Footprints on the Mountainside

Its becoming a habit. I have a conversation with someone that sets me thinking and I come here and write about it

This time it is about Kanheri Caves and what is happening out there.

When I learnt climbing, Kanheri was a regular haunt of climbers. On Sundays and public holidays, the place was literally swarming with outdoor people. A public bus service ran up to the caves from the Borivli station. We used to use that shabby bungalow to hold training camps. Those were the good old days.

Today, the crowd is hardly there. For some bizarre reason, the authorities have forbidden climbing there. Probably something to do with their weird sense of preservation of ancient monuments.

Let’s face it. Rock cut caves that have withstood the centuries and have fairly nothing in terms of paintings or delicate art are not exactly going to crumble when they see climbers. In any case, no one actually climbs the cave walls (mostly - no promises - climbers are crazy). Climbers sweat a lot, but I am fairly certain that caves will not faint or erode from it.

Sarcasm aside, I see this as a situation changed for the worse:

1. The area has hardly any people any more, and trouble with anti-scial elements is on the rise. Earlier, the abundance of the climbers made it a pretty busy area with an abundance of fit and valuable free people who were passionate about the sanctity of the place likely to come across trouble makers.
2. Climbers generally have a well developed sense of affinity with nature and served as excellent policing of trash throwers and often brought back stray trash they found in remote spots. Today, you have families throwing garbage all over the place with no one to try and make them aware of the need not to do such things.
3. The social feel of the place. The climbing community, the families and the overall busy feel brought an impression of a busy, thriving place with immense value to a variety of people. Today, there are few people who dare to go beyond the main area for fear of the isolation, except for couples who use the caves like private bedrooms to make out in.
4. Monkeys are a menace there. A busy community makes it less likely for someone to be attacked and hurt. A simple suggestion of not bringing any eatables to the caves would have sufficed to discourage moneys over time when they realized that there was no food stuff forthcoming. However, the authorities are not interested in anything like that, even after repeated suggestions of solutions, complaints about monkey attacks…..

I miss the old Kanheri Caves, where I as a teenage girl could walk around without fear; where we were there to stop tourists from littering, rather than make occasional visits and be depressed by the litter; when monkeys could actually be scared away without resorting to extreme measures……..

I happened across this article on the net and thought that it was worth sharing. For once, it doesn’t speak of dwindling populations of animals and effects of pollution, but an astounding initiative.

Eco-tourism now includes adventure, anti-poaching - Newindpress.com

Eco-tourism now includes adventure, anti-poaching Wednesday April 9 2008 12:10 IST

BHUBANESWAR: The eco-tourism concept which, till recently, was the buzz word for nature lovers inside Chandaka Sanctuary, has incorporated new elements like hands-on experiences on anti-poaching activity, protection and adventure tourism.

While the visitors could now go with the forest staff on an anti-poaching drive to sensitise villagers on the importance of conservation of elephants — the flagship species of the reserved forest — they could also experience trekking along the odd forest paths along with forest staff and security agency like Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

Even the sanctuary authorities have started a dialogue with the CISF officials at Mundali in this regard, says DFO Akshaya Pattanaik, adding for this visitors would be taken in groups or phases according to availability of accommodation and base camps within the sanctuary limits.

On the nature education front, to let the visitors know the various plant varieties, display boards are already in place at major tourist spots and boards on animals are in the pipeline, the DFO says.

‘‘A natural garden containing 30 medicinal plants and 30 herbal species is already commissioned near the main gate at Godibari. There is also a plan to start souvenir centres at Deras point and Godibari in future so that tourists can take some memory of Chandaka with them,’’ Pattanaik reveals.

The sanctuary has submitted a proposal of Rs 40 lakh for the information dissemination process which will also include a separate and dedicated vehicle to ferry visitors inside the forest area and to make the entrance point another major tourist hot-spot with state-of-the-art facilities for nature education, he adds.

What I enjoyed reading about this was the proactive feel of the whole thing. Most visitors to sanctuaries feel strongly about nature and being involved in safeguarding nature beats looking at it hands on. This move is brilliant because it achieves several admirable things at once.

1. Really, I cannot say it often enough. Its a cheerful, proactive step that is far more tempting than forecasts of doom and entreaties to do some vague “something”.
2. It delivers a far more real and intimate experience with nature to the visitors.
3. It serves to further develop a sense of responsibility and pro-activeness in safeguarding the environment and creates a belief that it is not impossible to create our bit of impact.
4. Makes people wiser about the natural life in the sanctuary, the local cultures that live in and around it and the role of the government on the scene.
5. Its viral. I can imagine far more people hearing about this and wanting to do it themselves than ordinary trips. So it should result in a revenue, public support and awareness as well as regular vigilance in the sanctuary.

Folks at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, are ya’ll reading? Could this idea work to help get the park trash free?

I found this page on the greenpeace site, and throught it is important for readers here to notice.

©Bivash Pandav

Consider this… Olive Ridley turtles rely on an inexplicable, in-built
navigation system that guides them, when it’s time for them to
reproduce, back to the precise coast on which they were born.

Now
consider something else… The proposed Tata port at Dhamra threatens a
nesting site that is amongst the last honeymoon suites for the
remaining Olive Ridleys, a highly-endangered species that swims all the
way here from places as far away as Australia and the Philippines.

When
you consider these two facts together, it seems only logical that Tata
would reconsider its decision to build the port at Dhamra, and build it
in an area that’s less ecologically sensitive. It seems especially
logical when it’s Tata we’re talking about.

After all,
Tata has grown from a national giant into an international player,
while constantly stating its commitment to the principles of social
upliftment, environmental justice and sustainable development. The Tata
brand is ubiquitous, present in hundreds of products that have
genuinely improved the lives of generations of Indians; from the Tata
salt that flavours our daily bread, the Tata BP solar geyser that warms
our winter baths, the Tata Telecom that manages our communications, to
the Tata cars that ‘drive a billion dreams.’

©Bivash Pandav

And yet, in Orissa, we’re witnessing a different side to the same Tata.
A Tata that shuts its ears to reason. A Tata that looks the other way
when confronted with evidence. A Tata that cares nothing for the
community, and even less for nature.

The port Tata is proposing to build in Dhamra will directly
affect the Olive Ridley turtles. With 150,000 to 350,000 Olive Ridley
turtles nesting in the vicinity, the average number of hatchlings is
believed to range from 15 million to 35 million.

When confronted by Greenpeace
Tata promised concerned citizens that it would abandon the port ‘if
evidence of turtle presence and the ecological significance of the area
were ever unearthed.’

©Pratyush Mohapatra/Greenpeace

The evidence was submitted , but this promise wasn’t kept. The perfunctory EIA
carried out in this area isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Another
nesting season has passed us by, with turtle mortality from mechanized
fishing agonizingly high. Coming in addition to this annual death toll,
the Tata port could be the final nail in the turtle’s coffin, ensuring
that this area is never safe for turtles again.

Will this willful destruction be the legacy that Tata leaves behind in Orissa?

Not if you can help it. To write directly to Ratan Tata and ask him to change his mind, simply sign the letter on the right.

Honestly, sometimes I feel like shutting down Wide Aware completely and I would, if that would stop people from “loving” the outdoors so much. But it will not, so the best I can do is to do my bit for the outdoors.

What is this bizarre mood I’m in? Its no bizarre mood. It is looking at some photo albums on the net. Lovely pictures of hill forts in the Sahyadri, with litter in the foreground.

What struck me, is that it is really no shock to find garbage almost anywhere you head out into the outdoors in India. Its like free decoration of the mountainside. Why is it so? Because there are so many people who love the outdoors, that they just have to go there. Apparently, once they have seen the place, its done. The place can go to hell for all they care after that.

You think I’m being anal? Think again. Been to Kondana caves? Why go that far? Been to the National Park? Even with people employed to keep the place clean, the garbage is not under control. The poor playground near the train station is literally swept with brooms every day and all it manages to achieve is soil erosion I guess. The flood of nature lovers doesn’t end.

Do everyone a favour folks. Stay the hell away from the outdoors, if picking up after yourself is beyond your capabilities. Pick up every bit of garbage you throw whether it is biodegradable or not. Smokers, don’t forget the stubs. and gutkha eaters, the wrappers are not for permanent route marking for hikers to come.

And yes, I’m angry. So would you be, if every spare moment in the outdoors was about cleaning up the place. And if you don’t, please do. Pick what litter you find. Speak with groups you come across and ask them to do the same.

Please, while you’re at it, pick up the degradable stuff as well. LEAVE NO TRACE. If possible minimize traces people have left too.

Bio-degradable stuff has an impact on the environment too. Plus, it is going to be litter until it decays, and the place will never be clean, because there will be other people throwing bio-degradable stuff constantly. To put it bluntly, shit is biodegradable. Do you like sitting next to it?

Think of a beautiful location in the outdoors. You’re the only person there. Its untouched. You like? Untouched is only going to be possible when we clean up the place and give it some time to recover. Not if we keep allowing “touches” to remain behind - degradable or not.

I almost forgot: Leave no trace! READ IT, PROMOTE IT, PRACTICE IT.

Nairobi, Kenya – A new report released today by WWF finds a clear and escalating pattern of climate change impacts on bird species around the world, suggesting a trend towards a major bird extinction from global warming.

The report, Bird Species and Climate Change, reviews more than 200 scientific articles on birds in every continent to build up a global picture of climate change impacts.

“Robust scientific evidence shows that climate change is now affecting birds’ behaviour,” said Dr Karl Mallon, Scientific Director at Climate Risk Pty Ltd and one of the authors of the report. “We are seeing migratory birds failing to migrate, and climate change pushing increasing numbers of birds out of synchrony with key elements of their ecosystems.”

The report, prepared by international climate change specialists, identifies groups of birds at high risk from climate change: migratory, mountain, island, wetland, Arctic, Antarctic and seabirds. While bird species that can move and adapt easily to different habitat are expected to continue to do well, bird species that thrive only in a narrow environmental range are expected to decline, and to be outnumbered by invasive species.

The report also shows that birds suffer from climate change effects in every part of the globe. Scientists have found declines of up to 90 per cent in some bird populations, as well as total and unprecedented reproductive failure in others.

Scientists also analyzed available projections of future impacts, including bird species extinction. They found that bird extinction rates could be as high as 38 per cent in Europe, and 72 per cent in northeastern Australia, if global warming exceeds 2ºC above pre-industrial levels (currently it is 0.8ºC above).

“Birds have long been used as indicators of environmental change, and with this report we see they are the quintessential ‘canaries in the coal mine’ when it comes to climate change,” said Hans Verolme, Director of WWF’s Global Climate Change Programme.

“This report finds certain bird groups, such as seabirds and migratory birds, to be early, very sensitive, responders to current levels of climate change. Large-scale bird extinctions may occur sooner than we thought.”

If high rates of extinction are to be avoided, rapid and significant greenhouse gas emission cuts must be made, WWF says.

The global conservation organization also believes that the current approach to bird conservation, focused on protecting specific areas with a high bird diversity, will fail because climate change will force birds to shift into unprotected zones. A major change in approach to bird conservation is required, according to WWF.

END NOTES:

Examples of how climate change is affecting some bird species around the world:

Africa: The tawny eagle is an arid savanna raptor found in Asia and Africa. Small changes in precipitation predicted with climate change would likely result in the bird’s extinction in its African habitat in the southern Kalahari. If the mean annual precipitation stays the same but the inter-annual (year to year) variation increases by less than 10 per cent, the bird’s population will decrease considerably.

UK: The particular vulnerability of seabirds to climate change is illustrated by the unprecedented breeding crash of UK North Sea seabirds in 2004. The direct cause for the breeding failure of common guillemots, Arctic skuas, great skuas, kittiwakes, Arctic terns and other seabirds at Shetland and Orkney colonies was a shortage of small fish called sandeels, a crucial prey species for the seabirds. As a result, the nearly 7,000 pairs of great skuas in the Shetlands, for example, produced only a handful of chicks and starving adult birds ate their own young. Warming ocean waters and major shifts in species that underpin the ocean food web are thought to be behind the major sandeel decline.

USA: An unprecedented 2002 drought in southern California caused a 97 per cent breeding decline in four species: the rufous crowned sparrow, wrentit, spotted towhee and California towhee. Breeding success dropped from 2.37 fledglings per pair in 2001 (a normal year) to 0.07 fledglings per pair during 2002, the driest year in the region’s 150-year climate record. Precipitation in this region is expected to decrease and become more variable with global warming. Even slight increases in arid conditions would make these species vulnerable to extinction in a dry year.

Europe/Africa: Pied flycatcher birds and other species are shifting the timing of seasonal behaviors in response to climate change. Shifts like these can cause problems for birds if the plants and animals they interact with do not shift at the same rate. In Europe, earlier spring peaks in insect numbers mean that some pied flycatchers (long-distance migratory birds) no longer arrive from Africa in time to match food peaks with peak demands of their nestlings. This climate-change induced mismatch is strongly linked to 90 per cent declines in some European pied flycatcher populations over the past two decades.

Australia: Illustrating the vulnerability of mountain birds to climate change, the habitat of the golden bowerbird is predicted to shrink by 97.5 per cent with a future warming of 3°C and a 10 per cent decline in rainfall. The bird occupies cool habitat in Australia’s wet tropics on conical mountains surrounded by warmer lowlands. As temperatures rise, its suitable habitat will contract, and beyond 3˚C of warming is expected to completely disappear.

For more information, please contact:
Anshuman Atroley
Communications Manager
WWF-India
Tel:+91-11-4150 4797
E-mail:aatroley@wwfindia.net

© [14 Nov 2006] WWF. Some rights reserved. WWF-India