How Should India Deal With Changing Monsoons?

September 4, 2012, 1:08 am

By VIKAS BAJAJ

In many parts of India, including in New Delhi and Mumbai, monsoon rains have picked up in recent weeks, bringing much-needed relief. But much of north, west and south India still have gotten only a fraction of the rain they normally receive, as I reported recently.

This year's drought will be the fourth in the last 12 years and comes as several other parts of the world, including the United States, are suffering from heat waves. Some analysts and international organizations are worried that such droughts may become more frequent in the coming decades because of global warming caused by the human release of greenhouse gases.

While scientists will be the first to admit that they do not fully understan d how the climate will change in the future, they are concerned that countries like India, Bangladesh and Pakistan could face new challenges. For instance, one popular hypothesis is that temperatures will rise and the monsoon will bring more rain to the subcontinent but that the downpours could be more intense and the dry spells between them would be longer.

So, how should India adapt to these changes, some of which may already be under way?

Prodipto Ghosh, a former senior Indian government official, told me that while he is not yet convinced that climate change will have a significant impact on the monsoon, the country needs to do more to prepare for the climate variability that already leaves some parts of the country with too much or too little water almost every year. In areas like eastern Maharashtra and New Delhi, for instance, preparations could include better rainwater harvesting so water from abundant years can be used in lea n ones.

Parts of India like Gujarat and Rajasthan, which have elaborate and beautiful step wells, have historically saved rainwater to deal with the vagaries of the weather. But Mr. Ghosh said many of those systems are falling apart because they have either been abandoned or not properly maintained.

“We know which regions are vulnerable to particular type of events â€" which are the regions that are vulnerable to drought and which are vulnerable to floods,” said Mr. Ghosh, who is now a distinguished fellow at the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi. “What we should be doing is preparing for the current climate variability.”

Mr. Ghosh also argued that the government should revive an ambitious project to link Indian rivers to each other so that surplus water in the east and northeast of the country can be moved to areas in central and southern India that have less of it. While the idea of linking Indian rivers has been around for decades, it g ot a big push when the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee backed it when he was in office between 1999 and 2004.

But that plan is quite controversial. India's neighbors Bangladesh and Nepal, along with environmentalists, have opposed parts of the project or the entire idea of river linking, which according to some estimates would cost as much as $1 trillion. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that the project should go ahead and appointed a committee to oversee it.

“We should prioritize this overall program and implement it in stages as we have the resources,” said Mr. Ghosh, who acknowledged the environmental concerns but said they could be addressed. “These are things that we need to do.”

Others say the solutions to India's water problems do not have to be quite that ambitious.

Balaji Rajagopalan, an associate professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado, said India can improve water use by moving the sowing of certain water-intensive crops like rice from places like Punjab, where water is increasingly becoming scarce, to the east of the country, where water is more abundant.

Mr. Rajagopalan, who is from the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh state, told me that it made little sense, for instance, for farmers in that relatively arid region to grow rice or the popular genetically modified Bt cotton plant, which is more resistant to pests but requires more water. By contrast, he said states like Bihar and Assam often have a lot of water but their agricultural productivity is not as great as it could be.

“We have vast regions where you can grow crops,” he said. “Let's move agriculture to the northeast. There are things that we can do right now that don't require us to put all of our eggs in one basket.”

In recent years, the Indian government has begun following some of the advice and has set up an ambitious program to increa se the production of rice, wheat and other crops in eastern states.

Mr. Ghosh, the former government official, said the most important thing for policy makers to keep in mind is that countries with greater financial and technical resources will generally be better placed to cope with the impact of climate change. That is why few people question whether the Netherlands will be submerged by rising sea levels while many have such fears about Bangladesh.

For India, he said, climate change is “certainly a significant policy concern and it should remain that way.” But he added: “Development and poverty eradication should have far greater salience in policy making in this country.”

Crops in India Wilt in a Weak Monsoon Season

September 4, 2012, 12:31 am

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Vilas Dinkar Mukane lives halfway around the world from the corn farmers of Iowa,” Vikas Bajaj wrote in The New York Times, “but the Indian sharecropper is at risk of losing his livelihood for the same reason: not enough rain.”

“With the nourishing downpours of the annual monsoon season down an average of 12 percent across India and much more in some regions, farmers in this village about 250 miles east of Mumbai are on the brink of disaster,” he wrote.

Drought has devastated crops around the world this year, including corn and soybeans in the United States, wheat in Russia and Australia and soybeans in Brazil and Argentina. This has con tributed to a 6 percent rise in global food prices from June to July, according to United Nations data.

India is experiencing its fourth drought in a dozen years, raising concerns about the reliability of the country's primary source of fresh water, the monsoon rains that typically fall from June to October.

Some scientists warn that such calamities are part of a trend that is likely to intensify in the coming decades because of climate changes caused by the human release of greenhouse gases.

Read the full article.

Image of the Day: September 3

September 3, 2012, 11:30 am

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Activists Against Corruption Claim Police Harassment

September 3, 2012, 10:53 am

By NIHARIKA MANDHANA

Arvind Kejriwal offered himself up for arrest Monday as part of a “Jail Bharo” or “Fill the Jails” protest, designed to draw attention to what anti-corruption activists say is police harassment of the movement's supporters.

Mr. Kejriwal and four others gave statements to a Delhi police station, in connection with protests they led on August 26 outside the houses of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh; Sonia Gandhi, the Congress Party; and Nitin Gadkari, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The police accuse Mr. Kejriwal and other activists from “India Against Corruption” of violating a rule on public assembly, rioting and damaging public property, including a police vehicle and barricades .

The August 26 protests in Delhi, organized to condemn irregularities in the government's allocation of coal mining concessions, were in violation of a rule that prohibits the assembly of more than four people, the police said. Protesters were beaten with bamboo sticks called lathis and sprayed with water cannons. Several key leaders of the agitation were detained for a few hours.

“I don't think we are guilty of any offense,” Mr. Kejriwal told a crowd of supporters as he emerged from a police station on Delhi's Parliament Street. “But if we have committed a crime in the eyes of the police, we are willing to accept the punishment.”

Mr. Kejriwal and his aides were not arrested on Monday, but one police official, who was in the meeting with Mr. Kejriwal but didn't want to be identified, said they would soon be charged. Questioning of other protestors who the police say were involved in vandalizing property will be put on h old.

The Delhi police filed five “first information reports,” the first step to investigating a crime, on August 26, alleging that protestors were violent and had destroyed property. Mr. Kejriwal said the demonstrations were peaceful, and accused the police of attacking unarmed protesters.

He also condemned the investigation and accused the police of “harassing” protesters by calling them in for questioning. In an open letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr. Kejriwal alleged that the police had served tens of notices to protestors who were being summoned to police stations, questioned for long periods and made to remain there all day.

Mr. Kejriwal invited the police to question him instead. “Whatever they want to do, they should do it to me,” Mr. Kejriwal said. “I take full moral responsibility.”

Amit Kumar Mishra, 25, who was outside the Parliament Street police station, said he was one of several India Against Corruption support ers who had been served a police notice and questioned. “They are trying to scare us with this kind of harassment,” Mr. Mishra said. He called the police “puppets in the hands of political leaders.” The police “don't arrest those who it should arrest,” he added, referring to leaders who have been implicated in corruption scandals. “And when we protest against corruption, they come to arrest us.”

Some 200 protestors participated in Monday's “Jail Bharo” campaign, a form of protest used extensively by Mahatma Gandhi during India's freedom struggle. “We will all go to jail if they don't stop harassing our fellow protesters,” said Yogender Pal Singh, 56, who has supported the movement against corruption from its inception last year.

Mr. Kejriwal is among the group of activists who helped start a mass campaign for the creation of a “Jan Lokpal,” or an anti-corruption ombudsman, to tackle corruption in the government. Last month, the group , popularly known as Team Anna after founder Anna Hazare, said it plans to provide a “political alternative” to India in the form of a new political party.

Meanwhile, India's two leading national parties have been locked in a dispute over the allocation of coal mining concessions by the government. Failing to put these blocks up for auction caused India of loss of nearly $34 billion in revenues, according to the country's chief auditor. The Indian Parliament's “monsoon session” has been disrupted day after day by opposition parties, who are demanding the cancellation of licenses to mine coal, and calling for the resignation of the prime minister.

In Mumbai, Open Spaces Are Rare, and Rarely Open

September 3, 2012, 4:36 am

By NEHA THIRANI

With over 13 million residents, Mumbai has earned its reputation for being a  congested city, one where being jostled in crowded spaces is part of daily life.

Other densely populated cities like Hong Kong or New York have large public spaces to compensate for the lack of personal space, but in Mumbai open space is rare. A new study shows exactly how rare: only six per cent of the city is reserved for open spaces, and of that area, some 60 per cent is neither developed nor accessible, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Environment Improvement Society found.

Of Mumbai's 30 square kilometers, or 11.6 square miles, of open space, only 10 square kilometers is actually available and being used â€" a miniscule 0.88 square meters, or approximately just 9 square feet, per person.

That puts Mumbai far behind other cities in India, and around the world. Delhi and Bangalore offer 15 and 6.4 square meters of open space per person, while Tokyo and New York have 6 and 2.5 square meters, according to research carried out by the real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle.

“Open spaces in Mumbai are often either inaccessible, offer only partial access or have been encroached upon,” said Ashutosh Limaye, head of research and real estate intelligence service at Jones Lang LaSalle. Mumbai is underutilizing natural assets, including its 35-kilometer western coastline, a 50-square-kilometer national park, and a natural harbor on its eastern coast, he said.

The study, prepared over three years by the city's improvement society, with  the architecture firm Adarkar Associates and HCP Design Project Management, an urban planning firm, also includes a n  inventory of open spaces, bodies of water, coastline features and large urban green areas in greater Mumbai.

“The study is useful for all the stakeholders in the development of Mumbai, especially the municipal corporation to alert them where urgent attention is required,” said Rahul Asthana, president of the improvement society and metropolitan commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. “It articulates a new methodology which includes environmental features in planning.”

As the city government revises Mumbai's Development Plan, looking forward to the next twenty years, officials hope this study will contribute to the planning process. “Hopefully this study will attract the attention of civilians and authorities and form the basis of the new development plan,” said D.M. Sukthankar, former chief secretary for the government of the state of Maharashtra.

Although Mumbai's total open space is tiny, the study shows that most Mumbai residents are within a five-minute walk of some open space. However, factors like insufficient visibility, poor signage and lack of access from roads restrict the use of some of these spaces.

“The aim is to utilize the full potential of the open spaces available at present to benefit all sections of the society,” said Neera Adarkar of Adarkar Associates. Ms. Adarkar said that it is unrealistic to compare the per-capita open space of Mumbai to other cities with much lower populations. Still, she said, it is imperative that open spaces to be kept open to public throughout the day to benefit students, senior citizens, children and women.

Recommendations from the study include development of abandoned mill sites in central Mumbai.

Bodies of water are even more endangered in Mumbai than open spaces, the study found. Of the 143 identified, only 107 have not been encroached upon. Water bodies are not reserved features demarcated on the development plan, Ms. Adarkar explained, so they have no legal status and are vulnerable. “With a little effort and the correct planning, a water body can create a calming and soothing effect which all of us Mumbaikars crave,” she said.

The study also details threats to the watercourses and coastlines of the city, including disposal of industrial waste and fishing equipment, plastic littering, oil spills and open defecation. “One of the reasons that these unique environmental features are under threat is that they are not even marked in the development plan of Mumbai,” said Shirley Ballaney, an urban planner with HCP Design, Planning & Management. “These features also fall under the jurisdiction of various different agencies, and lack of coordination between the agencies is a big challenge.”

Earlier this year, P.K. Das and Associates, a Mumbai architecture firm, drew up an ambitious plan to revamp the open spaces in the city called “Open Mumbai.” The firm pr oposed numerous sites for city development and the expansion of public spaces. “We all know that Mumbai's open spaces are terribly short,” Mr. Das said, and that large portions of the city's open spaces remain in private hands.

The “Open Mumbai” project culminated in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art that attracted the attention of heads of state and city governments. Earlier this month, the municipal corporation approved the ‘Juhu Vision Plan', which was conceived as part of Open Mumbai. The plan, which includes development of public space in the Juhu locality, conservation of Juhu beach and improved connectivity and social amenities, is expected to be under way within a month.

Meanwhile, several citizens' groups have taken up the cause, including Save Open Spaces and CitiSpace.

CitiSpace surveyed the condition of 800 open spaces in the city and created a database that is available for purchase. “The biggest challenges to o pen spaces in the city are misuse, abuse and neglect,” said Nira Punj, convenor of CitiSpace. Ms Punj believes that the regeneration of the city's few remaining spaces can be done, by pressuring the implementing authorities, knocking on the doors of the judiciary and coordinating the myriad civic departments.

But it will be difficult, she said. “Convincing the implementing authorities to take the straight and narrow path is not easy, because there is not much money to be made on the straight and narrow path.”