP is not my favourite political party, my family has some connections with it. I myself served with Mr. J.P.Nadda, the BJP President, for three years in Himachal, he was my Minister in the Forest Department, a thorough gentleman and polished politician. My "mausa" was a highly respected RSS Pracharak for many years in Kanpur, till his death. My entire immediate family has been voting for the BJP ever since Mr. Modi opened his tea shop in a Gujarat station that didn't even exist at the time. On voting day I am not served any meals because I vote otherwise. My wife of many years and tears, Neerja, thinks the arrival of Modi is the Second Coming. My mother-in-law  chants the Narendra Chalisa every day. Even my Indie dog (named Brutus in a momentary mis-assessment of his personality), of stout Haryanvi lineage, is a strong votary of the "ghar me ghus ke marna" brand of diplomacy: if he sees an open door in any flat in our society he is wont to rush in and eliminate a few of the neighbours, without bothering to out source it. 

  Comprende, amigo? No, you don't, because you're wondering why I'm telling you all this, and where this is heading. So here's a clue: I'm approaching the age of 74 with the speed of a mythical Bullet train and soon will have reached the mile-stone of 75. That, friends, is the Marg Darshak age in the BJP sub-culture, and seeing that that culture has seeped into the Shukla family, it has grave implications for me.

  The Marg Darshak phase of a politician's life is a modern adaptation by the BJP of the Vanprastha stage in the Hindu Vedic system of life. Just as the BJP is the Congress plus a cow (in the unforgettable words of Arun Shourie) and Mamata Banerjee is Modi with a saree, so Vanprastha can be better understood as Marg Darshak without the Bharat Ratna. It is the third stage of the four stages of Chaturasrama, the first two being Brahmacharya and Grihasta and the final fourth one being Sanyasa. Its literal meaning is "way to the forest" or "retiring to a forest", and its practical meaning is the giving up of worldly possessions and responsibilities, concentrating on moksha or spiritual liberation, and taking up an advisory role. See the connection now between Vanprastha and Marg Darshak? Think Mr. Advani (without the advisory role, of course) and you've got it! The stripping of any Prime Ministerial ambitions or the possession of leadership of the BJP from him in 2014 was, therefore, in the best traditions of Hinduism and Vanprastha, and Mr. Modi can certainly not be faulted for adopting it.

  Actually, Vanprastha is a pretty benign and benevolent concept if you consider what happens to the old critters in other parts of the world. In ancient Egypt they were shoved into hastily constructed pyramids with all their finery and walled up; in Japan they are left in abandoned villages to fend for themselves; in the USA the old fogeys are dispatched to dismal old age homes to watch TV and play canasta; in certain parts of Africa they are left in the bush to provide the main course for the hyenas' night out festivities. Vanprastha, by comparison, does none of this, it simply asks you to take a chill pill, step aside, divest yourself of all responsibilities and properties, and concentrate on moksha. Too bad if you like your Grihasta role just fine and wish to continue being an active RWA Uncle.

  Which is why yours truly is beginning to get worried. Methinks my family, all staunch Modi acolytes, are thinking of persuading me (the gentle, ED brand of persuasion) to go into Vanprastha mode the moment I turn 75. They have the support of most of my friends, various IAS groups, the ungrateful pooch, and the RWA. Not only have my blogs become a nuisance, I continue to refuse to buy a bulldozer to demonstrate my support for the new Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita. The other day I found my son scrolling on the Make My Trip website  looking for reasonably priced caves to book near Amarnath. I don't mind giving up my responsibilities, since the responsibility for everything that goes wrong in the house is laid at my door: it would be a relief to be unburdened of that weight! But I certainly don't want to give up my single malt, or the collection of Bill Bryson books, or the framed photograph of Sunny Leone fully dressed in an enchanting smile, or the award I received in 1958 for my role as the seventh dwarf in the school play Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I'm sure a cave would have no place for all these memorabilia.

  But hold on!- maybe I won't have to be put in moth balls, come the 4th of June. You see, there are only two possibilities then- either Mr. Modi loses or he wins. If the former, then he will pack his capacious "jhola" and proceed (without cameras, hopefully) to that cave in Kedarnath he likes so much and hopefully disappear into the fog of history. In that case the 75 year sub-rule shall become 'non est' and get automatically repealed and Marg Darshak/Vanprastha shall be consigned to history. If, on the other hand, he wins, then he will want to savour the loaves of office for another five years (as commanded by God) and continue to, well, bond with his cronies. In which case he will have to amend the Vedas along with the Constitution to expunge Vanprastha along with secularism, federalism, fundamental rights, socialism etc. etc. A win-win for me (and all 75ers), don't you think? As for those who are already in the Marg Darshak phase, they will get a double promotion and transit directly to the Sanyasa stage. I'll worry about that when I turn ninety- the way things are going, I'll probably wish I were dead by then anyway! 

THE SOONER SARKARI ECONOMISTS BECOME EXTINCT THE BETTER.

   In my 55 years of adult life (not adultery, as Spellcheck tried to insinuate, though I wish that was true) I have been trying to understand economists and have consistently failed. In my student days I briefly considered doing Economics, till the chowkidar at the gates of Delhi School of Economics pointed out that I had failed every Maths exam I had taken in my life. He advised me not to bother applying, and I, bowing to superior wisdom, took his advice. I tried English at St. Stephens: apparently, all chowkidars are made of the same timber, because this chap wouldn't even let me enter the hallowed portals, saying the gate was meant to keep gentlemen in and vagabonds out! Hindu College was more broad minded and so I joined there, but let us return to economists.

  Economists have to be a yet-to-fully-evolve sub-set of homo sapiens, with DNA inherited from the dinosaurs, and it would not be a bad thing if their sarkari version at least becomes extinct soon. No two economists can ever agree on any thing, and there are more schools of thought in economics than there are schools in Bihar. Put ten economists in a room and there will be eleven opinions- and all of them will be wrong. Their entire collective wisdom is contained in gems like: you can pull on a piece of string but you cannot push on it. Give me a break, guys, even my Gurgaon born Indie doggie knows this, and he never went to DSE!

  Why is this guy so bugged with economists, you may well ask? Well, they have almost destroyed the planet with their focus on just consumption and GDP,  they consider India's projected fall in TFR (Total Fertility Rate) to 1.29 by 2051 (the latest issue of The Lancet) an unmitigated disaster even though we have 1400 million already, the largest number of poor in the world, cannot provide jobs, food or health care to most of them. And these wise men still want our population to grow? Just so that more "productive labour" is available for their icon capitalists? And now, to further confirm that this discipline should be disbanded, we have three outrageous statements by some of our own, home grown, made-in-India, saffron hued economists.

  Mr. Sanjeev Sanyal, a historian and alleged economist who is a member of the PM's Economic Advisory Council, recently stated that sitting for the UPSC civil service exams was a waste of time, that it betrays a lack of aspirational qualities, that the bureaucracy is boring and offers no excitement or challenges, that the youth should aspire to be entrepreneurs instead ; he spouted some more of the same drivel but I hope you have got the flavour of his wisdom. He has been effectively countered by Sanjeev Chopra, author and retired IAS officer, in a recent article in the THE PRINT , but I need to add my two-bit too.

  With all due respect Mr. Sanyal should stick to history, where he cannot do much damage. People like him in critical policy making bodies, with their ignorance of ground realities, can do immense harm to the country and they are probably the reason why 83% of our educated youth are unemployed, why the state has to provide free food to 800 million persons, why India is the most unequal nation in the world even though we have the fifth largest economy in the world. Sensible policies cannot emerge from brains that think like Mr. Sanyal's does. He understands neither the psyche of the aspirational classes nor the civil services.

  Mr. Sanyal's number- crunching and graph-gazing  job may be as exciting as a romp in the bed with a nymphomaniac, but he has no idea at all about the nature of jobs like the IAS, IPS or even the IFS. No civil service in the world has the kind of diversity and challenges which the All India Services do- from law and order to development programmes, from handling politicians to holding elections, from building infrastructure to providing relief at times of natural disasters. They have kept the country together through 75 years of the most difficult challenges, notwithstanding all their own deficiencies and the disastrous policies of economists of Mr. Sanyal's ilk. There is reason enough for the youth of this country to aspire for these services, something which Mr. Sanyal should commend, and not pour contempt on. Take a chill pill, sir.

  Alarmingly, this gentleman is not alone !One Mr. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor to the Govt. of India, at a function on the 27th of March said that it is not the govt's responsibility to create jobs, and that the govt. cannot solve the unemployment problem. (83% of the educated youth in India are unemployed, and the more educated you are the more likely you are to be unemployed). To me this sounds very much like Mr. Amit Shah's "selling pakoras on the road is also employment" revelation, and betrays the same arrogance of ex-BJP Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's " government ne naukri dene ka theka nahi liya hai." I have a couple of questions for Mr. Nageswaran: Is it the govt's job only to create billionaires, to ensure that 77% of the country's wealth is owned by the top 10% of its population? [OXFAM report]. Who, pray, will mandate the conditions for job creation if not the govt. of the day?

  Wait! There's more of this hogwash. Another economist, Mr. Arvind Panagariya who is the Chairman of the 16th Finance Commission , has made an even more bizarre pronouncement: that income inequality is a necessary side effect of wealth generation, that those who worry about it are "inequality alarmists". The World Inequality Report ranks India as among the most unequal countries in the world in income parity, another report says that income inequality is now worse than in the colonial era, a billionaire spends on his son's pre-wedding celebrations as much money as 100,000 Indians earn in a year, and Mr. Panagariya says we are being alarmist? The irony, of course, is that he heads a body which is constitutionally mandated to REDUCE inter state disparities and ensure a fair deal for all!

  I shudder to think what kind of advice these gentlemen are giving the political executive on a daily basis. All these eminence grises are of a distinct saffron hue, which is why they probably occupy the positions they do; such statements are necessary, I suppose, to ensure that the colour does not fade, with disastrous consequences for their cushy sinecures. But the fact is that they continue to wallow in  archaic economic ideas which have been discredited long ago by a world now more concerned about rights than privileges. Which is why, like the tyrannosaurus, it is time for them to go.