I’m
not an environmentalist or a nature conservationist. I’m not an expert on
Indian villages and their ways of life. In fact, I have hardly lived in a
village to even have a remote understanding of them. 5 or 6 visits to an
ancestral village spread over 40 years can hardly qualify as an experience.
Short stays (day trips) and such long gaps between visits haven’t given me enough
memories about villages that I could feel the emotional connect.
Or so I thought, until I visited Arumugamangalam, the ancestral village recently.
Arumugamangalam - A small village very close to the shores of Bay of Bengal (6 kms to be precise) and few kilometers off the Tamirabarani river. Of course like every other small village this one too enjoyed the great package deal offered by nature which includes Ancient temples, powerful deities, beautiful green farm lands, poor farmers (Who still treat you like Royalty), silent, peaceful and almost pollution free environment etc. Oh, how can I forget that special extra feature of this miracle package deal – a large water body. To a visitor, this large tank is just a fun place to swim or bird watch. But for the locals, this is the back bone for their very existence. Maybe, it’s this water source that helped it become a village in the first place all those 2500 or so years back.
Nature with all its power and beauty sometimes could not measure up to the potent combination of changing times and human apathy. Some populist policies by the government like the ‘100 days employment guarantee to the unemployed’ and ‘free cattle to the poor’, meant these villagers could now afford not to work all 365 days. These cattle’s, religiously follow God’s most interesting of commandments –“Go forth and multiply” and all that a man has to do is to sell them every once in a while. Who needs a job when we have such friendly God’s and governments? This coupled with the lure of a city life has led to fewer gen X villagers willing to jump into the dirty and messy farms.
Nature has written human evolution as an important part of its storyline. Hence, every time humans destroy the gift of nature, nature helps man to evolve and overcome their mistakes. Mechanisation of farm equipment’s, scientific farming techniques etc might have helped us temporarily overcome the lack of manpower. In fact, they might have even improved the overall agricultural process efficiency. But, is nature good enough to keep pace with our apathy? - Apathy, both from the governments and from the ‘son of the soil’ himself towards the very land that has provided them their livelihood for centuries together.
All the modern techniques apart, we still need water for agriculture - This means, care and maintenance of the water bodies that nature has given us. But what we see today in all of its 800 acres are silt and unwanted vegetation. Apparently, the tank has not been de silted in over 35 years. This has resulted in the tanks depth to be reduced to less than half its original depth. If we have the government administrators to blame for this apathy, who do we blame for slowly but steadily deteriorating this beautiful village to a disgusting public toilet? Today, It takes little more than love for the place and nostalgia to help you walk around this village. You need a strong stomach and an ineffective sense of smell. Who will save this village from the Aam Adhmi and the government?
Will it make a difference if they both become the same entity? That's a debate for another day.
There are still those die hard romantics who are waging a losing (actually lost) war with the deaf and the mute. They have sent millions of petitions and proposals to de-silt the tank that clearly explains the road map and the process of doing it, the merits and de merits associated, the revenue potential etc. Each petition is rejected with an excuse more lame than the one given before. Who knows, the government is thinking long term, may be. “Drain, Dry, and Sell” – I was told that this could be their plan. Residential localities in a dried out lake bed is not a new concept.
An objective outsider glance at this struggle would reveal the futility of the efforts by these aging crusaders. Are they climbing a ladder leaning towards them? – To me it looks like it – impossible and pointless. What drives them to keep battling on are the combination of their deep sense of history of this place, respect and love of their ancestors, the self-imposed moral responsibility to continue the centuries old family traditions and above all a deep sense of gratitude and love for the place that they enjoyed growing up in. May be, they don’t want to let their memories be faded by silt deposits caused by human apathy. I’m sure the story is similar in each of the 5000 plus villages across our country.
I’m an outsider with no emotional connect to a village and all i wished for was to stare at the vast expanse of water in the majestic tank and maybe smell some fresh air. I said good bye to this village after 2 days, more sad at how the story is unfolding. It is never a pleasant sight watching man destroy Mother Nature one layer of silt after the other.
Or so I thought, until I visited Arumugamangalam, the ancestral village recently.
Arumugamangalam - A small village very close to the shores of Bay of Bengal (6 kms to be precise) and few kilometers off the Tamirabarani river. Of course like every other small village this one too enjoyed the great package deal offered by nature which includes Ancient temples, powerful deities, beautiful green farm lands, poor farmers (Who still treat you like Royalty), silent, peaceful and almost pollution free environment etc. Oh, how can I forget that special extra feature of this miracle package deal – a large water body. To a visitor, this large tank is just a fun place to swim or bird watch. But for the locals, this is the back bone for their very existence. Maybe, it’s this water source that helped it become a village in the first place all those 2500 or so years back.
Nature with all its power and beauty sometimes could not measure up to the potent combination of changing times and human apathy. Some populist policies by the government like the ‘100 days employment guarantee to the unemployed’ and ‘free cattle to the poor’, meant these villagers could now afford not to work all 365 days. These cattle’s, religiously follow God’s most interesting of commandments –“Go forth and multiply” and all that a man has to do is to sell them every once in a while. Who needs a job when we have such friendly God’s and governments? This coupled with the lure of a city life has led to fewer gen X villagers willing to jump into the dirty and messy farms.
Nature has written human evolution as an important part of its storyline. Hence, every time humans destroy the gift of nature, nature helps man to evolve and overcome their mistakes. Mechanisation of farm equipment’s, scientific farming techniques etc might have helped us temporarily overcome the lack of manpower. In fact, they might have even improved the overall agricultural process efficiency. But, is nature good enough to keep pace with our apathy? - Apathy, both from the governments and from the ‘son of the soil’ himself towards the very land that has provided them their livelihood for centuries together.
All the modern techniques apart, we still need water for agriculture - This means, care and maintenance of the water bodies that nature has given us. But what we see today in all of its 800 acres are silt and unwanted vegetation. Apparently, the tank has not been de silted in over 35 years. This has resulted in the tanks depth to be reduced to less than half its original depth. If we have the government administrators to blame for this apathy, who do we blame for slowly but steadily deteriorating this beautiful village to a disgusting public toilet? Today, It takes little more than love for the place and nostalgia to help you walk around this village. You need a strong stomach and an ineffective sense of smell. Who will save this village from the Aam Adhmi and the government?
Will it make a difference if they both become the same entity? That's a debate for another day.
There are still those die hard romantics who are waging a losing (actually lost) war with the deaf and the mute. They have sent millions of petitions and proposals to de-silt the tank that clearly explains the road map and the process of doing it, the merits and de merits associated, the revenue potential etc. Each petition is rejected with an excuse more lame than the one given before. Who knows, the government is thinking long term, may be. “Drain, Dry, and Sell” – I was told that this could be their plan. Residential localities in a dried out lake bed is not a new concept.
An objective outsider glance at this struggle would reveal the futility of the efforts by these aging crusaders. Are they climbing a ladder leaning towards them? – To me it looks like it – impossible and pointless. What drives them to keep battling on are the combination of their deep sense of history of this place, respect and love of their ancestors, the self-imposed moral responsibility to continue the centuries old family traditions and above all a deep sense of gratitude and love for the place that they enjoyed growing up in. May be, they don’t want to let their memories be faded by silt deposits caused by human apathy. I’m sure the story is similar in each of the 5000 plus villages across our country.
I’m an outsider with no emotional connect to a village and all i wished for was to stare at the vast expanse of water in the majestic tank and maybe smell some fresh air. I said good bye to this village after 2 days, more sad at how the story is unfolding. It is never a pleasant sight watching man destroy Mother Nature one layer of silt after the other.
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