Forest Fires - Uttarakhand's Mid-Summer Nightmare

It's probably easier to start from the premise of, who is not corrupt, corruptible or willing to give or accept a bargain - if I offered someone Devdar beams for windows, door frames or kitchen cabinets at a rate well beneath the market price?? It's not a Mafia or widescale syndicate as such, but many individual risk and deal takers that accumulatively appears to be organised. It doesn't much matter if the effect is deforestation and our collective inability to preserve forests - we can't call it forest wealth any longer.

I totally agree with you paleface about our intent when it comes to go for such actions. However, my experience shows that at some level any such activity is controlled by a group with political backing. Take the case of contracts awarded for sand mining from riverbeds, almost 100 times more sand is illegally taken and most are controlled by big mafia bosses. It’s not even a secret anymore.

Thanks paleface and Jitu for clearing up my questions - this sort of thing is everywhere too, not just in the forestry area. And I might add, in many other countries - getting 'perks' is not unknown in Oz and NZ either. The shortsightedness of people who want the quick buck here and now and no matter how they get it, is appalling.

What you describe is the law of karma, we are punished for our actions by our actions. How many are the ways to make money, and how few of them are free of karma! And the karmas are often extremely hard to recognise.

Karmas stretch from the destruction of nature to the swindling of our domesticated plants and animals that work for us for slave wages under savage conditions. We breed and propagate these species only to gobble them down with very little benefit to them or to the Nature Who is their Mother. These karmas teach us in turn to cheat one another: 'Fraud was at the basis of our present day agricultural and stock farming industries. Among humans, exchange took the form of mutual deceit - the start of which was buying and selling (a few shells for your gold). Therefore the basis of trade and all commercial activity is fraud. A totally fair exchange leaves one with a profit of zero' but with something else that is immeasurable.....

Heavy philosophy and equally heavy language paleface..must be good

Conversely if some empirical cosmic law is not at influence, then things are obviously just the way they are because of the way we are, and there ain't no sense in trying to make sense of that...

Interesting posts, Paleface!

That we are compelled to try and make sense of our predicament is a curse...In their original form the Vedas had no commandments and no use for apportioning guilt, they could not bother with right or wrong. They were concerned only with karma, and there is nothing like a moral sense to the law of it, there is only cause and effect, simply physics like gravity that cannot be repealed, but eventually it catches up. If you jump in the air for a second or so you can avoid gravity, briefly, but what goes up ....in flames

Well paleface, I tried to avoid the discussion as this is not the right forum. Anyway, Vedas were not meant for commandments in original form, as they are knowledge and knowledge does not preach right or wrong. Knowledge will let you make a nuclear bomb but not tell you if it is right or wrong. There are many other texts for this purpose, starting with Panchtantra for children and going further as human ages. Of course, right and wrong can be subjective and so can create volumes. Vikramiditya did away with two puranas that were written in his time otherwise we would be having 20 by now instead of 18. The concept of karma is huge so will not touch it. The original language of Veda is dev bhasha, or god’s language from which Sanskrit originated. No one really can interpret the Vedas in true sense. For example, the word ‘gau’ has 21 meanings and can be interpreted according to our level of understanding. This is the reason that what we know of Vedas as of now is just a fraction that they have. I like this discussion and would like to continue on PM from now on or other relevant forum... looking forward.

While this sounds like serious Philosophy, where is the supporting groundwork?
What goes up .... in flames ... must go up or must come down? Or does it stay there for eternity? Is 'change' not the only constant that we, in our rather pathetic smallness, can comprehend? Must we pretend to be more than what we are or must we only aspire to be what we will never become?
It is a humbling thought to realize that perhaps we were never meant to 'offer' explanations for all things real and metaphysical. Debate about them, argue if you please, but the answers shall remain hidden.
Is it not the sheer pettiness of man that he aspires to explain everything in the Cosmos? And each century turns the earlier 'facts' around on their heads!
Our lifespan, as per currently accepted Physics, is simply too short to provide insights, let alone understanding, into all that this amazing 'force' or 'intelligence' or 'He' created.
Self esteem and ego are what we are most famous for.
That still does not mean we must stop trying!

Forest fires? We'll never stop them and we'll never control them. All we can do is our bit in not starting them!

Mai samajtahun! But i gotta go to Dehradun at 5 tomorrow to try and get a steering gearbox fixed for the car - steering went on the road to Sangrali today - fortuitously i wasn't coming downhill, could have been messy, obviously have some rnanabandanas to work out ..... melinge phir.

You don’t really need any when two people find compatability....

LOL, you're in love!
No wonder you are able to wax eloquent!

All the best! May your dreams come true.

from forest fires to Philosophy ... well we could think of the fires as a gigantic homam to appease the gods to give us more sense but I think that is stretching it a bit too far.
I agree with Anil that the forests that are under the Village Gramsabhas are better managed than the reserve forests. In all of Uttarkashi and a radius of 10 kms the only area that has any devdars left is Sangrali and a couple of villages around it. The other villages still like to cut down their devdars for wood for cooking but the Sangrali gramsabha took a decision not to cut any branches of any devdars or to damage them in any way hence it has a beautiful forest of devdars that is a pleasure to the eye. All the branches are intact and there is no ugly disfigurement of trees. If a village can impose such self restraint I wonder why the FD can't. My guess is that the vested interest of lining ones pocket is just too strong to resist.
Another interesting thing I noticed was that the Forest Corporation has a policy of auctioning away trees that grow along roads and major highways. Just recently a person was alloted two gigantic Tun trees that were green and unfortunately for them growning along the road even if they had been there since before the road was built and were not going to fall over as they were on very firm ground. Still the trees were mercilessly cut down and the timber used for making furniture for yet another Hotel. My heart bled for the trees but there was nothing I could do about it as it was all legal and above board as far as Law was concerned. But i am sure the guy lined a lot of pockets and called in some heavy favours to get the saws off those beauties.
Aisha - the forest mafia is not only after the timber there are a lot of herbs and medicinal plants and mushrooms that grow in Himalayan forests naturally. They form a huge portion of the smuggling that goes on. Some of these herbs and plants sell for upto a couple of lakhs a kg. I am sure Jitu will be able to shed more light on this - more than I can.
Morrels or guchchi as they are called are products of devdar forests and sell for several thousands of ruppees a kg in hotels. I have seen people with big bundles of plants and mushrooms passing through the forest barriers without a hitch after paying chai pani money.
Don;t even get me started on the mining of sand from the river bed. 90% of the operators do not pay any royalty to the FD for sand mining. They pay a monthly stipend that is portioned out to people from the top to the bottom. Then illegal mining for sand can go on unchecked right under the nose of the FD.
Once in a while they will impound a truck or two when a senior official is due to visit or when they are hard pressed to prove their efficiency. but that is all for presences... you pay the fine and then can operate for a few months without a hitch ... and these are the people who are supposed to protect our forests ...

when two people are on the same frequency you don't need an oscilloscope to know the wave length.