Mend relationship between Human and Ecosystem - Al Gore

Mend relationship between Human and Ecosystem - Al Gore
Syed Ali Mujtaba



The relationship between human beings and the ecological system of the earth has radically changed and is the main reason for extreme highs of temperatures and unprecedented weather events said Al GoreAl Gore, former US Vice President and green campaigner on Wednesday October 20, 2010 in Chennai.

He outlined how temperatures were rising in different parts of the world, and erratic weather patterns were being witnessed, delivering a lecture on ‘Thinking Green.’

He pointed out that a place in Pakistan recorded 53.5 degree Celsius in May 2010, another place in Russia recorded about 40 degree C for many days in a row. More than 19 countries across the globe recorded an all-time high in temperature, he added.

It’s because of disturbance in the hydrological cycle of the earth there is unprecedented heat and rains, Gore said as he explained the phenomena, where water goes through the motion of evaporation, condensation and precipitation to return back to the ocean passing through rivers and streams.

The 2007 Nobel laureate said the year 2010 has had many firsts to its credit. The months from January to August saw the hottest season ever measured in environmental history of 1000-years. The amount of rainfall too far exceeded that was recorded in the past.

Australia faced drought due to unprecedented weather and Pakistan had to face the wrath of the rains due to which over 20 million people were rendered homeless after floods, Gore pointed out.

The former US vice president said that increase in population, is another key reasons that disrupted the balance of the ecosystem. The global population had exponentially increased from two billion to 6.80 billion, stabilizing to around nine billion, he said.

The high profile environmentalist was in the city to speak at the 20th World Congress of the World Society of Cardio-thoracic Surgeons and the 6th Global Forum on Humanitarian Medicine in Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery.

Cherian Heart Foundation organized the event that was an exclusive event mostly attended by doctors from different parts of the country and the world.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com

Plight of Temple Elephants in South India

Plight of Temple Elephants in South India
Syed Ali Mujtaba


Thirukadaiyur, a sleepy place, some 350 km from Chennai on way to Trinquebar, the seat of Danish East India Company in the Nagapatinam district has its own significant place in the history of Tamil Nadu.

An ancient temple dedicated to goddess Abirami, the consort of Lord Shiva, is the hallmark of Thirukadaiyur that remains abuzz with large number of devotees thronging the place in search of spiritual solace.

An elephant stationed outside the doors of the temple greets the visitors raising its trunk and then putting it on top of devotees head, blessings them in traditional of South Indian style.

There are about 300 temple elephants in Tamil Nadu and over 500 in Kerala that form part of temple ceremonies and festivals as many major temples own and use them for ritual processions and blessing of the visitors.

The lone elephant at the Abirami temple epitomises the plight of all those temple elephants held in captivity in various parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. This sentient and social animal remains chained surrounded by urban noise and human crowds. Standing alone on the hard stone flooring of the temple, it was visibly suffering from heat exhaustion.

Talking to the elephant trainer or mahout I realized that he had no formal education in animal care and his training methods and was typically involved in the systematic act of physical pain, hitting his whip on the leg to make the elephant raise its trunk to bless the devotees. A rough guess could be, the elephant gets hit, at least 2000 times a day to offer blessings.

Tamil Nadu government has recently issued a circular to ban the practice of elephants 'blessing' in the temples of the state. Chief wildlife warden R Sundarajaru has issued a circular instructing the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department, which is maintaining the temples, to put an end to such age-old practice.

Wildlife warden had also asked temple authorities not to keep the elephants on concrete floors, as it damages the foot of the animals. It has also asked the mahout to take the elephants for a walk for a distance of 6 km and give them shower bath twice a day, that in case if they cannot take the elephants to a lake or a pond. The wildlife warden has also asked the temple management to take steps to part-simulate the forest environs in the respective elephant sheds.

Though the contention of the Wild Life Department appears to be genuine, it has stirred up a hornet's nest amongst the Hindu religious groups in Tamil Nadu. “Getting blessing from elephants is considered sacred for Hindus and any move to ban it would be against religious sentiments,” said Shaktivel, an activist of Hindu Bakta Sabha, a religious outfit that oppose the ban.

Barbara Gerard, founder and director of Art and Conservation of the Asian Elephant talks at length about the protection and conservation of the temple elephants. Supporting the ban on the practice of elephants 'blessing' pilgrims in temples, she says it may reduce stress on the jumbos.

Barbara, who comes from New York, and has worked in Africa for the conservation of the elephants, is based in Thrissur, Kerala. She is leading a campaign against the practice of temple elephants and equates them with the Devdasi system that was abolished after a long and protracted campaign. She wants the elephants to be set free and be sent to wild where they belong.

She says nearly 90 per cent of the temple elephants are suffering from one or more serious ailments. They suffer from foot ailments like, arthritis and joint pain. Elephants standing for long on the concrete floors, literally wear away the bottoms of their feet, she says adding that they also suffer from diseases like diabetes and rheumatoid, asthma and tuberculosis.

She points out that most of the temple elephants are male, kept in solitary confinement and little attention given to address their sexual needs. It is only in cases of extreme stress or provocation like sound or physical pain that these animals break down, she quips.

Barbara, who runs an Elephant House, a museum and learning centre children, remains busy in teaching the tiny tots how mild by nature the elephants are and kids need not fear them because they are the giant sized. It is only when the young generation starts understanding the nature of the elephants they may be able asses their plight and in turn join the clarion call to set them free from captivity.

Heeding to bring about a change to ensure proper care of the temple elephants, the Tamil Nadu governments Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department has drawn up a new diet and fitness plan for the temple jumbos.

The daily menu for an adult temple elephant includes 250 kg of grass or supplemented by 50 kg of twigs and leaves from mango or neem trees. Thrice a day they are fed with large nutritious that include 7 kg of cooked rice, mixed with 1.5 kg each of green gram and horse gram, 1 kg of jaggery, 100 grams of common salt and 25 grams turmeric powder. After each meal, the jumbos get at least a dozen bananas, as desert!

Some of the temple gives periodic oil massages to the elephant. They also give multi-vitamin tablets to ward off indigestion once a month. Every three months the elephants also get 3.5 kg of the Ayurvedic nutritious supplement, ‘Chavanapraash’. Every fortnight, allopathic veterinary doctors examine the elephants. Some temples have installed exclusive shower system to bathe the elephants. The shower uses 5,000 litres of water a day to clean the elephant twice a day.

Implementing all this is not easy task for all the temples. The maintenance cost of each elephant is estimated roughly to be; Rs 80,000 per month. The shrines that have large incomes are able to meet with such elaborate arrangements, but those with meagre income are unable to act upon it.

As the situation, stand now, the temple elephants are send every year for a month long "relief camps" to relieve them from stress. The camps that are now runed for the past seven years are organised at the elephant sanctuary at Mudumalai forest, in Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. The elephants in the camps are fed with nutritious food; bathed elaborately’ and given proper medical care to prevent them from contacting any disease.

However, the big question remains; is a month of freedom enough for eleven months of captivity? When the agony and pain of these exotic animals living may end? When the awareness to free them may lead to a march to the doors of the temples and break the chains, and set free the majestic beasts whom many worship as god of wealth. Can any one find answers to these questions? Your guess is as good as mine.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com

The Endgame at Hyderabad State

The Endgame at Hyderabad State
Syed Ali Mujtaba

Endgame of the princely state of Hyderabad continues to attract attention of not only scholars and researchers but also to writers that were witness to that era.

Hyderabad was one of the largest princely state in British India and its ruler the Nizam of Hyderabad was the richest man of the world.

On Sunday Sept 26, 2010, a function was organised in Chennai where a booklet written by SM Pasha, retired faculty of English, New College, was released.

The author chronicles the events before the ‘police action’ against Hyderabad state and about the communal carnage in the aftermath of the fall of the princely state.

The 81 years old author who worked as subeditor with ‘The Mail,’ the defunct English eveninger, owned by “The Hindu” group of newspapers, roundup his discussion talking about the role of the last Nizam, in the run up to the endgame at Hyderabad.

He narrates the drama enacted by Kaasim Rizvi, the man who tried to resist the march of democracy with strong arms means in Hyderabad.

Though partisan, the author discusses the role of Congress and Communist parties building the mass movement against the princely state.

The most candid narration is about the conman man who had nothing to do with the tumultuous events that fleet past them. The author rightly says that the ordinary people were made pawns in the endgame of the Hyderabad state.

The most chilling account of the booklet is the narration of the barbarity in the aftermath of the police action done against the ordinary Muslims of the Hyderabad state.

The narration if true is hauntingly inhuman. How barbaric a man could be, if the authors account is to be believed, puts the entire humanity into shame.

The author talks about the report commissioned by the government of India to asses the atrocities committed against the Muslims of Hyderabad state.

The commission headed by Pandit Sunder Lal and Kazi Abdul Ghaffar toured the state and submitted the report that was never published and still in wraps.

The author who has a wind of the official report, claim that 27000 Muslim lives were lost in the communal carnage in the aftermath of the police action in Hyderabad.


There are many other things that the author narrates in the booklet and needs a full-length piece for discussion.

Just to end this note I quote the preface that says; the wounds of Hyderabad will not heal until India seeks forgiveness of the victims of ‘police action’ and compensates them adequately for their losses of life and property.’

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a working journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com

Need to scale up Elephant protection campaign

Need to scale up Elephant protection campaign
Syed Ali Mujtaba

The shocking news of seven elephants being killed, by a speeding goods train while they were crossing the railway tracks near Binnaguri in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal on Thursday, September 23, 2010, has unnerved the wildlife watchers in the country.



What actually happened was a herd of elephants was crossing the railway tracks while going from one forest to another, when two baby elephants were trapped on the tracks. When other elephants came to the rescue of the baby elephants, a goods train that was passing through at that time, hit them, killing five elephants on the spot and injuring three, two others succumbed to their injuries later.

The accident site in Jalpaiguri is a designated jumbo corridor where railway drivers are required to provide safe crossing to the elephants. Railway officials have been requested a number of times to restrict the speed limit of trains plying in the area to 40-km/hr for the safety of the elephants.



However, speeding trains often hit elephants in the area as the railway line crosses the elephant corridor. Some three months ago, a speeding train ran over an elephant and killed it near the same spot. So far, negligent train drivers have killed 150 elephants in the country since 1987.

Elephants are highly intelligent and sensitive animals. They never abandon their injured and dead. In the latest tragedy, the whole herd was killed as they tried to save two calves injured on the track. This incident could have been avoided, if the train driver had applied its presence of mind. Elephant paths are well known to the railway drivers, the jumbos always cross the track by night, and they can be spotted from a distance if the trains are moving at the right speed.

The Environment Ministry has expressed outrage over this tragedy. It was about to declare elephants our national heritage animal and announce the creation of a National Conservation Authority to ensure their protection.

The elephant task force has already devised simple measures to protect them from being hit by the trains. This is by making drivers accountable for their actions, place speed governors on trains in sensitive areas, enforce patrolling along the tracks, stop the movement of good trains at night in elephant corridors and enforce strict safety measures in the 88 elephant’s corridors. A theses measure has to be implemented in its letter and spirit.

Elephants are a revered animal in our country throughout history. However, they are now under siege from poachers and such negligent acts of some train drivers. These wanton killings of the elephants are telling on their population. India's wild elephant population was recently estimated at about 26,000.

There is urgent need to have concrete measures to protect these animals. The onus is on the civil society to raise their voices that there is no such brutal slaughter of elephant’s taking place in the country. If we do not wake up now, perhaps it may be too late.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com

Mujtaba on Radicalization of Islam

Muslim university students trying to impose burqa on woman lecturer in West Bengal

by Nirmala Carvalho

Shirin Middya is a lecturer at Aliah University, a Islamic institution. The local student union wants her to wear a burqa if she wants to teach even though the university has no dress code. Syed Ali Mutjaba, a journalist and peace activist, warns about the rise of radical Islam in Indian society.



Kolkata (AsiaNews) – Islamic extremism is growing in India, this according to Syed Ali Mujtaba, an Indian journalist and founder of the South Asia Contact Group. He spoke to AsiaNews about a recent incident in which the student union at an Islamic university prevented a woman lecturer from speaking unless she wore a burqa.

Shirin Middya, 24, was recently hired to teach at Aliah University, West Bengal’s first Islamic university, in Kolkata. Back in second week of April, students told her to wear a burqa; otherwise, they would not allow her to teach. News about the incident surfaced only last week. The university does not have any dress code, and wearing the burqa is not required.

Ms Middya said that she would wear the full-face garment but only of her own free will. Still, she concerned that the “students are forcing us to wear the burqa”.

Syed Ali Mutjaba, writer and peace activist, said that he is concerned about incidents of this sort. The “increasing radicalisation of Indian society is extremely worrisome,” he said.

“In India, this radicalisation is a recent phenomenon. Islam in India is centuries old and there are many varieties of Islam,” he explained. “However, in recent times, groups that promote a radical or militant Islam are trying to grab space and are influencing the youth towards their ideas and beliefs and practices that are supposed to be of a hardliner militant version of Islam. This trend is very disturbing for a multi religious society like India.”



For Ali Mutjaba, “there is an urgent need for inclusive development at two levels, one” based n the notion of “unity in diversity and inter-faith dialogue”, the other on discussions “within the Islamic community itself.”

Indeed, “we have to encourage modern and enlightened Muslims to look at things in their totality, not merely from a religious angle.”

Extremism is not however a Muslim prerogative. “Sadly, this kind of radicalisation is a growing trend in India, even among certain elements among our Hindu brethren.”

Among Muslims, certain elements are “trying to create an exclusive community, one that is different from the rest of society, [. . .] trying to carve a niche for themselves as representatives of the Muslim community.”

In reality in India, “there are so many different varieties of Islam. And the dominant ones have nothing to do with extremism. Regrettably, these [extremist] elements make it appear that either you are with us or with the enemy.”


http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Muslim-university-students-trying-to-impose-burqa-on-woman-lecturer-in-West-Bengal-19077.html

Remembering National Emergency on 35th Anniversary

Remembering National Emergency on 35th Anniversary
Syed Ali Mujtaba

There are certain milestones in independent India that divides the nation into its pre and post phase. One of them definitely is the national Emergency of 1975 and people in the country demarcate India between two clear phases that’s pre and post Emergency.

The young generation is unaware of this dark phase of contemporary India under national Emergency. They also don’t know the sacrifices that were made by the young generation then to retrieve the democratic rights that were taken away by the autocratic ruler of that time.

In the 35th anniversary of the national Emergency, the future generation needs to be told the graphic details of that landmark event and should be cautioned that such experimentation be never tried on the Indian masse ever again.


The proclamation of Emergency on 26th June, 1975 was the darkest day of Indian History, when we nearly lost our hard-earned freedom. It was the day when democracy was derailed, people of dissenting voices were detained without any trial and media was gagged and silenced.

It became authoritarian rule of one person where Indian Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi became law unto herself where a chapter of authoritarian and extra constitutional rule began where she and her son Sanjay Gandhi were calling the shots.

Traditional and ethical values were discarded and all the arms of the state were in the service of authoritarian assertion of one personality. It was the erosion of moral values from the politics and other democratic institutions.

Reminiscing 15th August, 1947 when country got freedom and India’s first Prime Minister Mr. Jawahar Lal Nehru built up brick by brick the democratic institutions of the country. The system that was built by the architect of modern India was kept aside by none other than his own daughter under the self created circumstances in 1975. She made every effort to pull it down and to destroy them.

Morality was squeezed from the politics and politics became an adjunct of power grabbing. Rather than to serve the people, provide vibrancy to people’s sovereignty and ultimately strengthen democratic polity, power because a story of a chair (Kisa Kursee Ka).

The immediate reason for the proclamation of the Emergency was; Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha had declared Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s 1971 election invalid and barred her from holding political office for 6 years.

Mrs. Gandhi refused to accept the landmark judgment and instead her government at the Centre declared Emergency on June 26th, 1975.

The Shah Commission Report had cautioned Mrs. Gandhi that there was no such law and order problem and the country did not warranted the declaration of Emergency. However, Mrs. Gandhi cared little about any such suggestions and she went ahead with the proclamation of Emergency as she wanted to cling to power by any means.

Parliamentary norms were violated. The President of India signed on dotted lines and cabinet members played a subservient role in endorsing that. There was all around degeneration and the way democratic institutions behaved was the source of concern. Even Press was no longer an instrument of empowerment.

Emergency was declared to suppress the people’s democratic aspirations. During those nineteen months the fundamental rights of the people were suspended and any recourse to justice was smothered under the authoritarian rule.

During emergency press censorship, slum eviction and forceful sterilization and others misdeeds were executed with impunity. The repression unleashed against the common people at Turkman Gate in Delhi and near Jama Masjid were glaring examples of state brutality. Poor Muslims were targeted to adhere to family planning through forced sterilization; many among them were unmarried youth.

The Union Carbide Company got the order cleared to set-up industry during Emergency for the production of poisonous Methyl Iso-cayanite (MIC) in the thickly populated area in Bhopal. This led to the industrial catastrophe where thousands were killed and maimed for life and people still are struggling to get justice.

The role of police in combating communal onslaught was dismal during Emergency. In fact it was the patronage during the Emergency RSS and their ilk got that in the post emergency period they emerged emboldened. It was with the help of the administration connivance they unleashed communal mayhem and destroyed the pluralist traditions of the country.

In the aftermath of emergency the National Police Commission which came into being to serve the people in accordance to the provisions of the constitution has yet to gain any importance. Had such mechanism may have been put on the pedestal, its felt that the perpetration of 1984 anti-Sikh riot in Delhi and in 2002 anti Muslim riots in Gujarat may have been prevented.

Initially people in the country could not make out what the Emergency was all about. As the counters of emergency were slowly getting unraveled and the murder of democracy was being confirmed, people came out on streets to protest against the undemocratic rule.

Students played a very big role in leading the mass protest. They boycotted their schools and colleges and did fear their arrest. The teachers too played a significant role and they too actively participated in the protest. So were the Lawyers who boycotted the bar and joined the street protest.

It was a celebration of rebellion that was seen during the 19 months of emergency rule in India. There are many political leaders who are now on the national scene are the product of the mass protest.

Finally the mighty of the mightiest had to bow down to the din and clatter of the people’s protest and the national Emergency was withdrawn on 21st March, 1977, and fresh Lok Sabha Election was announced.

It was the resilience of the democratic society and its people which had played significant role in restoring democracy by voting against the authoritarian rule. They gave stinging rebuff to the proponents of Emergency at the husting of 1977.

After that the country breathed a sigh of relief that’s how two phases of India got demarcated. One is pre emergency and other post emergency. A parallel can be drawn with the proclamation of emergency and attenuation of democratic polity in the present situations.

The true democracy that is enshrined in our constitution and manifested during emergency like a flash in a pan has gone into oblivion specially when we see the glaring repression and authoritarianism manifested by the Indian state.

In certain quarters emergency still exists informally in different forms. The government of the day is indulging in anti-people activity with the full support of the state apparatus. The emergency like situation is being created with the policy shift under Neo-Liberal structural change and disparity between poor and rich has widened.

The democracy has become so diluted that common masses are struggling to salvage their democratic polity from the stranglehold of capitalist onslaught.

It is high time to retrieve democratic polity from the imposition of anti-people and anti-democratic policies initiated by the government and which has the potential to create governance issues that haunted the people of this country during those dark days of emergency of 1975.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a working journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com

Football is fun Celebrate and Play it safe!

Football is fun Celebrate and Play it safe!
Syed Ali Mujtaba

‘Religion is no more the opiate of the masses; football has taken its place’ says a wise of contemporary times twisting the Marxian phrase; religion is an opiate of the masses.

As FIFA world football fever has griped the nations, continents and world as a whole, the new prophesy is worth relishing.

Utilizing the World Cup Football fever to provide education on STI/HIV/AIDS and safe sexual behavior a public awareness event was organized in Chennai city on July 8, 2010.

The objective of the event was to link the current interest in football due to the ongoing world cup with the message on STI/HIV/AIDS.


A display of huge banner with a football picture covered with condoms titled “Football is fun, Celebrate and play it safe” was displayed at the venue of the event. The banner is going to remain on display at the venue from 8th to 12th July 2010.

Ln.Parthasarathy, Region Chair Person, Lions Club International District 324A-1, inaugurated the event. Ms. D.Kamakshi, Lions Club, District Chair Person, HIV/AIDS Education released the Poster.

Sports personal, youth, NGO’s, CEO’s, policy makers, communication experts and general public together took an oath on their commitment towards STI/HIV/AIDS prevention and not to discriminate people living with HIV/AIDS.

"I am sure that this message will be taken to the larger audience particularly the sports lover,” said A. J. Hariharan, Secretary of Indian Community Welfare Organization (ICWO).

“ICWO is committed to disseminate information on STI/HIV/AIDS in various occasions which normally creates a lot of interest to the general public," he added.

ICWO is a non-profitable, non-governmental organization working for STI/HIV/AIDS Prevention, care and support programs among various target community in specific focus with high risk groups for the past fifteen years.

ICWO used similar occasion to educate people on STI/HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support and work towards reducing stigma and discrimination against core and vulnerable population.

Actionaid India, Chennai Region / Rotary Club of Chennai were the other partners of ICWO that organized the event.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a working journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com