Gene Bank: नया राष्ट्रीय जीन बैंक भविष्य की बुनियाद, सरकार करे इस जैविक संपदा का संरक्षण

 डॉ. सुमन सहाय, संस्थापक निदेशक, जीन कैम्पेन 

सार

Gene Bank: भारत सरकार ने दूसरा राष्ट्रीय जीन बैंक (National Gene Bank) स्थापित किए जाने की घोषणा की है। पौधों एवं जीवों के जर्म प्लाज्म यानी उनके जीन्स हमारी जैविक संपदा हैं। खाद्य संप्रभुता और टिकाऊ भविष्य के लिए इस संपदा का स्वामित्व और नियंत्रण सरकारी संस्थाओं के पास होना चाहिए। 

नए जीन बैंक की स्थापना में सार्वजनिक और निजी क्षेत्र की भागीदारी की बात कही गई है। - फोटो : गांव जंक्शन

खेती और खाद्य सुरक्षा पर बढ़ती वैश्विक चिंताओं के बीच भारत सरकार ने इस साल बजट में दूसरा राष्ट्रीय जीन बैंक (National Gene Bank) स्थापित करने की घोषणा की है। इस नए जीन बैंक का उद्देश्य खाद्य सुरक्षा और कृषि क्षेत्र को जलवायु परिवर्तन (Climate Change) एवं प्राकृतिक आपदाओं (Natural Disasters) से जुड़ी चुनौतियों से लड़ने के लिए अधिक मजबूती प्रदान करना है। जीन बैंक न केवल राष्ट्रीय स्तर पर, बल्कि अंतरराष्ट्रीय स्तर पर भी खाद्य सुरक्षा (Food Security) के लिए जरूरी हैं। इसीलिए, नया जीन बैंक बनाने के निर्णय का स्वागत किया जाना चाहिए। हालांकि, नए जीन बैंक की स्थापना की बात हो रही है तो आम जनमानस को भी इसकी अवधारणा, आवश्यकता और इससे जुड़ी चुनौतियों को समझना चाहिए।

बीजों की आनुवंशिक विविधता हमारी अमूल्य धरोहर है, जीन बैंक इसे संजोने का काम करते हैं। - फोटो : गांव जंक्शन

जलवायु परिवर्तन और जीन बैंक (Climate Change and Gene Bank)

जलवायु परिवर्तन के कारण मौसम का पैटर्न बदल रहा है। बाढ़, सूखा, जंगल की आग जैसी आपदाएं आम हो गई हैं। भविष्य में, इस तरह की प्राकृतिक आपदाओं का सामना करने के लिए अभी से तैयारी करनी होगी। जीन बैंक इसी तैयारी का एक अहम हिस्सा हैं। भारत ही नहीं, पूरी दुनिया में विभिन्न देश अपने-अपने तरीके से जीन बैंक बना रहे हैं। मिसाल के तौर पर, फिलीपींस में इंटरनेशनल राइस रिसर्च इंस्टीट्यूट (IRRI) में धान की हजारों प्रजातियों को संरक्षित किया गया है। अगर किसी देश में आपदा के कारण धान की प्रजाति नष्ट हो जाए या जलवायु परिवर्तन के कारण नई प्रजाति की जरूरत पड़े, तो वहां से बीज लिए जा सकते हैं।

जलवायु परिवर्तन ने फसलों के समय को पूरी तरह बदल दिया है। पहले किसानों को पता था कि बिचड़ा बोने का समय कब है और फसल को खेत में ले जाने का समय कब है। लेकिन, अब बेमौसम बरसात होती है। फसलों की जो प्रजातियां पहले फलती-फूलती रही हैं, वो बदलती जलवायु के चलते शायद भविष्य में न टिक पाएं। इसके लिए, हमें नई प्रजातियों की जरूरत होगी और यह तभी संभव है जब हमारे पास बीजों का भंडार हो। जीन बैंक इस समस्या का एक ठोस जवाब हैं। भारत में भी हैदराबाद में भी एक अंतरराष्ट्रीय जीन बैंक स्थापित है, जहां कई तरह के बीजों का संरक्षण किया जाता है। जीन बैंकों में लिक्विड नाइट्रोजन और शून्य से कम तापमान पर बीजों को संरक्षित रखा जाता है। इस तरह, बीज लंबे समय तक जीवित रहते हैं। जीन बैंक भविष्य की आपदाओं से निपटने का एक मजबूत मॉडल हैं। 

खाद्य संप्रभुता यानी हमारे भोजन का नियंत्रण हमारे अपने हाथों में होना चाहिए। - फोटो : गांव जंक्शन

खाद्य संप्रभुता (Food Sovereignty) का सवाल 
नए जीन बैंक की स्थापना में सार्वजनिक और निजी क्षेत्र की भागीदारी की बात कही गई है। लेकिन, क्या यह कदम वास्तव में हमारी जरूरतों को पूरा करेगा? क्या यह हमारी खाद्य संप्रभुता (Food Sovereignty) को सुरक्षित रखेगा? इस पर विचार करने की जरूरत है। निजी क्षेत्र की भागीदारी इस योजना से जुड़ा एक ऐसा पहलू है, जो चिंता का विषय है। सही मायनों में तो खाद्य सुरक्षा की जिम्मेदारी सरकार, विश्वविद्यालयों, और सार्वजनिक शोध संस्थानों के पास होनी चाहिए।

खाद्य संप्रभुता यानी हमारे भोजन का नियंत्रण हमारे अपने हाथों में होना चाहिए। भारत ने इसके लिए लंबी लड़ाई लड़ी है। वर्ष 2000 के दशक में बीजों के पेटेंट के खिलाफ एक बड़ा आंदोलन हुआ, जिसका मकसद यह सुनिश्चित करना था कि बीजों पर किसी निजी कंपनी का कब्जा न हो। इस दौरान भारत ने बीजों पर पेटेंट को अस्वीकार किया था। जीन कैम्पेन की इस जैविक संपदा के संरक्षण और नीतिगत हस्तक्षेप में बड़ी भूमिका रही है। 

प्राइवेट सेक्टर को बीजों के संरक्षण के काम में शामिल किया जाता है, तो बीजों पर उनका प्रभुत्व बढ़ सकता है। - फोटो : गांव जंक्शन

जीन बैंक में निजी क्षेत्र की भूमिका (Role of Private Sector in Gene Bank)
यह समझना होगा कि यहां बात प्राइवेट सेक्टर को जीन बैंक के फायदों से वंचित करने की नहीं है। प्राइवेट सेक्टर के पास तो जीन बैंक से बीज प्राप्त करने का अधिकार पहले से ही है, जिससे वे नई किस्मों के बीज का विकास करते रहे हैं। लेकिन, बीजों के संरक्षण में उनकी भागीदारी जरूरी नहीं है। संरक्षण का काम किसानों के खेतों से बीज इकट्ठा करना और उन्हें जीन बैंक में संरक्षित करके रखना है। जिसके पास संरक्षण की जिम्मेदारी होगी, उसकी इस मोर्चे पर ताकत बढ़ेगी।

जर्म प्लाज्म (Germ Plasm) यानी जेनेटिक मैटेरियल बीज या किसी भी पादप सामग्री में मौजूद जीन हमारी जैविक संपदा हैं। यह संपदा केवल पौधों तक सीमित नहीं है, बल्कि गाय, बकरी जैसी पशु प्रजातियों के संरक्षण में भी शामिल है। लेकिन, इन सभी जर्म प्लाज्म का स्वामित्व और नियंत्रण राष्ट्रीय संस्थाओं के पास होना चाहिए। प्राइवेट सेक्टर को इसमें शामिल करने से हमारी खाद्य सुरक्षा और जैव-विविधता के लिए चिंताएं खड़ी हो सकती हैं। इसीलिए, बेहतर होगा कि जर्म प्लाज्म के संरक्षण का काम राष्ट्रीय संस्थाओं, विश्वविद्यालयों, और शोध संस्थानों के पास ही रहे।

अगर प्राइवेट सेक्टर को बीजों के संरक्षण के काम में शामिल किया जाता है, तो बीजों पर उनका प्रभुत्व बढ़ सकता है। हालांकि, प्राइवेट सेक्टर संरक्षित बीजों से नई प्रजातियां विकसित करके मुनाफा कमा सकते हैं। लेकिन, उस मुनाफे का एक हिस्सा किसानों को भी मिलना चाहिए। इसके लिए एक नेशनल फंड स्थापित किया गया है, जिसमें योगदान देकर प्राइवेट सेक्टर को भी किसानों के कल्याण के लिए अपनी जिम्मेदारी निभानी चाहिए। जैसे किसी तकनीक के लिए ट्रांसफर फीस दी जाती है, वैसे ही बीजों पर पहला हक किसानों का है और उसका लाभ भी किसानों को मिलना चाहिए। 

जीन बैंक बीजों को संरक्षित करने का एक वैज्ञानिक तरीका है। - फोटो : गांव जंक्शन

जीन बैंक क्या होता है (What is a Gene Bank)
जीन बैंक (Gene Bank) को समझने से पहले हमें यह जानना जरूरी है कि जीन क्या होता है। जीन वह आनुवंशिक इकाई है, जो किसी भी जीव की विशेषताओं को निर्धारित करती है। उदाहरण के लिए, आपके बाल काले हैं या भूरे, आपकी नाक छोटी है या लंबी - यह सब जीन के कारण ही होता है। इसी तरह, फसलों के बीजों में मौजूद जीन यह तय करते हैं कि फसल कितनी पैदावार देगी, उसमें कीड़े लगेंगे या नहीं और उसकी रोग-प्रतिरोधक क्षमता कितनी होगी। जीन बैंक बीजों को संरक्षित करने का एक वैज्ञानिक तरीका है। इसका उद्देश्य यह सुनिश्चित करना है कि हमारे पास जीन का एक भंडार हमेशा उपलब्ध रहे, जिसे जरूरत पड़ने पर इस्तेमाल किया जा सके। 

देश का पहला जीन बैंक (India's First Gene Bank)
भारत में पहला जीन बैंक 1996 में दिल्ली में स्थापित किया गया था। यहां देशभर की विभिन्न फसल प्रजातियों के बीजों को संरक्षित किया गया है। संरक्षण का मतलब होता है बीजों को लंबे समय तक जीवित रखना। सामान्य तौर पर, बीज कुछ सालों तक तो ठीक रहते हैं, लेकिन उसके बाद खराब होने लगते हैं। बीजों को जीवित रखने के लिए इन्हें ठंडे वातावरण में रखा जाता है, जिसे कोल्ड स्टोरेज कहते हैं। इससे उनकी जीवन अवधि बढ़ जाती है। जीन बैंक का मकसद यही है कि बीज कई सालों तक सुरक्षित रहें, ताकि प्राकृतिक आपदाओं, जैसे - बाढ़, सूखा या भूकंप के बाद इनका इस्तेमाल दोबारा खेती शुरू करने के लिए किया जा सके। 

लद्दाख का अनूठा जीन बैंक  (Unique Gene Bank of Ladakh)
भारत में जीन बैंक की एक अनोखी मिसाल लद्दाख के चांगला में देखने को मिलती है। इसे एक बैकअप जीन बैंक की तरह समझा जा सकता है। यहां प्राकृतिक ठंड का इस्तेमाल बीजों को संरक्षित करने के लिए होता है। चांगला में हमेशा बर्फ रहती है, जिसे परमानेंट फ्रॉस्ट कहते हैं। यहां बिजली से रेफ्रिजरेशन की जरूरत नहीं पड़ती, जिससे यह पर्यावरण के लिहाज से भी बेहतर है। इस जीन बैंक में कई फसलों के बीज संरक्षित किए जाते हैं। यह एक स्मार्ट और टिकाऊ पहल है, जो प्राकृतिक संसाधनों का बेहतर उपयोग करती है। 

देश में कई ऐसे जीन बैंक स्थापित किए गए हैं, जो किसानों के साथ मिलकर काम करते हैं। - फोटो : गांव जंक्शन

जीन बैंक में किसानों की भागीदारी (Farmers' Participation in Gene Bank)
जीन बैंक केवल बड़े वैज्ञानिक संस्थानों तक सीमित नहीं हैं। देश में कई ऐसे जीन बैंक स्थापित किए गए हैं, जो किसानों के साथ मिलकर काम करते हैं। लेकिन, इन बैंकों को चलाने में बिजली का खर्च एक बड़ी चुनौती है। इसे हल करने के लिए एक दूसरा तरीका अपनाया जाता है। हर दो-तीन साल में बीजों को खेतों में उगाया जाता है। नई फसल से बीज लेकर फिर इन्हें बैंक में रखा जाता है। इससे बिजली का खर्च बचता है और किसानों की भागीदारी भी सुनिश्चित होती है। झारखंड, आंध्र प्रदेश, और पूर्वोत्तर भारत में यह तरीका सफलतापूर्वक अपनाया गया है। इसे भी जीन बैंक का एक रूप कहा जा सकता है, जो स्थानीय स्तर पर खाद्य सुरक्षा को मजबूत करता है। 

गहन सोच-विचार की जरूरत 
नए जीन बैंक की स्थापना का स्वागत करना चाहिए, क्योंकि यह हमारी खाद्य सुरक्षा को मजबूत करने और जलवायु परिवर्तन से निपटने की दिशा में एक मजबूत पहल साबित हो सकती है। लेकिन, प्राइवेट सेक्टर को इस पहल में शामिल करने से पहले गहराई से सोच-विचार करना होगा। संरक्षण का काम राष्ट्रीय स्तर पर होना चाहिए, ताकि किसानों और देश का हित सुरक्षित रहे। खाद्य संप्रभुता हमारे हाथ में होनी चाहिए, और जीन बैंक इसके लिए एक मजबूत आधार बन सकते हैं।

 Source: https://www.gaonjunction.com/gaon-post/drishtikon/new-national-gene-bank-is-the-foundation-of-the-future-government-should-conserve-this-biological-wealth

 

Second Gene Bank May Establish India As a Global Leader in Biodiversity Sector

 

Suman Sahai

Most Gene Banks are refrigerated chambers where seeds can be stored and kept viable for long periods of time for use later

India also built a permafrost Gene Bank in Chang La in Ladakh at an altitude of 17,585 feet. Temperatures here range from minus 4°C to minus 40°C, with humidity below 20 per cent, thus providing optimal conditions for long-term conservation of seeds. Commissioned in 2010, this Gene Bank stores over 5,000 seed samples of vegetables and high-altitude crops. — Internet

The Union Budget presented on February 1, 2025 had an interesting announcement. The government stated its intention to establish a second Gene Bank in the country with the lofty goal of ensuring genetic resources and food security for future generations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also pronounced that the second Gene Bank “will strengthen India’s position as a leader in global biodiversity conservation” and expanded to continue that “this initiative reflects India’s commitment to preserving agricultural biodiversity, securing the future of food, and supporting sustainable farming systems”.

All this is good news. But there’s a catch. The Budget announcement also mentioned that the Second Gene Bank “will provide conservation support to both public and private sectors for genetic resources”. Does this mean that the second National Gene Bank will provide a distinct space for genetic material collected and conserved by the private sector? Before we get to understanding the catch, let us understand what Gene Banks are and why they are becoming increasingly important.

A Gene Bank is a place where genes are stored, most often of plants. These are usually in the form of seeds but can also include other types of genetic material like cuttings, tissues of plants that are grown by multiplying vegetative parts, as in potato and even pollen. India maintains the genetic diversity of animals and fish too in “animal gene banks” and “fish gene banks”, but these are of a different kind. Here we are talking largely of seed banks. Now in the new age, there are banks that store purified DNA samples and DNA sequences.

Most Gene Banks are refrigerated chambers where seeds can be stored and kept viable for long periods of time for use later. Another approach is to establish Gene Banks in permafrost regions where the ice never melts. Here the cooling function is natural and obviates the expensive use of electrical refrigeration except for a backup. The most famous permafrost Gene Bank was established inside the Arctic Circle at Svalbard in Norway in 2008. Also called the Seed Vault, the Svalbard Bank is carved 150 meters deep into the mountain.

India also built a permafrost Gene Bank in Chang La in Ladakh at an altitude of 17,585 feet. Temperatures here range from minus 4°C to minus 40°C, with humidity below 20 per cent, thus providing optimal conditions for long-term conservation of seeds. Commissioned in 2010, this Gene Bank stores over 5,000 seed samples of vegetables and high-altitude crops.

There are other kinds of Gene Banks. Field Banks are where a number of varieties of crops or trees are grown year for year thus conserving the genetic material in live form. This has the advantage of the genetic material of the crops and trees adapting to changes in the environment.

This ensures that they remain viable in the future of altered environmental conditions. The Gene Campaign had developed the concept of Zero Energy Community Gene/Seed Banks, where seeds are stored at ambient temperatures so there is no expenditure on electricity for cooling. Seed samples are to be grown out at regular intervals to refresh the seed and expose it to the environment. This ensures that the process of adaptation continues with each grow out cycle and the seeds in the bank remain viable in altered environments.

Why have Gene Banks become so important: Gene Banks are crucial to the food and nutritional security of all people. There are more than 1,700 national and international Gene Banks worldwide that hold collections of food crops for safe-keeping to face the ever-increasing challenges like climate change, civil war, new diseases, etc. Confronted with the dramatic changes in the climate and the disruption it is causing in agricultural systems, accessing seeds from the gene banks that can adapt to the altered conditions becomes crucial.

Private sector in conservation of genetic diversity: Now to the concerns relating to private sector involvement in the conservation of genetic diversity. The genetic resources of any country belong almost exclusively to its indigenous and farming communities. They have developed, used and conserved them over generations and thus have ownership rights over them. Collection and conservation of genetic material has traditionally been done by the public sector and its agencies and the Gene Banks exist in a sort of “Of the People, For the People” mode. And so, it should remain.

Giving the private sector a role in conservation is not warranted and raises legitimate questions about conflicts and claims of ownership, exclusivity and potential IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) challenges.

In any case, the private sector already has unfettered access to materials in the gene bank, within the framework of certain rules and regulations, benefit sharing being an important one. This international convention states that when the private sector uses genetic material to develop products from which they earn profits, they must share a certain amount of that profit with the National Gene Fund. The material belongs to the farming community and its use for profit entitles them to a share. It may be added that although the private sector has been accessing genetic material freely, its contribution to the National Gene Fund has been meagre at best. This in itself is reason enough not to expand the involvement of the private sector. A fair partnership in the use of the people’s genetic resources has been provided in the national laws after much deliberation by Indian experts and parliamentarians. There is no need to change that, at least not without a comprehensive and transparent national debate on the subject.

Dr Suman Sahai is a scientist trained in genetics and the founder-chairperson of the Gene Campaign, a research and policy organisation working on food and livelihoods

Source: https://www.asianage.com/opinion/columnists/suman-sahai-second-gene-bank-may-establish-india-as-a-global-leader-in-biodiversity-sector-1874080

Food Security In Troubled Times : The global food system’s stability is under threat

Suman Sahai

The world is demanding more food each day. This is principally due to the demands of a growing population but also because people by and large are getting wealthier and want more and better food.

 Coinciding with this growing demand for food is the phenomenon of climate change which has already begun to threaten food output and reduce the amount of food available. These two simultaneous developments are threatening the stability of the global food system.

On the one hand climate turbulence , chiefly floods and droughts slash away the expected harvests of major staple foods like rice, wheat and corn so that there is less available. On the other hand, a ‘getting wealthier’ class of people in both developing and developed countries is wanting and able to eat better, especially meat and other animal products like butter, ghee, cream, cheese etc.

 All this is putting a lot of pressure on the land, leading to more and more intensive farming practices, using chemicals to extract the maximum out of plants and animals. So you have an overdosing of the land with chemical fertilisers to put in chemical nutrients rather than allow natural organic nutrients to build up in the soil.

Along with this comes the excessive use of toxic chemical pesticides to kill the pests that follow intensive chemical farming because their natural predators that keep them in check are dead. 

As our own experience with the South-west Monsoon shows us, the weather is getting increasingly uncertain. There are floods and droughts in unexpected locations, at unexpected times. Climate shocks, particularly droughts which are becoming more frequent now and occurring in unlikely locations, have caused the most upheavals in global food supplies. 

 

 The American Midwest is the world’s greatest producer of maize and soybean. The drought of 1988/89 swept through the maize-soya belt of the US. This resulted in a loss of 12% of global maize supply, which meant maize eating food importing countries had lesser maize to import at higher prices. 

 

The widespread drought of 2002/03, hit wheat production in Russia, Europe, India and China, resulting in a 6% reduction in global wheat supply. At the same time, the 2002/03 drought hit rice production in India , causing a decline of 4% in rice output. When there is a shortfall in global food stocks, the biggest casualties are food importing countries that are dependent on imported food.

 

India, and other Monsoon dependent countries, are particularly vulnerable to climate turbulence because a disturbance in the rainfall timing and pattern and the total amount of water received during the Monsoon period is a significant factor in India’s food self-sufficiency. 

The health of the Monsoon essentially determines the amount of rice, India’s major staple food, that will be produced. India’s Monsoon period has been on average 100 days long. This is the period during which the country receives almost all the water it will get from rainfall. 

The Monsoon period is already reduced by about 15 days so in effect the total amount of water we are getting has also gone down by some 15 %. This is having serious implications already and the situation is likely to worsen in the coming years. 

So how do we cope with the impacts of climate change and secure our food supply ? Well first, we need to get off the uniform, monoculture, chemical treadmill because that kind of chemical based intensive food production is the most vulnerable to climate shock. It also produces unhealthy food, contributes to worsening climate change and pretty much wrecks up the environment. 

There are some important changes we need to make but let’s start with a few. We need to get out our genetic diversity of crop plants and deploy it. 

If you have many varieties of rice in the field or of wheat or potato, or maize or whatever, then you are quite safe. If some varieties get destroyed because of unseasonal weather, others will survive, so you may have less food but you will have food. If you plant only that one high yielding variety backed up by chemical fertilisers and pesticides and that one variety falls to climate turbulence, then you have no food. So diversity is smart. 

Invest in millets, instead of just rice and wheat as staple foods in your kitchen. These little grains are nutrition bombs and can take on the worst of climate change. The ‘big’ millets are Sorghum (jowar) and Pearl millet (bajra). The ‘small’ millets are: 

* Finger millet (ragi) High in calcium, and makes rotis and snacks 

* Barnyard millet. Called ‘sawa’ in Hindi. Once a staple, it’s now eaten during fasts and is rich in iron 

* Foxtail millet. Can be cooked like rice and made into upma 

Then there are the fibre and mineral rich millets: 

* Kodo millet Little millet (kutki in Hindi) 

* Proso millet (cheena in Hindi).

All of these are now quite easily available in the market and can be cooked in different ways for tasty, nutritious meals. So start making some changes in the food you bring home

Source: https://www.thecitizen.in/opinion/food-security-in-troubled-times-962233?infinitescroll=1 

Agriculture faces a threat as man, animal conflicts begin to escalate

 Suman Sahai

Apart from the vagaries of the weather which present a huge challenge to India’s agriculture and food production, animals raiding crops constitute another, not insignificant challenge. In the plains of Uttar Pradesh, large herds of the antelope called “nilgai” and abandoned cows cause massive damage to standing crops. The nilgai, because of its name that ends in “gai” (cow), is assumed by villagers to have some association with the cow. That makes it holy, and the village people will not kill it even if it rampages through their fields. Explaining that it is a kind of deer, not a cow, doesn’t seem to convince and nobody wants to take the risk of bringing upon themselves a heap of cosmic curses by taking the life of a holy animal.

Cows that have been abandoned have turned feral and also extremely aggressive. They move in large gangs and can decimate great tracts of standing crops in one visit. They charge at farmers who try to chase them away and, in several instances, have gored people seriously enough to cause death. So, farmers have started fencing their fields at great cost, a cost they can ill afford. Both the nilgai and the feral cows are not restrained by barbed wire which they break through, so in desperation, some farmers have begun to use the concertina wires used in high security areas. These wires have sharp blades along their length and when animals try to push through, they are lacerated by the blades, injuring themselves badly. This is causing a painful dilemma for farmers who do not wish to hurt animals, but have no other way of protecting their crops and livelihoods.

In mountainous regions like Uttarakhand, it is big gangs (technically called “sounders”) of wild boar (wild pigs) that do the damage. Farmers are abandoning agriculture, leaving their fields fallow because the marauding boars come at night and dig up the fields, eating whatever is planted and destroying the field bunds and boundaries. The boar are also aggressive animals and in numbers they are dangerous since they attack when confronted. The male boar, which has one or two upturned tusks, can rip open a man’s abdomen if threatened.

The other, more recent, problem in the hills are the rhesus, or the red face (and red bottom!) monkeys. These rhesus monkeys are not native to the mountain areas of Uttarakhand but have been trucked up from the plains, as one hears, where they have set up home in the shaded nooks of government buildings and where the packed lunches of employees provide rich pickings. The North and South Blocks of Raisina Hill in New Delhi, the seat of India’s government, are preferred locations.

Stories of marauding monkeys entering government offices and destroying files have appeared in the media. True or not, they have given a convenient excuse to the worthies in the government to attribute the disappearance of controversial, inconvenient files to the raiding rhesus monkeys! To rid themselves of the monkey pest, Delhi decided to collect the simians and truck them up to the hills.

These monkeys, however, are not “wild” animals. Born in cities, they are urban creatures brought up on snatched human food. No wild berries or succulent leaves for them, their food preferences tend to parathas and sandwiches when they are not being fed bananas by devout Hindus propitiating the avatar of Hanuman.

Bewildered by the unfamiliar terrain in the mountains of Uttarakhand, they do not rush to the forest, presumed by North Block babus to be their “natural” home, but gravitate to inhabited areas because that is what they are accustomed to. In the hills, they descend on orchards and agricultural fields.

When they raid orchards, they eat some fruit and destroy far more, plucking the unripe fruit and throwing it down. In fields, they will eat what they want but will have uprooted many more plants by the time they leave. They are quite destructive, our close relatives after all!

This is a partial snapshot of how the man-animal conflict plays out in rural areas, where the livelihoods of farmers comes under strain because of the damage caused by animal populations that should be better managed.

Uttarakhand did for a while declare wild boar to be “vermin” that could be killed if causing damage to crops. The ridiculous condition was that a forest official had to be informed of a wild boar attack, and then he would come to destroy the animal. This assumed that the boar would hang around till the official arrived to slaughter them. Naturally they didn’t, and the scheme did not work.

The culling of natural populations of fast-breeding animals like deer, boar, etc, is practiced in many countries, including most of Europe. This keeps the population at a manageable number such that their habitat can support. That way a man-animal conflict is avoided. This would be a solution for India if implemented sanely. Some wildlife enthusiasts would proclaim that humans have no place on this planet, whose original inhabitants were the wild animals, and the earth should revert to them.

Although I see a certain theoretical point in that argument, I am inclined towards a policy of co-existence as we are now also part of the ecosystem.

Source:- https://www.asianage.com/amp/opinion/columnists/270723/suman-sahai-agriculture-faces-a-threat-as-man-animal-conflicts-begin-to-escalate.html

In India, has the environment now been destroyed beyond recovery?

 Suman Sahai

With dramatic changes in the climate overtaking our world, the ferocious pollution in Delhi, the most polluted city in the world and across North India, the irony should not be lost on anyone that world leaders will be sitting down to yet another ineffectual talkathon on arresting climate change just over a week from now.

The 2023 UN Climate Change Conference will be held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12, 2023. The main meeting will be the COP 28 (28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties) as well as the 18th meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol. And the fifth meeting of the parties to the Paris Agreement.

The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 was an international treaty to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases causing global warming. Industrial countries with high emissions were required to cut back more than the less polluting developing countries.  

The Paris Agreement of 2015 was a pledge to keep global temperature rise well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to aim to keep the rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The hyperbolic agenda of COP 28 is: Fast-tracking energy transition and slashing emissions before 2030; Transforming climate finance, delivering on old promises and setting the framework for a new deal on finance; Putting nature, people, lives, and livelihoods at the heart of climate action; and even more immodestly -- Mobilising for the most inclusive COP ever. I wonder how many people believe any of this.

Nothing except hot air has emerged from these treaties and the global climate has only worsened, causing the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, to despair recently that humanity has “opened the gates to hell” by allowing the climate crisis to worsen.

As if to provide the scientific underpinning to Mr Guterres’ hopelessness, a new report has just come in October titled “The 2023 State of the Climate Report: Entering Unchartered Territory”. Brought out by Oxford University Press, the report is authored by a multi-disciplinary team of scientists from different countries.

The headline message of the report is that “Life on Planet Earth is under Siege and we are now in Unchartered Territory’’ This bald, terrifying statement says in so many words that it is possibly too late to reverse the damage done to the climate and that it is going to get increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to predict the timing, the nature and severity of anomalous events that will take place in the future.

2023 will probably turn out to be a benchmark year when many planetary boundaries were irretrievably breached. In July, 2023 was recorded as the hottest year on record. Scientists derive from paleo evidence that this July was probably the hottest in 100,000 years. If that doesn’t sound crazy enough, July 2023 is also when the Antarctic Sea ice reached its lowest level so far and unprecedented numbers of wildfires were seen across temperate areas, particularly in North America.

Asia is turning out to be particularly vulnerable to climate upheavals and disasters. We are seeing the increasingly vulnerable state of North India, particularly in the Indo-Gangetic plains, where high levels of pollution persist for months and uncharacteristic weather events have become more frequent. Cloud bursts and heavy monsoon rains cause flash floods and landslides in northern India. The heavy, nonstop rain for three days starting with a cloud burst wrought havoc in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand in 2021. If the devastating floods of Pakistan in 2022 and the frequent flooding in Bangladesh and China are any indication, the Asian region has already slipped into a highly atypical weather pattern.

The climate of the regions around the Hindukush and Himalayan mountains is directly influenced by the snow-capped ranges which are bearing the brunt of global warming. Glaciers here are melting at a quickened pace. It is estimated that over half of the earth’s 215,000 glaciers will melt by the end of the century, even if global warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Images captured by Nasa satellites reveal that the Himalayas have already lost about one third of their permanent ice (permafrost) in just the last 50 years. This has serious implications for the water availability in the major rivers of North India.

When glaciers melt and retreat, glacial lakes are formed collecting the melted water. These are fragile, highly unstable structures that can rupture their banks easily, resulting in large volumes of water flowing down in torrents, producing devastating floods. Such GLOFs (Glacial Lake Outburst Floods) are becoming more frequent. A GLOF event is what caused the 2013 Kedarnath disaster, when at least 5000 people lost their lives.

 A GLOF is also what caused the flash floods in Sikkim in 2023 where along with a significant number of lives lost, huge damage was caused to expensive infrastructure, including Chungthang dam and hydroelectric power project. In a swiftly warming world, there is a greater likelihood we will see more instances of catastrophic floods caused when the unstable glacial lakes breach their insubstantial banks. As it is, satellite data show that the last 30 years have seen a big surge in the volume of glacial lakes.

All this tells us how precarious our hold now is on the planet that has sustained human civilisations over millennia. Population growth coupled with an economic growth model that is anchored in a rapacious appetite for more and more has extracted more resources and emitted more pollutants that the environment could handle. We have destroyed the equilibrium of nature. I could end on a prescription of “What to Do” to make things good again, but the solutions have been screamed from the rooftops at every COP meeting. Only, nobody listened. I am afraid that they will not listen at COP 28 either.

Source: https://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/columnists/191123/suman-sahai-in-india-has-the-environment-now-been-destroyed-beyond.html