Stumbling Toward Enlightenment

Written by Stephen Messenger

All too often, it seems that an increase in human population must come at a cost to the environment, like in straining resources and encroachment on once wild habitats. But one quaint village in India has adopted a wonderfully eco-conscious tradition that is actually helping to ensure a greener future with each new generation.

While in some parts of India, many expectant parents still say they’d prefer bearing sons, members of the Piplantri village, in the western state of Rajasthan, are breaking this trend by celebrating the birth of each baby girl in way that benefits everyone. For every female child that’s born, the community gathers to plant 111 fruit trees in her honor in the village common.

This unique tradition was first suggested by the village’s former leader, Shyam Sundar Paliwal, in honor of his daughter who had passed away at a young age.

But planting trees is only one way that the community is ensuring a brighter future for their daughters. According to a report in The Hindu, villagers also pool together around $380 dollars for every new baby girl and deposited in an account for her. The girl’s parents are required to contribute $180, and to make a pledge to be considerate guardians.

“We make these parents sign an affidavit promising that they would not marry her off before the legal age, send her to school regularly and take care of the trees planted in her name,” says Paliwal.

Over the last six years alone, as population there has increased, villagers in Piplantri have planted nearly a quarter million trees — a welcoming forest for the community’s youngest members, offering a bit of shade for their brighter future.

This post was originally published by TreeHugger.

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Indir? Priyadar?in? G?ndh?; née: Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was the Prime Minister of the Republic of India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, a total of fifteen years. She is India’s only female prime minister to date. She is the world’s all time longest serving female Prime Minister. [Wikipedia]

She came from a prominent Brahmin family, her aunt, Vijaya Pandit,, was oner of the most powerful and respected women in India, and her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was India’s first Prime Minister.

Lakshmi bai, The Rani (Queen) of Jhansi (c.19 November 1828 – 17 June 1858), known as Jhansi Ki Rani, the queen of the Jhansi, was one of the leading figures of the First Freedom Struggle of India, and a symbol of resistance to British rule in India. She has gone down in Indian history as a legendary figure, the firebrand who began the Indian Revolution against British Colonialism and for Indian independence. [Wikipedia]

A popular Indian ballad said,

For some unspecified reason, she was allowed to do everything girls didn’t do. She ran races, wrestled, fenced, jumped, flew kites, learned to read and write, and even studied horsemanship and martial arts. Absolutely fearless, she was charged at the age of seven by a panicked elephant rampaging through the city streets. She waited for it to draw closer, leaped onto its trunk, climbed onto a tusk, and calmed it.

When she was only eight years old she married the raja of Jhansi amid fireworks, pomp, and assurances from astrologers that she would be gifted with wealth, valor, and wisdom. It was at this time she took the name Lakshmibai. Although the marriage was not consummated for six years, the traditional confinement of purdah, in which women were secluded from the outside world, was imposed immediately. Her husband proved to be arbitrary, extravagant, and ill-tempered, and he had little patience with her wish to continue her riding and swordplay.

In 1853, her husband died, and by all rights Lakshmibai should have succeeded to the throne as rani and gained at last the freedom she wanted. But the reverse happened. The English seized Jhansi, and although they considered Lakshmibai intelligent, decisive, eloquent, and an exceptional judge of horses, they did not feel she could rule. She was enraged, and for four years she suffered one indignity after another at British hands. Finally she found an opportunity to avenge her wrongs. Indian soldiers working for the British had begun what the Indians called the Great Rebellion and what the British called the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Lakshmibai joined forces with the rebels, training an army of women and defending the fortress of Jhansi against the English. Although she was forced to abandon Jhansi, she escaped with most of her troops.

The rebel leaders praised, but ignored her, and she failed to impress upon them the seriousness of their situation, they refused to believe they were in danger while she inspected the troops and prepared for battle. When battle came, as she had feared, she was killed. She is a national heroine in India and a patriotic symbol.

Author: Gopal Sharma

A truck emits smoke during evening rush hour in Mumbai November 19, 2009. Photo: Reuters/Arko Datta

India’s environment minister said on Monday the country could not have high economic growth and a rapid rise in carbon emissions now that the nation was the number three emitter after China and the United States. Jairam Ramesh’s comments come as negotiators from nearly 200 governments meet in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin. The U.N. talks aim to reach agreement on what should follow the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol, the key treaty on climate change, which expires in 2012. Indian per-capita emissions are still low but demand for energy is rising as the middle-class buys more cars, TVs and better housing. Much of that energy comes from coal oil and gas, the main sources for planet-warming carbon dioxide.

But Ramesh said India’s rush for wealth could not come at the expense of the environment. Officials said his comments are the first time a government minister has said India has overtaken Russia as the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

“We will unilaterally, voluntarily, move on a low-carbon growth path. We can’t have 8-9 percent GDP growth and high-carbon growth,” Ramesh told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in the Nepalese capital. “It has to be low-carbon 8 percent, 9 percent growth and that is the objective that we have set for ourselves,” he said.

Poorer nations are now the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and many big developing countries have taken steps to curb the growth of their emissions but say they won’t agree on absolute cuts, fearing this will hurt their economies. India weathered the global financial crisis better than most, and is setting its sights on economic growth of almost 10 percent over the coming years. Its economy currently grows at around 8.5 per cent.

“We are the third largest emitter of the greenhouse gases in the world … China is number one at 23 percent, the United States is second at about 22 percent and India is number three at about five percent.”

GREENER PATH
In India, any talk of a low-carbon economy was once seen as politically very risky, given the economic costs involved. But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in January asked a panel to begin charting a path to a greener economy. The report is expected by the year-end. Although India has announced a new climate plan which identifies renewable energy, such as solar power, as a key element, coal remains the backbone of energy supply in a country where almost half the 1.1 billion population has no access to electricity.

“The gap between the second and the third (highest emitters) is very very high, but nevertheless we need to be conscious of our contribution,” Ramesh said.

The fraught U.N. talks have been hobbled by lack of trust between rich and poor nations over climate funds, demand for more transparency over emissions cut pledges and anger over the size of cuts offered by rich nations. The risk of the talks stalling is so great that the United Nations has stopped urging nations to commit to tougher pledges to curb carbon emissions, fearing further debate could derail already fraught talks on a more ambitious climate pact.

(Editing by David Fogarty)