Flood for Thought.

He was sitting on the drivers seat with his trousers folded up till his knees his bata sandals lying on the dashboard of the bus behind the steering wheel the bus conductor managed to arrange for some tea from the guy who used to appear wearing a raincoat and a huge black umbrella with 10 small glasses of tea from the by lanes and disappear after selling it all for 5 bucks a glass in less than 2 minutes to come back with more. sipping on a hot cup of chai my dad told told the conductor ">yaar ye baaris rukne wala nahi hain sayad". He spent 30 hours sitting on the drivers seat which was an inch above water all the other passengers had abandoned the bus he could not.

26th July 2006, was the day when Bombay beat the world record for maximum rainfall in a day, and i am reminded of those floods today because of the grim situation Andhra pradesh and Karnataka, about 500000 people are living in refugee camps, 300 people died, Orissa as a state should be completely evacuated looking at the rate of floods, droughts cyclones that break the states back year after year and its only increasing. People who have to bear the brunt of climate disasters have contributed zilch in causing it and the irony is poor guys dont even know why they are at the recieveing end and who is responsible for it.

But we know it don't we? its us, the rich and when i say the rich i mean the rich of the world discounting the Geographical boundaries, its a fact that Climate change is being by accumulative emissions of over a hundred years of industrialization, its the west who has caused it and they will have to take the lead in cutting down emissions but wait a minute in causing the problem what the west did to us aren't the Rich of India doing the same to the poor of India? We can continue telling the world their emissions are about luxury where as India's emissions are about survival and thats because we are country of over a billion people but think about this.

If the world emissions come down the same as India per-capita emissions which is less than 2 tons per annum climate change as an issue wont exist then but if over a billion Indians start having the same lifestyle like an urban middle class citizen then apocalypse wont be far away.

Coal at what cost?

Eight year old, curly hair wearing dirty knickers, no shirt playing in sweltering heat with his favorite toy, a JCB to excavate coal and load it in a tiny little truck. He pushes that toy truck loaded with coal over a crack spewing fumes and smoke. That’s a day in the life of a kid in Jharia, A small town in Jharkhand, the town is a part of the district which is called as the coal capital of India, Jharia alone has almost 60000 cr (us 12 billion $) worth of coal under its belly which has been burning since 1916.

October 7th 2008 I was in Calcutta, the city was lit up with millions of lighbulbs, loudspeakers blaring music at high decibel, shops, restaurants, flea markets, theatres, buses, trams, rickshaws…it looked like someone has switched on a big halogen lamp over the city, it was the biggest festival in Kolkata, I was in transit to travel to a Jharia assisting British photographer peter caton for documenting a place which is often referred to as “Hell on Earth” We took an early morning train “black diamond” to Dhanbad from Howrah station.

The parking lot at dhanbad was choc a bloc with 100’s of ambassadors that ply as taxis, we hired one with a driver named salim who said he knows all the “phayar “ places in Jharia at the back of his hand. We started out day around 1:00 pm after having lunch.

Jharia is a small town in the state of Jharkhand, its claim to fame is that 60000 crores worth of coal is buried under the town and has been burning nonstop since 1916, there are as many as 70 sites spread all over Jharia where you can see the ground beneath your feet breathing fire. The villages in Jharia literally breathe coal. One such village is bokapahadi exactly opposite rajapur coal mines, all men in the village work in the mines while women and children collect coal illegally from the mining dump to earn some extra food for the family.

Hundreds of families breathing toxic fumes of coal which has been burning under their homes for generations, most of them suffering from breathing disorders, 90% kids don’t go to school, no electricity struggling day after day for every meal on the land which they inherited from their forefathers. Why are they suffering so much? The answer is simple, they were born on coal reserves worth 12 billion us $, they are living on the source of energy which is pumping India’s GDP.

So the question I want to ask is why are these villagers in Jharia not party to all the development happening in the country . During durga pooja in Calcutta when thousands of homes switch on their first plasma tv why does Shankar bhuiya’s family continue to eat their modest meal in the light of a kerosene lamp? Coal for sure is destroying the planet but is it doing any good to humanity?