Manu Moudgil

The reclusive family decides to stay indoors due to the overcast sky on a Sunday morning. The parents are seen walking down the road twice, but they dart back after noticing the visitors. The golden jackals are not known for gregariousness, at least not towards humans. The nature trail to meet these canines would remain as cloudy as the sky.

Anand Sharma is probably the most famous weatherman of India today. As the director of the Dehradun centre of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in 2013, he had predicted the Uttarakhand disaster two days before the actual deluge. Had the state government heeded his warnings, the heavy damage to life and property could have been averted.

Nature is the source of much value to us every day. Yet it mostly bypasses markets, escapes pricing and defies valuation. 

The Punjab elections on February 4 will be a keenly watched triangular contest between the ruling SAD (B)-BJP alliance, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). All three groups claim to be saviours of Punjab but their manifestos don’t exude much confidence on the water and sanitation front.

Last year, a crocodile walked seven kilometres to reach Jamwa Ramgarh village near Jaipur looking for food. It had ventured out from Jamwa Ramgarh dam, which used to have around 100 of its species at one time. Since 2006, however, the dam is dry, leaving little fish or other prey for the aquatic reptiles. 

“Can you see the alternating bands of light and shadow in the sky?” Chattar Singh asks me. When I nod in affirmation, he continues, “This is Mogh. There are clouds where the sun is setting right now. If we get a favourable wind, these clouds will reach here and we may get rain by night. In desert, people live by such clues from nature.”  

A scarcity of something makes it special. That’s the reason why Rajasthan has always sanctified water much more than any other place in India. Low rainfall and saline groundwater turned people into great conservers who not only built beautiful and durable structures but also developed sustainable practices around them.

Noted environment lawyer Ritwick Dutta received the Bhagirath Prayas Samman at the recently concluded India Rivers’ Week. We catch up with him on his journey so far and how we can further expand the constituency of environment.

Q. Who was your idol and what did you learn from him/her?

“I remember I need to work on that article of yours. Will do that when I get better,” Anupam ji said taking my hands in his. He had gone weak, was in a lot of pain but still took out the time to attend the inaugural day of India Rivers’ Week (IRW) last month.

Deot Masih’s family has been extracting lotus root from the marshy land in his village near Gurdaspur for several decades. Delicate and crunchy, the edible roots are in high demand going as far as Srinagar in the north and Delhi in the south. Similar is the case with chestnut grown in this swamp.