More than ten years ago when at a Nature
camp in Muthodi or now known as the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary we had assigned a
role play for children. The theme was about diverting the forest stream Somavahini
that flows through the sanctuary to the eastern plains to provide drinking
water to Chiturdurga. The project conceived by Chief Engineer Sadashiviah had
made noise and fizzled out after some time. We had felt it was a contemporary
issue to be debated and took it up for the role play.
The
children belonged to High schools but had one or two from the lower primary.
The elders eagerly took up the roles of an activist, journalist, politician,
industrialists and stake holders. Nobody wanted to be the Chief Minister or a
by stander. I had realized that all other characters were vibrant and
interactive in their young minds. A girl of about six years was made the Chief
Minister. The little girl had accepted the role without choice and the elders
had dumped it on her as they felt it was not much of an important character in
the play. As the role play began, the phone bell rings and the Chief Minister
picks up the call and will answer the call of the boss of a construction
company. After all the pleading in a crafty lingo to get permission to go ahead
with the diversion project, the chief minister very reluctantly asked “What is
my percentage?” We were all astonished. Till date I have been discussing the
matter with child psychologists to know whether corruption is a learned trait
or survival instinct.
Further on many occasions with children
down the Western Ghats on the other side, when asked about diversion of rivers
they had expressed extreme generosity and said “we can always spare all the water that flows into the sea”. Such
statements used to set up a fantastic foundation to start discussion about the
importance of freshwater flowing into the sea.
All
through the ages about ten rivers such as Kali, Sharavathi, Chakra,
Nethravathi, Varahi, Mahadayi, Bedthi, Aghanashini, and Barapole and their catchments
contributing to total 2,000 tmcft of water washes into the sea annually. Hydro Engineers look at it as a colossal
waste. Engineers in Tamil nadu, especially on the Cauvery panel are even more
critical about the issue. They feel it a distinct possibility to evolve an
amicable solution if both the States were to cooperate and utilize all the 13
west-flowing rivers in Karnataka that run off into the Arabian Sea !
But
all these “wasted waters” have carried large quantities of humus from up the
Ghats into the sea. Scientist s working at Project Sea Bird off the coast of
Karwar, on observing the accumulation of silt could estimate their height while
they were formed some hundred million years ago. Western Ghats stood up nearly twice their present
height when they broke away from Madagascar due to continental drift. This
floating mass of land had its own fresh water streams even before the Himalayas
were formed. The organic content and the minerals washed away by these waters have
kept the marine ecosystem going. The run
off nourishes the microbes and they supplement the growth of invertebrates.
These lower forms are the food base of the fish that the costal communities
live upon. Some of the sea fish breed in the mouth of the rivers. Also, during
monsoon the fishermen wouldn’t get into the sea due to high tides. In such lean
periods the fresh water in the streams are the only source of fish for the
people in the coast.
The Forests in the Western Ghats that brings
rains also has a great dependence upon the rains. They too need some service
charges which they make use to keep all the rich diverse forms of life to
perpetuate their own life cycles.
How could such pieces of vital information
be mis-understood and materialistically interpreted by the society?
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