Holocene year 2 issue 4

Year – 2/Issue – 4/ December’16 - January’17

World after 5th Extinction Featured Topic: Panthers of Pali (Part One) Editors’ Desk: Industries and Forest Wild Craft: Waste to Work of Art Theme Poster: Painted Grasshopper Dwaipayan Ghosh

".... far more pleasure is got from pressing the button of a camera than is ever got from pressing the trigger of a rifle....in one case the leopard can be watched for hours, and there is no more graceful and interesting animal in the jungle to watch....... in the other case a fleeting glimpse.... the acquisition of the trophy which soon loses both its beauty and its interest" - Jim Corbett, in the Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag “िबष का याला राणाजी भे या….” A traditional Rajasthani music resonated. The girl was singing outside and I woke up. “…पीवत मीरा हाँसी रे । पग घुघ ं ं बांध मीरा नाची

The train was at Marwar Station around 8’o clock in the morning and I realized that I was about to arrive at the land of Meera Bai, the 16th century mystic poet. I availed the train from Jaipur Junction to Jawai Bandh at the wake of dawn. As last night was quite watchful, a lower berth, continuous jerking and the monotonous sound of the archaic Indian rail led me to a profound shut-eye. Then the divine Bhajan awakened me. It takes slightly more than six hours to reach Jawai Bandh from Jaipur by an express train. Govind was रे ….”

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waiting there with his car to take me to Thakur Sahib’s Resort. The train reached Jawai Bandh at around 11 am. It was an archetypal modest Indian railway station on single railway track, connecting Jaipur and Ahmedabad, the state capitals of two Indian states, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The station is named after Jawai dam in Sumerpur Tehsil of Pali district in Western Rajasthan, the biggest dam of western Rajasthan built by Maharaja Umaid Singh of Jodhpur. Till date it is the main source of water for the historical city. I planned to buy some mustard seeds to fill up my shooting bean bag. When I asked Govind to stop the car at a local grocery shop on the way for that purpose, he suggested me to use बाजरी (pearl millet)

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The car stopped in front of a local grocery shop cum tea stall. Local folks seating on khatiyas asked Govind to have some tea. Govind told me delightfully that the tea there was the best in the village. I handed over my bean bag to the shop keeper to fill it up with pearl mallet and unwound on a khatiya with a glass of smoky tea prepared with cow milk. Though Sweeter than my usual, a cup of tea is always an elixir. It took more than 6kgs of बाजरी to fill the bag completely and a five minutes to finish my glass of tea. We were on our way to Thakur Sahib’s Resort which was fast approaching, just outside of the Bera village. Govind took the bypass to avoid the village crowd and within another five minutes we reached our destination.

To be Continued…

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- Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Former President of the United States

instead. I was conversing with Govind regarding the present drought situation in the area.

Crossing the Jawai dam on the completely dry Bera river during mid of monsoon made me concerned. The car was running on a narrow asphalt road between rocky hills, coated with thorny shrubs and grasses. We were chatting about every engaging thing, like the lifestyle of the villagers, agriculture, festivals and last but not the least about The Thakur Sahib, Thakur Devi Singh Ranawat.

“Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.”

Year – 2/Issue – 4/ December’16 - January’17

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Year – 2/Issue – 4/ December’16 - January’17

Editors’ Desk:

Industries and Forest The problems of deforestation have been causing some growing concerns for decades throughout the globe and India is no exception. Ever since civilization has become more advanced with new technology, humans have been exploiting various resources of nature for profit and survival. Due to the rise of the world’s population and the potential promise of wealth, greed has seemed to cause the rampant over-exploitation of earth’s natural resources, thus leading to environmental issues like deforestation. In places like India, the effects of deforestation have caused irreparable damage across the country wiping out natural habitats and delicate ecosystems.

Deforestation is caused by the removal or clearing of trees and forests so that the land can be used for agricultural land, pastures, or the building of homes and other such properties; it also destroys the natural habitats of wildlife. The trees removed from the designated area are usually cut and sold, or burned. As a result, carbon dioxide is released into the air increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

India has a rich history that shows their ancient traditions and culture sought to do everything possible to preserve the forests and its resources. According to one article speaking of India’s sacred rituals, “forests were revered by the people and a large number of religious ceremonies centred on trees and plants. The Agni Purana, written about 4000 years ago, stated that man should protect trees to have material gains and religious blessings.” So how have we gone from preserving our natural environment to almost completely destroying it? It is believed that once industry and trade with other nations began, that’s when the environmental problems started—and never really stopped.

India, along with most of the other developing nations, is experiencing industrial growth and a population explosion, resulting in fast depletion of their forests.

If we go by statistics on just how detrimental the deforestation issue in India has become: “India once had 14.8 billion acres of land that was forested, but now has just dwindled to 8.6 billion acres.” Another fact, according to the India State of the Forest Report (ISFR) in 2011, states, “forest cover has declined by 367 sq. km compared to the forest cover in the preceding ISFR in 2009.” Even though the forest cover has stabilized since the 1980’s, there is still cause for alarm; it is estimated that within 100 years, if little is done to change current trends, there will be no rainforest left on earth. Moreover, if we talk about the governmental policies; a total of 60,000 sq.km areas of Western Ghats across six Indian states were declared, covered under “NoGo” forest area in the year 2013. But with the power shift, the new government started reducing it, since 2015, for mining and power and already approximately 10% of the previously declared “No-Go” areas (approximately 6,000 sq.km) have been allowed for Mining and Power industries.

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Dilution of Environment Conservation policy to promote industrial and infrastructural developments is also very evidential. The Forest Right Act, 2006, provided village councils the right to review the impact of industrialisations on forests, is a particular area; but with the implementation of “Compensatory Afforestation Fund bill”, 2015, the power again shifted to bureaucracy and the village council has almost lost the right to review an industrialisation proposal.

The scope of National Green Tribunal is being curtailed and new Environmental committees are being established to review existing laws further. When we need to strengthen the laws to conserve our forests and to involve marginal people in the process of conservation, our government is in a process to weaken everything. We can’t predict, how much we can grow with this kind of dilution, as despite of all these malpractices, the industrial production growth rate is abnormally low.

We, as “Exploring Nature”, have always been advocating for the sustainable development of human beings and we stand with the concept of cohabitation. We hope that the Government will listen to the voice of nature and start walking on the correct path of sustainable development very soon.

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Year – 2/Issue – 4/ December’16 - January’17

Wild Craft

Story of converting waste toy box into a master piece to tribute mother nature by young conservationist Megh

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Megh picked up a discarded toy box and used the card board as the base of his painting.

metal, pottery and broken glass on a grand scale; it consists of 17 structures, the tallest reaching over 30 meters into the Watts skyline. The Rock Garden of Chandigarh, India, is a sculpture garden, completely built of industrial and domestic waste and thrown-away items.

The creator, Neck Chand, a government official, secretly founded the garden in his spare time in 1957, which is now spread over an area of 40 acres.

Our next generation ecoconservationist Megh has taken this initiative of upcycling.

Team Exploring Nature wishes all the best to him.

For Team Exploring Nature Editors’ Desk: Dwaipayan Ghosh Arnab Basu

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He then used the pencil flakes (the flakes that come out while sharpening with a sharpener) of different colours to make the flowers.

Review: Anwesha Ghatak Title & Logo Design: Arijit Das Majumder Saikat Chakraborty Newsletter Design: Dwaipayan Ghosh Arnab Basu

• He then used the old calendar papers to make the origami butterflies.

• The colouring was done with crayons and water colour.

• Finally, some glitters were used to finish the frame.

Upcycling, also known as creative reuse, is the process of transforming by-products, waste materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value. Upcycling is the opposite of downcycling, which is the other half of the recycling process.

Downcycling involves converting materials and products into new materials of lesser quality. Most recycling involves converting or extracting useful materials from a product and creating a different product or material. The tradition of reusing objects (objet trouvé) in mainstream art came of age sporadically through the 20th century, although it has long been a means of production in folk art. The Amish quilt, for example, came about through reapplication of salvaged fabric. Simon Rodia's Watts Tower (1921-1954) in Los Angeles exemplifies upcycling of scrap 4|Page

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Year – 2/Issue – 4/ December’16 - January’17

Theme Poster

:: Painted Grasshopper, Dhanbad – Photo by Vishal Singh ::

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