Friday, June 5, 2009

The story of green success , Dated : 05 Jun 2040


The pleasant cool breeze flowing through lush green forests , the song of the trees and the dancing of grasses.The chirping of beautiful birds in towns and countries.The sight of magnificent animals freely wandering in the forests.
Alas ! those days are lost, far in the dust of time.
That was a statement till 2015.But today it has become a reality.Reaching this destination was not an easy path.Almost impossible , as many thought it.But the planned and deterministic efforts finally yielded fruits .The earth was struggling on a lost battlefield till 2015.The constantly reducing tree cover on the earth surface, the decreasing rainfall every year.The massive human encroachment of the forests .The constant attack of the wildlife on the people and the consequent killing of the wild animals.The elite city dwellers embarking on pompous wildlife safaris and lastly the infamous wildlife trade.All these had become a daily news and popular(read fashionable) tea-time chats.Everyone was relaxing as if someone else shall come and religiously put things in order.
But finally in the August of 2015 a few youths from central India started a small mission which resulted in a great revolution of the 21st century. Some youths coming from typical lower middle class families wanted to protect their fields and the neighboring forests which had nourished them lovingly.They decided that they will send their one representative in the Parliament, and this one representative will have the primary cause of environment.The group of youths made this a mission of their life They toiled and stretched themselves to win the race of power.And yes , God helps them who help themselves.Their representative finally reached the Parliament.In the opening session of the Parliament, this representative made a elaborate presentation of the burning environmental issues and proposed radical action plans to save the earth (alteast the Indian piece on the earth map).There was a loud applause and everyone praised this new MP. A few even proposed his name for the minister of environment.

Having this wonderful success on the first step , this new MP made a series of new legislation proposals.The highlights are given below
1. On the geographical surface of the earth , representing India, there shall be minimum 4 trees per 100 square meter of area.
2. This criteria shall be applied positively in all parts of India.
3. All roads (national,state, and others) and railways shall be compulsorily bordered by trees on both the sides.The distance between the two consecutive trees shall not be more than 8 metres .
4. All fields and commercial/non-commercial plots of lands shall be bordered by trees.The geometrical corners of these plots shall essentially have a tree.
5. In order to maintain the soil nutrients , a committee of botanical/agriculture experts will publish a list of recommended species of trees to be planted in various regions of the country.
6. The government shall run a "Plantation employment program".This will include a payment of Rs.500 per tree annually to a person who plants a tree.This will create marginal employment opportunities for the rural people.
7.In the urban areas , where the criteria of minimum 4 trees per 100 square meter is not fulfilled , the owner of such plots of land shall be heavily penalised , like Rs.25,000/- per year per tree.
8.There shall be a separate law enforcement agency to implement the Environmental laws.
9.All trees on the surface of the Indian Union shall be fitted with a bio-powered "Plant health status transmitter".This will be in the form of a small chip embedded inside the tree body.The plant metabolism will supply energy to this chip and the chip will transmit the healthiness status of the tree to a satellite monitoring station.There shall be a separate Indian Environmental Satellite dedicatedly collecting the status of the Indian trees. Any tree sensing a disturbance from humans or otherwise shall transmit its status to the satellite station from where the information shall be transmitted to the respective Enviornment office.This office shall be responsible to prevent the illegal activity.
10. The environmental law enforcement agency shall have its office in every 49 square kilometre of the Indian land.This environment office shall be authorised to enforce the environment law and protect the trees.
11.The enviornment agency shall have two branches
1. The Information and Executive (IE)wing
2. The Action wing.
12. A branch of informative and executive wing shall be present in every 49 sq.Km.However one branch of Action wing shall be shared by 10 branches of IE wings.
The IE wing shall collect all the primary data of the plant status and issue disciplinary action orders to the Action wing.The Action wing shall unconditionally execute the orders of the IE wing.In case of any judicial matters the onus of all justifications shall lie on the IE wing.
13. Every piece of land under the erstwhile forest department shall be extensively fenced on every meter of its periphery.On forest land the tree density criteria shall be minimum 5 trees per 100 square meters.Every inch of the forest land periphery shall be monitored by hidden and redundant CCTV cameras.This will be with the intention of preventing wildlife poaching and other illegal activities.Also there shall be hidden CCTV cameras to watch the movement of wildlife.
14. Special project : The Thar Desert of Rajasthan.
The Thar region of Rajasthan was converted into desert as a result of extensive grazing and hence it shall be our endeavor to once again convert it to a green land .Arrangements have to be made for a controlled artificial rain in this region.Carefully selected grasses and thorny trees may be initially cultivated in this region.Once the soil sets , some new planned vegetation may be cultivated on this land.

So the new MP proposed these legislation's in the next Parliament session.He was expecting a high response from the fellow members.But on the day of proposal atleast half the MP's were absent.Those present , gave almost no reaction.The speaker of the house hurriedly told him that they will consider the matter and saying so he called for the next MP to speak.Our green hero was totally perplexed.The same evening he asked for a appointment with the Prime Minister.He was given an appointment after two days.In the meantime he decided to meet the Environment Minister.The same evening he got an appointment with the minister.Our hero wanted to know his opinion regarding those fourteen points he proposed in the house.The minister once again went through the list and quietly said that it will cost a massive budget and where from the funds would be arranged.Also he was not sure of the opinions of his party leaders in this regard.However he pacified our hero that he will forward those proposals to the Environment Secretary and have a feedback report from the Environment Bureaucrats.Our hero gained some hope.
After two days he met the Prime Minister and sought his opinion.Also he tried hard to convince him about the gravity of the issue.The Prime Minister went carefully through all the proposals and praised him for his valuable thoughts , but immediately expressed his concerns about the implementation strategy and the possible law and order problems that would be created.Also he was worried about the financial implications of the new idea.But he assured him that they would definitely come out with a positive solution till next Parliament session.
In the mean time our hero met many of his fellow MP's and explained his ideas to them.Many of them took him as a crank.Some found a possibility of a new political propaganda and assured to support him.Still others flatly told him to give up his flop idea. But our hero was hopeful.He went back to his constituency and called on this supporting group.They all decided to launch a public campaign.This campaign was in the form of small public meetings in all towns and cities across the country.Such meetings were largely attended by youngsters and wildlife enthusiasts.Many of them voluntarily offered services like arrangement of meeting place,transport facilities, publicising the campaign etc.The most important contribution was there assurance to conduct similar meetings at other places.Interestingly the chain of meetings went ahead and at one point of time these meetings started inviting the MP's and other political leaders to attend and even address the meetings.This was a point of turn around.The political leaders found a new power engine in this environmental issue, and many of them started talking extensively on it."Save Enviornment" was the new slogan equivalent to "Garibi hatao" of the past.
In the next Parliament session many MP's were heard talking about the environmental issues while relaxing after lunch.Still most of them were unknown about the Satellite monitoring concept and the structure of the Environmental Law Enforcement agency.None of them even guessed the quantum of investment required to implement all the fourteen points.But it was pet chatting topic in all corners of the Parliament.
This time our hero was in high hopes.He was sure that his proposal would be accepted in the house with a clear majority.He approached the speaker to present a bill of this issue in the Parliament.However he got a disappointing reply that the investigation report has not yet come from the Ministry of Environment.He immediately sought an appointment with the PM the same evening.The PM inquired about the report and the Environment Secretary assured him to submit the report in a week.By the time the report was submitted that session of Parliament had already come to an end.The summary of the report was as follows
1.The estimated cost to launch the satellite station would be Rs.50,000 crores (on optimistic estimates)
2.Another Rs.62,000 crores would be required to set up the Environment Law Enforcement agency.
3. The bio-powered "Plant Health Status chip" is not available at present , and its feasibility is yet to be studied.
4. There will be a severe resistance from urban and rural population.This will result in a massive financial burden and increased work stress on the existing law and order enforcement agency.
5.The special project , "The Thar Desert" is only a fantasy and hence unfeasible.
6. Considering the initial investment of Rs.112,000 crores and the unfeasible technology and the burden on the existing system, the overall proposal is not recommended to the government.
7.However the government should definitely increase its current financial outlay for tree plantation and forest protection by atleast 20%.

This report came as shock to our hero.For a moment he felt as if he lost the battle.He anxiously waited for the next session of the Parliament.
In the meantime the chain of meetings went on with their normal pace.After a period of one month he once again met the Prime Minister in this regard.The PM tried to make him realise the fact that in a poor country like India if the ruling party makes such a massive investment in passive living beings like trees , the opposition and the general public will term them a fool and they will probably loose the next elections.However our hero tried to convince him of the future benefits of pure oxy-rich air, more rainfall, and well-being for humans and animals. The PM disappointingly assured him that he would once again demand a feasibility plan from the Ministry of Environment.Our hero's problems had increased in all bounds.
Now he was more worried about the technical feasibility of the Satellite Monitoring system and especially about the bio-powered "Plant health status" chip.He approached the Dean of a famous Indian Institute of Technology and asked him to help him in the matter.The Dean floated the idea in his institute as well as in other IIT's.However even after six months there was no response.Our hero was busy in addressing the local problems of his constituencies and representing those problems in the parliament.This session of parliament was a very noisy one and the opposition was in high efforts to topple the government of the existing ruling party.Neither the PM nor the Environment minister had the time to grant an appointment to our hero.None of his fellow MP's even cared to talk about environment.
This time our hero decided to concentrate on the technical feasibility.He once again approached the dean and wanted to know the progress of the project.The dean informed him that none of his faculty members indicated any interest in that particular project.Reason being probably there were no corporate sponsors.The government may sponsor the project ,but now a days government sponsored projects are no more lucrative to students as well as faculties.Everyone is aiming the MNC's and keen on a opportunity to settle in the west.Our hero decided to approach the Regional engineering colleges and even State Government engineering/agriculture colleges.He was in constant touch with all the colleges.Finally one state government agriculture college from a remote pocket of India sent him a ray of hope.Two botany students were interested in taking up the project.They were sure of the plant metabolic processes and the energy conversions involved.However they were handicapped about the design of the transmitter chip.They designed three algorithms and each of them explained how the the energy of the metabolic activity in the plant cells can be converted into electric potential.Having these three algorithms our hero set out for the search of a electronic chip designer.Finally one young scientist from a famous Central government research organisation offered his help and the required "Plant Health Status" chip was made a reality.
However all these activities took three long years and the Parliament term was almost complete and the country was heading for a fresh election.Our hero also contested in the new elections.He got a rising support from various parts of the country.The nature and wildlife enthusiasts extended their whole hearted support.His fellow group slogged out day and night.However his rival contestant severely criticised him for his proposals of spending huge public money for trivial cause like trees.Finally the rival group played the famous game of "Rs.5/kg of wheat" for all people.This created a pulse in the entire masses of the constituency.In the final elections our hero lost by a few hundred votes.Now our hero had no place in the Parliament !
To add to his woes , the last ruling party could not form a government in the new Parliament.However our hero decided to test the limits of his determination.He approached the fellow MP's who were successful in the new Parliament.Most of them heard him but gave no response. After much thought he decided to meet the President of India.The President listened to his ideas and efforts in detail.He was highly impressed by his mission.But finally he expressed his practical handicap over the issue.Our hero left the Presidents office with a heavy heart.He once again decided to go to the public.He now decided to strengthen the chain of public meetings.But this time the public meetings had a new feature.Each public meeting sent a signed citizens charter of environmental issues to the President and the Prime Minister.Each day the number of charters reaching New Delhi went on increasing.Finally a national team of Environment activists met the President and the President had to call a meeting with the Prime Minister.The PM clearly explained him the feedback report of the Environment ministry emphasizing the infeasibility of the idea.The PM also expressed his inability to put this Environmental bill in the parliament, as he was afraid that the bill will not get a majority and his party will be thrown out of power.Thus our hero lost this battle too.
But then the public awareness was constantly increasing.Some retired army officers decided to come up for this cause.They started addressing the public meetings.This stirred a new force in the environmental agitation.Many retired bureaucrats and ex-MP's followed the same.Memorandums were sent not only to the PM and the President but also to the Chiefs of the Armed forces.This created an immense pressure on the ruling party to seriously consider the Environmental Bill .Finally the PM agreed to table the bill in the Parliament.The opposition wanted to use this issue to topple the current government.They criticised the bill and made a mockery of the current PM.Finally they demanded an explanation of the financial feasibility of the environmental bill.The PM personally defended the bill on the floor of the Lok Sabha.Firstly he reminded the opposition that in the last Parliament they themselves demanded an investigation of the same environmental bill and had assured the hero to present it in the Parliament.The PM also informed the house that the idea of "Plant Health Monitoring" chip is now a reality .Finally on the issue of financial feasibility their party had decided to increase the tax-net and increase the profit level targets for all Central government organisations.Finally after much hum drums and heavy efforts of the ruling party the bill was finally passed in the Parliament.
The the Enviornmental bill became a reality.


------ to be continued.

1 comment:

  1. Very Good work. Brilliant piece of imagination. Hope your efforts will create more awareness amongst the RICH People & the RICH Nations. Because the 20% of the 'RICH' of this world consume 80% of earth's resources.
    Since Environmental degradation is a Global phenomenon, we want such 'HEROES' in all the Nations of this Planet. It is to be noted that our Planet is a Minute entity in this vast Universe.

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