The Land that protects also needs to be protected!

This Pandemic has affected all of us in more ways than that we can imagine. I am not here to talk about the scale of it, the loss of lives, the lack of medical facilities, the implementation of the lockdown, the plight of migrant workers or the economic mess that it has created. There is far too much content on it and I don't want to be another half- baked expert with an opinion at the tip of my finger. However, I am grateful for this Pandemic in a personal selfish sort of way as it has helped me look at things from a whole different perspective. 

This is probably the first article I have written sitting at my house in Coorg. Before this Pandemic, I could not even imagine spending more than a week in Coorg. All my visits to Coorg over the last 10 years or so has been very business like. I came home either for a weekend, a festival or for a social gathering. But this feels like summer holidays from back when I was in School. The only difference is that instead of home work, I now have some office work to complete; although the flip side is that we are not able to go visiting or having cousins, uncles and aunts coming home. This unplanned long break in Coorg is just what the Doctor ordered. 

I am glad that I get to be in Coorg during this pandemic. Moreover, with a young toddler, I cannot even imagine sitting inside a flat in Bangalore. I am sure a lot of my brethren from Coorg feel the same as I do. I really feel grateful for the land that I come from. The house and the space to move around, fresh clean air, the smell of rain, the sound of birds and crickets chirping, the sight of Malabar squirrels jumping from one tree to the other or the fact that my little one got to spend time with her grand parents and experience a whole different life; I can go on and on about the small little things that has made it a joy to be in Coorg during the lockdown. 

It is only when we hear about the hardships that one faces in the City or elsewhere during a lockdown that we understand the value of the place that we come from. This land offers us all that we need for a good decent way of life, Fresh water straight from the ground, jackfruit palya and curry to green leafy vegetables and bulbs, pumpkins and mushrooms and other fruits and vegetables, I got all of this and more in and around my house. And the icing on the cake so as to say, I don't even have to bother about waiting for the garbage pick- up every morning. 

I am also grateful for the place that I come from because of the people that make up this place. Be it the officials or the traders or the common man, everybody has understood their responsibilities and played their roles to near perfection. Most common folks like us came out only when we were allowed to, covered our faces when we were out and supported each other to deal with the situation. The District administration of course has played a tremendous role in dealing with this situation. From closing down an entire village soon after one single case was detected to opening of essential services shops for only 3 days a week, the administration was on top of things always. The fact that they understood the situation and even created a level playing field for everybody by moving the markets to common open spaces and declaring the daily prices of commodities left little room for controversy. 

This being said, I hope all of us including the officials and the powers to be also look at the situation and be thankful that we are in a place like Coorg during this crisis. I hope the next time that they sign on the dotted line for a land conversion project, they think of the scenario now and imagine what a new layout would bring with it. It would be more people to manage, more areas to monitor and more civic and criminal issues to deal with. Let us for a moment imagine the situation if we had a railway line or 4 lane highways running through Coorg. We would have had more permanent outsiders because of such infrastructure. The Railway stations would bring with it the colonies to house officials, workers and their respective families, shops and hawkers plying their trade around these stations and a whole lot of civic infrastructure that would be needed to make this work. Instead, today our rivers, streams and tourist spots are actually clean and breathing again because of the lack of human influence and intervention at the moment.

I know that a lot of what I have written above sounds romantic and the argument can be that I am a fool and do not understand the reality of actually living in Coorg. The point put out be will ideally be that the crop is bad, labour costs have increased, man animal conflict and the changing weather patterns have caused destruction and hardship and to top it all, the price for the produce is dismal. And if some had a home stay to supplement the income from the estate, then this pandemic has put a spanner in the works over there as well. Unfortunately, the powers to be instead of supporting the main income of the people which is agriculture and plantations and finding ways to support this sector will talk about fast tracking the so called development projects and increasing tourists inflow to supplement income. 

We of course need tourism, but let us use this situation to define the type of tourism that Kodagu requires. To start with, a study to understand the carrying capacity of the district and then design tourism policies around it so that it helps in retaining the natural beauty of Coorg while helping local original inhabitants of the land benefit from it. Create better market opportunities for coffee, pepper and other plantation crops including oranges, avacados, jackfruit and other fruits and vegetables. Help people retain the land by looking at policies like the payment for ecological services that has been well elaborated in the Madhav Gadgil report. Encourage Paddy cultivation by offering minimum support price for paddy which will detest land conversion while helping improve the water table of the district on the whole. All these policies will not only benefit Coorg but also ensure the water and food security of the whole of South India. 

The Prime Minister while announcing the first lockdown said, "Jaan hai to Jahaan hai" and this message is so apt for Coorg. If we do not protect this land, then we are doomed! So let us be thankful for this land and work towards protecting it to benefit all of us. We are in the Green zone today from a Pandemic and nature perspective and it is important that we do everything in our power to keep it like that.