conservation, conflict and creativity extended

8/6/2019 Conservation, Conflict and Creativity Extended

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Conservation, conflict and creativity: Lessons from 27th Shodhyatra

Every time we walk through the villages, forests and the fields, we are struckby the culturally diverse institutions of conservation but also of conflict.

While walking through the Ranchi region from Silly to Sundru early thismonth, we were impressed by a large number of old trees all through theway in the villages. But, in the forest, such old trees were rare to find. Theonly other Shodhyatra in which we found so many old trees along the waywas in Anantnag, J&K. The forest in Arku valley and in Kangra did have oldtrees. If readers could send information about more than 100 year old treesin cities and villages, imagine what kind of database will emerge. And if children are made the custodian of these trees, we would have created aconservation ethic which indifferent bureaucracy would find difficult touproot.

As we walked along, we met a group of labourers who asked us about thepurpose of the Shodhyatra. We explained that we look for innovators andtraditional knowledge holders and honour them at their doorstep. We alsolooked for creative children and women who have extraordinary imagination.While taking leave, we gave a copy of Soojhbhooj, a Hindi version of HoneyBee newsletter to each one of them. They returned all the copies except onesaying that they would share one copy, we could give the rest to others.Such are the sanskars of frugality. Not often, people refuse gifts which areunasked for. Several times we were stopped by the villagers to share their

knowledge, music and stories. It seemed that for long, an engagement of this kind was being missed.

We met a 99 year old mota dada whose voice and posture were extremelyenergetic. He had deep knowledge of climate change, older varieties of riceand the uncultivated vegetables. He also triggered a very interestingdiscussion on non-chemical pest control in paddy. In several villages, whilefarmers had taken to chemical pesticides, the knowledge about plants whichcould help in controlling pests was not completely lost, even if the practicewas. We shared an insight we learnt in Kutchch Shodhyatra when a farmer

had summed up our concern by saying, “what you are saying is that all thoseplants which are not eaten by cattle because of toxicity are potential sourceof pesticide”. Such a simple summary depicts the wisdom, which manycommunities still have, in abundance.



Dinanath Koeri is an extraordinary herbal bonesetter whose reputation in joining fractures was much respected in the region. His approach was quitedifferent in many respects from the modern orthopedic and it would beuseful to have a scientific investigation of his approach. Before parting, weprayed for his wellbeing and complimented his generous spirit of selfless

service. He stopped us for a moment and said, “if you want to pray, praythat I get to train at least one disciple before I die”. He had four sons andwe asked why didn’t he train at least one of his sons. His reply was a lessonin institution building. He said that he could have taught his younger son butknowing his tendency to make money from everything, he would have usedthis knowledge for the same purpose. He did not want that. He would wishthat those who can pay may be allowed but those who cannot should not bedenied the benefit of such knowledge. Such are the knowledge traditions.

In Hazam village, we met Tuladevi, a midwife who was extremely angry over

the practices of modern gynecologists for child delivery. She made threeforceful points which have already triggered a discussion in the medicalfraternity: [a] the umbilical cord should be cut after around ten minuteswhen it stops pulsating, [b] the child should be delivered in dark, dimly litenvironment to prevent shock and [c] the squatting position should bepreferred for delivery instead of lying position. She claimed that loweyesight of many children and fearful nature could be because of neglect of time tested practices. Some of the western scholars have already acceptedthe logic of these practices. May be Indian practitioners will pay attentionwhen it comes as a western advice. There is a need for thorough scientificreview of evidence from around the world to let the science underlying someof the traditional practices be recognized for common good. In the sameregion, we did find some of the retrograde practices of not feeding themother for two days and thus not giving the colustrum milk to the childrenaffecting the immunological profile of the children. Some midwifes didrecognize the importance of giving colustrum milk within first few hours andthe days. With 50 per cent children of India under five years of agemalnourished, we cannot delay reforms in dysfunctional traditions just as thefunctional ones must be carried forward.

In one of the villages, we came across a very interesting innovation in watersupply. Normally in schools, one hand pump can serve only one kid at atime. It becomes very difficult to all the children to drink water in the limitedtime they have for recess. Some teachers and perhaps public healthengineers in Jharkhand came out with an interesting idea of attaching a pipeto the hand pump [see photo] having six taps for children to drink watersimultaneously. These taps are small outlets and thus water wastage is alsoavoided which is inevitable in the conventional hand pump having a much



larger output. Earlier in Rajasthan, two innovators had attached a small tapto the hand pump for drinking purpose and the bigger one for filling thebucket. But the current innovation is ideal for school.

We walk in summer in the places which are hot and the winter, which arecold. Voluntary suffering helps in understanding the rural life much betterand accordingly share our own knowledge and database with the localcommunities. The next Shodhyatra is planned to be pursued in Mizoram in January 2012 from 3 – 11. All participants share their costs and try to learnfrom within, each other, nature and of course the common people. Thecontext of the social conflicts in many of these regions can be understoodwhen one looks at persistent apathy of the state towards the genuine needsof local communities. There is practically no in-situ value addition in any of the forest regions through which we have walked so far. If one treats tribalpeople as the labourers of contractors for collecting forest produce, no

amount of police action is going to bring about peace, no matter what theHome Minister may think. There is a need for serious reconsideration of thepolicies of engagement with tribal and other communities, neglected so long.

conservation, conflict and creativity extended

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