The immensely excited Himalayan bird

 

 I don’t know what the reason for excitement was, was it the recently caught grub –that he had in his beak, or is it the general nature of this bird..it’s a sunny day in the hills what more you need? Whatever maybe the case this bird was immensely excited. Spotted this Himalayan Black-lored Tit on an afternoon walk at Chakrata, about three hours from Dehradun. I got so concerned that I was looking around for snakes that I assumed got this one excited.

   

Himalayan Black-lored Tit (Parus xanthogenys) has black band in front of the eyes hence the name, it looks stylish, with yellow mascara, punk hairdo like on the forehead and macho black going down the chest makes it to the top competitor on debonair list. Not a lifer for me but surely first time on camera.  

 

Save the rice campaign 

During the late 1960s India had serious foodgrain problems; the Malthusian predictions were coming true. And then green revolution happened. It was a tremendous success (Norman Borlaug was man of good intention) but slowly it is getting clear that it has brought in crisis of magnitude still unfolding. The water intensive fertilizer dependent hybrid seed was not only creating its own problems like siltation of water source, disease resistant pests, loss of soil fertility and pesticide poisoning of sources (thus cancer), it also pose serious threat to biodiversity as also traditional wisdom and culture, indeed to the way of living that is sustainable and comprehensive in its outlook. It is in this context that rice, the staple of many communities across Asia, and its biodiversity loss gain significance. Also this is an urgent matter since the green revolution initiated gains are now sought to be consolidated and monopolized through genetic engineering. There is a sinister attempt to evict farmers from the field and make them parasitic to agribusiness conglomerates.  Accordingly in Penang, Malaysia, “Five Pillars of Rice Wisdom” framed in 2003 as a precursor to an Asia-wide “Save Our Rice” campaign, specific objective being:

1. To raise awareness about local Asian rice culture among societies and to facilitate a sharing of experiences among rice farmers.
2. To highlight farmers’ knowledge and community wisdom by encouraging factors such as intuition, spirituality and ethics in rice cultivation.
3. To promote chemical-free and productive biodiversity-based ecological agriculture, aiming towards community self-reliance.
4. Awareness building among farmers and consumers about the threats that “high input varieties” and genetic engineering will bring to their livelihoods.
5. Community empowerment and support of the resistance against the impacts of globalisation and trade liberalisation on Asian rice cultivation.

It is believed that there were over 1.5 lakh varieties of rice in India once upon a time. There is a serious loss of rice diversity due to market driven hybrid seeds. This campaign is an attempt to bring in and network everyone interested in sustaining rice cultivation - farmers, consumers, NGOs, students, children, teachers, leaders, policymakers, media, academicians, scientists and in a broader sense, the general public – to explore the chances of sustaining rice and rice-culture. Indigenous rice varieties are being identified, popularised and conserved through seed banks and cultivation and sharing of experiences and seeds. India has a plethora of traditional paddy varieties which are nutritious and developed over centuries. Some of the traditional strains are more resistant to drought and could be an answer to the climate change. The matter is so significant that UNGA observed 2004 as international year of rice (incidentally this year it is Quinoa). 

I interacted with the NGO Thanal that is spearheading the campaign in south India. They are trying to identify those people who are collecting the seeds of the traditional varieties and sustaining rice cultivation. The hope for the future of rice diversity is from the work of paddy seed savers. During the “Save our Rice” rally sometime back I happen to meet some paddy seed savers. Later I went to Mysore (Malavalli to be specific) and met Ghani Khan who has conserved over 500 varieties of rice (as also about 80 varieties of mangoes). Conservation means he is cultivating these varieties on his land and not just preservation, indeed he has laboriously created a museum of paddy seed variety on the first floor of his modest house, it need be pointed out that he had studied to be a museum curator but due to personal reasons couldn’t pursue. It was quite an incredible experience, as Mr. Khan showed amazing varieties of rice of different shapes, colour and scent. He is also trying to revive the lost legacy of traditional paddy plants through organic method of farming. So if you are passing on Bangalore-Mysore highway, about 30Km before Mysore is located Malavalli, you may drop into his museum, rudimentary but interesting.    

Tail piece: this blogger tries to mostly use organic and natural ingredients, places like Delhi is quite uncivilized on these  matters, so had to travel all the way to Delhi Hatt at Navadanya. Places like Bangalore, Mysore etc are relatively sophisticated and aware, so you will find lots of organic outlets. Unfortunately for me since I travel a lot so end up eating all kinds of crap in the name of food. On matters of culinary concern, taste is necessarily subjective and means healthy, wholesome and produced by sustainable means but that is not what American led market understands. These crudeness are then spread as part of freedom of expression. I guess there is a misconception on what is taste, it seem to be class and market driven.