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Interrogating Cauvery Calling
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Asian College of Journalism
9:44
Welcome to the live blog of 'Interrogating Cauvery Calling: Issues of Ecologies, Livelihoods and Cultures' - a seminar being held here at the Asian College of Journalism. The seminar is organised by the Asian College of Journalism and the Coalition for Environmental Justice in India here in Taramani, Chennai.
9:46
The seminar has officially kicked off. Shashi Kumar, Chairman of Asian College of Journalism, takes the stage to give the welcome address.
9:50
Sashi Kumar opens the address ,"We're here to look at the issue of a mega campaign by the Isha foundation called Cauvery Calling. We are not here with the idea of calling out Cauvery Calling. Not here to debunk Cauvery Calling. This is a significant campaign that occupies mindspace across India and internationally. It's a huge cultural signifier for people in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
9:54
Sashi Kumar continues by saying that it is important to have a forum to interrogate the campaign. He also mentions that the Isha Foundation (Jaggi Vasudev's foundation) was sent an invitation to the seminar, but due to prior commitments, the foundation will not be able to join the seminar.
9:58
Kumar further says it is interesting that Sadhguru has pitched the campaign as an economic requirement and not an ecological requirement.
10:00
He draws attention to the indirect role of the government by stating that the government has been giving implicit subsidy for the first 4 years and how there is no official say of the government of investing on this campaign
10:02
Leo Saldanha takes the stage to contextualize the seminar.
Saldanha begins by saying, "We address Cauvery as Goddess at the start of the day but we do things throughout the day that do not reflect our respect for Cauvery".
10:03
Referring to the Cauvery calling campaign, Saldanha says, "This comes across as a positive initiative but after reflection we came up with questions about this initiative by Isha Foundation."
10:06
10:07
Saldanha goes on to question the feasibility of the initiative: "When Government and the corporates pitched forward this initiative, we analysed the various aspects of this initiative. When we started discussing about this initiative's feasibility, Asian College of Journalism, Sashi Kumar and N. Ram came forward to carry out a detailed discussion."
Saldanha adds that they were concerned about the fact that whether they can have a conversation with people that have done research by talking to farmers and fisherman to know the overall effect of this initiative on people.
10:09
Saldanha doubts whether the river can be saved by only planting trees.
10:10
Saldanha finishes his address by saying that this conversation will focus not only on Cauvery basin but on all river basins across the country.
10:12
Mihir Shah begins his keynote address by congratulating everyone involved for the spirit with which the issue of Cauvery Calling is being interrogated.
10:13
Shah says, "If you look at the way we have tried to conserve water, I have not seen much effort."
10:14
Shah continues, "I think we must take this very seriously. I found that a river is the centre piece of the document. A minimum environmental flow till the sea coast is important. The water in rivers must not be allowed to wastefully flow into the sea."
10:16
Shah further adds that we should identify the concept of river lands. The concern, he adds, is the paradigm shift proposed in this document not going far enough. This focus displays an understanding of river systems. The idea is to plant 242 crore trees. There is a reference to raise farmer incomes. The focus of the campaign remains entirely on supply.
10:18
Shah continues with his argument, "This does not go far enough. It's important that tree cover is in focus. It is lamented that 83% of the tree cover has been lost. What is the way we are going to go about? What is it that makes the farmers do what they are doing? I believe change is required. It's important to interrogate Cauvery Calling."
10:20
Referring to Saldana, Shah says that it is important to interrogate Cauvery Calling but also suggest significant suggestions.
10:21
He appeals to Sadhguru by saying that, "Finitude, interconnectedness and diversity is a scientific and spiritual perspective of the river system."
10:23
"Scientific Report states, according to a study, that on 55 major river basins in india there exists a tremendous decline in the run off" laments Shah.
10:27
To illustrate further, he points towards the case of New York where the city gets clean water supply because people of New York and the local bodies have a dialogue with the farmers, resulting in the water supply in the city being sustained in its pristine form.
10:28
Referring to the New York case, he says that we need to learn from these examples.
10:29
10:30
"Apart from the interconnectedness, it is important to focus on the diversity of the rivers. What the US and China combinedly do with their ground water, India does a lot more," says Shah.
10:32
Shah goes on to draw attention to the importance of the multi-dimensional aspect of water sources.
10:33
"Through our destruction of the catchment areas, our springs have also been destroyed", adds Shah.
10:35
Pointing to the alarming levels of exploitation of ground water, he says, "The ground water has gone so low that we have saline sea water entering."
10:37
Shah further adds that, it is not enough to plant trees, and that whenever there are water shed programmes, they have to begin with the ridges.
10:38
Shah continues, "Planting a tree along the river can be pointless if you have not treated the catchment areas."
10:40
According to Shah, there are millions of ground water basins in Cauvery, and the farmers can't be forced to not use the ground water.
10:41
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