Tracking nature and making the best of a second chance

MUCH is reported about how the planet has been degraded. Scientific studies detail what has gone and is going. But it is in the accounts of eyewitnesses that deleterious change vividly presents itself. It is to this end that our cover story on the dying springs in the Himalayas has been published.

Venkatesh Dutta does the Living Rivers column for Civil Society every month. He is an academician, but not one who exists in some fancy ivory tower. He works on the ground and with communities and we knew that on the complex issue of water sources drying up in the mountain states of India, Venkatesh would be able to capture the true magnitude of the problem and the manner in which it is upending everyday lives.

Projects by the government are heavyhanded and oblivious to ecological costs. Taps and pipelines turn up where natural springs are working just fine. The imbalances that currently haunt the Himalayas are the consequence of interventions that should have been made with greater wisdom. There should be respect for local realities.

As with most environmental problems there is always the scope to reverse what has gone sideways. When humans wake up, nature offers a second chance. In relation to mountain springs such an opportunity presents itself for which the government needs to roll back its ill-conceived initiatives. Listening to communities would be a good idea. As also drawing on the insight and knowledge that experts such as Venkatesh bring to the table.

This month we have two interviews of the month. Justice Sanjib Banerjee talks to us about the working of the judiciary. Should the collegium system be dispensed with or would it be better to reform it? Justice Banerjee has his problems with the collegium but he worries about what might happen if primacy did not lie with the judiciary. For that, of course, the judiciary has to redeem itself.

Renana Jhabvala speaks to us about cash transfers, an area in which she has been a researcher and an activist, especially in relation to women. All social spending is productive spending is what Jhabvala says and it would be unwise to dismiss it as freebies in an economy where income disparities are severe. Women who get money in their accounts use it well.

If an emotional and physical reset is what you need, Vaidyagrama beckons. We have taken our readers there before but this time it is for the Tatwa Tantu, a retreat which Jyoti Pande Lavakare attended last year and is coming up again in September. On offer are Ayurveda treatments but also curated music, dance, vaastu and more. We suggest you make the trek.