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The Reviewer |
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ISSUE NO. 1.22 |
JANUARY 2, 2000 |
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PICK AND CHOOSE |
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TOUGH TERRAIN By Kunda Dixit, Aruni John and Bhim Subba (Editors) Panos Institute South Asia and Asia Pacific Mountain Network Unpriced Paperback, 125 pages ISBN: None |
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It is a tough life up there on the mountains. Tougher the terrain, tougher it is to eke out a living, or whatever you can. Development has been reaching out, but life still remains tough. In many places today there is better health care, improved transportation, education. There are fringe benefits in away, and these do come at a cost. The higher the cost, the tougher it is on life itself. It is not always that developmental programmes ameliorate living conditions and life itself. It is not uncommon to find such efforts culminating in pushing self-sufficient mountain communities towards recession and even decay. There, needless to say, lies a mismatch between good intentions and unexpected consequences. There is no dearth of scientific knowledge and technical information about mountain issues. Most of this, sadly, is only accessed and understood by experts and specialists. The deadlock continues. Life remains tough. Making an attempt to make mountain issues more accessible to the general public is this compilation of 13 articles commissioned to journalists and experts from the region during 1998-99. The articles do not read like sermons, but are a series of lucidly-written journalistic reports. Contentious issues and issues of concern well covered and so is the tough terrain of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. Areas like Dadeldhura and Badikhel among many others in Nepal, on the face of it, have been success stories of sorts. Village communities during the past two decades have taken control over the commons, letting forests regenerate. Today, more than 600,000 hectares of forests are protected by local communities and managed by more than 5,000 user groups. There have been resultant problems too. The living conditions of hill populations in Nepal have not changed as predicted. Literacy and life expectancy levels may have increased, yet half of all hill areas still report food shortages half the year around. Community forests have also increased pressure on national forests. Degraded land in the vicinity of villages are more productive after being taken over and protected as community forests, but users still go to government-owned forests located on the ridges for fuel and fodder. Another growing concern is that of shrinking common pasture land following introduction of community forests. In high altitude areas, sheep are commonly used as a means of transport. The conversion of traditional grazing strips along the route into community forests has introduced a new set of problems. Recently, shepherds from the Humla area in farwestern Nepal who transport goods on sheep-back were forced to abandon their trade because pack animals could not graze en route. The lessons from Nepal's community forestry saga, says Madhukar Upadhaya in 'Seeing the forest and the trees', are clear: forest resources can only be protected and conserved through participation of the communities that depend on these resources for survival. But pressure has begun to shift from lower forests to higher, more inaccessible forests. This problem, concludes Upadhaya, can be expected to abate gradually when community forests start to produce enough products under proper management. Alternatives for timber and fuelwood also need to be found and integrated with agro-forestry and alternative energy initiatives to reduce future pressure on Himalayan forests. With few job opportunities in the Garhwal hills, just across the border in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, more and more people now head downhill in search of a livelihood, says Mahesh Uniyal in 'Fleeing the Mountains'. A 1996 study of migration from selected villages in the Pithoragarh and Tehri districts of the Kumaon and Garhwal Himalayas revealed that nearly 60 per cent of households had members who had left to seek a better living. The bulk of the migrants (98 per cent) were men, 44 per cent of them having read up to eight grades in school. In 'Self-sufficient slopes', Shantanu Nagpal reveals that a new form of food insecurity now threatens the lives of farmers in the Hiamalaya-Hundu Kush region - the threat of depletion of key resources like water, fodder, and soil. Increased incomes might have brought prosperity, but the steam is running out of this strategy. While nice high-value agriculture does increase food supply, these have contributed to destroying traditional, indigenous farming systems in these areas. Development work that ignores the fragile ecology of mountains often leads to more pain than pain. Poorly designed, badly constructed mountain roads, argues Beena Sarwar in 'Landsliding Away' are a case in point. Over 2,000 people of the town of Hazara in Pakistan's northwest, had their home destroyed by landslides in 1998. The villain of the piece, ironically, which brought misery to people of eight villages was a farm-to-market road connecting Balakot to Hangaree. The ADP project was meant to make life easier for the villagers, but mismanagement and insensitivity to the environment and people had the opposite effect. |
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CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM By David W. Hopewell American Atheist Press Paperback, 288 pages List Price: $10.00 ISBN: 1578849527 |
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The Reviewer is a publication of ALLWRITE Editorial and Media Consultants |
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