Hatod ~ Notes from a Central Indian Village


Hatod <notes from a Central Indian village> Hatod ~ The IDEA ~ Exhibitions & Events ~ Photography & Imaging ~ Writings & Books ~ Music ~ Me

THE LAST RESORT [a micro-reserve project]
Feb. 2005 update
(2003 update ~ 2004 update ~ India's proposed National Environment Policy-'04)

other older Hatod pages (1994-'97):
Econotes ~ Wildlife ~ Place ~ Pics ~ Legend ~ Recipes ~ Our Microreserve Project ~ Home ~ e-mail

The Last Resort in Hatod village of Shivpuri district, in the Central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, is now ten years old as a gentle attempt to sustainably protect, nurture and optimize a balanced micro-environment right in the midst of a very harsh macro situation..

Having finally now arrived at the time we had slotted from the very beginning for 'final orientation' of the project into the foreseeable future,.. it is sad to report that we shall be keeping ALL options open with regard to final decisions that need to be taken in the course of this year,.. perhaps including purely from the perspective of real-estate values and alternative-potentials involved.

For, as harsh as this may sound, I am unable to express how nakedly humankind has revealed itself a deadly disease upon this poor lonely planet through this period in this lost little neighbourhood,.. as has also happened with so much else of our world over just a single generation in time.

It must of course be said here that we are still in talks with a couple of NGOs with regard to possibly re-purposing the location as a wildlife rehab center, or perhaps even as some sort of co-curricular facility for lesser privileged local children.

Which means I have finally gotten down to making out a couple of rough maps with which to communicate what we have always said is an entirely unique and unparalled situation, presenting an entirely unique and unparalled opportunity.

All very roughly done of course, essentially just to illustrate a single key point with each map:

Map-1. The irregular central yellow space is farmland carved out of what used to be the rich pasturelands that sustained the large herds of herbivores which in turn used to sustain the vanished tiger-population for which Madho was originally declared a National Park.

Map-2. The 'large hill' near The Last Resort that we have always spoken of as being centrally served by this project used to provide crucial sanctuary and safe corridor to water for animals that surrender to the lure of the surrounding pasture/farmlands, and somehow find their way out from the National Park,.. generally through gaps broken in the surrounding walls and fences by herders looking to get their cattle in!

~
below: satellite overview of location

Now, here's the story today:

1. There used to be plenty of wildlife visiting these farmlands when we first dug in, in 1994. There's almost none now

2. There used to be several copses of brush-jungle scattered amidst the farmlands where wildlife could also find sanctuary outside the park. All gone now

3. There used to be enough underground water for idiots to maintain private 'lakes' with pumps running 24/7 on free-electricity provided to farmers by idiot governments. Most tubewells are now dry

4. Drawing of water for Shivupri town from Lake #2 has escalated to the degree that the 'Occasional Irrigation Canal' now almost never flows

5. For the same reason, the Barhai River's flow is in dangerous decline

6. And on account of both that and also Item #3 above, drawing of water for irrigation from the small section of the Barhai that-illogically-flows out from the National Park and then back in again after 2-3km has reached dangerous proportions

7. That's of course in addition to its ongoing slow-poisoning by agro-pesticides

Meanwhile, with regard to similar depressing developments elsewhere around this country, taking as a benchmark my old comments from almost 10 years ago somewhere in these pages still, with regard to how tigers now had better chances of survival in captivity rather than in the wild, even if in sanctuaries (and that so too is the case with a lot of other wildlife here):

i. the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan has recently been confirmed to have lost all of its 17 tigers

ii. the Ranthambore National Park, also in Rajasthan, is almost confirmed to be suddenly 18 tigers short

iii. Panna National Park, in Madhya Pradesh, is confirmed to have lost 21 young adults and 9 breeding tigers over the last 2 years

iv. about 10,000 tigers are confirmed to be thriving as private pets in the USA

v. and here's the bottomline we have now in Hatod:

After having first 're-claimed' these lands for farming;
After having sold or burned almost every single tree and root;
After having fed everything in between to cattle for their dung;
After having tricked entire native communities into Bondage;
After having tilled every last shred of topsoil into the wind;
After having shot or electrocuted entire herds of wildlife into oblivion, and
After having squeezed almost every last drop of water out from the good earth underfoot

... What's to be done?

Why, approach the government of course,.. for there's the hill still sitting right there, waiting just to be chopped up, sold and shipped out for rocks, rubble, dirt and sand,.. to provide further wealth to the powerful, and employment through them to the weak ~ as 'Relief'!

Shankar Barua ~ Feb. 2005

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws