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1-15 DECEMBER, 2015
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SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT FORTNIGHTLY
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25/11/15 1:26 PM
A Down To Earth ANNUAL
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2016
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24/11/15 3:46 PM
EDITORS
ALTERNATIVE
PARIS
WROTE LAST about what I expect will happen at the Paris

climate change conference. But what should happen? First,
the world must strongly underscore the need to keep the temperature rise below 2C at the very least. Today, with less than
1C rise, the world is beginning to experience deadly impacts.
In India, we are seeing weird weather, extreme rainfall events and
highly variable temperatures that have become the bane of agriculture, destroying crops and causing deep distress. Clearly, even 2C
rise will be too much, but promising anything more ambitious
would be delusional. It would mean greatly increasing the rate of
emission reduction by the already industrialised countries which is
crucial but highly unlikely.
Current emission reduction plans on the table, called Intended
Nationally Determined Contributions (indc), do
not add up. Even the UN accepts that the aggregate impact of all the plans will result in a 2.7C
rise. Our analysis shows this is a gross underestimate and that the rise could be well above 3C.
This is when the burden of transition has shiftedanalysis of indc shows clearly that the already
industrialised, who have historical responsibility
to cut emissions, are doing one-fifth of their share.
The developing world is taking on this action.
Secondly, all must agree that countries will increase their level of ambition to cut emissions and
that this reduction will be based on the fair share of the global carbon budget. This is because arresting the rise in temperature means
agreeing to how much carbon dioxide can be emitted between 1870
and 2100. There is a direct correlation between temperature increase
and quantum of emissions that can fill up the atmosphere. According
to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to keep the
world below 2C, with a 66 per cent probability, the budget is some
2,900 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide between 1870 and 2100.
Paris agreement must accept that all countries have the right to
development and that this requires equitable sharing of the global
carbon budget. Of the 2,900 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, some
1,900 billion tonnes have been used upthis amount of carbon dioxide is already accumulated in the atmosphere. There are some
1,000 billion tonnes left, which can be emitted between now and
2100. But there are two other facts to be noted.
One, that the already industrialised countries have overused
their carbon quota. But more importantly, their lack of ambition
means they will continue to surreptitiously appropriate even more
of the budget. The US, for instance, has already used up some 21 per
cent of the total carbon budget. Between now and 2030, as per its
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
03Editors.indd 3
lacklustre indc, it will take up another 8 per cent. In this way the indc
is not just a countrys commitment to reduce emissions, it is its intention to occupy global carbon space.
Two, by 2030, according to the current emission targets on the
table, some 80 per cent of the carbon budget will be used up. In other words, what is available to the world to use up to 2100 will be
nearly finished by 2030. This would be fine if all countries were at
equal levels of development and would not require any space for
growth beyond 2030. But this is hardly the case. India and almost
all of Africa, even under the most aggressive plans for growth, would
still be struggling to meet the basic needs of people beyond 2030.
But by then the carbon budget would be all appropriated and gone.
What happens to their right to development?
So, thirdly, and most crucially, Paris must
agree to operationalise equity by accepting that
the level of effort of each countrys indc will be
equal to its share of the global carbon budget.
Anything less would be development apartheid.
Anything less would be gross climate injustice.
Fourthly, to ensure ambition and also operationalise equity, it must agree that it will stocktake the commitments made by countries. These
commitments must ensure that the world stays
below 2C rise and reflect the equitable sharing of
the global carbon budget.
Fifthly, the Paris agreement must recognise that it is the worlds
poor who are worst hit, even though they are least responsible for the
emissions that are leading the world to a climate precipice. The current draft only has some broad statements about the need for all governments to build resilient systems to adapt to climate change. This
must change to protect the interests of the poorest and to ensure that
not only is the loss and damage estimated but payment is made.
Finally, Paris must build the framework for future action, real
and meaningful, to combat climate change. To do this it must identify key actions that can be supported through global fundingnot
ways in which aid is passed off as climate supportto make the transition towards low-carbon growth. The best way to share the limited carbon budget is if countries find ways not to use the space at all.
This has to be the promise at Paris.
RITIKA BOHRA / CSE
PAGE
www.downtoearth.org.in 3
25/11/15 1:25 PM
Down To Earth
ON THE WEB
SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT FORTNIGHTLY
Anil Agarwal
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Sunita Narain
MANAGING EDITOR Richard Mahapatra
WHAT'S HOT
FOUNDER EDITOR
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Vibha Varshney, Archana Yadav,

S S Jeevan
MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Arnab Pratim Dutta
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ajit Bajaj
GRAPHIC EDITOR Sorit Gupto
REPORTING TEAM
Anupam Chakravartty, Jitendra Choubey,

Kundan Pandey, Jyotsna Singh, Rajeshwari
Ganesan, Shreeshan Venkatesh, Karnika
Bahuguna, Jigyasa Watwani
COPY DESK
Snigdha Das, Rajat Ghai, Jemima Rohekar,

Aditya Misra, Vani Manocha, Rajit Sengupta,
Moushumi Sharma, Deepanwita Niyogi,
Aakriti Shrivastava
SPECIAL COVERAGE
Women power
in Bihar
A remarkable feature of the
just-concluded Bihar Assembly
election was that women
voters outnumbered men in all
phases. Explanations vary from
Nitish Kumar's women-friendly
policies to the fact that most
men in the Bihar countryside
have migrated to other states,
leaving women behind to
vote independently.
DESIGN TEAM
Chaitanya Chandan, Shri Krishan,

Raj Kumar Singh, Tarique Aziz, Ritika Bohra
PHOTOGRAPHER Vikas Choudhary
PHOTO LIBRARY Anil Kumar
SPECIAL FEATURE
BLOG
A sultan's silken dreams
Climate change can

trigger security
concerns in south
Asia, says Minu
WEB TEAM
Rajendra Rawat, Jaidev Sharma

PRODUCTION
Rakesh Shrivastava, Gundhar Das
Sinha Ratna
INFORMATION AND RESEARCH SUPPORT
Kiran Pandey
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in team
POPULAR
On web
CONSULTING EDITORS
Chandra Bhushan, Anumita Roychowdhury

Vol 24, No 14; Total No of Pages 80
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37 per cent of natural

springs, which contribute
to the Ganga, are drying up
Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of
Mysore, was a visionary
ruler whose economic
policies had far-reaching
effects on the lives of
his subjects. He laid the
foundations of Karnataka's
silk industry by importing
silkworms from China via

Bengal. A century later,
industrialist J N Tata,
aided by Mysore's former
Wodeyar rulers, revived
the dormant silk industry
and made it famous in
India and across the world.
On Facebook
These farmers use paddy
straw for income
On Twitter
Women's ultimatum to
husbands: build toilets or
go without food
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Down To Earth editorial does not
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printed in the magazine
4 DOWN TO EARTH
04web and credits.indd 4
Delhi: A gas chamber

on Diwali night
CSE's clean air campaigner Vivek
Chattopadhyay talks about how
the pollution level in Delhi was
about 40 times higher than the
safe limit on Diwali night.
www.downtoearth.org.in
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 12:28 PM
VIKAS CHOUDHARY / CSE
letters
The joys of sharing

This refers to the article Shared ride (16-31 October, 2015) which throws light on
vehicle sharing. Though in its nascent stages, this practice has a promising future
in India. When daily commuters share rides in their personal vehicles, they not
only save money, but also render a useful service to society and the environment.
If five commuters, all having their own cars, use only one instead of five, they
help in decreasing the ubiquitous traffic snarls in the busy hours of the day and
thus save time of all travellers using the same highway. They also contribute in
making the environment cleaner by emitting less exhaust gases. It is so simple.
Professionals working in the same office have already been sharing their vehicles
for long. Recently, a number of carpool companies have started their operations
and are spreading their network in many cities. But the question of credibility and
safety of riders often remains a concern.
In my opinion, the government should step in to promote this trend. It should
issue I-cards and display stickers to those who intend to share their vehicles to
economise the cost of travelling and also to secure the commuters. Coupons
can be issued to such car owners and made mandatory, so that a rider can get
a coupon in which details such as the car number, destination, date and time is
mentioned. This will improve the credibility of the system and ensure the safety of
the commuters.
L R SHARMA
SUNDERNAGAR
* By implementing carpooling, we are not only saving our money but also the
environment. The apps available today for carpooling are saving our time and
providing cheaper rides. I agree with the last lines of the article in which India is
called a better place for carpooling.
ASHUTOSH KUMAR MISHRA
VIA EMAIL
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
05-07Letters.indd 5
26/11/15 12:30 PM
letters
This refers to the article

Shooting for the sun (1631 October, 2015). Without
a doubt the sun is going to
become the prime source of
energy in the future. But today,
the technology utilised in
harnessing the sun's
unlimited power is in the
early stages of evolution.
The present photovoltaic
(PV) cells and the concave
mirror heaters are inefficient.
There are many constraints
in installing PV cell panels,
land being one of the biggest.
In such a scenario, rooftop
installation of solar panels is
the answer.
The Jawaharlal Nehru
Solar Mission should identify
potential villages in the
country and install PV solar
panels on rooftops and
make the scheme a success,
like in Germany. We may
not generate much but we
will save the expenditure
incurred on transmission and
distribution and also curtail
losses and thefts.
SWETA BASNETT
Rooftop solar panels

are the answer
Flowering life forms
Dirty diesel
This refers to the article

Fragrance of Life (16-31
October, 2015). The authors
have given a very good
account of the role that
flowering rhododendron
plants play in the
Himalayan foothills of
Sikkim. It was interesting
to know about the utility of
rhododendron flowers as a
source of food and a hosting
place for mating, hunting and
also nesting.
This refers to the editorial

Who can touch diesel?
(November 1-15, 2015). The
proliferation of private diesel
vehicles is primarily due
to two reasons. One is that
administratively controlled
prices of petroleum products
has played a role in creating
an atmosphere where one fuel
is preferred to another. Better
efficiency of the diesel engine
is the second reason.
A high subsidy on
kerosene to keep it very
cheap has encouraged its use
KIRAN SHARMA
VIA EMAIL
BMT RA JEEV
BENGALURU
http://www.facebook.com/down2earthindia
Yes. Delhi should always celebrate a crackerfree Diwali, given that it is the most polluted
city in the world.
RA JENDAR SINGH
Should Delhi celebrate

a cracker-free Diwali
each year?
6 DOWN TO EARTH
05-07Letters.indd 6
Unfortunately, in Delhi now there is no other

option but to observe a cracker-free Diwali.
AMIT MISHRA
lit again in the city.

RITA DWIVEDI
If Delhi has to celebrate Diwali with crackers,

it should go into the root causes of what is
causing its air to become foul: rising vehicular
population and the agricultural fires lit in the
states around it.
SURE SH SISODIA
I think the residents of Delhi should

refrain from celebrating Diwali with
crackers for a few years. During this
time, efforts should be made by the
government to clean the air of the city.
Once this is done, Diwali crackers can be
I don't think a blanket ban on crackers is

necessary. But people should try and burn as
few crackers as possible in cities like Delhi,
where the environment is highly polluted.
GURBAKSH SINGH
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
23/11/15 10:58 AM
TARIQUE AZIZ / CSE
R N MISRA
AHMEDABAD
BHARATH KUMAR K
imagined this book could get so much

attention and we hope this attention will
translate
ERRATAinto a better understanding of
elephants and nature in general.
THINKSTOCKPHOTO
in adulterating diesel, which affects the

emission performance of engines. The
solution lies in a multi-pronged attack
on the root cause. Cost parity between
petroleum products would reduce
adulteration and, in turn, improve exhaust
ASHOK TRIVEDI
performance of engines.
Another aspect of the problem
is poorly organised mass transport
system, which forces people to use
personal vehicles. A city or town needs at
least rudimentary transport. The mere
presence of taxis, auto rickshaws and
cycle rickshaws is not enough. Private
operators are not answerable to anyone
and enjoy the right to refuse. The cardinal
principle of availability and adherence to
schedule is absent in private operatorbased transport service. The least local
bodies can do is to link a few important
places like railway stations, airports
and bus terminuses by user-friendly bus
services. Private operators can perform a
supportive role.
JE AN-PHILIPPE PUYRAVAUD
SIGUR NATURE TRUST, NILGIRIS
Sunita Narain replies:

We also hope the book will generate a
better understanding of our challenges.
NO
O TT II C
C EE B
BO
OA
AR
RD
D
N
Purnapramati
A Center for Complete Onto-Epistemological Learning
NICHOLAS CLAXTON
Mischievous statement
This refers to Haryana's health minister
Anil Vij's statement suggesting that the
cow be declared India's national animal
in place of the Royal Bengal Tiger (The
Fortnight, 1-15 November, 2015). The
statement is not only mischievous but also
has a lot of potential to create chaos. The
minister concerned deserves a special
award for suggesting the most idiotic
proposal of 2015.
G AZEEMODDIN
ANANTAPUR
Thank you
We want to thank Down To Earth for the
article on Giant Hearts (Elephant Tales,
P Swould
SUBRAHMANIAN
1-15 October, 2015). We
not have
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contents
THE FORTNIGHT
Now, relish insects
A UK government report recommends

insects as an environment-friendly
alternative to meat
22
11
Little respite for

Patancheru
Industries continue to
pollute the country's
pharmaceutical hub in the
absence of effective vigilance
16 How milkmen
landed in a soup
26
A crash in international dairy

prices has left India's dairy
farmers in the lurch
COVER STORY
Labour exit
Labour shortage in
agriculture forces
Indian farmers to
innovate to stay afloat
18
Chennai floods,
a human-made
disaster
24
The recent deluge highlights

the pitfalls of development at
the cost of waterbodies
Leprosy is still
around
Thought to be eliminated 10 years

ago, the debilitating disease is
spreading fast and has become
drug-resistant
14
Half-baked
Changes proposed in the
emission norms of brick kilns
are unlikely to curb pollution
8 DOWN TO EARTH
08-09Contents.indd 8
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 5:51 PM
52
REVIEW
Wings of ecology
Cultural tolerance can
help reduce human-wildlife
conflict
56
42
OPINION
Dropping
flat
49
Pradhan Mantri Krishi

Sinchayee Yojana is
all set to repeat past
mistakes
HEALTH
Only for the

susceptible
Hybrid wheat and
wheat products
could be responsible
for the growing cases
of gluten-related
celiac disease
Intel inside
Intelligence is not
just about language
and logic
GOOD NEWS
Banking on
grains
SCIENCE
Global warming
reaches deep sea
Why USA
grudges
the poorest
Farmers in
Bangladesh create
paddy banks to tide
over the lean season
Melting glaciers are impacting

seafloor ecosystems
44
50
TECHNOLOGY
54
Re-charged
41
USA opposes
least developed
countries' plea
for indefinite
exemption from
pharma patents
Elusive
temper
Scientists join
the nationwide protests
against
irrationality
and
intolerance
58
Scientists find
alternatives to replace
the expensive lithiumion batteries
20-PAGE DTE SUPPLEMENT

WITH SUBSCRIPTION COPIES
WILDLIFE
Suspended
animation
Climate change is altering
the hibernation pattern of
animals, disturbing their
breeding patterns and
metabolism
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
08-09Contents.indd 9
46
P L A N E T
P E O P L E
P O L I T I C S
GOBAR TIMES
59-78
Supplement Editor: Souparno Banerjee

Copy: Diksha Chopra and Arif Parrey
Design: Ajit Bajaj, Ritika Bohra and Surender Singh
Illustration: Sorit Gupto, Tarique Aziz and Ritika Bohra
26/11/15 12:29 PM
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p10 dec,15
FORTNIGHT
CROSS HAIRS
THE
Use insects as food, says UK report

A R E P O R T by the UK government's
Waste and Resources Action Programme
(WRAP) has stated that insects should
become a part of people's staple diet
around the world as an environmentfriendly alternative to meat. But
persuading consumers to overcome the
yuck factor would be difficult, says the
report, which assessed challenges to the
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
11-13The Fortnight.indd 11
development of the food system in the next

10 years. The report also recommends
increased consumption of seaweed. Labgrown meat is suggested as another
alternative protein source because it
requires 99 per cent less land to produce
and emits 96 per cent less greenhouse
gases. For more on this visit www.
downtoearth.org.in
POINT
1,500-2,500
microgram/m3
Levels of PM 2.5 when crackers

were being burst on Diwali night in
Delhi. The permissible limit is
60 microgram/m3
Source: Centre for Science and Environment
23/11/15 10:59 AM
FORTNIGHT
CREATIVECOMMONS
WILDLIFE
THE
Racing towards extinction

star tortoise is steadily heading for extinction,
says a study conducted by the UK-based animal welfare nonprofit, World Animal Protection. The tortoises are famed for
the star-like radiating patterns on their shells, which serve
as a camouflage. However, it is this same patterning that also
makes them popular pets around the world. This has made the
tortoises the target of a booming illegal trade. The poachers also
THE INDIAN
exploit a legal loophole since it is illegal in India to possess and

commercially trade in star tortoises, but not in Thailand and other
southeast Asian countries. They are smuggled in boxes hidden
under food items such as vegetables or fish. Many don't survive
the long and illegal journey and those who do survive, suffer in
confined spaces and may die prematurely from malnutrition,
suffocation or stress of confinement.
UN declares 2016 as `International Year of Pulses'
THINKSTOCKPHOTO
T H E U N Food and
Agriculture Organization
(FAO) has announced that
2016 would be celebrated
as the `International Year of
Pulses'. The FAO is hoping
the year-long dedication to
pulses will combat pulses'
under-appreciation as
they can be an affordable
alternative to animal-based
protein. Pulses also improve
animal and soil health and
support biodiversity. The FAO
12 DOWN TO EARTH
also aims to boost pulses'

production and trade and
encourage new uses. Pulses
offer a great potential to lift
farmers out of rural poverty,
as they can yield two to three
times higher prices than
cereals, and their processing
provides additional economic
opportunities, especially
for women. Other recent
international years have
focused on soils, family
farming and quinoa.
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
23/11/15 10:59 AM
THE
I N FO C U S
`Climate change could

lead to more poverty'
I N CO U RT
THINKSTOCKPHOTO
A new World Bank report has warned that

climate change has the potential to push more
than 100 million people back into poverty over
the next 15 years.
The report titled Shock Waves: Managing the
Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty says
that climate impacts would affect agriculture
the most, which is a key sector in the poorest
countries and a major source of income,
food security, nutrition, jobs, livelihoods and
export earnings.
The report suggests that the threat can
be contained through rapid and inclusive
development that takes into account climate
change, targeted adaptation measures and
emission reduction efforts that protect
the poor.
On November 5, 2015, the NGT directed

the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam to seal all
hand pumps releasing contaminated
groundwater in Ghaziabad and five other
districts of western Uttar Pradesh
On October 30, 2015, the National

Green Tribunal (NGT) formed an
expert-level committee to study
and analyse the groundwater
contamination in several districts
of Punjab
On October 28, 2015, the
Supreme Court appointed a
batch of volunteers to clean up
the Kalkaji temple complex in
Delhi every week starting
from November 1
On November 5, 2015, the
NGT accepted an application
against coastal clearance in
the Mithivirdi nuclear power
plant and also questioned
the Nuclear Power
Corporation of India Ltd.
(NPCIL) for incomplete
information regarding this
on their website
FORTNIGHT

Jharkhand High Court suo motu
directed the state's local bodies
to regularly clean the
waterbodies of the state during
Diwali and Chhat festivities
Punjab
Delhi
Uttar Pradesh
Assam
Jharkhand
Maharashtra
Goa
On November 6, 2015, the NGT directed

the state government to take
necessary steps to make the Goa
Meat Complex (GMC) functional for
slaughtering of animals in Goa

NGT asked the Assam
government to clear its
stand on eco-sensitive
zones and how it has
permitted large-scale hotel
projects in and around the
Kaziranga National Park
Number of environmental cases

reported last fortnight*
SUPREME
COURT
HIGH
COURTS
NGT
05
09
55
*(During October 27 to November 16)
Compiled by DTE/CSE Data Centre. For detailed verdicts, visit www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in
Modi has failed India on health: The Lancet

study
of leading medical journal The
Lancet has reportedly criticised
Prime Minister Narendra Modi for
sidelining health since he came
to power in May, 2014. The report
has also warned of a health
collapse if India fails to invest in
combating non-communicable
diseases like diabetes and heart
problems. Written by global health
experts, the study, which will be
published on December 11, also censures Modi for not delivering on his poll promise of universal
health coverage. In an interview to a leading daily, Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet,
said, Health is an issue of national security for India, but Modi isn't taking it seriously. Since Modi has
come in, health has completely vanished. India is on the edge. If Modi does not tackle health, India's
economy, combined with rising population is not sustainable.
V E R B AT I M
THINKSTOCKPHOTO
A FORTHCOMING
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
``For my
contribution I
should have
obtained a Nobel
Prize. But maybe
because I am black I
was not chosen ''
Baba Ramdev,
Yoga Guru
23/11/15 12:54 PM
CHENNAI
FLOOD
Taxi aggregator Ola

launched free boat
service in flood-hit areas
of Chennai
Rain
reign
Shrinking lake area and blocked
drains have reduced Chennai's
capacity to drain rainfall runoff
SHREESHAN VENKATESH | chennai
SUSHMITA SENGUPTA | new delhi
14 DOWN TO EARTH
14-15Chennai Flood.indd 14
COURTESY: OLA
HE HIGH-INTENSITY rainfall that Chennai received in November

brought it to a standstill. Between November 11 and 18, the capital of
Tamil Nadu received 449.9 mm of raina 329 per cent rise against
the normal rainfall of 104.9 mm, says the Chennai division of the India
Meteorological Department.
The rainfall the country receives this time of the year is caused by the northeast monsoon. But its intensity this year was much more due to the presence of
two separate and well-marked cyclonic depressions, which caused the heavy
spells of rain between November 9 and 14 and between November 15 and 17. By
the time the state government brought the flood-like situation under control,
79 people had died in the state. Unofficial estimates, however, put the number
close to 200.
Though the government repeatedly pointed out that the situation was unprecedented, the downpour exposed the states inability to handle heavy rainfall. This should not have been the case because Chennai has been a pioneer of
sorts among Indian cities as far as rainwater management is concerned. Having
faced the severe drought of 1999-2000, the state government made rainwater
harvesting (rwh) mandatory in all buildings in 2003. The Chennai
Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (cmwssb) took a number of
steps to popularise rwh at the household as well as the community levels.
Stormwater drains were provided with percolation pits to recharge underground aquifers with the runoff. Efforts were made to keep the waterbodies in
the city healthy to soak up the rainwater and recharge groundwater.
There are natural canals and drains that directly connect the city with wetlands, waterbodies and rivers such as the Cooum and the Adyar that run through
Chennai. The Cooum is supposed to collect surplus water from 75 tanks in its
catchment area within the Chennai Metropoliton Area, while the Adyar is supposed to carry the surplus water of about 450 tanks in its catchment area and
also from the Chembarambakkam tank which is not in its catchment (see
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 6:21 PM
CHENNAI
Chennai clogged). It was estimated that the
city would harvest almost 129 million cubic
metres of rain and recharge through different methods. Physiographically, Chennai is
flat and needs a very good drainage system.
A combination of natural and artificial
drainage is the only way to protect Chennai
from drought as well as floods. However, it
seems that the governments efforts made
have not been effective.
According to the Centre for Environmental and Water Resources Engineering,
Chennai had more than 600 waterbodies
in the 1980s but a master plan published in
2008 said that only a fraction of the lakes
could be found in healthy condition.
According to records of the states
Water Resources Department, the area of
19 major lakes has shrunk from a total of
1,130 hectares (ha) in the 1980s to nearly
645 ha in early 2000s, reducing their storage capacity, explains architect K Lavanya
of Crescent School of Architecture, B S
Abdur Rahman University, Chennai. Anil
Kumar Gupta of the National Institute of
Disaster Management (nidm), New Delhi,
says that there are over 30,000 slums on
the banks of waterbodies in these areas. The
drains that carry surplus water from tanks
to other wetlands are also encroached
upon. A joint research paper by the department of physical geography, University of

Freiburg, Germany, and Care Earth, India,
shows that the Pallikaranai marsh, which
is the major flood sink in the city, has been
totally killed by buildings and roads that
pass over it.
The human-made stormwater drains
constructed to drain the flood water are
clogged and require immediate desiltation.
The recharge pits constructed by cmwssb
along the drains also require maintenance
and repair at some places.
According to a 2011 study by nidm,
Chennai has only 855 km of stormwater
drains against 2,847 km of urban roads.
Thus even a marginally heavy rainfall causes havoc in the city. Moreover, the population of the city has grown eight times in the
last century, according to nidm. This has increased the runoff which the city is unable to
dispose of in the absence of an adequate
drainage system.
Monumental waste
The loss of waterbodies, drainage systems
and green areas show that the city has never
given a serious thought to flood management. But the state government has spent
huge amounts to clean up the rivers and re-
Chennai clogged
The city is flat and needs a very good drainage system. Flood-like situation
was experienced in areas where waterbodies have been encroached upon
of B
enga
l
Areas affected by water logging
CHENNAI CITY
Bay
Chennai
central
Cooum river
Chembarambakkam tank
Adyar river
Buckingham
canal
Source: chennaicorporation.gov.in, personal communication with Chennai corporation; Map not to scale
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
14-15Chennai Flood.indd 15
Tamil
Nadu
FLOOD
work its sewage infrastructure. A government-funded flood alleviation scheme was

launched in 1998, at a cost of R300 crore, focused mainly on structural measures.
Cleaning of certain waterways and lakes was
also undertaken under the scheme. The
Chennai City River Conservation Project
was launched in 2000 to improve the waterways, with an estimated outlay of R1,700
crore. In 2009, the Union government allocated around R633 crore under the
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal
Mission for Chennai to get its drains in
shape. By 2014, about R394 crore were
spent by Tamil Nadu. In 2014, the
Comptroller and Auditor General of India
noted that the state has not done enough to
protect Chennai from floods and the plans
made for flood control were flawed.
Citizens' efforts
Concerned citizens groups have moved the
courts several times to save the wetlands.
For example, in September 2015, the
Madras High Court ordered all authorities
concerned to remove encroachments from
the marsh of the Pallikaranai lake. Laws,
such as the Tamil Nadu Protection of Tanks
and Eviction of Encroachment Act, 2007,
have not been able to save the wetlands in
the city, say experts. Even the court orders
are waiting to be implemented.
Lavanya says that the city needs an integrated approach to flood control and management. This can be done under a nodal
agency that can plan, coordinate and monitor authorities like the Chennai
Corporation, the Slum Clearance Board and
cmwssb. L Elango, head of the geology department, Anna University, Chennai, says
that the mapping of the flood-prone areas
has already been done, but it is not clear why
the state government has not initiated action on this.
Apart from these steps, the management of untreated sewage and solid waste
should be done on a war footing to avoid
choking of the drains, says Lavanya. Strong
regulations to save the urban waterbodies
should be implemented to stop encroachment of the wetlands and water channels.
The existing rules and regulations are
just not strong enough to protect the
urban lakes, says Delhi-based advocate
Sanjay Upadhyay. n
24/11/15 6:22 PM
CHINKY SHUKLA / CSE
Milkmen in the soup

Global integration of the
Indian dairy industry is
making small milk producers
vulnerable to market volatility
JITENDRA | new delhi
16 DOWN TO EARTH
16-17Dairy.indd 16
JIT SINGH, a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar

Pradesh, owns 23 heads of cattle. He supplies 180
litres of milk every day to Amul, a Gujarat-based
milk cooperative. But despite adequate production,
he is incurring losses. In 2014, Singh used to get R34-35 per litre,
depending on the fat content in milk. Now he gets only R28-30
per litre. Over the past year, the procurement price of dairy
companies in Uttar Pradesh has dipped by nearly 20 per cent.
Singh is not alone in this crisis. Small dairy farmers in the
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 12:28 PM
DAIRY
European Union (EU) are also facing the
heat due to a crash in international dairy
prices (see Downward spiral). Singh is
unaware of the global market scenario and
fails to understand why he is unable to cover
the cost.
Reduced prices are threatening the
livelihood of small milk producers. While
many have fallen into a debt trap, some have
been forced to give up their profession.
Many marginal farmers in my locality have
already been pushed out of the market
because the cost of milk production is higher
than the procurement price, Singh says.
According to the Union Ministry of
Agriculture, cooperatives and private dairy
companies procure about 7.2 million litres
of milk every day. These companies are
largely integrated with the global market
through the export of skimmed milk powder
(smp) and other dairy products. But after the
slump in global milk prices, private
companies have started reconstituting smp
to produce milk instead of directly procuring
fresh milk from the farmers and selling it in
the domestic market at a cheaper rate.
Farmers associations in different states
have demanded timely government intervention to end the crisis. The Food Sovereignty
Alliance (fsa), a Telangana-based group,
convened a dialogue in Chennai on October
21 to chalk out a collective strategy to protect
the livelihoods of small and marginal dairy
farmers. In Ajmer, Rajasthan, thousands of
farmers gathered on November 15 and
demanded fodder at half the rate from the
Union government to compensate for the
decreasing procurement price.
In September this year, EU farmers got
a bailout package of US $560 million after
week-long protests at the European Council
headquarters in Brussels and other cities.
However, the Indian farmer is yet to receive
any support from the government. This is
shocking considering about 70 million
households are engaged in dairy production
in the country. The sector employs 90 million
people, 75 million of whom are women.
Butterfly effect
The origin of the current milk crisis can be
traced to plummeting prices in the US and
Europe following Russias ban on the import
of food products from EU in 2013. The ban
was in retaliation for economic sanctions
over the Ukraine crisis.
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
16-17Dairy.indd 17
Downward spiral
Global milk prices have been falling
since Russia and China banned import
of food products in 2013
Rate of skimmed milk powder (in I/kg)
Aug, 2015
April, 2015
2014
2013
92
160
267
333
Source: Food Security Alliance, Global Dairy Trade
Being a strong cooperative in

Gujarat, Amul every year pays
dairy farmers in the state
more procurement price than
in the previous year
Around the same time, China also
stopped the import of dairy products from
Europe. Under its new dairy policy, China
aims at buying dairy processing plants in
New Zealand, one of the biggest dairy
producers in the world, to meet its
milk requirements rather than importing
milk and milk products from dairy-surplus
regions such as the EU. Farmers in China
are throwing milk down the drain. When
cheap smp stocks are floating around,
dairy processors stop purchasing milk or
reduce the procurement price. This leaves
farmers with no or few buyers, says Sagari
R Ramdas of fsa who has authored the
soon-to-be published report, The Milk
Crises-2015: The Story Behind Numbers,
on the link between global and national
policies related to milk.
In the past year, Indias milk exports
have plummeted to less than one-fourth.
In 2013-14, India used to export 140,000
tonnes of smp which fell to 30,000 tonnes in
2014-15. The surplus stock of 110,000
tonnes of smp has set off a price war between
cooperatives and private companies.
In early 2015, Amul started selling
cheap smp-reconstituted milk in Telangana,
forcing other private players in the market
to lower their prices. It is the farmer which
is at the receiving end, Ramdas says.
Besides smp, Amul is also selling normal

milk that it is procuring from the farmers
in Gujarat. In doing so, it is benefitting
the farmers in its home state, but not the
local farmers in Telangana.
We are selling milk in Telangana at the
same price as that of a local cooperative, says
R S Sodhi, managing director, Gujarat
Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation of
which Amul is a brand.
Amul reflects how states with strong
cooperative movements have been providing
immunity from the global crisis to their
respective farmers. According to Sodhi,
Amul every year pays dairy farmers in
Gujarat more procurement price than in the
previous year. This year too they are getting
3.5 per cent more than the price they got last
year despite the slowdown in the
international market. But farmers in
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana are more vulnerable
to the crisis. The cooperatives in these states
are weak and farmers are mostly dependent
on private dairy companies which have
stopped milk procurement, Sodhi says.
Cooperatives which are unable to
procure the surplus stock are rejecting the
milk citing substandard quality. Some of
these include the Tamil Nadu Dairy
Cooperative, Karnataka Dairy Federation,
Mother Dairy in Telangana and Visakha
Dairy Cooperative in Visakhapatnam. The
procurement centres test the milk produced
by the farmers and refuse it on the ground of
low levels of solids-not-fat and fat and pay
them less, says K T Gangadhar, convener of
the South Indian Coordination Committee
of Farmers Movement.
Support measures needed

Although milk prices have been falling for
over a year, the government has not done
anything to bail out the dairy farmers. It lacks
both capacity and funds to absorb the surplus
stock of milk. As a long-term measure, the
government should provide funds to the
dairy industry to increase the processing
capacity and shelf life of milk and milk
products. In the short term, the government
should provide working capital to
cooperatives to meet the contingencies, says
K C Veeranna, a dairy expert in Shivamogga,
Karnataka. This can also mitigate the rise in
input costs such as the increasing price of
cattle feed. n
24/11/15 2:12 PM
REPORT
SPECIAL
Treated but not cured

Ten years after India declared itself leprosy-free,
drug-resistant strains emerge. The environment
facilitates the spread of the disease
KUNDAN PANDEY | new delhi
N DECEMBER 2005, the Indian government
declared it had fewer than one case of

leprosy per 10,000 people. This announcement of elimination, as defined
by the World Health Organization (who),
brought relief to a country known to have the
highest burden of the disease. But the sense
of relief is disappearing fast.
Since 2009, the incidence of new cases
has remained almost constant (see Tricky to
eliminate, p19). In fact, new cases are being
detected at nearly the same rate at which pa-
18 DOWN TO EARTH
18-20Leprosy.indd 18
tients are getting cured, says Kiran Katoch,

former director of the National Jalma
Institute of Leprosy and Other Mycobacterial Diseases in Agra.
In 2013-14 alone, 127,000 new leprosy
cases were reported from across the country,
making India home to 78 per cent of the new
cases detected worldwide. That year, 433
treated patients relapsed into the disease.
Worse, since 2014, India has joined the
growing list of countries, including Brazil
and China, where leprosy can no longer be
treated by the conventional multi-drug therapy (mdt)a specific combination of three

pills which takes from six months to a year to
kill the leprosy-causing germ, Mycobacterium leprae, and has helped countries significantly reduce the disease burden since its
introduction in 1982.
Whats worrying is that new patients are
now showing resistance to mdt, whereas
drug resistance is usually experienced by
those who discontinue the treatment.
Consider the case of Shahla (name
changed to protect identity). The 24-yearold lives in a slum near Delhis Vijay Nagar
area along with her family of eight. She says
no one in her family or friends had ever
contracted leprosy. So in 2007, when she developed skin lesions, she ignored it. The disease remained undiagnosed for two years till
she developed numbness in the affected
area, indicating peripheral nerve damage.
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 2:08 PM
LEPROSY
Tricky to eliminate
Since 2009, new cases are being detected at the same rate at which patients are
getting cured
3.5
Annual new case detection rate
Prevalence rate
3.0
Per 10,000 people
Doctors treated her with mdt and declared

her cured by early 2014. But within six
months, she developed erythema nodosum
leprosum (enl) lesions, a complication of
leprosy that can result in deformity.
Subsequent blood tests showed that Shahla
is resistant to mdt. Doctors at the Delhi hospital of The Leprosy Mission (tlm), an international charitable organisation, are now
treating her with the second-line of treatment. They say Shahla will take another two
years to be cured.
So far, the long delay between the onset
and detection of leprosy had been a major
obstacle to eliminating the disease. It usually takes five to 10 years before the symptoms show up. Now, with the emergence of
drug-resistant strain of M leprae, its elimination will become further difficult, says
Jalaz Rahmi, Medical Officer at tlm
Hospital, Delhi. Diagnosis of the drug-resistant type of leprosy is time-consuming.
Besides, the second-line anti-leprosy drugs
are not available easily and for free.
More than 13 per cent of the new cases
and 44 per cent of the relapsed cases are
showing resistance to rifampicin, one of the
three drugs of mdt, say researchers with
Stanley Browne Laboratory in Delhi, a centre of who for the surveillance of drug resistance in leprosy. The researchers arrived at
the conclusion after diagnosing 215 new and
16 relapsed cases visiting the tlm Hospital,
Delhi, between 2009 and 2014. The study
2.5
2.0
1.2
1.0
0.5
0
2004
2005
2006
2007
was published in Clinical Microbiology and

Infection in November 2015.
Rising cases of drug resistance since
2014, particularly among new patients,
shows that resistant strains are actively circulating in India, says Mallika Lavania, researcher with Stanley Browne Laboratory.
The bacterium is also being transmitted
continuously. This is evident from the fact
that children, who rarely suffered from leprosy given the long incubation period of M
leprae, now account for a significant percentage of the newly reported cases. In several states, according to the Progress Report
of the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (nlep), 2014-15, children account for
over 10 per cent of the new leprosy cases; in
"Post-2005, we no longer have

facilities to document new cases
of leprosy or to know if a patient
has relapsed or developed drugresistance"
Sunil Dogra, professor of dermatology, Postgraduate
Institute of Medical Research, Chandigarh
"Rising cases of drug-resistance

since 2014, particularly among new
patients, shows that resistant strains
are actively circulating in India"
Mallika Lavania, researcher,
Stanley Browne Laboratory, Delhi
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Source: Progress Report of the National Leprosy Eradication Programme, 2014-15
Lakshadweep the proportion is 75 per cent.

So far, M leprae is believed to be transmitted through the discharge of droplets
from the nose and mouth of an infected person. Prolonged contact and an over-crowded environment increases the risk. But recent evidence suggests that environment
could also be responsible for spreading the
bacteria, both resistant and non-resistant.
It is in the environment
To understand the mode of transmission of
the bacteria, in 2011 researchers with
Stanley Browne Laboratory in Delhi tested
soil samples from leprosy endemic areas of
Purulia district in West Bengal for the presence of M leprae. They collected 207 soil
samples from bathing and washing areas
around houses, common sitting places, community ponds and areas around borewells.
They found dna of M leprae in 71 of the 207
samples. The bacteria dna was present in 27
per cent of the 82 samples collected from the
houses of infected leprosy patients, and in 39
per cent of the samples collected from areas
near washing and bathing places, notes the
study published in Infection, Genetics and
Evolution in November 2011. The presence
of M laprae in soil could lead to indirect infection, the study suggests.
The environment also acts as the reservoir of several other Mycobacterium species,
which make people susceptible to leprosy.
One such species is M gilvum. The Stanley
Browne Laboratory researchers stumbled
upon this rare species in 2014, while
24/11/15 2:12 PM
LEPROSY
Leprosy patients spend almost 30 per cent of their family income on treatment. Most patients do
not receive pension
studying the transmission of M leprae in the

population of an endemic village in Purulia.
They isolated the species from the accumulated water in the drain connected to the
bathing place of leprosy patients in the
village. Previous studies had shown that
M gilvum can grow rapidly and is resistant
to antibiotics meant for several life-threatening diseases. Though there is no direct association of this bacterium species with leprosy, M gilvum belongs to the group of M
vaccae, which suppresses the immune system of the host and increases susceptibility
to leprosy, note the research paper, published in the International Journal of
Mycobacteriology in October 2014. Between
2011 and 2014, the village with a population
of 1,600 had reported 66 new leprosy cases.
Dangers in post-elimination era

Unfortunately, since 2005 we no longer
have facilities to document new cases of
leprosy or to know if a patient has relapsed
or developed drug-resistance, says Sunil
Dogra, additional professor of dermatology
at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical
Research, Chandigarh.
After the declaration that India has
20 DOWN TO EARTH
eliminated leprosy, India stopped receiving

funds from who, the World Bank and the
International Federation of Anti Leprosy
Associations (ielp); other diseases also took
priority in public-health circles. As a result,
door-to-door visits by leprosy control units
in remote villages were called off, and medical staff were reassigned. Now that people
have to report about leprosy on a voluntary
basis, new cases remain under-reported.
While who supplies mdt medicines free of
cost, the Union government provides health
care and pension to the affected people .
Today, leprosy is part of the general
health services, says Katoch. But in the absence of training, new doctors and health
workers do not have the adequate expertise
to diagnose leprosy.
Discontinuation of nlep is also making
it difficult for treated patients to avail regular care. Gyanendra Singh from Hasanpur
Kala village in Uttar Pradeshs Meerut district has to travel to Delhi at least twice a year
for cleaning of wounds and bandage as there
is no leprosy clinic nearby his village. Every
time I visit Delhi, I end up spending `1,000.
All I receive from the government is `300 as
monthly pension, says Singh.
An analysis by researchers with the

London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, UK, and the Leprosy Mission
Trust, India, shows that 27 per cent of the
leprosy patients in rural areas of Purulia
spend `1,543 a month on treatment. About
53 per cent of leprosy patients suffering from
enl spend 30 per cent of their monthly
household income on treatment. The study
was published in plos Neglected Tropical
Diseases in January 2015.
The monthly pension, which varies
anywhere between `300 to `1,800, is not
enough to meet their expenses. Besides, not
all receive the pension.
Poverty, fear of losing their daily wages,
limited job opportunities coupled with
difficulties encountered to sustain dayto-day life results in migration of patients
back to their home towns abandoning
treatment midway, notes the editorial of the
Indian Journal of Medical Research in
January 2015. This leads to poor treatment
compliance, high drop-out rates, rising
defaulter rates and possible emergence of
drug resistance. It is essential to monitor
drug sensitivity patterns. The emergence of
drug resistance is a cause for concern and a
threat in the post-elimination era. It is important to monitor the emergence of rifampicin-resistant mutants as it is an important bactericidal component in mdt,
notes the editorial.
Lavania says there is an urgent need for
development of drug resistance monitoring
policy and a careful post-treatment followup of cured patients to detect relapse earlier
and rapidly identify resistant strains.
On November 3, tlm organised a conference in Delhi to discuss emerging needs in
leprosy research in the post-elimination era.
Experts attending the conference recommended that the government should urgently train young medical professionals in
diagnosing leprosy and early nerve damage;
empower public health centres to educate
people about early reporting of the disease;
not release patients from hospitals until the
infection is under control; improve services
to leprosy patients; and create a system to
identify high-risk individuals.
The government should act on these
recommendations without delay. n
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 2:08 PM
21 DEC15 2015
21AMway ad.indd 21
24/11/15 3:48 PM
POLLUTION
Supreme abuse
Bulk drug makers at Patancheru continue to pollute in the
absence of effective vigilance, shows an analysis by the Centre for
Science and Environment
KANKANA DAS | new delhi
OR MORE than a decade, 15 bulk drug
manufacturers have been operating in

Telanganas Patancheru-Bollaram industrial area, the countrys pharmaceutical hub, with scant regard to environmental rules and Supreme Court orders,
shows an analysis of the industries inspection reports.
The Telangana State Pollution Control
Board (tspcb) released the inspection reports in response to a Right To Information
(rti) Act petition filed by K Chidhamberum,
president of non-profit, Citizens for Better
Patancheru Constituency. In 2013, Chidhamberum moved the National Green
Tribunal (ngt) in Chennai against the erring industries. In his petition, Chidhamberum alleges that most industries continue to pollute the streams and villages adjacent to Patancheru-Bollaram area in the absence of an effective vigilance by the tspcb.
I realised that the inspection reports of
the tspcb will help prove the violation by
these industries as well as the lackadaisical
attitude of tspcb, says Chidhamberum.
He sent the inspection reports to Delhi
non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (cse) for analysis, which found that
all the companies, barring two, were at fault
on all the parameters that require the per-
mission of the tspcb. Most companies were

producing ingredients for which they do not
have permission. They were using more water than the permitted limit and dumping
more effluents and hazardous waste than allowed. Worse, two units of Hetero Drugs Ltd
have been operating without the environmental clearance from the Union Ministry
of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
(moefcc). In seven cases, the inspection report neither mentions details of the ingredients that are being manufactured without
the consent of the tspcb nor the volumes of
effluents and hazardous wastes the plants
discharge (see Little respite).
SURESH BABU / CSE
The effluent of
pharmaceutical
industries at
Patancheru finds its
way to the Musi river
22 DOWN TO EARTH
22-23Pollution.indd 22
23/11/15 12:54 PM
SPECIAL
cse researchers say the

discrepancies raise doubts
about the quality of inspection carried out by tspcb.
Shifting load
TELANGANA
Patancheru
moefcc classifies pharmaceutical industries as red category because of the hazardous waste they produce. However, till 1997 industries at
Patancheru routinely dumped their waste
in the surrounding land, irrigation fields
and released their effluents into the
Nakkavagu stream, that passes through the
industrial estate, and other waterbodies that
act as feeders for the Musi river, flowing
18 km from the Nakkavagu. Some would
also send their wastewater in tankers to the
common effluent treatment plant (cetp) at
Patancheru, which is ill-equipped to treat
pharmaceutical effluents. The cetp would
then release the untreated effluents into the
Nakkavagu stream, polluting it further.
Following a public interest petition in
1997 about the highly toxic effluents from
the industries, the Supreme Court banned
the establishment or expansion of bulk drug
manufacturing units in the estate. To
improve the quality of surface and groundwater, it ordered the pollution control authorities to channelise effluents from the
cetp to the mega sewage treatment plant
(stp) at Amberpet through an 18-km pipeline so that industrial effluents can be diluted by mixing with sewage. It also asked the
industries to ensure zero liquid discharge
(zld), which means they would have to treat
the wastewater and reuse it.
Since the waste generated by pharmaceutical industries are not of similar chemical composition, they need to use sophisticated technologies, right from multi-effect
evaporator and agitated thin film dryer to
biological treatment and reverse osmosis,
for treating effluents with high-tds (total
dissolved solids) and that with low-tds.
However, Chidhamberum alleges that very
few industries practice the zero-liquid discharge policy. Instead, they continue to send
Hyderabad
Andhra
Pradesh
In 2009, Patancheru industrial estate was

declared a critically polluted area
270
industries,
including paint, plastic,
chemical and bulk drug,
operate in Patancheru
industrial estate, spread
over 440 hectares
22-23Pollution.indd 23
90
industries send
their effluents to
common effluent
treatment plant
at Patancheru
15
of them
make bulk drugs.
Their effluents are
laced with heavy
metals, organic and
inorganic chemicals
An analysis of inspection reports of the 15 bulk drug industries by

Centre for Science and Environment shows grave violations
Those making
products without
consent
Those producing
ingredients in
excess amount
Those consuming
more water than
allowed
Those
discharging
more effluents
Those producing
more hazardous
waste than limit
10
11
Log on to www.downtoearth.org.in for the detailed report of the analysis
their effluents to the Patancheru cetp. In

fact, the 18-km pipeline meant to shift
wastewater from the Patancheru cetp to the
Amberpet stp is just an eyewash, he adds.
Since the installation of the pipeline, the
quality of the Nakkavaagu appears to have
improved. While the exact improvement in
their quality is yet to be ascertained by independent studies, Chidhamberum says the
intensity of pollution has actually been
transferred to the Musi river and 100 villages in its drainage basin.
The problem is Amberpet stp, located
next to the Musi, is also ill-equipped to treat
the pharmaceutical effluents with different
chemical compositions. As a result, it discharges the untreated effluents into the river. Waterbodies in these villages have become so polluted that people cannot use the
water for bathing. Pollution has also rendered farmlands in these villages fallow,
says a resident of Kazhipalli, a village in the
drainage basin of the Musi.
The sewage treatment plant at Amberpet lies next to

the Musi river and is ill-equipped to treat the effluents
of pharmaceutical industries. So it releases the
untreated wastewater into the Musi, polluting 100
villages in its drainage basin
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
REPORT
Little respite
as
ar
h
Ma
tra
Diseases like cancer, infertility, hormonal imbalance and birth defects are common
in the area. In fact, a family now spends
30 per cent of its earning on treatment, says
G Vijay, assistant professor at the School of
Economics, University of Hyderabad. To
gauge the prevalence of pollution in villages
in the drainage basin of the Musi, his students had interviewed families in the villages of Kazhipalli, Guddaputharam, Sultanpur and Kistareddypeton October 29.
P Ishwar Reddy, executive director of
the Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association
(bdma), told Down To Earth that all industries at Patancheru are complying with the
Supreme Court orders and directions of expert committees. Though Reddy admits that
excess discharge of water and hazardous
waste result in pollution, he says any change
in the pharmaceutical ingredient does not
result in more pollution. But cse researchers argue that any change in the pharmaceutical ingredient requires recombination of
chemicals and different manufacturing process. This will invariably alter the chemical
composition and toxicity of the effluent.
The researchers add that the pollution control authorities should improve their monitoring measures and be extra vigilant to
check the release of toxic effluents at the
point of discharge. n
23/11/15 1:07 PM
GOVERNANCE
Rebuild the system

The changes proposed
in the emission
norms for brick kilns
are unlikely to curb
pollution. Here's why
NIVIT KUMAR YADAV
new delhi
Monitoring small-scale units
is a huge challenge because
state pollution control boards
face a severe staff crunch
24-25Governance.indd 24
NDIA IS the second largest maker of

bricks and as the country grows, the
demand for bricks will only rise. The
sector mostly has coal-based units that
are highly polluting, run on archaic
technologies and adhere to outdated
standards. To curb pollution caused by brick
kilns, the Union Ministry of Environment,
Forest and Climate Change (moefcc) has
proposed changes in the emission
standards. The new norms will be much
more strict than the current ones, according
to a draft notification released by the

ministry in October. But a closer look at the
draft indicates that the changes are unlikely
to have much impact.
Based on a study by the Punjab State
Council for Science and Technology (pscst)
in 2012-13, the draft prescribes bringing
down permissible limit of particulate matter
emission from 1,000 mg/Nm3 now to 500
mg/Nm3 (see Brick by brick.). In the next
five years the emission is to be brought to
250 mg/Nm3.
RAHUL / CSE
24/11/15 12:29 PM
GOVERNANCE
India has more than 120,000 brick

kilns, over 20 per cent of which are in Uttar
Pradesh (18,000), Bihar (4,500) and West
Bengal (2,800). But monitoring these
small-scale units is a huge challenge because
state pollution control boardsthe statelevel authorities responsible for monitoring
pollutionface severe staff crunch. A survey
conducted by Delhi-based non-profit
Centre for Science and Environment in over
20 brick kilns in Ghaziabad, Noida and
Jhajjar found that most industries were
never inspected.
Our kiln was established 15 years ago,
but no one from the Uttar Pradesh Pollution
Control Board ever inspected it, said a kiln
owner in Ghaziabad on condition of
anonymity. In the absence of a monitoring
infrastructure, there is little chance that the
new norms will be implemented.
Another major problem with the draft
notification is its silence on clamp kilns. Of
the 120,000 kilns in the country, over
80,000 are clamp kilns, the most basic type
of kilns with no permanent structure. They
do not require any substantial initial
investment and are almost impossible to
monitor as their location keeps changing.
Members of the Central Pollution Control
Board say they have no way of monitoring
these kilns found across the country. moefcc
should have developed monitoring
mechanisms, ambient air quality standards
and guidelines to notify areas where such
kilns can be set up.
Technology-based guidelines needed

What would have worked is a law that
encourages the industry to move from Fixed
Chimney Bulls Trench Kiln (fcbtk)the
most common type constituting 34 per cent
of all kilns in the countryto kilns based on
cleaner technologies, such as zig-zag kilns
and vertical shaft brick kilns (vsbk). These
kilns help reduce coal consumption by as
much as 20 per cent, and hence emissions
are lower. Several major brick-producing
countries have changed policies and moved
to such technologies. Vietnam, for instance,
successfully experimented with small-scale
tunnel kiln, Bangladesh banned fcbtk and
moved to zig-zag kilns and Nepal is trying
out vsbk and zig-zag technologies.
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24-25Governance.indd 25
Brick by brick
What needs to be done
Ban construction of Fixed Chimney Bull's

Trench Kiln or down-draught kiln
Utilise National Clean Energy Fund for
technology upgradation of existing kilns in
next three-five years
Focus on clay alternatives. Restrict
bricks produced from agricultural soil and
encourage utlisation of clay extracted by
desilting/dredging of tanks, rivers and
canals. Promote bricks made of industrial
wastes such fly ash and marble slurry
Develop research and training institutes
at the regional level to work directly with
entrepreneurs to improve energy efficiency
and reduce emissions
Create a National Brick Mission. It
can be an overarching body to guide
the industry and to prepare a plan for
technology upgradation
Over
20 per cent of
India's brick kilns are
in Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar and West
Bengal
Emission standard for Bull's

trench kilns
(Particulate matter in mg/Nm3)
Proposed 500 mg/Nm3

Small kiln
< 15,000 bricks/day
1,000
Medium kiln
15,000-30,000 bricks/day
750
Large kiln
>30,000 bricks/day
750
Source: Ministry of Environment, Forest
and Climate Change
Pointing at the futility of the proposed

regulations, Sameer Maithel, director of
Greentech Knowledge Solution Pvt Ltd, a
research and consultancy group specialising
in sustainable building design and building
material, says, It is quite easy to achieve the
limit of 250 mg/Nm3 in bull trench kilns as
they can be retrofitted into zig-zag kilns.
According to Ravinder Kumar Teotia,
general secretary of the All India Brick and
Tile Manufacturers Federation, the
emission levels of most units are already
below 500 mg/Nm3. We will meet the new
standard easily, he says.
The cost of converting a Bulls trench
kiln to a zig-zag kiln is R10-20 lakh
depending upon the kilns condition. The
amount can be recovered in a year because
coal consumption in these kilns is much
less, says Om Prakash Badlani, owner of a
zig-zag kiln in Varanasi. But owners have
shown no enthusiasm to switch to a better
technology in absence of any policy intervention, he adds. Maithel says moefcc should
have banned the construction of fcbtk.
The draft says we should use gravitysettling chamber in fixed chimney kilns. The
chamber allows the carbon residue in smoke
to settle on the ground. Over 95 per cent
fixed chimney kilns in India do not use
gravity settling chamber. Many kiln owners
have not even heard of it, says Soumen
Maity,
senior
general
manager,
Development Alternatives, a research
organisation.
The draft has introduced siting
guidelines to demarcate areas where brick
kilns can be set up. This is an aspect that
deserves to be appreciated. It also says that
any two chimneys should at least be one
kilometre apart. But overall, the draft has
more misses than hits. The ministry needs
to revise it and formulate a new
comprehensive draft, says Maithel.
Since the demand for bricks is
expected to peak between 2015 and 2030,
we need stricter environmental standards.
If we do not act now, we would miss an
opportunity to not only reduce pollution
but, also transform our brick industry,
Maithel says. More importantly, revising
standards is one thing but enforcing them is
the real challenge. n
24/11/15 2:10 PM
COVER
STORY
FINDING
ANSWERS
TO THE
34 MILLION
QUESTION
ndias agriculture labour market

is in a state of flux. Going by the
National Sample Survey Offices
(nssos) periodic surveys, 34
million workers left the sector
between 2004-05 and 2011-12.
This is the first time in Indias
living memory that the sector is
reporting a decline in labour participation
(see Indias labour crisis p30-36). It is a
worrying situation because agriculture still
employs close to half of Indias workforce
and accounts for 64 per cent of rural
26-40Cover Story-labour.indd 26
employment. The dip in the agriculture

labour force has been acute in Indias key
grain-producing states like Uttar Pradesh
and Madhya Pradesh. To make matters
worse, the labour shortage is impacting
the countrys five staple crops: rice, wheat,
sugarcane, groundnut and cotton.
Such is the impact of the shortage that
labourers are now earning more than the
farmers. This is due to the significant rise
in agriculture labour wage. According to
an analysis by the International Crops
Research Institute for Semi-arid Tropics
24/11/15 5:27 PM
STORY
ARINDAM GHOSH
COVER
24/11/15 5:27 PM
COVER
STORY
(icrisat), the daily nominal wage rate of
various agricultural activities, such as
ploughing, sowing and transplanting,
increased 3.6 to 4.2 times during 2004
and 2014. According to the Department
of Agriculture and Cooperation, the
cultivation cost of major crops such as
paddy and wheat has been increasing at
an annual rate of 10 per cent due to the
rise in labour cost that now accounts for
up to 50 per cent of total production cost
of crops like paddy.
So, why are labourers moving out of
agriculture at this time? For many, it is a
simple play out of the change in Indian
economy where people have betterpaying livelihood alternatives in nonfarm sectors such as construction and
service sectors. According to icrisat,
though the value of gdp from agriculture
and allied activities has increased by 142
per cent during the last decade, and by 121
per cent during the past five years alone,
its share in gdp has been declining due
to the rise in other sectors. The share of
agriculture in the gdp has declined from
20.7 per cent in 2001-02 to 12.9 per cent
in 2013-14. Some also say the Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment
GuaranteeAct(mgnrega)thatguarantees
manual jobs and offer significantly high
wage rate is the reason labourers are
quitting the farm sector. But several
surveys done by both government and
non-government agencies show that
mgnrega could hardly have lead to the
abandonment of the agriculture sector
to such an extent; at an average the
employment scheme offers just 31 days of
work a year. However, the employment
programme did increase the wage rate
28 DOWN TO EARTH
for agriculture labourers. At the same

time, the dip in the overall agricultural
workforce has not been matching.
Estimates by consultancy agency
kpmg, using the erstwhile Planning
Commissions data, suggest another
23 million more will quit agriculture
in the next five years. It is clear that the
current situation is both a threat and
an opportunity for Indias agriculture
sector. The threat is overwhelming:
scarcity of labour and increasing wage
bill might make agriculture unviable.
The opportunity is that the much
talked about extension of agriculture
mechanisation can happen now.
Farmers are now being forced to find
new ways to reduce their dependency
on manual labour. Innovations are
happening on several fronts: individual
farmers are embracing new technologies,
governments are earmarking sizeable
funds for farm mechanisation,
agritechnology companies are making
use of this opportunity to quickly supply
machines suitable for India, and research
institutions are propagating crops that
require less labour.
The good news is that the
consolidated efforts of different interest
groups are working. According to the
Indian Council of Agriculture Research,
farmers are already reaping benefits
worth `100,000 crore through various
attempts to minimise their labour
cost. Down To Earth correspondents
travelled across the country to report
on this turnaround, while Indias noted
agriculture economists and scientists
explain the phenomenon. The message is
clear: it is a curious case for deep probing.
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 5:27 PM
STORY
PURUSTTAM SINGH THAKUR
COVER
Opportunity
in crisis
Farmers across the country are innovating

to overcome the labour shortage
NE THING is common between Chhatt-
isgarh farmer Rahul Chawda and the

state paramilitary forces fighting the
Maoists. Both use drones for their job.
At his farm, situated some 30 km from state capital
Raipur, Chawda looks attentively at a monitor as he
controls a drone that is spraying pesticide. The
42-year-old farmer from Hardi village says he was
forced to embrace the technology because of the
acute labour crisis.
To look after 12 hectares (ha) of land at this
time of labour crisis is no less than an emergency,
he says. The farmer in one of the countrys poorest
states started feeling the pinch some five years ago
when he could not get enough workers despite
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
willing to pay higher than the going rate. Things

became so bad three years ago that I thought of
quitting farming, he says.
Talking about the labour crisis, Raipurbased agricultural scientist Sanket Thakur says
many small and marginal farmers have already
quit because of labour shortage in the state.
Even middle and big farmers are leaving the
traditional farming system and leasing their land
to small farmers for cash crops or are trying new
innovations, he adds.
Even Chawda tried several things before
settling for drones. He was originally a seed
producer, but that required changing crops every
four months. I then planted banana trees in
Chhattisgarh farmer
Rahul Chawda uses
drones for farming
because of acute labour
shortage
24/11/15 5:41 PM
COVER
INDIA'S
LABOUR
CRISIS
STORY
India's total workforce

increased by 10 million...
2004-05 | 457 million 2011-12 | 467 million
Source: Various rounds of NSSO (2004-05 to 2010-11)
Sisir Kumar Panda rents

his farm equipment to
200 small farmers
in Odisha's Tentuliapada
village in Balasore district
nearly half of my farm and started losing revenue

because seed production is more lucrative. He
even employed 30-35 permanent labourers from
Odisha, but that was not enough because his farm
required at least 60 labourers. Finally, I decided to
use technology, he says.
Chawda says his decision is helping in more
ways than one. Drones help him in early detection
of pest attacks, which has increased his production
and lowered the use of pesticides. Most pests attack
crops from 5 pm till morning, so we spray in the
evening when the pests come out to have food.
This is more effective. We now spray after every
15 days, which earlier had to be done every week,
he says. Chawda also rents out drones for marriage
photography.
Ask him about the biggest advantage of drones
and he says it has substantially brought down his
production cost. Wages of labourers account for

50 per cent of the total production cost. This was
not even 25 per cent a decade ago. The drone takes
15 minutes to spray pesticide in one acre (0.4 ha)
which used to involve two labourers for a whole day.
This means a saving of `500 per day , he says. The
farmer also saves on the wages of another eight to
10 labourers who were earlier employed to oversee
the farm. Chawda, who owns four drones, is now
developing sensors that can detect fungus attack
on crops.
UNITED FRONT
While Chawda met the challenge on his own,

farmers in Odisha have found strength in staying
together. According to the 2014-15 Odisha
economic survey, the state has 11,648 farmers clubs.
SAMARJIT SAHOO
24/11/15 5:27 PM
COVER
STORY
... but agricultural workforce

decreased by 34 million
2004-05 | 249 million 2011-12 | 215 million
Source: Various rounds of NSSO (2004-05 to 2010-11)
Launched in 2005 by the National Agricultural and

Rural Development Bank (nabard), the Farmers
Club Programme aims at increasing the income
of farmers through technology, good agricultural
practices, proper use of credit and marketing skills.
The village level clubs are set up by rural branches
of banks, non-profits and Krishi Vigyan Kendras.
Every club has two office bearerschief
coordinator and assitant coordinatorwho
are elected by the members on a democratic
basis for a term of two years. The office bearers
convene and arrange meetings with experts,
maintain books of accounts, and maintain proper
liaisoning with banks. Under the programme,
nabard provides the financial support to the clubs
for the first three years. The bank sponsoring the
club may provide the support for another two years,
if necessary.
The success of the clubs can be seen at Balasore
district which has over 1,000 farmers clubs to fight
labour shortage. The mechanisation in Balasore
started purely in response to the deepening labour
crisis, says J B Mohanty, chairperson of Balasore
non-profit forward (Favourable Organisation
for Rural Welfare and Regional Development).
nabard has assigned forward the role of promoting
scientific and integrated farming in the region. The
non-profit has also taken up a project to educate
1,200 farmers in Khaira block of Balasore district.
Within a couple of years, 5,000 farmers adopted
different farm technologies. The groups have not
only brought down the cost, but also revived a sense
of community feeling, says Mohanty.
The state government has also pitched in by
providing subsidies on farm equipment. In 2013,
Odisha adopted the State Agriculture Policy
that gives huge subsidies to farmers who go for
mechanisation. Odisha has a very high provision
of funds to popularise farm mechanisation. The
state plan alone provides `240 crore as subsidies for
farm mechanisation, which is probably the highest
among all the states, says P K Paikray, Odishas
joint director of agriculture and engineering. The
states total subsidy budget, including the Union
CH NARENDRA
share, is around `300 crore.

Besides farmers groups, individual farmers are
also renting their equipment in the district. Small
farmers are now hiring tractors and use other
machines for their farms, says Mohanty. Fortyyear-old Sisir Kumar Panda is one such farmer
whose equipment is used by 200 small farmers. In
2010, I bought my first tractor. As and when I faced
labourer shortage, I found a substitute in machines.
Now, I have two tractors, one power tiller, one
transplanter, three combined harvesters, one earth
remover and two power spray machines, says the
farmer from Balasores Tentuliapada village.
Panda says the district first faced labour
shortage in early 2000. In 1990s, I remember
visiting our farm with my dad to supervise the
labourers. By early 2000, my father, brother and
I started working on the farm along with some
labourers during peak season, recalls Panda.
By mid-2000s, the situation became so bad that
farmers started buying farm equipment to reduce
their dependency on labourers.
Members of farmers'
clubs in Telangana.
The clubs are helping
farmers adopt farm
mechanisation
24/11/15 5:27 PM
COVER
STORY
UP, Karnataka, WB, Bihar and Rajasthan

account for 79% of total labour reduction
Kerala | 37% Uttarakhand | 34% Karnataka | 27% J&K | 26% Haryana | 24%
*Five states reporting highest dip in agriculture workforce (2004-052011-12)
The turning point, according to the farmers,

came in 2008 when the state government
launched the `2 per kg rice scheme for the
5.6 million below-poverty-line families in the state.
It is normally seen that when the minimum food
requirement of a family is secured, its members
explore new livelihood options for higher income.
So government welfare schemes such as providing
cheap rice and other necessary commodities
through public distribution system could be the
reason behind the disappearance of the labour
force, says S K Tripathy, head of agricultural
economics department in Orissa University of
Agriculture Technology (ouat). The situation
worsened with the industrialisation in the state.
The state economy has been experiencing a
sectoral shift from agriculture towards industry
and services sectors in recent decade, says the
2014-15 state Economic Survey report.
Past perfect
Odisha has age-old farming traditions that reduce the need for labourers
is not new to India. Tribal and farming communities
in Odisha have age-old traditions that reduce the dependency on
contractual labourers. But these practices are being forgotten.
Farmers in Odisha's Sambalpur, Bargarh, Debagarh and Sundargarh
districts have traditionally followed the Pancha system, where men
from all farming families come together and work at farms. If a farmer
remains absent, he has to hire a labourer and send him as a substitute.
"The traditional system, which is prevalent in tribal pockets, could be
a deterrent to rising wage cost. But community trust has been steadily
eroding. The system is struggling to survive as tribal youths have started
looking for jobs in cities," says Saroj Mohanty, spokesperson of farmers'
association Pashim Odisha Krushak Sangathan Samannaya Samiti.
Farmers in coastal Odisha also follow a similar practice which is called
Badalia (exchanging of labour).
Tribals in southern Odisha follow a community farming practice called
Kutumb Bada where all the villagers work together on paddy fields. The
interesting feature of Kutumb Bada is that the farm owner has to make a
nominal contribution, which can be as low as `20 per person, to a collective
fund that is used for community development.
LABOUR CRISIS
Like Odisha, farmers in Andhra Pradesh are

also benefitting from farmers clubs. One such
initiative was taken by rice farmers in Korrapudu
village of Kadapa district after they struggled to
find labour during the rice transplanting season.
With the help of the state government they set up
a Rythu Club (farmers club) and procured a rice
transplanter for `10.20 lakh. The farmers say
the machine ensures perfect spacing and better
aeration of the field. This increased the yield by
25 per cent. They also save around `13,600 per ha
on labour.
Even the state government in 2008-09 started
providing 50 per cent subsidy on farm machines
through the Intensified Farm Mechanization
Project under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.
The state government is also encouraging farmers
to form Rythu Clubs to collectively buy and
use machines.
Both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana gave
priority to farm mechanisation even before the
bifurcation of the state. In fact, both the states
are allocating 40 per cent of their agriculture
budget to mechanisation, says Aum Sarma,
principal, Institute of Agriculture Engineering
and Technology, Hyderabad. Sarma, who is also
the head of the state government committee on
farm mechanisation for both Andhra Pradesh
and Telangana, says mechanisation is preferable
because there is a huge demand for workers
during transplantation of rice that lasts for only 45
days. He adds that one of the major reasons farm
mechanisation is still expensive is that the machines
are imported. At present, farmers in the two states
are using completely mechanised processes for
paddy, sugarcane, sunflower, groundnut and maize.
But the machines are being imported primarily
from China, Japan and South Korea says Sarma.
There are 33 Rythu Clubs in Andhra Pradesh
and eight in Telengana for paddy and one each in
both the states for sugarcane. Rythu Club members
say mechanisation is helping manifold. Parimi
Venkata Narasimha Rao, a farmer from Pasivedala
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 5:28 PM
COVER
STORY
Crops in 97 million ha affected

by labour shortage
Paddy | 45 mln ha Wheat | 30 Cotton | 10 Sugarcane | 5 Groundnut | 7
*Crops majorly affected by dipping workforce (2004-05 2011-12); Figures in million ha; Source: Analysis by KPMG for FICCI, 2015
LANDESA
village in Kovvur mandal of West Godavari district,

says his farm productivity has increased by 12 per
cent and he earns `22,500 additional income per
hectare because of mechanisation. The farmers also
say losses during cutting of paddy have come down
to less than two per cent.
ADVANTAGE WOMEN
Kerala, which has been facing labour shortage in

agriculture for a long time because of its distinct
socio-economic status, is sustaining agriculture
through a womens self-help group (shg)
programme, Kudumbashree. Launched in 1998
by the state government for poverty alleviation,
the Kudumbashree programme has four million
members and covers more than 50 per cent of the
households in Kerala.
The farming sector in Kerala has been facing
labour shortage since the 1990s primarily because
of the high literacy rate, which has prompted
labourers to shift from farm to non-farm sectors.
According to nsso data, between 1993-94 and 200405, the number of farm hands in Kerala declined
by 879,000, though the total number of workers
increased by 1,605,000. In 2004-05, only 35.5 per
cent of Keralas workers were engaged in agriculture
while the national average was 56.5 per cent.
The shortage of labour in the state has
forced many to quit farming. The state lost over
500,000 ha of paddy fields between 1980 and
2007 and harvest came down by almost 50 per cent,
severely threatening its food security.
Kudumbashree first experimented with
farming in 2013 when its shg group from
Madakkathara village signed an agreement with
the Kerala Agricultural University to take up
vegetable cultivation on a two-hectare land of
the university that was unused because of labour
scarcity. Within months, the womens group earned
`2 lakh from selling vegetables. Seeing the success,
other shgs under the scheme entered farming. In
2014, a total of 47,611 groups under Kudumbashree
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
entered farming across the state. They primarily

started farming on farmland that were abandoned
because of labour shortage. Today, it is popularly
said that the state has more shg members farming
than farmers.
To bolster the initiative, the state government
has now started setting up joint liability group of
women farmers (jlg) under Kudumbasree. The
groups are eligible for agricultural loans and receive
subsidy on the loan interest. The state government
gave loans worth `123 crore last year to facilitate
farming. The state has also started the Master
Farmer Programme to train 10,000 women in
farming from all the panchayats in the state.
Kerala has employed

women self-help groups
under the Kudumbashree
programme to revive
farming in abandoned
farmlands
GOING BACK TO WORK
In Uttarakhand, the crisis in the farm sector

is largely driven by heavy migration and
abandonment of farming. As a result, large tracts
24/11/15 5:28 PM
COVER
STORY
Labourers earn 100% more than what

farmers earn from crops
Farmer | K 2,400/month Farm labourer | K 5,000 Industrial worker | K 7,000
*Income from paddy cultivation in 2011-12; Source: KPMG Analysis for FICCI using Department of Agriculture and Cooperation data
Former farm labourers in

Uttarakhand's Gaurikot
village have formed a
cooperative and started
farming in abandoned
farmlands
of farmlands lie barren in the hilly state. But now

former labourers have taken the lead to recover
the land and prepare it for farming once again.
It is a win-win situation for both farm owners
and labourers.
For instance Gaurikot, about eight km from
Pauri town in Uttarakhand, former agricultural
labourers and their families set up a cooperative
farming enterprise called the Gauri Swayam
Sahayata Samuha in December 2013. The farming
cooperative used a loan of `470,000 acquired from
a local cooperative bank to invest in new tools and
alternative techniques to make a living out of
farming again. Today, Gauri Swayam Sahayata
Samuha has 26 families collectively farming on
about 2 ha. The cooperative is curently earning
money through poultry and will start selling their
farm produce by next year. They say the loan has
to repaid by 2018.
After setting about the painful task of clearing
abandoned farm plots of unwanted wild plants, the
self-help group, spearheaded by women, invested
in power tools. We acquired a power tiller with the
help of government subsidies. Now we can till the
soil without cattle which have become difficult to
keep because of increased leopard attacks, says

Rekha Rawat, deputy secretary of the group as she
fires up the tiller and demonstrates its usefulness
on an empty plot.
Investment in power tools is not the only
innovation the group has undertaken. The
farming cooperative has diversified into organic
horticulture, poultry and pisciculture. The group
is now contemplating opening huts as home
stays for tourists. So where did the members of
Gauri Swayam Sahayata Samuha get these ideas?
Rawat says that Nepali labourers who have taken
up farming in neighbouring areas have been their
teachers in resourcefulness. One such migrant
from Nepal, Arjun Singh, has been working hard
over the past three years on farms abandoned by
the owners. We used to be migrant labourers, but
over the years several families have moved to Pauri
and other districts to farm. We usually pay the land
owners about `10,000 every year to do farming on
.4 ha and the business is great in most places, says
Singh as he displays his plots of radish, tomato, pea,
bitter gourd and ginger.
In neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, a different
kind of cooperation is taking shape. Here, the
government, the apple orchard owners and the
private players are coming together to adapt to
labour shortage. Farmers say there has been 3040 per cent labour workforce reduction in the
agriculture sector in the recent years. The state
witnessed the worst crisis in 2010 when several
horticulturists could not find enough employees
to pluck their bumper apple crop and the fruit was
allowed to rot.
The primary reason for the labour shortage
in the state is that the labourers, who are mostly
from neighbouring Nepal, are travelling to other
countries for higher pay. Over the past five years a
major chunk of the Nepalese labourers has started
moving to Qatar, Dubai, Oman, Malaysia and even
Canada for higher income. A large number of them
also prefer to work in infrastructure projects within
India and as porters.
But unlike in other states, complete mechani1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 5:28 PM
COVER
STORY
Share of farm sector in rural employment

dropped from 71 to 64% in last 10 years
2004-2014 | Share of secondary and tertiary sectors increase by 5% and 2%
Source:KPMG analysis for FICCI using data from Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment
sation is not possible in Himachal Pradesh because

of the topography, say farmers. The steep slopes in
the case of apple and the small terraced fields in case
of vegetables leave almost no scope for use of large
machines, says orchardist Baldev Chauhan from
Rohru village in Shimla district.
So what did the farmers do? Since the vocation
continues to be labour intensive, we have no option
but to be at the mercy of the workers. Last year, I
had to get additional workers from Jammu and
Kashmir. Small orchardists also rent workforce
from bigger farmers for a few days during the
harvesting season, says Sanjeev Thakur, an
orchardist from Matyana village near Shimla.
Agriculturists and horticulturists are also
entering into contracts with labourers for carrying
out different cultivation phases in return for some
portion of their produce. This year, I entered into
a contract that gave the other party the right over
50 per cent of the produce on my land. There
seemed to be no option. Massive rainfall would
have destroyed the entire produce. Harvest had to
be done at the right moment, says Manish Verma,
a farmer from Kaylar village in Solan district. Many
apple growers in the area are following this practice,
says Chauhan.
Farmers point out that the entry of some
private players who have set up cold storage units
has provided some relief to the apple growers. The
headache for the grower remains to the extent of
plucking and transporting the apples to the private
firms, who then do the grading and packaging, says
Dewan Justa, an orchardist from Jubbal village in
Shimla district.
GOOD BUSINESS
While farmers in most states are innovating to tide

over the labour crisis, farmers in Haryana, which is
one of the countrys most agriculturally productive
and mechanised states, are making money by
renting farm machines to neighbouring states.
One such farmer is 44-year-old Krishna who
rents his harvester to other states. Just a decade
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
ago, labourers would regularly come from states

like Bihar, but the supply shrunk slowly, says
Krishna, sitting on a cot with a friend at a dhaba
on National Highway-10. He says farm machines
from the state are rented to farmers in Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand,
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.
Thirty-four-year-old Jagdeesh Singh, who
recently returned to his village, after working on
soybean and wheat planatations in Indore, says,
I travelled over 2,500 km this harvesting season,
and earned `4-5 lakh in two months. He normally
travels with a team of four men. Local agents from
the areas facing acute labour shortage contact
us during sowing and harvesting periods. These
agents know hundreds of local farmers who want
to get their crops harvested, says the farmer from
Haryana farmer Jagdeesh

Singh (extreme right)
travels to neighbouring
states with his farm
machines during
harvesting season
24/11/15 5:28 PM
COVER
STORY
In next 5 years labour shortage

will increase
2020 | 23 mln fewer labourers | Share in rural employment down from 48% to 41%
Source: KPMG analysis for FICCI using erstwhile Planning Commission data
Haryanas Daryapur village. He charges `1,000

per ha for soybean, `1,500 per ha for wheat and
`2,500 to `8,750 per ha for paddy, depending on
the quality. They find the rent cheap because of the
high labour cost, says Jagdeesh.
Another farmer, Sharavan Singh, says he
recently returned for Kota, Rajasthan after
harvesting soybean crops of 200 farmers. During
harvesting season our demand is quite high. We get
calls from different parts of the country, especially
from farmers groups from the northern or central
region, he says. Om Prakash, an Indore-based
agent who has been in the business for the past
three years, says farmers prefer hiring machines
because the job is done quicker, which is crucial
because of extreme weather events. He says he
shifted to machines two years ago after his rabi crop
was destroyed by unseasonal rains and hailstorm
during the harvesting season.
A NEW OPPORTUNITY
The labour crisis has given Rajesh Jejurikar, the

chief executive of the farm equipment division of
the worlds largest tractor manufacturer, Mahindra
& Mahindra Ltd (M&M), a reason to be happy. This
is unusual because even industries are facing acute
labour shortage. A recent survey by industry body
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce &
Industry (ficci) shows 90 per cent of industries
are facing labour shortage, just like farming. Ask
Jejurikar the reason for his happiness and he says,
Farm mechanisation has become an attractive
option for those farmers who either have shortage
of workforce or want to adopt new modern
technology. This new-found urgency among
farmers to embrace farm mechanisation is resulting
in huge profits for all industries that are engaged in
farm equipments.
According to crisil, the farm equipment sector
will grow at the rate of 10 per cent annually for the
next five years. And big players such as M&M are
going the extra mile to capitalise on the growth.
The company has established around 150 special
36 DOWN TO EARTH
centres across the country to reach out to farmers.

M&Ms Samriddhi centres will provide access
to hybrid seeds, crop care and micro-irrigation
products, soil and water testing facilities, finance
and insurance along with supporting knowledge
to farmers to manage their farms, according to the
companys website. We are focused on providing
complete mechanisation solutions for the entire
agri-value chain, says Jejurikar.
Companies are also launching machines for
labour-intensive processes like transplantation
of paddy fields. M&M recently launched two rice
transplanters for paddy cultivation. Similarly,
several other companies, including VST Tillers
Tractors Ltd, Redlands Ashlyn Motors, have
launched a range of tranplantors. According to a
study by the Directorate of Rice Research on the
status and prospects of mechanisation in rice,
manual and self-propelled transplanters can reduce
the cost of rice transplanting by 45-50 per cent and
labour requirement by 75-80 per cent.
This has prompted companies to invest
heavily in research and development. M&M has
a dedicated research and development centre for
its automotive segment and tractors in Chennai.
Similarly, Chennai-based Tractors and Farm
Equipment Ltd recently opened two R&D centres
in Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu that employ
over 300 specialist engineers dedicated to farm
machinery.
The recent labour crisis has made it clear that
the agriculture sector has to mechanise if it wants
to survive. Will all the stakeholdersfarmers,
companies and government agencieswork
together to realise the goal remains to be seen.
Reporting by Purusttam Singh Thakur from
Chhattisgarh, Samarjit Sahoo from Odisha,
Ch Narendra from Andhra Pradesh and
Telangana, Ratheesh Kaliyadan from Kerala,
Rajeev Khanna from Himachal Pradesh,
Shreeshan Venkatesh from Uttarakhand,
Jitendra from Haryana, and Karnika Bahuguna
and Rajit Sengupta from Delhi
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 5:28 PM
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11:08 AM
COVER
STORY
What caused the

labour crisis?
More than two-thirds of the rural women in the working age group
have stopped working because of improved household incomes
P S Bir thal
Birthal is the director
of the National
Institute of Agricultural
Economics and Policy
Research, New Delhi
S K Srivast ava
Srivastava is a
scientist with the
research institute
HE NUMBER of agricultural workers in rural
India has declined sharply in the recent past,

even as their proportion in the total workforce has been declining steadily. This trend
is in conformity with the structural transformation
the country has witnessed that is characterised by a
decline in the share of agriculture in gross domestic
product (gdp) and transfer of workers from farm to
non-farm sectors. A commensurate decline in the
agricultural workforce, however, did not occur.
In the past four decades (1970-71 to 2011-12), the
Indian economy grew at an annual rate of around
five per cent and underwent a significant structural
transformation, with the share of agriculture in the
gdp falling from 47 per cent to less than 15 per cent.
Nonetheless, the proportion of agricultural workers in the total workforce declined extremely slowly
from 74 per cent in 1972-73 to 52 per cent in 201112. The figures show there is no labour scarcity in
the sector, but there is still a crisis.
While the transfer of labourers from farm
to non-farm sector is desirable for economic
development, the farming community has started
to complain about the shortage of labourers. The
problem is attributed to the implementation of
the mgnrega. The scheme guarantees 100 days of
employment in a year to rural households at wages
38 DOWN TO EARTH
that are higher than the prevalent market rates.

Is the perceived scarcity of agricultural
labourers an outcome of the development process
or a sign of the short-run disequilibrium in the
labour market because of mgnrega? To better
understand the farm to non-farm shift, we
examined the 61st (2004-05) and the 68th (201112) rounds of Employment and Unemployment
Survey by the nsso.
Of the 34 million workers who have quit
agriculture, 79 per cent were females. And 81 per
cent of them did not re-enter the labour force even
in the non-farm sector. Another noticeable change
in the rural labour market during this period was
the growing employment opportunities in the nonfarm sectorsince 2004-05 the workforce in the
rural non-farm sector increased by 27 million. The
employment growth in non-farm sector was led by
the construction sector, the value added from which
registered a robust 10.3 per cent annual growth
between 2004-05 and 2011-12.
Demography, socio-economic conditions and
policies have also contributed to the transformation
of the rural labour market. More than two-thirds
of the rural females in the working age group (1559 years) did not participate in the labour force
because they were primarily engaged in household
activities. The decision to participate in labour
market depends on the economic conditions of the
household and the improvements therein overtime.
The net domestic product from agriculture grew at
an annual rate of 3.7 per cent between 2004-05 and
2011-12, as compared to 1.6 per cent between 19992000 and 2004-05. The expanding opportunities
in the rural non-farm sector added to the attrition
in the farm sector.
Increased literacy among both males and
females has been the other reason for workers
quitting farming. The literacy rate for rural males
has increased by eight percentage points and for
females by 11 percentage points between 200405 and 2011-12. Literate youths normally prefer
moving to non-farm sectors that pay higher wages.
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 5:28 PM
COVER
Higher wages push cultivation cost

Farmers have responded to the rising wages by reducing labour use in
farm operations, yet their wage bill has been increasing
Labour use (hrs/ha)
7,500
7,000
7,000
6,500
6,500
6,000
6,000
5,500
5,500
5,000
4,500
5,000
Labour cost (J/ha) - Real
4,500
4,000
4,000
3,500
3,500
Labour use (man-hrs/ha)
7,500
Real labour cost (H/ha)
The real wages in both farm and non-farm

sectors were almost stagnant till 2008-09 and
started increasing afterwards. And mgnrega could
be the reason because though launched in 2005,
the employment scheme covered the entire country
only in April, 2008. The scheme could generate
three per cent of the total rural employment in
2011-12, but because of the higher remuneration
it seems to have pushed the reservation wage levels
for agricultural workers. With higher reservation
wage level, the agricultural labourers spend less
time working. This leads to a shortage.
Farmers have responded to the rising wages by
reducing labour use in farm operations, yet their
wage bill (`/ha) has kept on increasing, pushing
up the cost of cultivation (see Higher wages push
cultivation cost). Farm wage bill increased at an
annual rate of 4.7 per cent between 2004-05 and
2012-13, as compared to an annual growth rate of 2.1
per cent in the cost of cultivation. The share of wage
bill in the cost of cultivation also increased from 26
per cent in 2004-05 to 30 per cent in 2012-13.
STORY
3,000
3,000
2004-05 05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 12-13
Source: Wage Rates in Rural India report by Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment
BIG FARMERS' CRISIS

Farmers with large holdings are the worst hit.
They own one-third of the total cultivable land
in the country. These operators, unlike farmers
with small holdings who have enough workforce
within the family, hire bulk of the farm labourers.
So mechanisation in farming is one of the plausible
ways to mitigate the labour crisis. While the
farmers will still require labourers for certain key
processes, mechanisation can substantially reduce
the labour demand.
Another solution could be that the government
compensates farmers for the higher input cost
by increasing the minimum support prices of
agricultural commodities. This may, however,
lead to inflationary tendency and adversely
affect the food security of the non-agricultural
population. Hence it is not desirable. India must
look at technological breakthroughs that improve
agricultural productivity to the extent that it offsets
the impact of higher wages on the cost of cultivation
or farm profits.
Finally, employment activities under mgnrega
can be scheduled in such a way that they do not
coincide with the peak periods of agricultural
activities when demand for labourers is high.
Political considerations are unlikely to allow
dismantling of welfare schemes such as mgnrega
that impinge on rural poverty. Even if dismantled,
these programmes will be replaced by similar
schemes, and the wage rates once guaranteed are
unlikely to fall.
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 5:28 PM
COVER
STORY
G U E ST CO LU M N
India should look at a win-win solution

Labour scarcity in agriculture is not a case for India only. Many
countries have successfully dealt with it before
A
David
Berg vinson
Bergvinson is the
director general
of ICRISAT
40 DOWN TO EARTH
STUDY CONDUCTED by the International

Crops Research Institute for the SemiArid Tropics (icrisat) shows farmers
are responding to the rising labour wages by improving their farm productivity through
mechanisation. The study, under icrisats Village
Dynamics South Asia (vdsa) programme, was carried out in 18 villages in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat,
Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and
Telangana. vdsa was launched on May 1, 2009, to
understand the dynamics of rural poverty.
The study found that the daily nominal wage
rate of various agricultural activities (ploughing,
sowing, transplanting, weeding and harvesting)
increased by 3.6 to 4.2 times of the wage rate between 2003-04 and 2014-15. And mechanisation
is helping in reducing the person-days required for
different crops. For example, the 18 villages have
reduced person-days on cotton fields from 153 in
2007-08 to 87 days in 2014-15. This is a 43 per cent
reduction in less than a decade. During the same
period, labour use reduced by 58 per cent in soybean (from 55 to 23 person-days); 52 per cent in pigeon pea (from 48 to 23 person-days); 20 per cent
in wheat (from 40 to 32 person-days); and 54 per
cent in chickpea (from 70 to 32 person-days).
The study also saw that farmers in Maharashtras Akola village ditched labour-intensive
cotton and started growing soybean to combat the
price rise. As a result, the village, which had cotton
fields in 60 per cent of its cultivable land till 200607, today grows soybean in 70 per cent of the total
cropped area in the kharif season. The farmers
switched to soybean because it requires 80 to 105
person-days depending on the variety, while
cotton requires about 270 person-days for
production and is harvested in four or more
pickings at suitable intervals.
The icrisat study shows that while farm wages
have increased substantially, the employment days
have reduced. As a result, despite the higher wages,
poverty among labour households has increased.
For rapid poverty reduction further increase in

wages is essential as well as creation of more
employment days for agricultural labourers. The
study shows that poverty reduction and food
security targets can be achieved faster if the
increase in income is accompanied by reduction in
real prices of essential and food commodities.
Labour scarcity in agriculture is not a case for
India only. Many countries have successfully dealt
with it before. In the late 1980s and early 1990s,
Thailand adopted the direct seeded rice production
technique to overcome the challenge in rice
production. The technique requires 64 persondays per hectare, in place of the traditional labourintensive transplanting method that required 117
person-days. So, the way forward is to develop a
win-win solution for farmers, farm labourers and
consumers in India. This can be achieved through
six complementary ways:
Develop and disseminate labour-saving
agricultural technologies;
Include farm mechanisation measures and
policies beneficial to smallholder farmers,
youth and women;
Promote economic growth and facilitate
integration of farm and non-farm activities
in rural areas through better infrastructure,
transport, storage, credit and market access.
This will ensure higher employment and
income in rural areas and stable supply of
agricultural commodities at a lower price;
Increase labour productivity by training
farmers in productivity augmenting and
cost-reducing technologies;
Enforce the Mahatma Gandhi National
Rural Employment Guarantee Acts
principle of employment creation during
the agricultural slack season; and,
Use the tools of information and
communication technology to help
seasonal migration for the benefit of
labourers and employers. n
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
24/11/15 5:28 PM
SCIENCE
BYTES
H E A LT H
Electrical infection cure

discovered how electrical
stimulation can treat bacterial infections.
They demonstrated how the electrochemical
reaction produces hydrogen peroxide, an
effective disinfectant, at the electrode surface.
The researchers developed an electronic
"band aid" made out of conductive carbon
fibre. By running electrical current through
the fabric, they produced a low and constant
concentration of hydrogen peroxide to kill the
bugs. Nature Scientific Reports, October 14
RESEARCHERS HAVE
The coast is not clear

Sedimentation is shrinking the diversity of
species, impacting seafloor ecosystems
THINKSTOCKPHOTO
DISEASES
Monkey alert
THINKSTOCKPHOTO
A S T U D Y of nearly 900 non-human

primates in Bangladesh and Cambodia
shows that macaques harbour more diverse
astroviruses, which can cause infectious
gastroenteritis or diarrhoea in humans. This
research is the first to show evidence of human
astroviruses in animals. Astroviruses from a
number of species, including human, bovine,
bird, cow and dog, were detected in monkeys.
It is still unknown whether these viruses are
two-way and can be transmitted to humans.
They did find evidence that, in monkeys,
two species of astrovirus recombined. PLOS
Pathogens, November 19
ASTRONOMY
EMPERATURES HAVE risen nearly five times as rapidly on the
western Antarctic Peninsula than the global average

over the past five decades. Researchers have now found
that melting glaciers are causing a loss of species diversity
among benthos in the coastal waters off the Antarctic
Peninsula, impacting an entire seafloor ecosystem. They
believe increased levels of suspended sediment in water
to be the cause of the dwindling biodiversity in the coastal
region. This occurs when the effects of global warming lead
glaciers near the coast to begin melting, as a result of which
large quantities of sediment are carried into the seawater.
Scientists say some species are extremely sensitive to higher
sedimentation rates. Science Advances, November 13
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
41S&T Bytes.indd 41
Clues to our past

ASTRONOMERS HAVE identified some of the
oldest stars in our galaxy, which could contain
vital clues about the early universe, including
an indication of how the first stars died. These
stars, which have been at the very centre of the
Milky Way, also contain chemical fingerprints
which indicate that the earliest stars may
have died in spectacular deaths known as
hypernovae10 times more energetic than a
regular supernova. Nature, November 11
26/11/15 12:30 PM
HEALTH
Glut in gluten sickness

Even as the glutenfree food fad grows
across the world, the
incidence of glutenrelated celiac disease
is increasing
JIGYASA WATWANI |
new delhi
cant even share her friends lunch in

school. Consuming a wheat chapatti
would affect her immune system by
destroying a part of her small intestine that
absorbs vital nutrients. Fortunately for us,
she doesnt complain much because she
knows what happens next-a terrible stomach ache when she bends over in pain, says
her mother, Seerat Mohan. In October 2013,
Alia was diagnosed with celiac disease (CD),
an auto-immune disorder in which the body
mistakenly reacts to gluten-a protein found
in wheat, rye and barley-as if it were a poison. It was a life-changing experience. We
had to make our kitchen gluten-free and
sensitise her school teachers and friends.
While going out, we ensure she takes homemade gluten-free food, she adds.
At the other end of the spectrum, a

growing number of people are consuming
gluten-free food for health benefits. Glutenfree food is fast becoming a fad as it helps
lose weight. Caf Amaltas, Delhis first gluten-free caf opened in 2010, which offers a
range of delicious gluten-free food. People
lose weight if they go gluten-free because
most of the junk food today comes from
wheat-based products-cakes, pizzas and
pastas, says clinical nutritionist Ishi Khosla.
About 20 per cent of the US population,
which is greater than the number of people
suffering from celiac disease in the country,
is currently buying gluten-free products. In
2011, the US gluten-free market accounted
for US $1.31 billion. Similar figures are not
available for India.
But experts say increasing consumption
THINKSTOCKPHOTO
A critical issue that is

emerging is the way we
process food, which has
been linked with increased
incidence of celiac disease
OUR AND a half-year-old Alia Mohan
42 DOWN TO EARTH
42-43Health.indd 42
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
20/11/15 12:25 PM
of gluten-free food also indicates increased

intolerance to gluten. There has been a fivefold increase in the prevalence of celiac disease in the US since 1974, according to a
study published in Annals of Medicine in
2010. One in every 96 people (1.04 per cent)
in the National Capital Region is affected by
CD, indicating the magnitude of CD incidence in the wheat-eating belt, according to
a community-based study, which was published in the Journal of Gastroenterology
and Hepatology in 2011. The incidence rate
in India is slightly higher than in western
countries (nearly one per cent).
Hybridisation signals
For decades now, researchers have tried to
figure out the reasons for this increased intolerance to the staple wheat. Agricultural
practices like hybridisation of wheat to increase yield has often been linked to the increase in the incidence of CD. Modern wheat
is a 42-chromosome plant, but traditional
wheat was an 11 chromosome plant.
Ancient or diploid (having chromosome
pairs) wheat is purely antigenic while the
modern hexaploid (having a set of six homogenous chromosomes) wheat has highly
antigenic glutens, and is more capable of inducing CD, B S Ramakrishna, head of gastroenterology and an expert on CD at the
srm Institute of Medical Sciences, wrote in
Celiac Disease: Can we avert the impending
epidemic in India, an editorial in the Indian
Journal of Medical Research published in
January 2011.
The fact that most people are intolerant today in one way or the other says something about the kind of grains we are consuming, says Khosla. A 2010 study by HC
Van den Broeck and others published in
Theoretical and Applied Genetics compared
modern and heritage varieties of wheat and
found that about 50 per cent heritage collec-
Replacing long and diverse

fermentation with baker's
yeast and adding extracted
wheat proteins and insulin
to products and focusing on
refined wheat flour could be
fuelling celiac incidence
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
42-43Health.indd 43
tions had celiac-causing epitope, as compared to 97 per cent in modern varieties.

However, other studies counter this argument. A recent study published in October 2015 the Journal of Cereal Science and
co-authored by Ravindra Chibbar, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan,
Canada, analysed 37 grains varieties, representing grain from each decade from the
1860s onwards. It then compared it to the
Canada Western Red Spring varieties in
field trials over 2013 and 2014 and found
that protein levels have increased only by
about one per cent in 100 years.
But the critical issue that is emerging is
the way we process foods, which has been
linked with the increased incidence of CD. A
study, published in the Comprehensive
Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety in
May 2015, says processes like using ungerminated grain, replacing long and diverse
fermentation with bakers yeast, using nonacidic dough, adding extracted wheat proteins and insulin to products and focusing
on refined wheat flour may also affect the
components in wheat responsible for causing the disease. Higher nitrogen inputs,
characteristic of modern wheat production,
could be also directly increasing the
amounts of reactive omega and alpha gliadins in wheat products. Possible environmental factors include way we have manipulated the bread-making process. What
used to be an overnight process now takes
much less time and the enzymes from the
yeast are not able to break down the toxic
component of gluten, says Alessio Fasano,
director of US-based Center for Celiac
Research and Treatment, and author of
Gluten Freedom.
Many people eschew white bread because they believe whole grain bread is more
healthy. That may be true, but whole wheat
bread is more difficult to make than white
bread, so large manufacturers add processed gluten to compensate for the factors
that prevent the bread from rising to the desired degree. I dont know if this is contributing to an increase in celiac disease cases,
said a senior official of the US Department
of Agriculture, on condition of anonymity.
Carlo Catassi, of the Center for Celiac
Research and Treatment at Massachusetts
Gluten disorders
Only recently have gluten-related
diseases been categorised
CELIAC DISEASE is only one among three
gluten-related disorders, the others
being Wheat Allergy (WA) and NonCeliac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS). These
were categorically defined by a panel
of experts who first met in London in
2011 and then in Munich in 2012. While
Celiac is an auto-immune disorder,
WA is an allergic reaction to gluten.
But NCGS is neither allergic nor autoimmune. It is a relatively new term
that is ill-defined and still not part of
our textbooks, says Pankaj Vohra,
founder-director of Celiac India and
Beyond, a Delhi-based non-profit.
A range of studies have attempted
to clear the air between CD, WA
and NCGS. Some individuals who
experience distress when eating
gluten-containing products and show
improvement when following a glutenfree diet may have NCGS, instead
of CD. NCGS patients are unable to
tolerate gluten and develop an adverse
reaction, but this does not lead to
damage of the small intestine.
General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts,

USA, warns that the frequency of celiac disease is likely to grow in developing countries
with the increasing adoption of a Westernstyle diet. A one per cent prevalence in India
may seem insignificant, but its not, says
Pankaj Vohra, founder-director of Celiac
India and Beyond, a Delhi-based non-profit. The Indian Council of Medical Research,
Indias premier health policy research organisation, has geared up to face the epidemic. The institute has come up with draft
guidelines on the diagnosis and management of the disease. It has identified many
gluten-free items that include rice, bajra,
jowar, corn and ragi to meat, fish, milk, pulses, salt, sugar, fresh fruits and vegetables.
The guidelines have been prepared by prominent experts in the field after consulting national and international literature on the
subject and carrying out studies and surveys
in Delhi, Guwahati and Vellore. The draft
guidelines are now open for discussion.
20/11/15 4:54 PM
TECHNOLOGY
Charge up, for less

Recent research on
batteries throws
the market open
for cheap and safer
alternatives
JIGYASA WATWANI |
new delhi
Currently used lithium-ion

batteries are costly and not
completely safe
44 DOWN TO EARTH
44-45Technology.indd 44
HE BATTERIES in your smart pho-
nes and laptops may cost less soon,

thanks to a study carried out by researchers at the Oregon State University in Corvallis and Wayne State University in Detroit, usa. Most rechargeable
personal devices use lithium-ion batteries.
The research has shown that lithium can be
replaced by the more abundantly found sodium and potassium, thereby reducing the
cost of the battery significantly.
The main disadvantage of the current
lithium-ion batteries is high cost. For instance, the price of lithium-ion batteries is
about US $ 400 per kWh in the US. By contrast, the average retail price of electricity to
customers was about 10 cent per kWh in
2014, says Da Deng, lead author of the

study, which was published in Environmental Science and Technology. Another
relatively less discussed disadvantage is that
lithium reserves are limited or located in remote areas, mainly in South America, which
will make it difficult to reduce the cost of
lithium-ion batteries in the future if the demand for lithium-ion batteries continues to
increase at the current pace, Deng adds.
The challenge so far with sodium and
potassium-ion batteries has been to find a
reliable electrode as large sodium and potassium ions do not fit into graphite (the negative electrode of lithium-ion batteries) as
well as the lithium ions do. Graphite is constructed by long-range layered graphene
THINKSTOCKPHOTO
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
20/11/15 4:42 PM
Battery of options
inexpensive, but could also

double battery capacity.
The state of various alternatives

SULPHUR Lithium-sulphur
battery developed by Vasant
Kumar from the University of
Cambridge and Renjie Chen from
the Beijing Institute of
Technology. Made by wrapping
graphene around a sulphur
electrode, the battery produces
a conductive porous carbon
cage in which sulphur acts
as the host and each sulphurcarbon nanoparticle acts as
an energy storage unit. The
battery is deemed to have an
energy density greater than
lithium-ion batteries.
POTASSIUM Researchers at
the Oregon State University, USA,
have shown that potassium can
be used with graphite in a

potassium-ion battery,
overturning decades of false
assumptions. X-ray diffraction
studies confirm that KC36, KC24
and KC8 sequentially form upon
potassiation, whereas
depotassiation recovers graphite
through phase transformations
in an opposite sequence.
SODIUM Graphene oxide
paper electrode for sodium and
lithium-ion batteries developed
by Gurpreet Singh, assistant
professor of mechanical and
nuclear energy and Lamuel David,
a doctoral student in mechanical
engineering at the Kansas State
University, USA. They found that
sheets, the interlayer distance between

which is about 3.4 angstrom, says Deng.
Owing to the larger radius of the sodium
ion as compared to the lithium-ion and their
different ionic coordination properties, graphite was not able to store any meaningful
amount of sodium ions between the layers,
Deng explains.
Switching the base

To crack the problem, Deng and his team
used hard carbon, instead of graphite as anode. Hard carbon is different. Instead of
layered graphene sheets, hard carbon is
made of randomly stacked short-range graphene layers, with a lot of gaps. Therefore,
hard carbon can reversibly store a significant amount of sodium ions, Deng says.
What is even more interesting is the
source of hard carbon. The researchers converted Harmful Algal Blooms (habs), caused
by blue-green algae in eutrophic waters, into
a promising, high-performance negative
electrode for sodium-ion batteries.
We are trying to kill two birds with one
stone: to mitigate the issue of habs, and to
provide suitable negative electrode materials for sodium-ion batteries at the same
time, Deng says, adding that habs produce
toxins that threaten human beings, livestock, and wildlife leading to illness and
sometimes even death.
habs are caused by a sudden spurt in
nutrients in water-when organic waste is
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
44-45Technology.indd 45
the sodium storage capacity of

paper electrodes depends on
the distance between the
individual layers that can be
tuned by heating it in argon or
ammonia gas.
VANDATE-BORATE GLASS
Scientists at the Electrochemical
Materials Institute, Switzerland,
proposed vandate-borate
glass-a material made of
vanadium oxide and lithium
borate-as cathode material.
The material is not only
dumped or bird droppings fall into it,

says M Baluswami, president of the Krishnamurthy Institute of Algology, Chennai.
By causing discolouration of water, habs
make the water unfit for domestic use.
They also deprive aquatic animals of oxygen
because they use the dissolved oxygen present in the water for respiration at night,
adds Baluswami.
The algae used in the research were collected by filtration from Lake Erie during algal blooms that affected 500,000 residents
in Toledo, usa, in 2014. After being dried in a
vacuum oven or freeze dryer, the algae were
carbonised at 700C to 1,000C in an argonprotected tube furnace for five hours. After
the furnace cooled down, the hard carbon
obtained was collected and stored.
Another advantage of sodium-ion batteries is that they could be safer than lithiumion batteries because they use a safe electrolyte with lower decomposition potential
than that in lithium-ion batteries. Thermal
runaway, even fire, can happen to lithiumion batteries. Though we believe that com-
Lithium reserves are limited

or located in remote areas,
mainly in South America. It
will be difficult to reduce the
cost of lithium-ion batteries
if the demand increases
SILK The Journal American

Chemical Society reported about
a research in which silk was used
instead of graphite in lithium-ion
batteries. The researchers used
silk to create carbon-based
nanosheets that could store five
times more lithium than graphite.
ZINC Case Western University
and the University of North Texas,
USA, proposed the concept of
zinc-air batteries, which, they
said, were lighter, safer, cheaper
and more durable. These
batteries mix oxygen from the air
with zinc in a liquid alkaline
electrolyte to create a charge and
can have three times the energy
density as compared to lithiumion batteries.
mercial lithium-ion batteries are generally

safe, Deng says.
Subhasish Basu Majumder, a professor
of materials science at the Indian Institute
of Technology, Kharagpur, concurs that this
is a defect in lithium-ion batteries that use
layered type of oxide such as lithium cobalt
oxide. But this is true only if you abuse the
battery. When you take out all the lithium
ions then there may be a short-circuiting of
the anode and cathode and the electrolyte
may catch fire, he adds.
The sodium-ion battery developed by
Oregon and Wayne Universities researchers
has a highly stable reversible specific capacity. The efficiency of sodium-ion batteries
may not be greater than but is comparable
to lithium-ion batteries, Deng says, adding
that sodium-ion batteries could potentially
replace lithium-ion batteries in many applications, especially for grid energy storage.
But there are some problems that need
to be addressed before these batteries enter
the market. Our future research will focus
on the optimisation of electrochemical performance of hab-derived carbon in sodiumion batteries. For example, one of the focus
areas will be to mitigate the first-cycle irreversible capacity loss. We are also interested
in developing methods for the large-scale
harvesting of habs, Deng says, adding that
hab-derived hard carbon as negative electrode material will be in the market in the
next five years.
20/11/15 4:43 PM
WILDLIFE
WAKE-UP CALL
Climate change is altering the hibernation
periods of animals, disturbing their
breeding patterns and metabolism
RAJESHWARI GANESAN | new delhi
46 DOWN TO EARTH
46-48Wildlife.indd 46
N OCTOBER and November last year, attacks by bears outnumbered the attacks by leopards in Pauri, Tehri,
Joshimath and Chamoli districts of
Uttarakhand. While initially the cause was
attributed to habitat loss and deficiency in
food, a closer look by Uttarakhands forest
department officials brought out a startling
revelation: the bears were not hibernating
as they normally would, and thus were
becoming increasingly aggressive. Hibernation is an adaptation process among
many animals that helps them conserve energy, and also to survive long periods when
food is scarce. The Himalayan brown bear,
which would normally go into hibernation
right through the winter, is no longer doing
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
20/11/15 4:52 PM
THINKSTOCKPHOTO
the animal world is experiencing drastic

changes in its hibernation patterns due to
climate change (see `Breaking life cycles',
p48). This is leading to a range of impacts,
including aggressive behaviour, breeding
problems and even changes in their body
metabolism. Whats more worrying is that
these changes could affect other species
within their communities, and mess up the
entire ecosystem.
Global pattern
Yellow-bellied marmots, which used to

hibernate for seven to eight months in a
year, are now coming out of hibernation at
least a month earlier than normal
so. While some are active for a couple of winter months, there are even those that stay active throughout the winter. There are several reasons for this, and climate change is a
primary reason, says Uttarakhands chief
wildlife warden, D V S Khati.
Asiatic bears in Kashmir, which used to
hibernate from November to March, now
hardly hibernate. If there is a less harsh
winter, bears prefer to roam in the woods
and nearby human habitations in search of
food, says S Sathyakumar, scientist at the
Wildlife Insitiute of India (wii), who has
conducted a study on bears in Kashmir.
From amphibians in southern Africa
and reptiles in India to mammals in
Colorado and even polar bears in the Arctic,
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
A worldwide pattern is emerging. While

some animals have completely stopped hibernating, others have reduced their hibernation period. Polar bears in the Arctic, for
instance, have been affected due to extended summers. If this trend continues as predicted, their population could be in serious
jeopardy. Polar bears use their sea ice habitat to hunt their main prey, seals. As the sea
ice melts at a faster pace, polar bears have
less chance to build up the necessary body
weight to emerge out and hibernate, says
Geoff York, a polar bear expert with the
World Wide Fund for Nature (wwf).
This is especially true for pregnant females. The survival of cubs during pregnancy and infancy is closely linked to the amount
of energy pregnant females have stored up
before denning during the winter months,
adds York.
The yellow-bellied marmots, which
used to hibernate for seven to eight months
in a year, are now coming out of hibernation
at least a month earlier than normal, say researchers at the Rocky Mountain Biological
Laboratory in Colorado, who tracked the
mammals behaviour over a 40-year period.
While earlier they used to appear in the second week of May, they are now appearing in
the second week of April. They rely on air
temperature as a wake-up call and with the
temperature warming sooner, they are out
early, explains ethologist and conservation
biologist, Daniel T Blumstein.
However, the temperature is not warm
enough to thaw the snow off the grass and
other plants that are fodder to the marmots,
and they wake up to find the meadows still
frozen. With a dense snowpack, they either
starve or are eaten up by predators, adds
Blumstein. In Spains northern Cantabrian
Mountains, European brown bears have

stopped hibernating altogether.
Fall in `break' periods

While extensive studies have been done
on hibernating mammals, the keynote indicator of the effects of climate change on
hibernation patterns are the amphibians,
says Anil Kumar Khaire, president, Indian
Herpetological Society. For instance, the
Spotted Snout Burrower (Hemisus guttatus) is suffering due to a rise in global
temperatures, says the International Union
for Conservation of Natures study, Wildlife
in a Changing World. The species reliance
on seasonal rainfall events to break periods
of hibernation makes it particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts due to climate
change, says the study.
Khaire adds, Amphibians are especially sensitive to climatic change because they
are ectotherms (animals whose body temperature varies with the temperature of its
surroundings). It has been noticed that
changes in temperature are influencing amphibian behaviour, including those related
to breeding and reproduction. Since most
temperate amphibians spend a large portion
of the year inactive in hibernation, subtle increases in temperature or moisture trigger
them to emerge from their winter nap.
Experts say as soon as amphibians
emerge from hibernation, they migrate to
nearby ponds or streams to breed. Thus,
global warming creates a trend towards early breeding as average temperatures are increasing. A number of studies also reveal
that increasing length of dry periods or overall decrease in annual precipitation may
cause the decline and probable extinction of
several species of amphibians, says Stein
Joar Hegland, researcher at Sogn og Fjordane University College, Norway.
Changes in ambient temperature on a
global scale could disrupt timing of breeding, periods of hibernation, and ability to
find food. Because amphibians are key components of many ecosystems, changes in
their populations could affect other species
within their communities, such as their
predators and prey, even if these species
were unaffected directly by global warming,
says Andrew R Blaustein, who heads the dewww.downtoearth.org.in 47
20/11/15 4:52 PM
Breaking life cycles
Canada, USA (Alaska):

Hibernation among polar bears has reduced. The amount of
energy pregnant females normally store up before
hibernation has significantly come down
Disturbance of hibernation patterns

can endanger the species and mess up
entire ecosystems
Spain:
India
Brown bears in the

Spanish Cantabrian
Mountains have
not been
hibernating at all
The Himalayan brown bear

and the Asiatic black bear,
which would normally go into
hibernation right through
winter, are no longer doing so
United Kingdom:
Rocky Mountains, USA

Yellow-bellied marmots are
emerging 38 days earlier from
hibernation
Late spring snowfalls have
delayed the Rocky Mountain
ground squirrels' emergence
from hibernation by 10 days
over the last 20 years
Hedgehogs are emerging

up to three weeks earlier
from hibernation
Hibernation of bats has
been affected as they emerge
from hibernation earlier if
spring temperatures
are higher
partment of zoology in Oregon State University, usa.

Reptiles have not been spared either.
Observations on snakes in India show they
are now emerging out of their hibernation
sooner. Just before hibernation (from
September to November), the fat content in
the body of reptiles, especially snakes, increases, and during hibernation (from
December to February), the fat content is reduced to half as a result of increase in the level of thyroid in the body, explains Kaushik
Deuti, a scientist at the Zoological Survey of
India (zsi), who has been studying the behavioural patterns of snakes.
Also, the levels of minerals like calcium
and magnesium in the blood first increase
during hibernation, but later are restored
back to normal by the end of hibernation period. This happens because of decalcification of bone at the onset of hibernation
and then restoration of calcium and magnesium in the bone by the end of hibernation,
adds Deuti.
When reptiles come out earlier from hibernation, they have less loss of fat in the
body, but will have greater decalcified bones
48 DOWN TO EARTH
Australia:
Southern Africa:
Spotted Snout Burrower's reliance on
seasonal rainfall tends to break
periods of hibernation
with increased calcium and magnesium in

the blood. Moreover, they are unlikely to get
enough food resources soon after hibernation because in tropical countries like India,
the food supply increases only with the onset of the monsoon. However, we do not
have enough data on how this has affected
their numbers, adds Deuti.
Disrupting timing
Even arthropods such as bees are facing the
heat. A 17-year study in Colorado by scientists from the University of Toronto shows
that climate change is affecting pollination
by disrupting the synchronised timing of
flower opening and the emergence of bees
from hibernation. Climate-driven changes
in the timing when flowers bloom and the
timing when the bees emerge from hibernation is an important factor, says James D
Thomson, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto,
who authored the study.
Early in the year, when bumble bee
queens are still hibernating, the fruiting
rates are especially low. This is sobering because it suggests that pollination is vulnera-
Climate change is
affecting
hibernation cycles
of many of
Australia's frog
species, including
the endangered
Baw Baw frog
ble even in a relatively pristine environment

that is free of pesticides and human disturbance but still subject to climate change,
says Thomson. He adds that the results are
a warning sign that this phenomenon may
be widespread.
While emerging research is validating
the fact that hibernation behaviour is
changing, India lacks research on this. We
have not collected data to map a trend of
hibernation pattern changes owing to climate change, points out Dhananjay Mohan,
chief conservator of forests, Uttarakhand.
Agrees Kailash Chandra, director-in-charge
of zsi: We have only begun to research on
these lines.
In October this year, the wii embarked
on a research study to understand the impact of climate change on wildlife and devise
strategies to reduce its effects on various
species found in 12 states-Jammu and
Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand,
Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam and West Bengal. The findings of the
study are expected to be released around
mid-2016. n
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
20/11/15 4:52 PM
COLUMN
H E D G E H O G TA L E S
RAKESH KALSHIAN
The intel inside
IQ tests focus on language and logic. But aren't other kinds of

intelligence, artistic, athletic and emotional, equally important?
AST MONTH, when Mensa India announced it had
found no fewer than 102 poor children with extraordinary IQs, the media lapped up the story with
sheepish bewilderment. The fact that these gifted
children were sons and daughters of poor blue-collar
workers like labourers, drivers and security guards was
qualified by the adverb interestingly. All the gifted children had an IQ of over 100, with over a dozen surpassing
the 145 mark, which puts them in the genius category.
Mensa India is the Indian branch of Mensa International,
a non-profit in the UK, which certifies people with an IQ
over 100. Mensa India is cagey about the nature of these
tests, but it is common knowledge that they are mostly
about language and math skills.
The media did not dwell on the
fact that the crme de la crme were
chosen after screening over 4,000
poor school-going children in and
around New Delhi. In other words,
over 3,900 children were labelled
average or ordinary or less smart,
hence not worthy of special attention. Even though Mensa India
claims that it has tested more than
15,000 tribal and underprivileged
children since 2002, success, to
quote from their website, has come
with someone becoming a teacher to another a line
manager in an automobile engineering major. Is this all
that exceptional IQ amounts to, one might ask with justified scepticism?
Ironically, even as the Mensa project dents the popular perception about poor children being less clever, the
very idea that intelligence can be reduced to a single number has been criticised as elitist, simplistic and flawed. IQ
tests have been used widely around the world ever since
psychologist Alfred Binet introduced them in France over
a century ago. But many scholars in recent decades have
questioned whether this straitjacketing of intelligence is
valid or even desirable. They have provoked a debate
about intelligencewhether it can be inherited, or
whether there are different varieties of intelligence, and
whether or how intelligence can be assessed.
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
49Column.indd 49
In the largest-ever study of intelligence published

three years ago, Canadian researchers found IQ tests to
be meaningless as a measure of smartness. More than
100,000 participants spanning across class, culture and
race took a set of tests that probed skills like planning,
reasoning, memory and attention. The study, published
in Neuron, concluded that intelligence is far too complex
to be captured in a formula. In his much-acclaimed book
The Disciplined Mind, Harvard professor of psychology,
Howard Gardner, describes how the intellectual war is
being fought on three flanks. The first is about definition.
While purists advocate intelligence as a single, measurable entity, others, including Gardner, believe it is more
like the proverbial Indian elephant, implying that we should
recognise and embrace its many
forms. Gardner has proposed at
least eight varieties of intelligence,
which include musical, naturalist,
visual and kinaesthetic. The second battle is over whether and how
intelligence can be measured. Here
too, the traditionalists bat for IQ
tests, which, as many of us will attest from personal experience, have
dented the self-esteem of countless
TARIQUE AZIZ / CSE
individuals. Sceptics favour a more
imaginative and empathetic set of criteria to assess a persons intelligence.
The third and final contention is over the meaning
and value a society attaches to intelligence. Given the
dominant notion of intelligence, it is easy to celebrate the
intelligence of a C V Raman or a Stephen Hawking. But
what about the intelligence of a Mother Teresa or
M S Subbulakshmi, whom we all admire? What kind of
IQ tests can capture moral or artistic brilliance?
While the Mensa project appears to challenge a class
bias against the poor being less smart, it falls into the same
trap of social Darwinism by applying an elitist criterion
for judging intelligence. Who knows how much moral,
aesthetic or athletic talent lies latent in the 3,900 childrenor for that matter millions of others who routinely bungle IQ testswho were dismissed as ordinary?
20/11/15 12:25 PM
CREATIVECOMMONS
GOOD NEWS
Stock option
Poor communities in
Bangladesh trade in
paddy through the
creation of grain banks
KUNDAN PANDEY |
rangpur , bangladesh
50 DOWN TO EARTH
50-51Good News.indd 50
HEN THE eldest daughter of

Rubina Begum asked for her
tuition fees, Rubina was in a
quandary. She and her husband
work as agriculture labourers in Darjji Para
village in Bangladeshs Rangpur division.
But it was August and the sowing period of
paddy was over. They had little money left to
pull through the lean season that continues
till harvesting begins in November. Rubina
approached the paddy bank in her village,
where she is a member, and borrowed one
mann (40 kg) of paddy. She paid the tuition
fees by selling the paddy, and saved the extra
money to tide over the lean season.
Paddy banks have emerged as a sustainable survival solution for poor communities
in Bangladesh who face seasonal food insecurity due to a variety of reasons. These paddy banks are a social innovation of Rangpur
Dinajpur Rural Service (rdrs), a non-profit in Rangpur. It all began in 2006, when the
idea was propagated by an independent research group from Jahangir Nagar University in Nilphamari district. Bangladeshis
living abroad helped finance the initiative.
Today, rdrs has set up more than 350 paddy
banks in the country benefitting thousands
of poor farmers and ensuring their food security. There is no restriction on the number
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
20/11/15 4:53 PM
of members a paddy bank can enrol.

Between 35 and 40 families are members of
each paddy bank.
Mitigating a crisis
This was not the case earlier, says Malti Rani
from Sipaipada village of the same division.
During lean seasons, the poor would be dependent on loans from moneylenders, who
used to charge exorbitant interest rates. If
farmers failed to pay, they were harassed and
forced to work as bonded labourers. Says
Rani, Before the creation of paddy banks,
we were often indebted to multiple creditors
to manage our crisis. If we failed to repay the
loan because of illness or some other rea-
nerable households in the community can

form a group to establish and create a paddy bank in their community. At least 25
vulnerable families are needed to create the
paddy bank of 1-2 tonnes. The members
then form an executive committee of two to
three persons, who take care of the day-today functioning of the bank. The committee
then selects the place of storage, which could
be at one of the members house. The cost of
storage is shared by all the members.
The executive committee also decides
the time when people can borrow rice and
when they will return. It has been seen that
generally people borrow rice twice every
yearin March and in September. They return it subsequently after the harvesting
season in June and November.
The members are supposed to return
5 kg more paddy than what they have borrowed. A record of distribution and collection of paddy is maintained, and if anything
goes wrong, the federation takes over the
management. rdrs gets involved only when
the federation fails to mitigate the problem.
Generating the corpus
(Top left) Threshing of paddy in a village in

Bangladesh; (above) communities distribute
grain in a village market
sons, we entered into a debt cycle.

Now the women are confident and relaxed. In Sipaipada, more than 60 women
are members of the paddy bank, with one
caretaker who takes care of the storage facility. The storage facility is a cylindrical structure made of straw ropes, mud or bamboo.
The village governing body, called federation, selects one person at whose house
the storage facility is built. For the most vulnerable groups, rdrs provides a one-time
rice grant and also provides locally-made
bamboo baskets.
People can also start and operate such
paddy banks with their own savings. Vul1-15 DECEMBER 2015
50-51Good News.indd 51
The paddy bank is conceptualised in such a

way that it motivates poor farmers to deposit paddy in the bank soon after the harvesting period. This creates the capital for the
bank. It is common for the very poor to sell
their assets, borrow from moneylenders at
high interest rates or even borrow paddy
from rich people with a promise to return
double the amount borrowed within the
next harvesting period, says Mamunur
Rashid of rdrs.
Normally, people do not have storage
capacities and they sell the rice at a cheaper
rate. Due to lack of employment opportunities during the off-season, they are unable to
buy rice. For these ultra-poor families, lack
of rice is the difference between living and
starving. However, the Bangladesh government is yet to acknowledge the initiative as
a success, though officials have often praised
rdrs at many occasions.
Paddy banks are also popular in countries such as Combodia and in a few states of
India, says Rashid. According to a study by
the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture, at least 3,000 such
How paddy
banks work
Members contribute paddy
and manage the banks
Around 30 people from poor rural
communities come together to form a
management committee
The committee selects an executive
committee of three to seven members
who take care of day-to-day work
The committee also selects a house
where the storage facility
is established
The non-profit, RDRS, provides a big size
bamboo-made basket which can store
one to two tonnes of paddy
Members are motivated to deposit
paddy after the harvesting period
Any member can then borrow paddy
whenever they are in need. They either
use it for consumption or sell it in the
market. The borrower has to return an
extra 5 kg of paddy, along with the
amount borrowed
paddy banks were operational in Combodia

in 2011. In West Bengal, the Development
Research Communications and Services
Centre, a non-profit has set up grain banks
across the state.
Rice is the staple food for the rural poor.
Their life becomes extremely vulnerable
even with a slight change in the weather pattern or during extreme events, says M G
Neogi, who is with the World Bank. He adds
that the Bangladesh government should
consider paddy banks as a solution for sustainable agriculture, as it does not need continuous investment and survives sustainably on the initial investment. The initiative
shows that even vulnerable communities
can engineer a life-saving solution in the
event of a crisis. n
20/11/15 4:54 PM
REVIEW
Wings of ecology
Cultural tolerance and better understanding can
reduce human-wildlife conflicts
MEGHA PRAKASH & IPSITA HERLEKAR
BIRDS, WILD ANIMALS AND

AGRICULTURE
Tara Gandhi
Universities Press | 216 pages | H 500
ARMERS OFTEN prepare seed beds for paddy seedlings by
sprinkling the paddy seeds in the moist soil and then

cover the seed bed with old paddy or wheat straw, locally
called purali. This is done to protect the seeds from the
birds. Orchard owners use visits by birds as an indicator that the
fruit is ripe.
For ages, farmers in India have lived in harmony with nature.
They also found ways of keeping their crops safe. If we visit an
agricultural field, the first thing we would notice would be a
scarecrow. Often, the health of a farm is evaluated by the number
of birds and small animals visiting them. Several examples can be
cited of how farmers have exhibited cultural tolerance not only
towards birds but also wildlife. Such cultural tolerance has helped
humans coexist with even large animals like elephants. However,
economic development and urbanisation along with the countrys
burgeoning human population have put pressure on natural
resources and subsequently increased the conflict, primarily in and
around the reserves, national parks and conservation sites.

Tara Gandhis Birds, Wild Animals and Agriculture is a
collection of stories of traditional agricultural practices and direct
accounts of farmers. She also sheds light on some of the conflict
areas, including Karnataka, discussing the ill-effects of agriculture
on wildlife and vice versa. Divided into four parts, Gandhis book
deals with various aspects of the human-wildlife conflict as well as
coexistence. Though cases of conflict with humans involving large
herbivores like the elephant and large predators such as the leopard
and tiger are grabbing attention, the book focuses on the conflicts
between humans and birds or smaller mammals like wild pigs that
cause extensive damage to a variety of crops. Birds often get
poisoned due to retaliation by farmers. Peacock deaths in Haryana
in 2010 hit the headlines for this reason. The national bird was
subjected to electrocution and poisoned by the locals. Similarly,
the story of Amur falcons has not yet
faded from our memories. But
the role of public participation
in conserving the falcons has
reaped benefits.
Gandhis book lays emphasis on conducting detailed
and in-depth biogeographic
and socio-economic surveys
of the conflict area, a multipronged locale-specific strategy
EXCERPT
NATURAL HABITATS of birds are under
the great threat of inappropriate
land-use and misuse of ecosystems.
Urbanization of rural areas, incessant
construction of buildings, bigger
airports, wider roads (or which ancient
trees are ruthlessly cut down), along
with replacement of natural vegetation
with cultivated crops, particularly those
that offer no resting or roosting sites for
birds, and extensive use of chemical
pesticides are among the main reasons

for bird population decline. Open scrub
areas that are favoured habitat for
ground nesting birds such as larks and
lapwings are often dismissed as
wastelands and are the first to be
appropriated for conversion to
construction sites, landfills or other
uses. Air pollution, water contamination
and high noise levels could be additional factors affecting bird populations.
52 DOWN TO EARTH
52-53Review.indd 52
23/11/15 12:55 PM
combining traditional and modern techniques that can be effective

in mitigating the human-animal conflict. The book also describes
species of birds, primarily insectivores, which are helpful to
farmers. In addition to useful birds, the book also discusses how
unplanned urbanisation has affected bird populations and their
habitats, especially the ones located on the outskirts of cities and
towns. The book is supported with interesting case studies.
The solution to reduce human-animal conflicts is not
relocating people but to understand the problem-availability of
food, shrinking forest cover, restricted movement corridors, drying
waterbodies and changing agricultural practices. There are several
accounts wherein farmers made efforts to bring birds to their farms
by keeping water, planting trees near the periphery and even
sported bird houses. The reasons are simple-birds helped in
pollination, pest management and their droppings act as natural
fertilisers. However, in recent times, one of the main reasons of
increased human-bird conflicts can be the mono crop culture and
fragmented landholdings. n
Megha and Ipsita are freelance science writers
in Bengaluru
A U T H O R S AY S
Tara Gandhi is a wildlife conservationist

and was the last student of the legendary
ornithologist, Salim Ali. She speaks on the
state of bird conservation in India
How did the book come about?

The content of the book is heavily based
on my interactions with the farmers with
whom I have had several opportunities
to work while at the M S Swaminathan
Research Foundation in Chennai. My
curiosity made me ask questions-about
birds and wildlife visiting their farms as
I frequently heard about the problems
these farmers faced from them. This
has now been termed human-wildlife
conflict. Interestingly, most didn't mind
the birds visiting their farms. This book is aimed at
managers and policymakers to look into this aspect and
hopefully get ideas that can be implemented on field to
mitigate such conflicts.
SORIT / CSE
What is the state of bird conservation in India?

Most of the funds are directed towards charismatic
animals. But in the end, the conservation of the
umbrella species or the charismatic animals like tigers
and elephants will help birds as well. Conserving
birds is easier-by preserving the ecosystems, like
conservation of wetlands, coasts, dry scrubs, as a whole
will automatically conserve a variety of bird species.
The other way to conserve birds is to leave them alone.
By not interfering in their natural habitat and hindering
important stages of their life cycles like breeding and
their roosting areas will help in their conservation. Take
the Narcondam hornbill for example, which is endemic
to the small island of Narcondam in Nicobar. Leave them
alone and they will be fine.
How can people contribute to nature conservation?
There is a need to make the public aware, especially of
where the things that they use and consume come from
and where they end up. People should be educated and
made aware of the consequences. One cannot generate
interest by just putting up a board that says `please
conserve nature'. People need to be guided as to how
they can contribute to conserve nature. Bird festivals
and citizen science projects such as Migrant Watch,
the Sparrow Project and several other initiatives are
welcome as they inspire people. However, what concerns
me is the large number of people congregating in remote
forested places who destroy the place as they camp
out, have bonfires and dump waste. I think eco-tourism
should follow strict guidelines.
52-53Review.indd 53
23/11/15 12:55 PM
COLUMN
PAT E N T LY A B S U R D
L AT H A J I S H N U
Grudging waiver for the poorest

USA opposes plea of least developed countries at WTO
for indefinite exemption from pharma patents
HY US President Barack Obama would want
to put the trade screws on the worlds poorest

nations, specially where it will hurt them the
most, is a hugely worrying question. Did he
just give in to the pressure of the pharmaceutical industry and let his trade ambassadors oppose the demand of
the least developed countries (ldcs) at the World Trade
Organization (wto) that they be should be given only a
limited breather on the intellectual property obligations
on medicines?
The US was the leading country to adamantly reject
the February request of ldcs for an indefinite exemption
from the wtos trade-related aspects of the Intellectual
Property Rights (trips) agreement that forces members to
grant patents on medicines. ldcs
had sought an indefinite extension of the waiver that will expire
at the end of 2015 for as long as a
country remained least developed as per the UN classification.
There was hardly any opposition
to the ldc demand with the European Union, the Vatican, and various UN agencies, including the
World Health Organization, unaids, and undp, all supporting it.
Even members of the US Congress, including presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders, and leading
public health organisations, from Mdecins Sans Frontires (msf), Oxfam, Health gap, Public Citizen, Third
World Network (twn), the Union for Affordable Cancer
Treatment (uact), Knowledge Ecology International
(kei) had supported the ldc demand.
The ldcs, 48 at current count, are the poorest countries in the world and many of them are in the throes of
widespread conflict, including civil war. The health profile of the nearly one billion people who live in these countries, particularly of those in the 34 sub-Saharan nations,
is among the worst in the world. Both governments and
the population are hard pressed to spend on healthcare
54 DOWN TO EARTH
54Column.indd 54
with the average spend per person coming to about $50

annually. Health experts say access to generic medicines
is vital for the long-term stability of health systems in ldcs
which are also home to over 10 million of the worlds hiv/
aids patients.
It is difficult to understand why the US should insist
that such countries set up patent offices with all its paraphernalia and grant monopolies on life-saving drugs
instead of improving their health infrastructure and providing access to affordable generic medicines for their
people. The logic of this humanitarian view did not appeal to the US Trade Representative (ustr), Michael Froman, or to the US ambassador to wto, Michael Punke,
both of whom appeared to be
keen to protect the interests of
Big Pharma.
wto watchers say the White
House office of the ustr took the
lead and tried to pressure ldc delegations into accepting restrictive conditions that would have
weakened the exemptions. Backed by a handful of countries such
TARIQUE AZIZ / CSE
as Canada, Japan, Australia and
Switzerland, the US sought to
limit the trips waiver by just another 10 years. Finally,
though, it agreed to a 17-year relaxation till January 2033.
There are widely differing perceptions on the outcome of the wto Councils decision. Director-general
Roberto Azevdo says it represents a clear and unambiguous signal that wto is committed to addressing the
needs of its poorest members. But it is not a view shared
by those who work in the ldcs on a range of health problems. A temporary extension, say health activists, would
have limited benefits since it is too short a period for these
countries to change their patent laws, much less to develop the capacity for making generic drugs.
The big question: why did the Global Fund to Fight
aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria set up by Bill and Melinda Gates, Kofi Annan and a few others sit by silently on
the issue?
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
23/11/15 10:51 AM
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OPINION
CATCH
THE FAILING DROP
The Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana is gearing up to repeat

past mistakes and has little accountability
J HARSHA
EW SCHEMES announced by the

government are always a
dj vu moment. While priorities, plans and programmes get changed as the political system at the helm of governance
changes, they all astoundingly tend to
end up towards identical outcomes-whether it is
the Ganga Action Plan (gap) or the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit
Programme (aibp) or the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Generation Act (mgnrega). The gap made giant
strides only on paper, even as the Ganga gets much dirtier by the
day. Similarly, mgnrega had everything on paper-public participation, generation of employment and even a website full of data and
statistics about its achievements. Yet, there is hardly any evidence
of mgnrega achieving grand success across India. Rather, it has been
criticised for rampant corruption and mismanagement.
In July this year, another new scheme was announced by the
government. Called the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana
(pmksy), the scheme aims to replace and converge all existing irrigation schemes till the field level-from aibp, command area development programmes to watershed development programmes like
56 DOWN TO EARTH
56-57Opinion.indd 56
Integrated Watershed Management Programme (iwmp)

and mgnrega. The scheme has an outlay of I50,000 crore
and is spread over a period of five years. pmksy has four subcomponents, namely aibp, Har Khet Ko Pani, Per Drop More Crop
and watershed management. The scheme aims at preparation of
district level plans, including all four sub-components as a single
project. pmksy envisions the grand objectives of achieving greater
water use efficiency, increasing the water and agricultural productivity and avoiding duplicity of various government programmes
on water and agriculture management.
End-to-end disaster
To begin with, pmksy contradicts the National Water Policy, 2012,
which declares management of water from the perspective of hydrological units (river basin or sub-basin or watershed). But the
pmksy aims at water management at the level of the district-a
lower order political boundary of governance in India. Wherever a
watershed is divided by several districts, there could be several plans
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
20/11/15 4:55 PM
The PMKSY contradicts the National Water

Policy, 2012, which declares management of
water from the perspective of hydrological
units. But the scheme aims at water
management at the level of district, a lower
order of political boundary of governance
sprinklers and drip irrigation in the command area, but
there are no incentives for farmers with small landholdings who cannot afford.
TARIQUE AZIZ / CSE
Bureaucracy and accountability
within a single watershed tearing

up the watershed in different directions. So
even before the start of the programme, the contradiction of hydrological unit vs district as a unit will torpedo the envisioned objectives of pmksy. pmksy has also learnt little from past failures. One of
the primary causes for aibps failure was that it was blind to the issue of land acquisition. The compliance of agencies to possess land
first before funding is nowhere visible in pmksy. With pmksy being
blind to land acquisition, two of its sub-components, namely aibp
and Har Khet Ko Pani, could be adversely affected and could fall
short of the expected targets.
The scheme promises end-to-end solutions-from tapping the
water source to water distribution and water management- to increase water and agriculture productivity in the command area. But
it turns a blind eye to the fact that the command area is nowhere under the control of the government. Moreover, pmksys component,
Per Drop More Crop, can only succeed if farmers adopt microirrigation in the command area. But no incentives have been conceived for farmers to adopt micro-irrigation, as has been the case
with various participatory irrigation management programmes.
The component requires greater investment to introduce costly
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
56-57Opinion.indd 57
pmksy is also silent on the process through which farmers are to be

assisted in procuring the requisite infrastructure for deploying
micro-irrigation. The extent of government contribution in the
investment in micro-irrigation on behalf of farmers is completely
missing in pmksy. If the scholarly findings about the outcome of
Participatory Irrigation Management in India are anything to go
by, it sounds ominous for the Per Drop More Crop component.
pmksy has been suffocated with more bureaucracy, with experts
from different disciplines being nauseatingly subordinated (barring agriculture) to them or even sidelining them. Groundwater
specialists will little say, and water managers have been relegated to
a supporting role, even in the examination of technical feasibility of
irrigation projects. While specialists remain the pillar of innovation
in advanced countries, pmksy is loaded with bureaucrats (some with
educational backgrounds as diverse as history, political science and
biology) taking India back in time. Instead of fine tuning the existing speed of technical examination of schemes or improvise the process, the very engineering component has been emasculated under
the new pmksy.
Lastly, pmksy falls woefully short on accountability. There is no
reference for accountability for any of the committees at the district
level; the Inter-Departmental Working Groups and the State Level
Sanctioning Committees are dominated by bureaucrats. The tenure of service of the bureaucrats heading the committees is secured,
irrespective of the outcome of pmksy. India, being a governancedeficit country ranking 85th in the corruption index, the manner
in which pmksy has been conceived without accountability increases the apprehensions about its success.
The objectives and goal of pmksy are not under dispute. What is
disgusting is the persistence of the very same bottlenecks-prolong,
delay and cause losses to the exchequer-that caused past programmes to fail. How long can India afford such wasteful expenditure that either has minimal or no returns on investment? Past programmes should have been a lesson for pmksy to not to repeat such
mistakes. Yet the pmksy has been conceived to dovetail the past programmes and its flaws. As a result, it is staring at the prospect of becoming another failure, even at the onset.
The author is director, Central Water Commission. The views
expressed in this article are personal
24/11/15 2:38 PM
LAST WORD
R I G H T TO D I S S E N T
L AT H A J I S H N U
The elusive scientific temper

Scientists have protested against recent acts of irrationality
but many of them are far from rational
ATE OCTOBER when scientists also stood up to be

counted in the nation-wide protests against irrationality and intolerance it was quite a surprise.
Indias scientific fraternity is not known to go against the establishment or to take a public stance even on
critical issues related to their work. So it was reassuring
that some had the gumption to speak up against the climate of intolerance, and the ways in which science and
reason are being eroded in the country. Bravo.
It made up in part for their silence when Prime
Minister Narendra Modi declared last year that reproductive genetics and plastic surgery were practised in ancient India, a claim based on the mythological narratives
of the Mahabharat. It was interesting that a clutch of scientists
have now sent an appeal to the
President of India and, wonder of
wonders, also launched an online
petition calling for the strictest
action against any such antihuman, anti-civilisational acts.
They were reacting to the lynching
of men suspected to be eating or
trading in beef, and the killing of
rationalist writers.
And for the first time, the Inter-Academy Panel on
Ethics in Science (iapes) said it was concerned that the
countrys scientific temper had been eroded by several
statements and actions which run counter to the constitutional requirement. The panel was referring to Article
51 A (h) of the Indian Constitution which says it is the
duty of every citizen to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. Since iapes
speaks for the cream of scientists-it is constituted by
three apex science academies of the Indian National
Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences and
the National Academy of Sciences-this is a major stirring indeed. Three cheers for that.
But one wonders how iapes squares the conduct of
some of its high-profile scientists with the constitutional
58 DOWN TO EARTH
58Last Word.indd 58
injunction. For instance, scientists at the Indian Space

Research Organisation (isro) never fail to make their
obeisance to the presiding deities at the Tirupati temple
in Andhra Pradesh before every one of their rocket
launches. They also avoid scrupulously the inauspicious
times specified in the Hindu calendar when scheduling
the launch windows. That even the chairperson of isro
sought divine support for Indias Mars mission is a sad reflection on the outlook of the scientific community. The
deeper embarrassment was that a replica of the Mars
Orbiter spacecraft was placed at the foot of the deitys statue in Tirupati during special prayers organised a day before the launch. So, its a toss-up whether blind faith or scientific expertise led to its success.
Thats why the bjp and its
Hindutva brotherhood find it so
easy to subvert the foundation of
scientific policy and thought with
obscurantism. During the partys
previous rule at the Centre, it gave
an award for astrology to the president of an occult foundation at
the prestigious Indian Science
TARIQUE AZIZ / CSE
Congress, much to the chagrin of
the scientific community. But
their public outrage could deter the bjp regime from offering astrology courses at the university level.
Scientific temper is not just about junking blind religious beliefs and superstition; it is about the way one
views the world and society, it is about fostering a questioning spirit and enlarging the secular space. Thats what
Jawaharlal Nehru hoped to inculcate in the superstitionridden and blinkered mentality of Indians. The scientific approach and temper are, or should be, a way of life, a
process of thinking, a method of acting and associating
with our fellowmen. Science deals with the domain of
positive knowledge, but the temper which it should produce goes beyond that domain, he wrote in 1946. Seventy
years later, it remains a forlorn hope with regressive forces in full cry once again.
1-15 DECEMBER 2015
23/11/15 10:51 AM
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DownToEarth

1-15 DECEMBER, 2015

SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT FORTNIGHTLY

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As labour participation in agriculture declines in India

A Down To Earth ANNUAL

This year it is bigger, better

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Society for Environmental Communications

WROTE LAST about what I expect will happen at the Paris

1-15 DECEMBER 2015

SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT FORTNIGHTLY

Vibha Varshney, Archana Yadav,

Anupam Chakravartty, Jitendra Choubey,

Snigdha Das, Rajat Ghai, Jemima Rohekar,

Chaitanya Chandan, Shri Krishan,

A sultan's silken dreams

Climate change can

Rajendra Rawat, Jaidev Sharma

Rakesh Shrivastava, Gundhar Das

INFORMATION AND RESEARCH SUPPORT

Chandra Bhushan, Anumita Roychowdhury

37 per cent of natural

silkworms from China via

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Delhi: A gas chamber

1-15 DECEMBER 2015

VIKAS CHOUDHARY / CSE

The joys of sharing

1-15 DECEMBER 2015

This refers to the article

Rooftop solar panels

Flowering life forms

This refers to the article

This refers to the editorial

Should Delhi celebrate

Unfortunately, in Delhi now there is no other

lit again in the city.

If Delhi has to celebrate Diwali with crackers,

I think the residents of Delhi should

I don't think a blanket ban on crackers is

1-15 DECEMBER 2015

TARIQUE AZIZ / CSE

imagined this book could get so much

in adulterating diesel, which affects the

Sunita Narain replies:

Holistic Science and Complexity

An introduction to the Science of Complexity

Deep Ecology - A Rainforest Retreat

1-15 DECEMBER 2015

Programs are designed to identify

Purnapramati is a six-year old full

CENTRE FOR LEARNING, ORGANIC

Comprehension of conditioning and its limiting effect on

Now, relish insects

A UK government report recommends

Little respite for

A crash in international dairy

The recent deluge highlights

Thought to be eliminated 10 years

1-15 DECEMBER 2015

Pradhan Mantri Krishi

Only for the

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