story by Pushpinder Singh
"Alibaag, Enjoy nature's beauty", scream the loud real estate hoardings in urban Mumbai. But people do lot more to nature's beauty than enjoying it as is the case with Alibaag.
One hour ferry ride from Gateway of India and then a fifteen minute bus ride gets one into the Alibaag town. On the road are the bungalows of rich and famous if one heads to beach south to the town. i instead went to the other side. The highway that connects Alibaag to Bombay, around twenty miles from Alibaag is a small town 'Poinaad'. and next to 'Poinaad' is cluster of villages with the names Shapur, Shahbaaj, Kamalbara ,Dhamapara ,Dheren. And right after villages is the massive Steel factory on both sides of the highway.
The villages have been in the limelight for some time now due to their iconic struggle against the land grabbers of the city. The villagers here are fishermen as well as farmers, their agriculture is irrigated by monsoon and they grow paddy during monsoon in their otherwise parched land. The farm land of villages is erstwhile marsh land of the near by 'Dharmatar' Creek which the English officers in 17th century converted into farm land by routing the tide water into small canals inward of land. These backwater canals mar the entire land here like veins; the sea water keeps coming up and going down in these veins like canals as if a huge heart pumping far in sea with a set frequency.
The fishermen in village use the canals as connecting routes to the sea. with the rising tide in evening they launch the small boats in the water and head to thick belt of Mangroves in Dharmatar creek. These mangroves, which line both northern and southern side of the creek, are rich in biodiversity and good source of fishes. The catch from here finds place on tables as far as in The Taj of Bombay. There is an amazing supply chain which does not need a separate transport chain, It uses pubic buses and ferries to take catch from this end to the other, with the transporters earning small commission, Fishermen a small money and middlemen in the city a huge margin.
But there are more examples of inequities in this land. The entire farm land that lies south to the Dharmatar creek is heaven not only for a self sustaining society but also to big things like Ultra Mega Power Generation Plants. The creek is geographically a perfect place to import coal on huge ships from foreign lands and the parched farmland is nice place to put a plant on.
TATA and Reliance are among the corporations, which are interested in setting up the power plants on this land and are in the process of acquiring land, though they have got it from collector but not from the real landowners, the farmers! The compensation being offered for the land is laughable. The resistance among the farmers and local residents is amazingly strong and united and is being lead by local people some of them doctors or accountants or clerks from these villages.
The story does not end with the resistance but it begins there, these lead campaigners from villages realise that resistance is not enough and sufficient tool to turn things their favor, Hence they also are innovating, for the energy solutions. The same energy for which the government is willing to import thousand tons of coal from Australia, The villagers argue, 'flows in the wind', The area has large wind potential and people want an official assessment of this potential from the government.
This movement as they love to call it has forced them to learn and understand things they would not bother otherwise like the energy sector economics, climate change science, political equations or just plain human ecology relations. Till whatever extent it takes they are willing to go, with those humble smiles on their faces for who so ever comes by and modest approach to life, eagerness to learn just to save the land they grew up in to save the air they have been breathing in and inheritance they have borrowed from their children, and stand tall as example in front of humanity that seems to largely ignoring them and continues to deny the 'change' that it must set for.
Pushpinder Singh is an environmental activist and works for Greenpeace India
--ends--
"Alibaag, Enjoy nature's beauty", scream the loud real estate hoardings in urban Mumbai. But people do lot more to nature's beauty than enjoying it as is the case with Alibaag.
One hour ferry ride from Gateway of India and then a fifteen minute bus ride gets one into the Alibaag town. On the road are the bungalows of rich and famous if one heads to beach south to the town. i instead went to the other side. The highway that connects Alibaag to Bombay, around twenty miles from Alibaag is a small town 'Poinaad'. and next to 'Poinaad' is cluster of villages with the names Shapur, Shahbaaj, Kamalbara ,Dhamapara ,Dheren. And right after villages is the massive Steel factory on both sides of the highway.
The villages have been in the limelight for some time now due to their iconic struggle against the land grabbers of the city. The villagers here are fishermen as well as farmers, their agriculture is irrigated by monsoon and they grow paddy during monsoon in their otherwise parched land. The farm land of villages is erstwhile marsh land of the near by 'Dharmatar' Creek which the English officers in 17th century converted into farm land by routing the tide water into small canals inward of land. These backwater canals mar the entire land here like veins; the sea water keeps coming up and going down in these veins like canals as if a huge heart pumping far in sea with a set frequency.
The fishermen in village use the canals as connecting routes to the sea. with the rising tide in evening they launch the small boats in the water and head to thick belt of Mangroves in Dharmatar creek. These mangroves, which line both northern and southern side of the creek, are rich in biodiversity and good source of fishes. The catch from here finds place on tables as far as in The Taj of Bombay. There is an amazing supply chain which does not need a separate transport chain, It uses pubic buses and ferries to take catch from this end to the other, with the transporters earning small commission, Fishermen a small money and middlemen in the city a huge margin.
But there are more examples of inequities in this land. The entire farm land that lies south to the Dharmatar creek is heaven not only for a self sustaining society but also to big things like Ultra Mega Power Generation Plants. The creek is geographically a perfect place to import coal on huge ships from foreign lands and the parched farmland is nice place to put a plant on.
TATA and Reliance are among the corporations, which are interested in setting up the power plants on this land and are in the process of acquiring land, though they have got it from collector but not from the real landowners, the farmers! The compensation being offered for the land is laughable. The resistance among the farmers and local residents is amazingly strong and united and is being lead by local people some of them doctors or accountants or clerks from these villages.
The story does not end with the resistance but it begins there, these lead campaigners from villages realise that resistance is not enough and sufficient tool to turn things their favor, Hence they also are innovating, for the energy solutions. The same energy for which the government is willing to import thousand tons of coal from Australia, The villagers argue, 'flows in the wind', The area has large wind potential and people want an official assessment of this potential from the government.
This movement as they love to call it has forced them to learn and understand things they would not bother otherwise like the energy sector economics, climate change science, political equations or just plain human ecology relations. Till whatever extent it takes they are willing to go, with those humble smiles on their faces for who so ever comes by and modest approach to life, eagerness to learn just to save the land they grew up in to save the air they have been breathing in and inheritance they have borrowed from their children, and stand tall as example in front of humanity that seems to largely ignoring them and continues to deny the 'change' that it must set for.
Pushpinder Singh is an environmental activist and works for Greenpeace India
--ends--
1 comment:
this really good information.
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