THE FINAL GOODBYE

    Some readers may find this blog a bit on the morbid side, but hold your final verdict till you come to the end of it: you may finally feel that it is in fact uplifting, poignant and even heart-warming. Though it deals with death, or, to be more precise, dying.

   Last week an online friend of mine sent me a forward that shook me up, even though at 73 I now consider myself shock proof. The title of the piece was " Be with your pet till the End." In it he describes an intense personal, guilt ridden, experience: how he had to put down his beloved Dalmatian who was suffering from an incurable ailment, how he could not bear to be in the room when the vet was administering the lethal injection, how his dog's eyes followed him every inch of the way as he was walking out, imploring him not to leave her at this final moment as the life ebbed out of her. He has, quite rightly, not forgiven himself till today for this betrayal of a loved one when she needed him most. But this is not all.

   Stanley (my online friend) informs me that he has since learnt that his experience was not unique; most veterinarians will attest to the fact that when pets are dying (and they always know when the moment has arrived) they long for their masters/owners/family to be with them, craving for the comfort of a final assurance of being wanted. Sadly, according to these doctors, the owners cannot  bear to watch their pets dying or being put down, and usually leave the room, like Stanley did, regretting doing so for the rest of their lives. Paradoxically, it is both an expression and betrayal of love.

  My own experience confirms this. Many years ago I had this magnificent Golden Retriever named Brutus, so christened because of his sober and regal bearing. He was a one- man dog, I being the man chosen for this honour. Only I could hold his leash when out for a walk, only I could brush or bathe him. Neerja, the good wife, was not allowed to sit next to me on the sofa- that place was reserved for Brutus. If I was ill and in bed no one, not even the doctor was permitted to come next to me, thus delaying my recovery by at least a week on each such occasion! In short, I was the love of his life, and he mine (with apologies to Neerja).

                                  

   [Brutus. December 1998- June 2010. Photo by Siddharth Shukla]

   Brutus was 12 years old in 2010, in perfect health and with many years of the good life still ahead of him, when he somehow contrived to fall from the first floor of my Mashobra cottage one night. He broke his right femur badly. He wouldn't tolerate the plaster so I was advised an operation to nail the broken bones together. The procedure was not successful, septicemia set in with all its attendant complications- high fever, semi paralysis, inability to keep down any food. Nothing worked, he kept getting worse and he was suffering terribly. Finally, feeling like a murderer, I accepted my vet's advice to put him down for his own good. We fixed 22nd June for this ultimate betrayal, at 5.30 PM when I returned from office.

    [ Brutus, with my son, Saurabh, at two years of age. Photo by author.]

  I suspect Brutus, with that extraordinary sixth sense that animals have, sensed the impending course of events. Neerja tells me that that afternoon he somehow dragged himself to the top of the stairs where he would greet me every evening when I returned from office, and collapsed into a semi-coma with the effort. I reached home and sat down next to him, awaiting the vet's arrival with the lethal injection. Brutus opened his eyes, wagged his tail feebly, put his huge head on my lap, sighed happily a few times, and then stopped breathing. He had gone, just like that.

  He had waited for me to return, to bid a final farewell, before leaving. And he had spared me the ultimate sin of having had to put him down, an act of murder I know I would have regretted for the rest of my life. Our pets are so large hearted, their love so unconditional and unquestioning, we should never leave them alone in their final moments. We are the only world they ever know, or care about; when they leave this world they should go in the warmth of knowing that we love them, that they will be treasured and missed. Pets may not be our whole life, but they make our life whole: your soul is never truly awakened until you have kept a pet, especially a dog. I have always believed that there are only two kinds of pure, selfless love in this sorry world- the love of a mother for her child, and the love of a pet for his master and family. All of us have experienced the first type, but those who receive the second also are truly blessed. Return that blessing by being there for him or her when it's time to say that last goodbye.

 

HIMACHAL'S DAY AFTER- RENDER UNTO NATURE WHAT IS NATURE'S

 

                                NATURE  RECLAIMS  HER OWN

 [This blog was published in OUTLOOK (outlookindia.com) on 20.7.2023]

  It took Nature just one cataclysmic week in Himachal to reclaim the spaces which Man had been encroaching upon for decades, both in the river valleys and the mountain slopes. As the waters begin receding, they leave behind ample evidence of our hubris, stupidity and avarice.

  Himachal has so far lost about 110 lives, dozens of vehicles ,hundreds of buildings and bridges, and many kilometres of roads. But one fact is clear- the maximum destruction of lives and public and private party has occurred in the river valleys of the Beas and Ravi, and along the two four laned arteries of the NHA- Parwanoo-Solan and Mandi-Manali. It is no coincidence that these are precisely the alignments where our policy makers have caused the maximum devastation of the environment.

  Our anthropogenic footprints in these areas have been overwhelming, much more than what Nature can sustain and repair. Different digits of this footprint- illegal and legal mining, building construction on steep slopes and the rivers’ flood plains, hydel projects with their attendant blasting and muck dumping, road construction and widening, deforestation of thousands of trees- all these coalesced in this one week of July and triggered a reaction by the elements which should have been expected.

  Environmentalists have long been warning the government of these consequence of its reckless degradation of the environment. The Shukla Committee report (commissioned by the High Court itself) of 2010 had called for a halt to hydel projects and for protection of the rivers, arguing that “there is no such thing as an environment-friendly hydel project.” Practical proof was provided, if proof was needed, by the devastation of Rishi Ganga and Uttarkashi. But our governments are nothing if not blind and deaf, and so all scientific and expert warnings were ignored, and life went on as usual in the interests of "tourism" and "development".

Let us be clear about one thing: this month’s devastation is not due to climate change or extreme weather events- these have certainly amplified the problem but have not created them. They have been created by wrong policies, bad engineering, lax enforcement and criminal disregard of scientific principles and expert advice.

Much of the four laning of the Manali right bank road has been done ON THE RIVER BED of the Beas, as videos now show, by erecting retaining walls on the flood plains and filling them up. Where have the NHAI engineers got their degrees from, for God’s sake? Do they even have an idea of the destructive force of a mountain river cascading down in full flow, carrying huge boulders, trees and silt that will demolish anything in its path? Did they ever bother to study the history of the Beas and the damage it has caused in the past? Today, at least 6 kms of the four laning has been washed away, this road between Kullu and Manali will remain closed for months. It is significant to note that the only road still functional- the left bank road- is the road which the NHAI did not (thankfully) touch. Surely there’s a lesson for us here.

The four lane highway between Parwanoo and Dharampur also no longer exists: after spending Rs.4000 crores and ten years on converting a two lane into a four lane we are now left with the original two lane highway! The cause here is not a river but a mountain slope, and stupid engineering again. The original road was widened by cutting vertically into the mountain slopes, sometimes as much as 15 to 20 metres. One wonders whether the PWD and NHAI engineers had done their technical due diligence before letting loose their machines on this portion of the Himalayas. Did they, for instance, study the geomorphology of the mountains? Carry out tests to determine natural bulk density, soil resistivity, bearing capacity of the soil? Did they do a hydrometer analysis and sieve analysis of the soil to determine the water absorbing capability of the soil? Did they take adequate steps such as rock concreting and anchor bolting to stabilise the excavated portions of the slopes? The extent of the damage would suggest that perhaps none of this was done and so here also the four laning is just a memory now. More public money down the drain, along with thousands of tonnes of muck and rocks. We hope the govt. will respond to some of the questions raised above, but I am not holding my breath.

This constant road construction has generated millions of tonnes of muck which has just been dumped into the rivers, raising their beds, constricting their width and reducing their carrying capacity. Just imagine, the Kiratpur-Manali four lane alone has 21 tunnels- where do you think all that excavated muck has gone? On paper they have been dumped in landfills, the enormous cost involved shown in estimates and paid to the contractors, but in fact they have been dumped in the nearest river or just rolled down the hill-side!

Enter illegal (and legal) mining and rampant construction of buildings on the river beds, which goes on unchecked everywhere. This, along with the muck dumping, results in the rivers changing course quite often: this phenomenon has been responsible for much of the damage along the Beas this time. This too is something our highway engineers neither anticipated nor planned for.

Hydel projects too have played their part in the destruction. They obstruct the natural flow of these rivers, allow the building up of muck and sediment, and then release them in a torrent when they open their floodgates- it is this, rather than just the waters, which cause the maximum damage, especially to buildings and bridges, on impact. These dams are touted as flood control mechanisms, but in fact the opposite is true, at least on mountain rivers. They retain vast volumes of water (which is their revenue generating inventory, after all) till the last moment; when they release these waters, the consequences downstream are cataclysmic: most of the flooding and destruction in Pandoh market and Mandi this time was caused by the opening of all five flood gates of the Pandoh dam.

As I write this, the full extent of the destruction is yet to be assessed. Restoration work shall start soon, and that is precisely what I am fearful of. More taxpayers’ money will be used to repeat the mistakes of the past. My most fervent hope and prayer is that we learn from this catastrophe and change our engineering, planning and ambitions- that we do not build again on the river beds, that we stop this four laning madness, that we stop the blasting, tunnelling and vertical cutting of mountain sides, that we start listening to the objections of the local populations and acknowledge their protests, that we put a moratorium on further hydel projects. Surely the government should be able to see the mathematics, if not the science and common sense, in what has just happened?- in just two weeks the state has suffered more revenue loss than what it can earn in years. Yes, climate change is aggravating the severity of EWEs, but that is precisely why we should be changing our paradigms of "development" to a more sustainable model. Climate change should be a trigger for change, not an excuse for justifying our past (and continuing) mistakes. It’s more than time to stop this cycle of stupidity from playing out again and again every few years. Nature has started reclaiming what was always rightfully hers. Respect that and do not provoke her again.

OF TESTIMONIALS, TESTICLES AND TESTING TIMES

   People who have had the debatable good fortune to have met me, and have survived the encounter, will tell you that I have an open mind on most subjects. Somewhat like the RSSwhen it comes to discussing the concept of secularism. For instance, I am willing to see the other/ bhakt point of view in deleting Darwin's theory from textbooks. Readers who were not asleep in their biology classes will recollect that Darwinism postulates survival of the fittest, whereas the zeitgeist of today promotes the survival of the stupidest. The philosophical contradiction is obvious and must be conceded. I can, in all fairness, see where NCERT and its puppeteers are coming from: a dark cave, where time has stood still, whose occupants still go round in animal hides, wielding clubs, singing "Goli maaro saalon ko" and similar stimulating anthems.

   But my broad mindedness is being stretched to the limit these days by the obiter dicta emanating from various quarters of late, especially those founts of wisdom, our courts. Disclaimer-it may be possible that I have misunderstood them, like the young job applicant from Punjab-where else- who, being asked to show his testimonials at an interview, promptly took off his trousers to display the family jewels which the British forgot to take when they made off with the Kohinoor. He later confessed that he mistook testimonials for testicles, and in any case since in his case the latter were superior to the former, he decided to lead with his best, well, foot. But I feel that we cannot put such a generous interpretation on what we read about these days. To do so would require a mind more open than a honky-tonk at midnight on a Saturday, or one broader than the Yamuna in Delhi even as i scribble this piece. Judge for yourself, folks. 

  A court in Karnataka recently held that squeezing a person's testicles does not amount to attempt to murder, and acquitted the accused of that charge. I respectfully disagree. Had the victim's brain been subjected to the same trauma as his unmentionables were, the charge of attempted murder would have stuck, right? So why does the court want us to believe that brains are more important/ vital to a man than testicles ?: this is precisely where the judicial error lies. Homo sapiens has survived these millions of years as a species because of his testicles, not his brains. The former creates life, the latter destroys it, as Messers Biden, Putin, Xi and Kim Jong Un are trying their best to prove every day.

  In any case, ask any female of the species (any species) and she will tell you than a man's brains lie between his legs, and not between his ears. Wasn't it Richard Nixon who famously said: "Once you have them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow"? Something which our lordships would no doubt have found out if they had spent their time watching cricket and not trying to figure out the difference between a habeas and a corpus, or between a corpus delicti and a corpus delicious. For cricket invented the ball guard a hundred years before it did the helmet, proof enough of which is the more important part of the human anatomy. It's simple enough, actually: destroying a man's brains has no effect on the species- AI and ChatGPT  will take over and do a better job. But squeeze a man's testicles and you threaten the very survival of the species: he can no longer multiply (the bhakts can't do that anyway, they can only divide). Which is why, in mho, the judges were wrong- the guy should at least have been convicted of spermicide if not homicide. 

   Reverting now to the testimonials (we shall leave the Punjab variety behind), the Allahabad High Court, which is reverting to the Dark Ages at some speed, last month added the horoscope as an essential legal document in a case which has gone unnoticed. A  lady had filed a rape case against her live-in partner who had promised to marry her but then had a series of second thoughts and resiled. In his defense he claimed, in the best traditions of Hindu obscurantism, that the lady was a "manglik" and so he could not marry her. The court then ordered- hold your breath here if you are into yoga, or light up a cigarette if you are not- the Astrology department of a university to examine her horoscope for the veracity of this claim and submit a report! Presumably, if she did turn out to be a "manglik" she would be fair game for any predatory male, without any strings attached.

  The other implications of this order (which has been stayed by the SC) are astounding. For one, a horoscope now has legal status and can be admitted as evidence under the Indian Evidence Act- never mind that the science behind it is questionable: the alignment of the stars at the time of your birth will determine whether someone can have sex with you- or you with them- under false pretences. Two, whether you are a victim of a crime or not will now be determined by your horoscope, not the law. Three, you now have to carry around another ID document, in addition to PAN, Aadhar, driving licence, CGHS card, Voter ID etc. It will no longer suffice for your next-of-kin to produce your Aadhar at the time of your cremation, they shall now be required to submit your horoscope too, to re-confirm the time at which you were supposed to have kicked the bucket in that document; any mismatch and the corpse may be booked for impersonation. Four, it won't be long before the govt. will ask you to link your horoscope with all these other IDs, for the horoscope is a mine of information about you: it will tell the tax guys whether you are the type of chap who is likely to cheat on your taxes, the banker whether you will live long enough to repay your loans, the prospective father-in-law how many wives you are destined to have, the wife how many kids she can expect to have, and so on. Five, since now everyone shall be required to possess a horoscope, there will finally be some jobs for all those suckers doing the newly introduced Astrology courses in selected colleges. The fault may or may not be in our stars (as Caesar never said) but the future of Indian jurisprudence certainly is.

   And finally, here's some more edification: the Gujarat High Court has identified our very own Brighozhin (of Wagner fame in Ukraine). It's a middle aged lady who has been working for securing the human rights of, and justice for, the persecuted for the last twenty years. But the court has held that she topples and unsettles elected governments as a past -time, has denied her bail and has asked her to surrender to the police immediately. (This order too has been stayed by the Supreme Court). Her name is Teesta Setelvad, and she reportedly received Rs. 30 lakhs to do the job.

  Now, this really tests my powers of comprehension. Is that all it takes to overthrow a government headed by a powerful leader- a diminutive woman with (allegedly) thirty lakhs in her handbag? Brigozhin couldn't do it with 50000 soldiers, tanks and millions of dollars; maybe he should come to India and take lessons from us on how to do it at bargain basement prices. Secondly, one was under the impression that overthrowing governments was our national past- time, a close second to the IPL- the BJP does it all the time but none of its leaders ever get sent to the lock-up; they go instead to the Raj Bhavans, Mantralays and South Block in a fleet of cars. So what has this lady done that is so different ?- if, that is, she has done anything other than fight for justice for a woman who was gang raped and saw her entire family being slaughtered before her eyes? I am reminded of these words from TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD:

"She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honoured code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with."

These are testing times, indeed, whether or not you have testicles or testimonials. But I sometimes do wonder: to what exactly is this squeeze being applied- to the bollocks or to our collective conscience and intelligence?

HIMACHAL'S ENVIRONMENTAL BLIND SPOTS

    It would appear that Himachal's first-time Chief Minister, Mr. Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, has made a fairly good start to his innings, which is just about six months old. He has kept the old guards and family dynasts in good humour, implemented some of the campaign promises, rolled back a few BJP decisions and has initiated steps to augment the state's revenues, reeling from a debt of more than Rs. 70000 crores. But I must confess that I am sorely disappointed with his government in one important respect- he has turned a blind eye to the progressive ruin and destruction of the state's natural environment, and is following in the disastrous footsteps of his predecessors. And that has to be a cause for worry and concern.

   Indian politicians, across parties, have mastered what V.S.Naipaul in his book AREA OF DARKNESS terms "the art of non-seeing." And in this respect at least Mr. Sukhu is no different from his brethren- he refuses to see the writing on the mountain walls- the loss of forest cover, the rapid melting of glaciers (a recent ICIMODE report says that 80% of Himalayan glaciers would have vanished by 2100), the risk of flooding by bursting of glacial lakes(GLOF), the rampant over-construction and over-tourism that is not only devastating the landscape but also posing an imminent danger to the state's citizens. He has learnt no lessons from Uttarkashi, and continues to pursue the same disastrous policies of previous governments. He has spouted a lot of rhetoric about making Himachal a "green state" (whatever that means) and becoming "carbon neutral" but none of this has translated into any policy decision or action on the ground. One had hoped that he would fashion a new paradigm of  environment friendly and sustainable "development" but that hope is gradually turning to despair. Let me focus on just three major areas to prove my point, areas which I had mentioned in an earlier blog ( HIMACHAL NEEDS A NEW GREEN AGENDA-NOW dated 13th January, 2023), which I had posted when he was elected.

   The biggest disaster in the making is the recently notified Shimla Development Plan 2041 (SDP41). This astounding piece of bureaucratic ignorance and apathy is a death warrant for Shimla and thousands of its residents, living as they do in a seismic zone 4 area. It permits construction in hitherto prohibited areas- the core and heritage zones; it allows five floors in the non-core areas where currently only 2+1 floors are allowed; it will, after more than twenty years of strict prohibition, enable people (read builders and hoteliers) to construct in the only remaining green lungs of Shimla- the 400 hectares of forests comprising the Green Belt of the town. The stated objective of the SDP 41 is to TRIPLE- yes, TRIPLE- the town's population (from two lakhs in the 2011 census to six lakhs by 2040). A town which even now cannot provide parking for residents and tourists, where it takes 30 minutes to move two kilometers; a town which suffers an acute shortage of water every year; a town where dead bodies have to be carried over rooftops in certain areas because the lanes are not wide enough to permit it; a town which once was a pedestrian's delight but where you now walk at your own risk; a town where there are 20000 irregular buildings already since no govt. has mustered the political will to take action against them.

   Each and every one of these provisions have been incorporated against the advice of the government's own expert committees and objective town planners. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had struck down this SDP41in 2018; the state High Court too quashed it a couple of years later, dismissing the state's appeal. The previous BJP government had the filed an appeal in the Supreme Court which this May passed a strange order: without going into the merits of the case, or reasons on the basis of which both the NGT and HC had struck down the SDP41, it allowed the government to notify the new Plan but said that the government would not act upon it for a month thereafter! To be sure, the state govt. may not act upon it just yet, but you can be sure that the builders have already started acting on it. We are gradually becoming inured to puzzling orders from the apex court but this particular one surely has to take the cake, if not the bakery. Why not maintain status quo till the case is finally decided on merits? Has the court forgotten Uttarkashi so soon?

                              (A view of Shimla, possibly hidden from our policy makers!)

   One had expected that the new state govt. would withdraw the state's appeal in the Supreme Court, and respect and abide by the decisions of the NGT and the High Court, especially now that no elections are due for the next five years. But it is apparent that the pressure from the builders' lobby is even now as strong and irresistible as it was with the previous govt. and Mr. Sukhu has not been able to withstand it. Some day the residents of Shimla will pay for this in blood, broken bones and shattered dreams, but who cares as long as the EVMs churn out the right numbers? 

   The second issue that concerns the state's environment is the reckless obsession with building and widening roads, without any care for the fragile terrain or the large scale displacement of people it causes. As many as 69 National Highway projects have been approved, of which 5 are four-lane highways, including Shimla-Mataur, Pathankot-Mandi. Kiratpur-Manali and Parwanoo-Shimla. These may be good news for Mr. Gadkari's annual targets, or for the coffers of politicians and engineers, but they are the last things Himachal needs. Four laning in mountainous terrain is enormously destructive, causing deforestation and landslides for years: the Parwanoo-Shimla NH was declared completed in 2021 after five years' delay, but landslides continue even today, closing down two lanes for months. It is no coincidence that this particular NH and the Manali one were the worst effected by the torrential rains in the last half of June this year, stranding thousands of commuters and tourists for as long as 24 hours at a stretch. This happens every year, but the govt. goes on adding more such projects every year. It should give up this four laning madness and concentrate only on PMGSY and District rural roads: the latter are needed, the former are not.

   Even otherwise, mountains don't need four lane highways which may be suited for the plains. They increase vehicular traffic exponentially ( Shimla police records show that vehicles entering Shimla this year have gone up by 25%), causing pollution, traffic jams and clogging the towns where there is just no space to park so many vehicles. Shimla has parking for only 6000 vehicles, but as many as 15000-20000 arrive from outside every day during season time (these are in addition to the 100,000 or so locally registered vehicles!). The result ? Shimla police have said that 60000 vehicles are unauthorisedly parked on the roads, and it takes an average of 90 minutes to go from one end of the town to the other, a distance of barely 7 kms. Things are exactly the same in Manali, Dharamsala, Solan, Palampur, Kasauli. 10000 vehicles cross the Atal tunnel every day, all tourists! It is simply not feasible to construct supporting infrastructure for these numbers in this kind of terrain. We should be discouraging more vehicles entering the state; four laning of highways will only encourage more and more vehicles to crowd the roads and cities, making them unlivable. One expected that the new Chief Minister would roll back this madness but instead he has requested the Centre for more such roads!

   The ambitiously christened Mandi International Airport is another instance where the Chief Minister has disappointed. There is no need for this quixotic project: all three existing airports in the state do not function to even 50% of their capacity, so why build another one? Especially when the environmental and social costs are enormous, in terms of felling of thousands of trees, concretising hundreds of acres, diversion of streams and displacement of a thousand farming families. Even the financial costs are staggering- Rs. 5220 crores- for a state which has a debt overburden of Rs. 80000 crores and finds it difficult to pay salaries and pensions on time. Any objective cost-benefit analysis would result in this project being thrown into the dustbin. (A more detailed analysis of this project can be found in my blog MAND AIRPORT IS HIMACHAL'S OWN CENTRAL VISTA DISASTER, dated 22nd October, 2021  at <https://avayshukla.blogspot.com/2021/10/mandi-airport-is-himachals-own-central.html>. But Mr. Sukhu is going ahead with this project on all four cylinders.

   Sadly, these instances prove only the obvious- that the environment does not concern the Indian politician, no matter which party he belongs to. It does not appear to concern the voter either or the various Whatsapp groups and so it can be milked for profit every time. And it's we, the people, who are to blame for we do not call them out, are content with short term benefits, lack a vision for the future generations, and do not make this precious natural heritage an election issue. We forget that we have not inherited the natural environment from our ancestors, we have taken it as a loan from our children, and have to return it to them. We are defaulting on this loan on a massive scale.