Greedy Kashmir Goats

An article in the The Times published in the The Daily Yomiuri put the onus of a potential setback to the world fashion industry and dust storms blowing into Beijing every spring, on the greedy Kashmir goats. LoL. Although the Kashmir goats(goats producing Cashmere wool, once found abundantly in Kashmir. Cashmere actually comes from Kashmir) are indeed guilty as charged, but 'greedy' is what caught my attention. Looks like the good folks of The Daily Yomiuri don't try to mince their words. :)

Well, so here's the dope. Cashmere goats are a hardy lot, found not as many in Kashmir these days, but abound in the semi arid grasslands on the edge of the Gobi desert, in the Mongolian steppes and China's north western regions. They proliferate abundantly and have a voracious apetite and can graze on just about anything. Even roots.

These goats also provide the finest wool to make the worlds finest fibre, the Cashmere(known as soft gold). The growing fashion industry in the West is increasingly dependent on China for the import of Cashmere wool. Now every year around spring, there are massive dust storms blowing into Beijing , which cover the roads, cars, houses, just about everything with inches thick layers of dust. These dust storms are caused by Siberian winds blowing over Mongolian grasslands towards the East. China believes that these grasslands have been overgrazed by the Cashmere goats which has exposed the top soil to winds from Siberia. China has taken several steps to prevent erosion of top soil, like planting trees in this region(hey, why not impose sanctions on Siberia and Mongolia!). But the goats devour the young saplings too. So now China has asked all the herdsmen of this region to reduce the herd size, keep goats in pens and rotate the grazing areas. These efforts might help protect tree plantations and tame the dust storms(helter-skelter before 2008 Beijing Olympics!), but it would also result in a drop in soft gold exports by a whopping 20%!

Oh, the greedy goats. :)

Mass Whale Deaths

Was reading an article in The Daily Yomiuri which says deployment of active sonar by US Navy to detect submarine activity has resulted in mass death and abnormal behaviour of whales in recent years. Marine animals have an acute sense of hearing. Even a low frequency sonar can cause a roaring sound comparable to a fighter jet and a mid frequency sonar can cause a sound comparable to that of a rocket!!! In most cases of mass death, dead whales were found with damaged hearing organs and in all cases the incident coincided with US naval exercise in the area. Growing incidents of whales(deafened by active sonar) colliding with ships have also been reported. Though US Navy has brought down deployment of active sonar in most oceans of the world due to environmental concerns, deployment in seas surrounding Japan has increased as US forces intensify surveillance of China's military activities.

This article, I thought, is just another reminder of how unmindful human activities spell danger and death for the other inhabitants of this planet.

I Opened My RuckSack

Yesterday I took out my rucksack. It came from India to Japan by ship and had been lying neglected in a corner. I opened the outer compartment and out came a squished tube of Lotus sunscreen. It had leaked and the inside of this compartment was soaked in SPF 30. And a weird smell. I pulled out a greasy soaked paper. It was a trekking checklist. Another piece of paper was an article on Valley of Flowers. Another paper had the contact numbers of all in the trekking team. A few medicines came out...Avil, Ibuprofane, Crocin. A muscle relaxant spray. A half pack of Poppins. A soiled pencil. A twenty rupee note. An Aussie two dollar. A feather of a blue jay. A few dried leaves. And so many memories. Realised its been a year. Its been a year since I went to the forest camp. It would be a year since I went to Valley of Flowers soon. I recalled Australia. I recalled Kerala. I recalled Himachal. 2004 had been quite a year. :)

I probably would not have written about it. If a gentle and persistent soul had not asked me time and again to write. Writers block, I said. I am unable to write. Writers block must be justified, she said. You have to be a writer first. Alright, I will think about it, I said. And yesterday while I opened compartment after compartment of my rucksack, I was filled with a desire to write.

Tadoba happened in March 2004.

[Well, what's written above was written last year...in 2005. So after a gap of a year, I continue from where I left off. :-D]

So, Tadoba happened in March 2004. Yes....I remember getting off at the deserted Chandrapur station. Early March, and a dry, hot wind was blowing. It was the time of the afternoon, when autowallas in small north Indian towns sleep curled up in the backseat of their autos, under some big shady tree, and prefer a siesta to a 'sawari'. As I waited outside on a bench in the Forest Conservators office, I had little or no idea how the next one week is going to be. I was apprehensive. Maybe I am a fool to come here alone, without knowing much about this camp, in this dry desolate place. I hoped to see Poonam soon...Poonam Dhanvatey was one of the co-ordinators of this camp. I had spoken with her over phone in Bangalore. While I was waiting, I met these two guys, Doctor and Imran. They had come for this camp from Hyderabad and were, like me, waiting for a Mr. Patil or Ashish to come pick us up. They were members of a bird watching club in Hyderabad and a group actively involved in saving the dry forests of Adeelabad district. The doctor was done with his MBBS degree and, like a true blue Hyderabadi, wanted to go to the US for post graduation. My apprehension eased off a little as we talked and we waited. Around five in the evening, a young-ish looking boy Ashish came in an old Mahindra 'khatara jeep' and we were off to our destination, Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. As we left the town of Chandrapur behind, Ashish quickly stopped and bought a weeks supply of vegetables(a heap of cabbages and cauliflowers!), dal-atta-namak-mirchi-cheeni and kerosine and dumped it all in a big sack behind. I was informed that Poonam would reach Tadoba next morning. The sun was beginning to set on the western horizon as we made our way through patches of bumpy dirt road and patches of tarmac towards the reserve. The forest floor was covered with dry grass and teak leaves which appeared golden brown in the light of the setting sun. I was engulfed in a familiar sense of anticipation and excitement as I looked this way and that to catch a glimpse of, well, something. Ashish stopped the jeep once near a herd of cheetal and once more near a smaller herd of sambhar, and then we moved ahead. After a while, it was dark and we reached some old, poorly lit, run down quarters where we got off. Mr. Patil was waiting. The boys were escorted to thier smelly, dorm style, run down accomodation, I was escorted to another smelly, musty room. They fixed the light as it wasn't working. The window glass of the toilet and bathroom was broken and there were a people cooking dinner on a 'chulha', just outside. I closed the windows and hung newspapers on the bars to cover the holes and get some privacy. The room, the toilet and the bathroom were in a bad state, I could see that even in the dim light, but I wasn't expecting any better, so it was alright. After a quick shower we met in the verandah. In the distance, there was a lake. The forest was very dark now. It was a clear night and we could see many stars. We sat on the stone floor of the veranda, talking about animals found in Tadoba, thier basic traits and how to recognise them. Most people around had good field experience. Everybody was speaking in hushed tones. Nobody wanted to disturb the silence. We could hear the sound of insects, toads and the occassional distant rutting call of cheetal stag or a sambhar. Again a sense of anticipation and excitement engulfed me. Night is when the forest is most active. We had an early dinner and were asked to familiarise ourselves with animal traits and how to recognise them in field, and retire early. Next day would begin with a game round at five in the morning.

As I lied down to sleep that night, I was thinking of Preetam. There was no signal in my cell phone and not likely to be there for the next one week. I wanted to tell him about today, and more than anything, convey that things are alright. So far, at least. I knew it would be a big relief to him. He had been very excited about this camp thing, but there was a deep concern too. So I was all the more anxious to let him know that there was nothing to worry. With these thoughts and the intermittent sounds and silence of the forest, AND the heaviness in my heart at the thought of getting up at the crack of dawn, I went to sleep.

The whole of next week would be an experience that would change my perspective and give me a goal in life, I did not know then. I remember it all vividly still and I shall write about it soon. The last day of the camp, I actually wanted to extend my stay by one more week. As the bus took me slowly and painfully back from Tadoba to the town of Chandrapur, I realised I have spent some of the best days of my life here. I was filled with an urge to do something, to protect, to conserve. I was filled with pity for myself, as the bus entered town and I came back to a civilisation I had lost all regards for.

My Evening Cup of Tea

Theres something deep, something sublime about this evening cuppa. A sense of deep satisfaction and harmony as I sip the hot, sweet, milky, ginger tea from my lavender mug. I am in absolute harmony with the universe. Everything is beautiful. I cherish these ten odd minutes of tea every evening.

I was hardly a tea drinker...Got into this habit in Hyderabad. October 2004. Maa would head towards kitchen around four in the evening. I would take tea for her company. We would go to the terrace with Kajal at our heels. I would describe to her some new bird I saw. She would tell me whether she has seen it before. We would talk about many things and sometimes nothing. I would sit on the parapet wall watching birds heading home and darkness as it gradually descended on our little green garden. Mom would leave after a few minutes, other chores beckoning. I would linger on until after twilight, the time the bats came out. Then I would go down. Satisfied. Another beautiful day. I love life. I love my tea.

[This is, actually speaking my first blog. Written early 2005 but never posted]

Global Warming Has Happened


Was reading an article in The Washington Post some time back - it scared the hell out of me. We always talk about global warming as a theoretical concept, as something that will happen to the world in future. Well, if someone tells you that the effect of global warming has forever changed a way of life he has known for thousands of years, you are bound to get alarmed. Inuits - the hardy people who inhabit the Arctic - known as the sentries for the rest of the world, are seeing signs of global warming. They are the first and the hardest hit. Their lives are changing rapidly. And they don't know how to deal with it.

Inuits are people who live in or near the Arctic Circle, in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and the Russian Far East. They have through thousands of years been intimately connected with the environment they live in. Hunting is their main occupation. Today they face scarcity of food as fish and wildlife follow the retreating ice caps northwards. Ice has become so thin in some regions, where just a year back it was thick, that they can no longer use their snow mobiles safely. They are having to drill wells for water for the first time because there is not enough ice left to melt. They are seeing dramatic changes in weather. A series of warm winters with last winter being the warmest, and rain and high temperatures in February, a time when the average temperature is usually around -20. Around them, polar bears are loosing the floes they need for hunting, so hungry bears are often seen lurking near small village communities. Seals, unable to find stable ice, are coming to unfamiliar islands to give birth. Thousands of their pups are getting washed away to the sea by storms and high tide. Birds like robins and barn owls, which were never seen in the Arctic region before, are being seen so far north now. A village elder in an Arctic village says, "These are things that all of our old oral history has never mentioned. We cannot pass on our traditional knowledge, because it is no longer reliable. Before, I could look at cloud patterns, or the wind, or even what stars are twinkling, and predict the weather. Now, everything has changed." There are species that have adapted to a certain regime over 40,000 years. Given the current changes, scientists believe some will make it, some will not. A hunter in Baffin Island, Canada, says, "They call it climate change. But we just call it breaking up."

What this article says is indeed quite alarming. What is happening up north is a reality of global warming and a big warning to the rest of the world. It will be felt by us in the lower latitudes sooner than we imagine. What makes it worse is that we don't know the potential impacts yet. If somebody could impress the potential danger on world conscience(if there was a single world conscience) and each country would take concrete steps to stop further damage...If the most influential person in the world was more inspired by the idea of saving the world than making wars and establishing democracies in far flung lands....

While an issue of such tremendous global impact does need global awareness and global efforts for risk management and disaster control, I think it all comes down to the individual in the end. We can make a difference. Here's how. Be aware, and create awareness in the society you live in. Avoid plastics, avoid fossil fuels(if you can help it), and plant more trees. Find out NGO's working on environment in your neighbourhood and volunteer with them. Be aware of the choices you make, the products you buy. Don't buy products that come from environment damaging sources. If you know, for example, that a gold ring dumps about 20 tons of solid waste in the environment on an average and contaminates the ground water with a poison as deadly as cyanide, would it look as desirable anymore? Say NO to dirty gold. So on and so forth.

To Begin With

Well, there you go.... I start blogging. Bless the dear couple whose gentle and persistent prodding drove me out of my inertia and set the ball rolling. Looking forward to interesting times. I am ready for action. So three cheers, a bugle and a trumpet...here I come :-)