After some time…..
Again in the early 1990s the British Overseas Development Agency (the ODA, now known as DiFID) was invited by the Karnataka Government to implement a programme for reforestation of the Western Ghats. The ODA initially mixed acacia with teak and about 10 per cent of indigenous species. Pressure from the people forced them to set up an independent inquiry, which found in favour of people’s forest management. The report said the ODA was continuing commercial forestry by another name.Again the movement was successful in persuading the state about the real scenarion of afferostation by them and their effects.Thus later on the Government terminated the programme.
The future State action…..
From this victory rose a more powerful threat. An arrangement was agreed with the Japanese Government for a sum [of aid] 10 times the amount offered by the ODA. There was no participation and no planning. There was a reversion to monoculture. They planted mostly acacia for the pulp and paper industries. The Government has stated the outcome is a great success but it has not published any reports. The Japanese aid is in the form of a loan at three per cent interest. Many NGOs have been given money, which they have accepted.Appiko, too, was offered funds but refused. Pandurang says on this: ‘Our role now is to remain as watchdogs over development. Many NGOs have been co-opted by money. They go to the villagers and seduce them with promises of earnings. In fact, if the villagers get five per cent, the NGO gets two per cent, the bureaucracy gets the rest.
Where Appiko is in today’s scene…
Appiko as it existed 25 years ago no longer exists; now its work not only informs all today’s resistance movements in the Ghats, but is more vital than ever. Its concerns live on, absorbed into a monitoring of the wider development process. Developmental destruction invades the whole environment. Pandurang says:- “we can no longer remain in one specialized sector. We are working on the beautiful Kali River, the natural flow of which has been reduced to a mere 8 kilometres of its 184-kilometre length. It is essentially a dead river. Pollution by the paper mill includes waste water which, when it irrigates fields, dries as a film of paper. The waste – including mercury – has also polluted drinking water. In the paper mill 4,000 people are employed, but 400,000 people depend upon the river valley for their livelihood. There are seven dams, a paper and pulp mill and a nuclear power station. The whole wealth of natural forest is in jeopardy. The non-timber forest produce that has sustained our people for centuries is under threat – honey, wax, mushrooms, wild pepper and nutmeg, medicinal plants, bamboo shoot for eating, cane and rattan, all these grow only in the natural forest. Even the removal of dead and dry trees undermines the capacity of non-timber forest produce to regenerate.” He further adds – ‘We can no longer just work in the forests. Activism has to change if it is to be equal to the global forces bearing down on our localities. NGOs must detach themselves from attacking just one symptom of a wider structure. Have NGOs become archaic, just as the Marxists became archaic? New forces of resistance are coming from elsewhere, from the evictees of “development”. We have to use their energies in the wider struggle.’
“Whoever saves one life saves the world.”
Appiko movements emerged as the people’s response to the new threat of mono-culture and other developmental activities to their survival and as a demand for the ecological conservation of vital life-support systems. The most significant life-support systems in addition to clean air are the common property resources of water, forests and land on which the majority of the poor people of India depend for survival.
The thrust of the Appiko Movement in carrying out its work reveals the constructive phase of the people’s movement. Through this constructive phase, depleted natural resources can be rebuilt. Appiko promotes sharing of resources in an egalitarian way, helping the forest dwellers. The movement had achieved its aim of establishing a harmonious relationship between people and nature, to redefine the term development.
It works with very little money, all raised from its supporters and local people. A silent revolution has been funded locally by women in the villages. They have regenerated biodiversity across thousands of hectares of forest. Appiko is a living example of Gandhi’s legacy of non-violent struggle and volunteer work. Its spread across India indicates a strong current of grassroots groups following a different path from the NGOs.
The people are the sponsors, swimming against the tide. They commit themselves to a lifetime’s work with social movements, sacrificing the lure of consumer culture. They are steering a different path that is difficult, but more satisfying. The basic question is: will the legacy of Gandhi survive the test of globalization?
