Always Riggerous!

Since its inception, Rigger House as a company has let its work do the talking. The businesses that we bagged and the Clients that we have on our roster has been the result of one thing leading to another. We have always believed that we need to partner our Clients and vendors and this philosophy has helped us develop a bond with every single person or company that we have worked with. It has never been just the work for us, it has always been about nurturing a relationship by finding ways to support a partner or vendor better. It is this thinking that has helped us develop our new product, "Global" or made us support a vendor partner scale up to meet market demands.

Over the years, we have developed a sort of camaraderie with most of our Clients, artists and other partners that has been built on honesty and integrity. We have spoken our minds when it mattered and given an honest opinion to both Clients and vendors. This has also helped us get honest feedback from each of our partners; some of which hurt us and made us question our approach while some made us happy and vindicated but all of this have helped us become better at what we do both at a professional and personal level.

This Pandemic created a lot of changes and with it came new challenges. We had to go back to the drawing board for answers for which we had no clue as to where to start from or where we were heading to. While talking to colleague, clients, friends, relatives or other partners, it helped us understand that everybody was fighting their own battle at their own levels, be it professionally or personally. It also meant a sea change in people's personal lives as well; schedules changed overnight, roles at home had to be reversed and the new normal wasn't so normal after all.

This sprouted the idea of talking to thought leaders from different walks of life to understand their views on how they have been dealing with the situation and what they think will emerge from it. Moreover, as an event and experiential company, since we are always talking to various people, be it Clients, vendors or partners to understand from them what's new and what's not or who did what and how they did it; we thought this will also be a good time to continue that exercise by sharing what we hear and know with others as well. For us, this is not just a business exercise but our way of telling people that we are here for each other and that we can always lean on each other to contribute to the larger good.

We wanted to do this at regular intervals as a collective and hence decided to name it 'Always Riggerous", in line with our identity. The first series focusing on the present pandemic is titled, "Riggerous Minds". The idea sprung up in the last week of March and we started approaching people from the second week of April. For the first series, we have approached a diverse set of people. We have not just approached people directly associated with our business but people from fields not concerned with our regular line of work. Some of who are very popular and some not so popular but big names and leaders in their chosen fields.

We start this series off with a very popular TV host who is responsible for changing the EDM and festival scene in the Country followed by a creative genius who creates masterpieces and awe inspiring experiences for the events and entertainment industry. From outside our immediate business associates, we also have a woman who decided to pursue her passion and is one of the only Indian women to have participated and completed in an Ironman event. All of us have our passions and one of us at Rigger House is big time into sky diving so much so that given a chance, our friend will probably leave everything to live that life. His mentor who is also a world recorder holder is one of the people that we have spoken to. We also have some of our Clients who we deeply admire and are inspired by to give us their views and thoughts. These partners have become our eyes, ears and minds in the market. They are our beacons to newer horizons. The backbone of any event management company is our vendor partners and we have spoken to leaders in this space as well to try to understand from them their struggles and aspirations especially during these troubles times.

We have not just asked relevant business related questions but also tried to make each person realise the small joys of life that we have taken for granted. This pandemic and the natural disasters of the last few years across the World has taught us that when it comes to dealing with the forces of nature, all our ideas, plans and contingencies will come to nought. No amount of economic or financial help will help us overcome these struggles and shortcomings without basic humanity and empathy.

As a company, we will look to partner to deliver World class experiences while always ensuring that we remain the best partners to everybody concerned. We hope that this initiative helps not just us but the audience to get a sneak peek into the thought process of these leaders while helping these leaders look at things from a different perspective.

We hope that this is the start for greater things to come!

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." – Helen Keller

The Silver Lining!

The last couple of months have been a rude awakening for all of us. This Pandemic has made us re-look at our priorities and our general approach to our personal and our professional lives. The plans and forecasts that were being put into motion became redundant overnight. From an industry standpoint, it seems like the Hospitality, aviation, and the event services and entertainment industry has been the hardest hit due to this crisis. Confirmed events got cancelled, bookings made in advance had to be called off, work that was in progress had to be stopped and the skill sets that we had harnessed and polished over the last years suddenly became useless. As event managers, a saying that is often repeated is, "One is only as good as their last event"; but in this case, even that isn’t good enough. 

Of course, the first few days of the lockdown were a welcome relief from the overworked, stressed lives that we all lead. However, once the reality of the lockdown and its side effects hit us, it made us analyse and relook at our business, our strengths, weaknesses, and the market in general and the mood amongst our colleagues and friends. As event managers, we are trained to look for solutions, to plan contingencies that will help us mitigate crisis that might or might not emerge during an event. In this scenario, this contingency was about our very survival. 

They say every cloud has a silver lining and in our case, it was the perfect time to use all our collective experiences to come out with a solution that would not only help us survive the immediate crisis but also help us diversify and create a possible revenue model for the future. While one team started researching new technologies and engagement ideas; another team started engaging with friends, clients, and partners to try and understand the effects of the pandemic on each other's personal and professional lives, and what they thought the future would look like. 

This helped us give new lease of life to an idea that was left in cold storage. The team at Rigger House has spent a large part of the last 2 months trying to give this idea a new lease of life. Seth Godin, the American author remarked, "Don't find customers for your products but find products for your Customers." and it is this mantra that has helped us launch our new brand, "GLOBAL" which is our foray into the virtual events space. At the present moment, we have already started leveraging GLOBAL with our already existing clients while also reaching out to clients and friends across different industries to see how this product can add value to them. 

The exercise of talking to all our friends, clients and partners from different walks of life sprouted the idea of a video series, "Always Riggerous" where we bring thought leaders to answer relevant questions and share their mantras for sustainability and progress, in the form of a series of mini-episodes. The first collective in this series is called "Riggerous Minds," through which we would like to understand the present market scenario and a forecast on the possibilities or solutions that might emerge once we ride over these difficult times. 

We at Rigger House are bullish about the future. We are using this time to research, learn and teach something new to each other. The new product Global is the effort of everybody coming together to create something new. The post-Covid World will see a lot of changes with social distancing being the norm and expectations from venues and events changing to suit this basic requirement. As event managers, we need to be prepared for all eventualities and hence our team is also working with our partners and vendors to look at various possible scenarios and the most viable solutions to combat them. 

As a Company, we believe in Rudyard Kipling's words from The Jungle Book, "For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack". We strongly believe that if we have to emerge stronger from this crisis, then we must support and look out for each other, be it our colleagues, partners, or our esteemed clients. 

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. 

Is a ban the best way to protect our Culture?

The recent decision of the Ammathi Kodava Samaj to ban liquor at the Ganga Pooja or the Neeru Edupa ceremony has drawn mixed response from Kodavas all across the World. While some have welcomed the ban, others have opposed and ridiculed it. I and most people in my friends and family circle are of the opinion that it is a ridiculous idea and one that should not have been entertained in the first place.

The Committee is of the opinion that Alcohol in Ganga Poojas spoils the sanctity of the Ceremony and is disrespectful to the bride and other women and so we cannot serve Alcohol during the ceremony but can do it after that. Because of a few stray incidents, some protectors of our culture have decided that the best way to avoid such incidents is to ban alcohol during the ceremony and serve alcohol after that.

Alcohol, whether we like it or not is an intricate part of our culture. Be it karana kodupo or meedhi beppo, no ceremony is complete without alcohol being a part of it. And unlike most other communities, we do not hide to have our drink. Since the time we were young kids, if a guest came home closer to meal time, it was customary to serve alcohol before serving food. Conversations at home in the evenings would be with the grand fathers and Uncles holding a glass in their hand and we kids’ playing around. Of course, the volumes in arguments increased after a few drinks but everybody knew their place.

There is no denying the fact that of late, there have been cases where some people have gone overboard and made a mockery of the whole occasion. But this new rule is only going to make things worse. The whole neeru edupo ceremony is going to be for formality sake and will kill the fun in the occasion. A wedding is a celebration of 2 families coming together. The Neeru edupo is one occasion where the families get to know each other. The Neeru edupo ceremony is already diluted with most men and women not preferring to wear traditional clothes for the occasion and with this rule, the actual neeru edupo will have less than 10 people and the drinking after that will be just another party.

Moreover, this rule is going to make us look like every other community that equates alcohol with bad behavior. I am not saying that we have to encourage drinking of alcohol. But let us not fall into this moral policing business. We are dwindling as a Community and occasions such as the neeru edupo ceremony bring the community together. Instead of banning alcohol, let us find a way to regulate the ceremony. Restrict the time for the ceremony to not more than 3 hours and do not let people carry alcohol near the bride and dance with a glass in their hand.

We are better than this. We do not need a ban to protect our culture. We are not going to teach our kids anything by purifying our customs to suit a brahminical narrative. The Kodava Samajas need to stop being hypocrites. They are not helping to protect our culture by this ban. They are in fact diluting it. Instead of this ban, let the Samajas encourage families conducting weddings to ensure that all guests turn up in our traditional clothes. Let the Samajas impart cultural education in Schools, build better infrastructure. There are other ways to raise funds than impose a fine on people. Let us not take the fun out of weddings and ceremonies which is what makes our Community special.

The Vote that Counts!

In less than a week from now, Karnataka goes to polls to elect the next Government to power. In Kodagu, the election has captured the imagination of all sections of Society especially with candidates from most parties not being sure of their nominations until the very last minute. Politics has become the favourite topic of discussion at all social gatherings so much so that it has put bad prices for coffee and pepper to the background for the moment.  

Almost all parties seem to be fighting this election based on the charisma and capabilities of their National leaders. The common ground cutting across party lines seems to be about voting right for the greater good of the Country. However, as a voter, I must say that I am disappointed that not one of the candidates for the 2 seats in Kodagu has shown any inclination to fight the elections on local issues or even sat down with the electorate to understand and prepare a manifesto that reflects the needs and aspirations of their electorate. The electorate is again being hoodwinked into "voting responsibly" for the betterment of the Country but at the cost of their land and future. 

The issues that we face in Coorg are many; Large scale Deforestation, sand mafia, timber mafia, illegal land conversions, Linear development projects such as railways and highways under the garb of development, exploitative tourism etc are sounding the death knell of this district. Culturally too, the way of life of the Kodavas and other indigenous communities of Kodagu are being threatened by divisive appeasement politics. Added to this, the district is besieged with the total lack of proper medical facilities and public infrastructure, very bad internet connectivity etc. Yet, our Politicians are busy indulging in petty politics at the cost of the future of the district and its people. 

It saddens me to see that no politician worth his salt has spoken out on these issues or tried to address them on their own free will. Our Politicians have only spoken about these issues when they have been pushed against the wall or when they have been called to address a gathering, They have used people and these issues to create a platform for themselves without doing anything to address the actual issue or taking up the matter with their political masters. Unfortunately, Kodagu is faced with a problem of a dearth of good leaders. Petty politics and the greed for money and power have made our politicians blind to the actual reality.

For a long time, it was generally believed that the Kodavas or rather the people of Kodagu are just arm chair activists and just cannot come together. However, the last one year has seen a tremendous change in Kodagu. The protests against the proposed railway line and highways in Kodagu and the recent huge gathering in Mysore showed that people are not going to take things lying down. People from all sections of Society are starting to question the powers to be and I would like to believe that this is the first step towards ensuring that we protect our interests.

Whatever change that is taking place in Kodagu is happening despite the system. Voluntary Citizen initiatives is what is starting to create and drive the change. Be it cleaning campaigns, installations of dustbins and segregation or questioning illegal activities or even going to court or meeting bureaucrats and Government representatives to oppose projects that threaten the fragile ecological balance of the district, it is the assertiveness of a few like minded individuals that is driving that change.

It is true that we the people of Kodagu have been indifferent to what has been happening around us. As long as one was not directly affected, it did not matter to a lot of us. Even today, we seem to continue on the same lines. However, I must say that the times, they sure are changing. Today, we seem to be connecting back to our roots and thanks to social media, the acts of a few good men and women is inspiring others to get their hands dirty.  And this inspiration is what we need to sow the seeds of that big change that we are looking at. 

We need to accept the fact that with just 2 MLA seats, we do not matter to the fortunes of any political party in the State. But every single vote of ours matters to the 2 MLA's who will represent us. We are not in a position today to choose a leader that is worthy of representing us. But we definitely are in a position today to ensure that we will be taken seriously in the future.

Hence, no matter which party we support or what our ideology at the moment is, we need to ensure that we go out and VOTE. OUR TIME IS NOW!

If people don't vote, everything stays the same. You can protest until the sky turns yellow or the moon turns blue, and it's not going to change anything if you don't vote- Dolores Huerta (American labor leader and civil rights activist)

Let us look at the bigger Picture.

This year will probably go down in History as a landmark year for Coorg and its people. The people of the district are starting to discuss issues that we have been trying to brush under the carpet for the longest time. From arm chair activism, we are moving to a situation where we are starting to walk the talk.

I have personally been a part of 2 protests in the last 3 months, the first held at Madikeri in the first week of June and the second held at Kutta on the 26th of August 2017. The Kutta protests is especially significant as it helped bring the conversation on development vs environment out in the open.

The time has come for us to start a dialogue in understanding the development that Coorg as a district needs. Of course, all of us who are advocating against unplanned developmental activities have a responsibility of looking at the whole situation holistically and ensuring that legitimate land owners do not feel threatened. It is imperative that the fight against unplanned development activities also calls on the Government and the powers to be to protect interests of planters and original land owners of Coorg who have been cultivating land for the past few generations. There needs to be a sustained dialogue at the village level, where both sides talk to each other and understand the actual situation especially considering the fact that vested interests have fed people misinformation as information resulting in a hatred against people advocating for the regulation and stopping of unplanned development activities. I am not going into the merits of the ESZ or what the rules actually mean for that needs to be done at the ground level and not in an article. I am no legal or environmental expert to give my two bits.

However, that being said, I believe it is time for us to start putting things in perspective when it comes to the argument on development vs environment. It is important that we understand and take responsibility for the legacy that we are going to leave behind for our future generations. The Kutta protests saw some really strong views emerging with those supporting the protests being made to look like people who are anti- development and working against the interests of the future generations. The fight against unplanned development activities is not to deprive people of the land of a livelihood nor is it about benefiting people outside the district to have a good life at the costs of the inhabitants of the land as is made out to be. We need to understand that the greatest strength of this land of ours is in its natural heritage.

Development for a fragile landscape like Coorg needs to be defined by understanding the basic needs of the people of the land. In today's day and age, connectivity is important and nobody can say no to development. But this development needs to be defined by the people of the land for our own benefit. Of course, we need better roads connecting the nook and corner of the district. But surely, we do not need a 4 lane highway to achieve that. Nor do we need a train that will do more harm than good. Will these development solve the man animal conflict that seems to be increasing every day. Elephants today for example are going into places that we did not even imagine that they would venture into. And is it because we have somehow increased our green cover or is it because stupid policies have eroded our Forests of its natural greenery?

I only wish that the people who are calling for so called development talk about the things that actually matter. Like better internet facility where our Children and adults in very village in the district have access to information; better medical facilities in the Villages where every PHC has basic medicine and good doctors. None off these people have called out the Hospitals for not storing anti- venom considering the habitat that we live in. I find this hypocrisy appalling. If the development that these people are considering is to ape our unplanned cities like Bangalore, then we might as well live in Bangalore.

If we need development, then we need to talk about bettering our agricultural practices and access to modern machinery and markets. In the last couple of years we have slowly seen smaller boutique brands like Flying Squirrel, River side, Black Baza, Papakuchi and others emerging from Coorg. I would like to imagine a situation 10 years from now where we have many more such brands emerging from Coorg marketing home grown products. Do we not have the potential to have pepper or honey brands from Coorg? I only wish the vision grows to better our land without losing its greenery. Tourism that is more class than mass, where regulations ensure that the tourist operators make profits and the tourists come back to see the beauty of the place for what it is instead of what it used to be.

I find it amusing that the very people that are expected to uphold the interests of the Community seem to be indulging in a slander campaign with the sole intention of discrediting a certain group of people to satisfy their egos. If these organisations really cared, then they will stop being glorified event managers managing real estate space and actually start working for the betterment of the land and the community. How many trees have these organisations planted? Do these real estate spaces have a plan to mitigate garbage menace and ensure a clean green venue status? If they are for holistic development, then these organisations and real estate spaces should ban plastic in their premises for a start and start composting their waste. Isn't that modern development? If these organisations want to work for the greater good of the community, how many classes have they conducted in the leading Schools of Coorg in educating our Children on our culture and land. We only talk about how we are losing our culture and don't seem to be doing anything about it.

A lot of our so called leaders in Coorg have let their egos get the better of them. They have gotten so used to being put on a pedestal that they have somehow come to an impression that they know better than everybody else. And if they get irritated with somebody or some organisation, then all they have to do is run a slander campaign to discredit the other person. I believe that they would only do it if the other person has somehow managed to push a few buttons. I wish we get leaders who understand the pulse of their electorate and work for the the greater good of the electorate. Leaders who join and support the cause instead of being invited to join a cause. Leaders who understand the need to protect the land and its people.

The fight to save the Greenery of Coorg is not to convert the whole of Coorg into a forest. The fight is to protect what the land has been offering us without asking any questions of us. Have we ever considered as to how lucky we are to have got this on a platter? We of course love to go into nostalgia and talk about the good days of the past where nature provided us in abundance. From Baimbale to the Kummus to the koille meenu to madhu thoppu (maddu puttu), we took it for granted that we are always going to get it. What are we going to show our Children tomorrow? I cannot for the life of me imagine going to a supermarket to buy these things or showing our Children tomorrow all of this in pictures.

The responsibility is ours to protect and preserve what little we have left. As Kaveriamma's children, it is our basic duty to protect our devarakadus, streams and rivers that our ancestors left behind for us. And to make sure that the Children of tomorrow get to see and enjoy all of this and more.

Now I have a weapon to clean and some belting to be done. Happy Kailpod! And may our ancestors put some sense into all our heads.

This land, this water, this air, this planet - this is our legacy to our young- Paul Tsongas

The Power to make a Change!

We are three months into the year and from the story unfolding so far, looks like 2017 is going to be the year of the the people. A year where the electorate will stand up to ask for their rights and ensure that their elected representatives deliver on their aspirations. The Jallikattu movement and the fight against the steel flyover have shown that people power is real and active and that the powers to be cannot hoodwink the people anymore and think they can get away with it. Technology has ensured that everybody has access to information at the swipe of a finger. 

This being the case, it is sad to see an educated well informed community and District accepting everything that is thrown at us without even raising an eyebrow. Kodagu is besieged with a lot of problems, most of which is our own doing. However, our big fat chest thumping egos has only helped us brush things under the carpet without taking any of the things head on. I have been harping on the need for us to start a dialogue and raise awareness on ground. From marrying outside the community, to selling property, to the advantages and perils of tourism or the beauty of Coorg and the Culture, everybody in Coorg has an opinion on every single one of these issues. But when it comes to doing something about it, the very same people are always seen walking away rather than confronting the issue. 

This does not mean that there is no change happening on ground, People are starting to get together to address various evils plaguing our Society. From controlling garbage menace to advocating against unplanned developmental activities, small groups of people comprising people of all age groups and genders are starting to spring up across Kodagu in trying to address these issues. However, we seem to be really slacking in being able to get these various groups on to one single platform. 

For the longest time, I have heard my parents and elders talk about their childhood and the joys of running around in clean green Kodagu. Any family get together invariably turns to a flashback session with anecdotes on their childhood adventures. My own childhood was filled with all our cousins coming together and spending time in tanks or streams or just going for a walk into the estate or playing hide and seek in the forest next to our property. Sadly, I cannot for the life of me imagine my nieces or nephews or my kids tomorrow doing it for we have become self sustaining nuclear families busy with our lives. Also, you never know what you might run into. Even though we have always lived right next to the Forest, we did not even imagine running into an elephant during the day. Times have changed and we need to change with it and there is no doubt in that. But what about those things that we can control. 

Today, we have been handed a lifeline and an opportunity to correct the wrongs and start fresh. The ESA is much needed for Coorg and one which will help us get Kodagu back to its past glory, But our elected representatives and other politicians seem to be hell bent on creating panic by spreading false information. The ESA notification does not target the planters or the original inhabitants of Coorg as it is made out to be. Instead, it protects the interests of the planters and the original inhabitants of Coorg from further destruction. Nobody in Coorg has even understood the whole report but have been mislead into believing that it is bad for us,

Kodagu is facing its worst drought in decades. Our rivers, streams and ponds are running dry. Elephant menace is spreading with man animal conflict springing up in newer areas everyday, The ESA is the answer to addressing and tackling these problems. It coming into existence will not stop us from shade lopping or using chemical fertilizers or for that matter building a house inside the estate, Of course, it affects those who were indulging in exploiting our Natural resources for commercial purposes. And hence our politicians cutting across political lines have all come together to oppose this as it will put a stop to all their illegal activities, be it sand or stone quarrying, land conversion for resorts, layouts or cutting of trees for so called development activities.

The time has come for all of us to come together and get our hands dirty in helping us protect and preserve whatever little is left of Coorg, We might not agree or like those environmentalists who are fighting the cause at the moment. But how will they know that some of their views are wrong, if we do not make an effort to join the cause and express our views. I do not want to sit for a drink in a few years from now and sound exactly like my Dad's generation is sounding now. 

I would humbly request all the Kodava Samajas, the various groups advocating various reforms in Coorg to come together for this cause. Imagine, being proud Kodavas without a Kodagu that we can relate to. What is the use of a Samaja then if we cannot work towards protecting our land? Our culture, language is dying, the only thing that we can hold on to dear is our land and it is time we do something about it. Let us forget our egos, our disagreements and hatred for each other and come together for the greater good of our future. We might be losing our language, diluting our Culture with new age practices and all this needs to be addressed. But what good is it trying to solve any of these issues if we do not have a place called HOME. 

I just turned 33 and am planning to start a family soon. I want my kids tomorrow to see a Kodagu that I saw and enjoyed and I believe that it is my responsibility to make sure it happens. I don't want to look back at today 30 years from now and regret the fact that we had a chance to change the status quo and did not do anything about it. We have a duty to our forefathers and our future generations to preserve and protect our land. 

Spread the word and galvanise support, Our time is now!