The Hindu has a leader comment today, endorsing the view of scientists that the entire Western Ghats should be declared ecologically sensitive, and mining in Goa halted. In particular, the editorial calls for scrapping of the destructive Athirapilly and Gundia hydroelectric projects in Kerala and Karnataka respectively.

If you believe the Western Ghats deserve protection, write to The Hindu with your view @ letters@thehindu.co.in

Most Indians cannot afford the drugs and formulations now being sold, because they must pay out-of-pocket

The Hindu has been taking particular aspects of the report and commenting on them. The newspaper has published two leader pieces so far, on the macro issue of how to fund a system of universal health care, and on making essential medicines free for everyone.  They are here and here.  The report of the HLEG is here.

The HLEG, headed by Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, cardiologist and prime mover of the Public Health Foundation of India, has provided a major resource in terms of the analysis of present day health coverage in India, the massive out-of-pocket spending incurred by Indians, health expenditures pushing millions into poverty and the overall debilitating effect this situation has on the country’s economy.

India has among the lowest public expenditures in the world on health care, and the issue of universalisation of health care through social protection is not on the agenda of any major political party.  The situation is confounded by the advent of neo-liberal economic policies in 1991, and the ascent of for-profit health institutions in parallel with the withdrawal of the State in real terms. The not-for-profit health care sector that has many well-known institutions is also on the decline, while private health insurance is exerting pressure on policy against a change in the status quo. This is manifested in the form of lack of public investment.

A series in The Lancet on UHC for India is here, via the World Health Organisation website.

After the Srinath Reddy-led group submitted its report to India’s Planning Commission, The Hindu wrote an editorial welcoming the proposal for a tax-funded system to guarantee basic health care for Indians. Read that here. The Hindu BusinessLine reported the same issue here.

Another report in The Hindu traces the recommendation of the panel to the Planning Commission, to do away with the Two Child Norm. That is here.

The wide footpath in Rajaram Colony, Kodambakkam, Chennai, becomes useless midway for very visible reasons, and forces you to step on to the road.

All geographical regions of the world have a role to play in the sustenance of humanity, but even here, there are some that are vitally important. The Himalaya, an extensive mountain range with unrivalled peaks, deep river gorges and fertile alluvial valleys, is one such.

The book under review devotes itself to the question of what legal framework would best serve the goal of protecting the resources of the Himalayan region, in particular its reservoir of biodiversity and traditional knowledge. The author was prompted to take up this enterprise by the fact that there is not enough discussion on all aspects of the issue. What is needed, he thinks, is an interdisciplinary effort to look at the ecological, economic, social and legal aspects of biodiversity conservation in the Himalaya. What he hopes to create with his work is a debate, which would persuade policymakers to launch suitable protection measures through law and regional co-operation.

Several countries have rich biodiversity resources that they must protect and use sustainably. At the global level, the foundation for such a conservation framework is laid by the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is an agreement  that opened for member-party signatures in 1992-93, and aims to conserve biodiversity, and facilitate sustainable use through access and benefit-sharing.

The book provides detailed commentary on the legal basis for the CBD, its instruments, protocols and approaches, and their linkages in international law. It is this framework that nations use to secure the future of biological resources. Viewed against the backdrop of the Himalaya, a region that sustains vast numbers of people, the need for closer regional cooperation among the South Asian States stands out.

At the top of the list of issues in the Himalaya are problems affecting mountains. Bhattarai is disappointed that mountains, which cover some 26 per cent of the world’s land surface, get poor attention in international law-making. This should worry countries sharing the Himalaya and encourage them to collaborate on sound national and regional policies. Only such cooperation can, he argues, protect biodiversity and enable access and benefit sharing. Moreover, this can be achieved without compromising national sovereignty.

Beyond the basic need for legal frameworks to protect biodiversity and the interests of communities, the author examines a range of issues that are technical from the perspective of law. They also have serious economic and environmental consequences. He analyses the issues involved primarily from the prism of the CBD, but does include various other covenants, treaties and national experiences, including case law. The key topics he covers relate to access to genetic resources and benefit sharing, traditional knowledge, and biological resources vis-a-vis international trade laws. What emerges is revealing.

Take the case of protection of traditional knowledge. The CBD refers to this as “knowledge, skills, innovation, and practices of indigenous and local communities and people which is relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity”. We learn through examples that traditional knowledge has substantially aided biotechnology research. Such community-based wisdom has flagged key properties of biological components, notably in plants.

The challenge is to ensure that all this work done by communities in safeguarding and testing the properties of biodiversity is recognised through legal instruments. Misappropriation of traditional knowledge by unauthorised third parties has, Bhattarai notes, caused indigenous people severe losses. He has illustrative, though not representative examples of such uncompensated appropriation – one of them is the Serendipity berry and Katempfe plants in Africa, which have low-calorie chemicals many times sweeter than sugar and which US entities helped themselves to, to generate big profits. They did not, however, feel obliged to pay anything to African farmers.

This brings us to the contentious issue of patenting of living organisms. Bhattarai provides a useful discussion of historical trends, including the difficulties faced by farmers in the United States under a corporation-focused, regressive patenting regime. The contrast becomes clear when their situation is compared with the more limited, pro-public approach to patenting in Europe. Here again, the case law tells the story, beginning with patenting of not just processes but living organisms in Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 1980  (in the US). The key issue, as the author narrates, is to reconcile the egalitarian, environment-friendly objectives of the CBD and intellectual property agreements, mainly Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to serve the interests of people and nature. This effort must accord priority to biodiversity, if the Himalaya is to be saved.

This book is clearly a welcome addition to the literature on biodiversity, international law, patenting of agriculture and living organisms, and sustainable development. Governments sharing the heritage of the Himalaya would certainly be interested in the gamut of issues that are likely to affect this sensitive region.

The Durban conference also witnessed agreement on the structure of the Green Climate Fund, a vehicle of assistance for the developing world to adopt environment-friendly technologies and adapt to climate change. Industrialised nations must now match rhetoric with solid action to raise the $ 100 billion that will be needed yearly for the fund from 2020. Similarly, protection of forests and incentives for clean development must get active support. At the level of individual countries, what is crucially important is the manner in which carbon space is used while pursuing development. It would defeat the goal of equity, if national emissions keep rising mainly due to profligate consumption of fossil fuels by a privileged minority. India’s position on emissions was for some time rooted in the “contract and converge” principle, by which per capita greenhouse gases would gradually rise, to converge with reducing carbon flow from the developed bloc. But the concern today is equally about cumulative emissions and their effect on climate. The national carbon space must therefore be used wisely through green development pathways. For a start, the Centre must present a white paper on the progress achieved thus far with the National Action Plan on Climate Change.

Here is the petition.

Nature Conservation Foundation

3076/5, IV Cross, Gokulam Park, Mysore 570 002, INDIA

Web: www.ncf-india.org

E-mail: ncf

Tel.: +91 821 2515601
Fax +91 821 2513822

Sri K. S. Govindan Nair
Environmental Engineer
Kerala State Pollution Control Board
Pattom P.O.
Thiruvananthapuram – 695004.

12 June 2006

Dear Sri Nair,

Subject: Submission for the Second Public Hearing of the proposed Athirappilly HEP in Chalakudy River in Kerala to be held on 15 June 2006.

We are wildlife biologists who have been working in the Western Ghats region for over a decade on issues related to forest fragmentation, disturbance, and ecology and conservation of endangered species. We learn that the KSPCB is holding the second Public Hearing for the proposed 163 MW Athirappilly HEP on 15 June 2006 at Town Hall, Thrissur.

Based on our research and conservation experience, and out of deep concern for the ecological future of the people and wildlife in this region, we believe that the proposed project, if implemented, will lead to irreparable ecological damage and harm. In this connection, we would like to bring to your notice the following facts:

1. The Athirappilly-Vazhachal-Chalakudi riverine area and the contiguous reserved forests are one of the most important conservation areas in the Western Ghats, which has been recognized as a globally important Biological Diversity Hotspot by Conservation International—a fact that has been widely recognized by scientists, policy makers, the judiciary, media, and the general public. The Western Ghats streams and rivers, of which this area forms an important exemplar, is also recognized among the Global 200 Most Important Ecoregions listed by WWF and now recognized internationally.
2. The stretch of forests containing and adjoining the project site represents one of the last few remaining low- and medium-elevation tropical rainforests in the southern Western Ghats and are of immense intrinsic conservation value. These areas provide vital and essential continuity with other forest tracts in the Anamalai region in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and their disruption or fragmentation due to such ‘development’ projects will have detrimental effects in the short- and long-term. The detrimental effects will not be restricted to the submergence area, but will extend over tens of square kilometers and indefinitely into the future because of associated disturbances to the habitat and ecology as is clearly evidenced from earlier such projects along the Western Ghats.
3. The river course, where the project is planned, is one of the last remaining habitats for a magnificent bird species, the Malabar Pied Hornbill (Anthrococeros coronatus), which is an endangered species listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972. The species has declined or disappeared in many areas along the Western Ghats, for many reasons, including the destruction of their favoured low-elevation riverine forest habitat by hydel projects, agriculture, and other exploitative forces.
4. The region of the proposed project is home to all four species of hornbills (all of which are in Schedule I) known to occur in the Western Ghats: Malabar Grey Hornbill (Ocyceros griseus, endemic to Western Ghats), Malabar Pied Hornbill (endemic to India and Sri Lanka), Great Pied Hornbill (Buceros bicornis), and Indian Grey Hornbill (O. birostris, endemic to India).
5. The project will have severe effects on wildlife populations by additional fragmentation of forest habitat affecting endangered mammals such as Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus), tiger (Panthera tigris), among a multitude of other native plant and animal species.
6. In addition, such ecological disruption will also lead to losses to people due to increased human-wildlife conflict, loss of ecosystem services, and loss of opportunities for sustainable, regulated, non-consumptive uses of these areas.

We therefore believe it to be essential that you recommend to the concerned authorities to halt the project immediately and entertain no further applications for this or other similar projects in this area.

It is a measure of our maturity, vision, and pragmatism as a nation that we prevent such harmful projects, which will only impoverish our natural heritage and renege on our social responsibility to present and future generations.

Yours sincerely,

Drs. Divya Mudappa & T. R. Shankar Raman
Senior Scientists
Nature Conservation Foundation

Field Address:

Drs. Divya Mudappa & T. R. Shankar Raman
Rainforest Restoration Research Station
8/364 Cooperative Colony
Valparai 642 127
Tamil Nadu

Tel.: 04253 221527
E-mail: podocarp

Today, I spent some time at the Chennai RTO (West) serving large localities in the South West of the city for a licence renewal. What you learn during the visit is that although there has been an exponential growth in the number of vehicles in Chennai, led by two-wheelers, the RTO offices remain stunted. That is a deliberate thing, because a bottleneck is necessary to produce some rent opportunities. (Get an idea of Chennai vehicle numbers and problems in this report.)

It is ridiculous, for instance, that for a population base of several hundred thousands, there is a single webcam to take photos for issue of licences. The result is a long line of people waiting for their turn. But the bigger challenge is to find out where the line starts, and which the relevant line is.

There are two officers in the hall, sitting at ancient wooden tables. They are obviously the most sought-after people, and many applicants stand with their hands deferentially folded to avoid offending the men.  Driving school agents, who keep the system well-oiled, have the ear of the two officers. Yet, there is an occasional show of irritation and one officer throws papers dramatically on the table to convey his reproach.

In a country constantly boasting about its rising status, and motorising at a feverish pace, how is it that the RTO offices are in such a shabby state, whether it is the DMK or the AIADMK in power (a new portrait of the Chief Minister has apppeared in the hall, predictably).

Mysteriously, there is a television set on the wall apparently intended to make some service announcements, but it is lifeless.

One would expect that the number of RTO offices is quadrupled or even more, given the rising demand for services. Why only one webcam? Why no indication of who does what, at which table, and a token system as in the banks? What needs to be done is to fully digitise the system, and enable online applications. This will produce a receipt and a date and time for interview/ photography automatically. Such as system was introduced in 1999 in the same state of Tamil Nadu, in Tiruvarur district by the Collector, C Umashankar (bounced around all the time for his unbending attitude and penchant for exposing corruption). In fact, his e-governance moves were so impressive that he was invited to attend an e-gov summit abroad. The previous AIADMK government refused permission for him to go!

The low priority given to RTO services and the systemic corruption clearly shows that neither the Centre nor the States are interested in road safety. It is just a rent-collecting opportunity. Any surprise that 1.33 lakh Indians died in road accidents in one year according to the latest statistics, as this report says? What kind of testing can you do when your offices are so hopelessly packed? How much time can an understaffed department devote per driving licence test? Where are the testing grounds (announced years ago by Minister Ponmudi) for licence applicants?

Here are two images from the RTO (West) from today, showing how transport department services are deliberately bottlenecked. Time for change. Where are the self-declared fighters of corruption? Should they not be here everyday, looking at what needs to change?

What is that TV for? Applicants reach the head of the line, to be photographed for a driver's licence at RTO West, Chennai

One office for so many? Applicants wait for their turn for service at RTO West, Chennai

Here is the guided tour
http://www.waze.com/guided_tour/international_tour.swf

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