yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

This post presents an abstract submitted to the International Conference on Education as a Driver for Sustainable Development Goals organized by the Centre for Environment Education . Abstract Title : Exploring today, for a more sustainable tomorrow. Authors: Nimesh Ved, Radha Gopalan and Suresh Jones . Workshop Theme: SDG 12: Sustainable Consumption and production. Relevance to the workshop theme : Critical exploration will include questions which bring out connections between production, consumption and sustainable life on the planet, like: ·         How do we look at ourselves as being a part of the planet rather than apart from the planet? ·         How do we understand that every action has a consequence and we have a responsibility to other living beings on this planet? ·         How do we integrate the interconnectedness of life into...

Pleased to share an image from the Balipara Awards where I received the Green Green Award. Many thanks to Balipara Foundation and so many of you who have been a part of this journey.  Have learnt more from the journey than I can ever explain leave aside give.  Link to an earlier award .

One feedback to the earlier post on the topic - to elaborate - has me putting up a revised piece. I moved out to the street – in heavy and slow steps – and called up the number I had not answered as the film was being screened. As the conversation moved, Friend: How was the film? Me: Disturbing. Friend: Audience? Me: Room was full, more people than chairs and no one either talked on the phone or went out. Friend: Did anyone disturb the screening? Problems have been reported from Delhi. Me: Thankfully no. We were to discuss conservation education but it was a kind of difficult task after one had heard of people being cut, killed and burnt. The ‘normalcy’ with which people talked of the massacres will remain with me for a while. As I sat in the bus, I wondered on the very notion of saving wildlife when human life had very little value. I was returning home after attending a screening of Nakul Singh Sawhney’s ‘Muzaffarnagar Baaki Hai’ at Lamakaan.  The screen...

This post shares a piece published in Deccan Herald on 20 th October 2015. Thanks are due to Anitha Pailoor, Deccan Herald , Dharmendra Khandal , Firoz Ahmed and Priya Singh . Reports of a golf course coming up in the township of the Numaligarh Refinery Limited in Numaligarh near Kaziranga National Park in Assam created ripples and troubled many; some also regarded it as one of the ‘regular’ depressing news on the wildlife conservation front. Why - one wonders though - does a Miniratna Public Sector Unit need an arena for a sport usually associated with the elite, that too within a ‘No Development Zone’. Golf courses are ‘infamous’ for their water guzzling abilities; an average 18 hole course’s annual water consumption can fill up approximately 130 – 140 Olympic sized swimming pools. To add fuel to the proverbial fire, pesticides are applied in golf courses at higher concentrations than almost any other type of land; and their extensive use could contaminate waterways and d...

The Heat and Dust Project: The broke couple’s guide to Bharat Devapriya Roy & Saurav Jha HarperCollins Publishers: 2015 Book and its pluses The first time I read of the book it came like a breath of fresh air with its stress on a lower budget ( and as a corollary – in most cases – lower carbon foot-print ). Especially when, all around, one comes across avenues to spend more. The second time I read of the book I got a picture of the book being about a couple’s trip. Which it is; but it is also about much more. It acquaints us with the past and present of authors and the places, it tells us of people in these places, bonds developed during travel and excitement – challenges – perks of travelling on a budget and more. G K Chesterton wrote: Traveler sees what he sees and a tourist sees what he goes to see. This is, by all means, a lovely travel narrative. Authors walk the streets, move in buses, climb hills, have meals and conversations with locals eat at s...

This post shares a piece which appears in Sanctuary Asia – October 2015 issue - Mountain Musings.  We stands for Arpan and I. The trek - like most that is good in life -happened by chance and we have since been on a trek in GHNP again! Thanks and more thanks are due to Sanju (and colleagues) for being together along the treks and bearing our eccentricities, Stephan and team at Himalayan Ecotourism for enabling the trek and Sanjeeva Pandey for GHNP as it is and more. One after another, six Himalayan Vultures came into view as we sat in the large balcony of a small hotel adjacent to the river. They kept close to the hill side, appearing exceptionally stunning against the blue sky. The vultures did not perch even once in the half an hour that we spent watching them, more than once adjusting our own positions to their movements. I felt as if I could lie on my back and watch them soar for all eternity. They seemed to share that sense of freedom; a longing for great expanse...

Joining the Dots Text and Photographs: Nimesh Ved and Swati Chaliha We are indebted to the people of Ungma and Longsa, and the DGZ committee for bearing our ignorance and teaching us of forests during those very wonderful days and – of course - for the very lovely pineapples. Thanks are due to friends at NEPED for sharing of Nagaland, the energies and humour. Colleagues at FES we thank for being together and for presenting the opportunity. This piece appears in the July – September 2015 issue of Hornbill ( BNHS ). Twice on the first day, the dilemma posed to us was whether we should take the tar road that snaked along the path, albeit a little further from where we had figured out the boundary lay, or cut our way through the wild growth. In both cases, after deliberation, we decided that the easier path was not the one best taken, and cut through the forest. We were walking the boundary of a Community Conserved Area (CCA) in Mokokchung district, Nagaland. CCAs are...