Widening Arunachala Girivalam Path: July 29, 2016

The below is an abridged version of a article that appears today in a National Newspaper about the decision which has now been taken regarding the widening of the Arunachala Girivalam Path. To read the unabridged version, go to this link here. 

 

Girivalam roadway Outside Rajarajeshwari Temple 2009

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The widening of the Girivalam at Arunachala, which has been mired in controversy over the felling of trees, is is to be reviewed by an expert panel, headed by a retired IFS officer. 

Though locals and activists pressed for cancelling the work that would entail cutting 125 full-grown trees, the southern bench of National Green Tribunal declined, while assuring them to protect the green cover in the hills. 

After considering the concerns expressed by local villagers during the hearing of a petition filed by S Krishna Kumar, the bench comprising judicial member P Jyothimani and expert member PS Rao observed that the government was correct on widening the Girivalam path. 

“Yes, so far no untoward incident was reported. But, we can’t wait for a stampede to happen, which we see often in shrines in North India. Considering the massive crowds witnessed especially during every full moon night and during ‘Karthigai Deepam Mahotsavam’, there is a need to widen the pathway. The project can’t be stalled,” justice Jyothimani said categorically. 

However, the expert committee, yet to be appointed, would conduct a case by case study of these 125 trees so as to ensure that not a single tree is cut unnecessarily. “No tree will be allowed to be felled in the Sonagiri forest area, which is an ecologically sensitive belt in the entire 14-km stretch,” the bench assured. 

According to the report submitted by Tiruvanamalai District Collector earlier, lakhs of pilgrims undertake circumambulation around the 14-km path of the famed Arunachaleswarar temple. The existing path was inadequate to accommodate the sea of devotees, making the widening of the path necessary. This would also facilitate movement of emergency vehicles. 

The tribunal on Thursday (July 28, 2016) said Girivalam should have a dedicated lane for emergency vehicles like ambulances especially during peak season. The expert panel will be appointed during the next hearing on August 17. 

Meanwhile, the Highways Department, executing the project, sought modification in the interim stay passed by the National Green Tribunal. The Highways Department have been assured that no tree would be felled in the Sonagiri forest area, which forms 5.2 km out of total 14 km. Further they have requested that: 

“Let the tribunal decide related to works in Sonagiri forest area, but we request the activists and the Court not to stall the work in the remaining 9 km. The stay order has hampered work in the entire 14 km, which is leading to unnecessary cost escalations,” he said. 

The proposed expansion is divided into five works. Pondy-Krishnagiri Road, Sonagiri forest area, Hill round road, Kanji road and Anna arch road. The majority of widening has been already carried out except in the Sonagiri forest area. 

Local activists have promised that a separate census with the help of locals will occur on the number of trees felled and submit it before the Tribunal at the next hearing. They remarked: 

“Every tree is part of a 600-year-old heritage attached to the sacred hill. Many are several hundred years old. To our estimate, 50 trees are already cut. The footpath that the contractors are laying is unscientific covering the root area, harming growth of the trees. If you cut a 300-year-old banyan tree that can shelter 50 pilgrims and compensate with 10 saplings, what purpose will it serve?” 

Tiruvannamalai Strike July 20, 2016 regarding Arunachala Girivalam Forest Deforestation

The below article appears in today’s "The Hindu", regarding a strike in Tiruvannamalai scheduled to take place on July 20, 2016 in response to the serious deforestation of Arunachala Girivalam forests. 

“People from various walks of life have come together to highlight the need to protect the flora and fauna along the girivalam path. They have formed the Tiruvannamalai Girivalam Path Environmental Protection Committee, and have demanded that the State government give up the project to widen the girivalam path. 

The committee, during its meeting held on Sunday, decided to call for a token strike on July 20 urging the government to withdraw the project. Accordingly, shops in Tiruvannamalai town will be closed from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. At the same time, the committee would form a human chain from Dr. Ambedkar statue to Kamarajar statue, a press release said. The committee members have urged all traders’ associations, political parties, NGOs, cultural and literary organisations, industries, educational institutions, advocates associations, street vendors, environmentalists, devotees, movie theatre owners and public to take part in the protest. 

They argued that the project will destroy major portion of the forest. 

This included several centuries-old rare varieties of trees, herbal plants, birds and animals. 

Members of various traders’ associations, lawyers’ associations, farmers, NGOs, political parties, writers and artists have come together to form the protection committee to represent the views of a large section of people to the government. About 200 persons took part in the meeting, according to S. Karuna, propaganda organiser of the committee.” 

Trees Destroyed at Dusk on Girivalam Roadway

The below article dated July, 11 is from a National newspaper about the ongoing controversy concerning the deforestation of trees along the Arunachala Girivalam Pathway. 

The article reads:

“Despite by the stay order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against felling of trees along the Girivalam for the road widening project, the young trees, sacred grooves saplings and branches of-grown trees have been continuously facing the axe. 

On Saturday night, two well-grown trees Forest Flame and Villam adjacent to Chandra Lingam were uprooted using an earthmover by the contractors on the Girivalam path. The uprooted trees were found dumped in Sriharam Lake. 

Advocate and petitioner in the case P K Dhananjeyan said that he spotted the contractors uprooting the young trees and clearing the shrubs on the stretch at about 8 pm on Saturday. 

He intervened and questioned the contractor for carrying the works despite the NGT order and District Collector's order. In the meantime, the environmental activists also reached the spot. Sensing the situation, the contractor and workers winded up the work. 

'Though the workers tried to cover up the illegal felling of the trees, we searched and found the uprooted trees dumped in Sriharam Lake near the Girivalam path today (Sunday) morning," said Dhananjeyan. 

The Collector, after conducting an inspection along the path on last Monday, said that the work along the Girivalam path should be stopped. Contradictory to the Collector's statement, the work has been still going on. 

Calling the act of the contractors as a total disregard for the NGT order, activist Kumar Ambayeram of Tiruvannamalai said that the State Highways have been destroying the ancient and native forest in the name of the development project. "Several hundreds of the trees, sacred grove and shrubs were destroyed under the disguise of clearing the bushes by the officials. They are continuing the work and causing irreparable damage to the ancient forest,' he said. 

The drainage laying work is still in progress. The contractors have been digging up the pit to a depth of five to six feet and pouring the concrete mixture. In the process, they have knocked down several young trees and caused severe damage to the roots of the trees.”

Topsoil disappearing

I previously posted water problem which talks about farmers in Tamil Nadu, cultivating water-intensive crops and indiscriminately exploiting groundwater for irrigation, thus leading to a steep fall in the water table. In this respect it is only in comparatively recent times that such water intensive crops as paddy (rice) started to be cultivated in Tiruvannamalai District. The proliferation of 'bore-wells' allowing individual farms, independent water access, is responsible for the intensive, inappropriate crop cultivation in this area. When all is said and done this is just not the right climate for yearly rice cultivation! In the above mentioned posting, it was also stated that by the juidicious planting of less water intensive crops the area would achieve a 10% reduction in the agricultural sector, thereby considerably easing the impending water shortage situation. At this time agriculture accounts for 85-90% of the total use of water in Tamil Nadu.

The current easy access of existing groundwater is also encouraging farmers to indulge in continuous crop rotation, never allowing the soil to rest and revitalize and exacerbating the disappearance of topsoil. In ths respect, the below abridged article from the U.S. investigates problems faced there with the gradual disappearance of topsoil.

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“Call it the thin brown line. Dirt. On average, the planet is covered with little more than 3 feet of topsoil; the shallow skin of nutrient-rich matter that sustains most of our food and appears to play a critical role in supporting life on Earth.

The estimate is that we are now losing about 1% of topsoil every year to erosion mostly caused by intensive agriculture. To combat this some farmers in the U.S. are beginning to adopt ‘no-till’ methods, which involves not tilling the land between plantings, leaving crop stubble to reduce erosion and planting new seeds between the stubble rows.

David Montgomery has written a book entitled, "Dirt" to call public attention to what he believes is a neglected environmental catastrophe. A geomorphologist who studies how landscapes form, Montgomery describes modern agricultural practices as ‘soil mining’ to emphasize that we are rapidly outstripping the Earth's natural rate of restoring topsoil. The National Academy of Sciences has determined that cropland in the U.S. is being eroded at least 10 times faster than the time it takes for lost soil to be replaced.

Healthy topsoil is a biological matrix, a housing complex for an incredibly diverse community of organisms; billions of beneficial microbes per handful, nitrogen-fixing fungi, nutrients and earthworms whose digestive tracts transform the fine grains of sterile rock and plant detritus into the fertile excrement that gave rise to the word itself ("drit," in Old Norse).

As such, true living topsoil cannot be made overnight and grows back, very slowly, at a rate of an inch or two over hundreds of years. Erosion rates in some U.S. regions have recently improved because of better conservation farming practices, including leaving some natural ground cover in areas of high erosion. Another way of losing soil is by paving it over with regards to urban development. But while some land is lost to development, pollution or changing weather patterns, it is believed that global soil loss is a crisis mostly rooted in agriculture. Soil tilling also seriously exacerbates mud and muddy runoff.

Every year fields are tilled and rains come, washing away the soil - which is just powder, brown dust. It's dead. There's no worms, no life in it. However in no-till fields the dirt is coarsely textured, darker and full of roots, debris and bacteria.

Switching to ‘no-till’ farming requires investment and learning new techniques and also depends more on herbicides because weeds are no longer controllable by ploughing them into the soil. Organic farming methods also can reduce soil loss and has been shown to increase soil health, water retention and regrowth when organic methods are used rather than the traditional methods.”

[Abridged from a report by Tom Paulson)