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PRESERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY Karnataka Government
is working on a strategy and an action plan to conserve, sustainably use and
equitably share the benefits of the use of its rich heritage of living diversity.
Of considerable significance in this respect are cultural traditions such as
protection of peepal and banyan trees, Hanuman langurs, sacred groves and temple
tanks. Banyan(aala) or peepal (arali) almost always constitute the biggest trees
in any village, town or city of Karnataka. Botanically they belong to genus
Ficus which ecologists now recognize as a keystone resource, responsible for
supporting a whole spectrum of biodiversity by producing fleshy fruit. Atthi,
basari and several other Ficus species are also protected as sacred trees.
The genus Dipterocarpus
is the flagship genus of tropical rain forest. The northernmost population of
Digterocarpus on the Western Ghats occurs ibn a sacred grove, Karikanamman Mane
in Uttara Kannada. The most abundant of large wild mammals of Karnataka is bonnet
macaque protected because of association with Rama. The most magnificent freshwater
fish, Mahaseers, reach their largest size in sacred stretches of rivers such
as Tunga near Sringeri. The spectacular breeding colony of Painted Storks and
Grey Plicans at Kkre Bellur has been traditionally protected.
Rich tradition
Karnataka has a
rich tradition of conservation of nature. But its efficacy has been severely
eroded. Some 10 per cent of our land may once have been covered by sacred groves;
today this is down to less than 0.1 per cent. Our wildlife sanctuaries and national
parks now cover over 4 percent. The fast declining old traditions may then be
of no relevance in the modern day context. Moreover, this protection is not
rational; it is based on fear of primitive deities, often residing in trees
or stones. Some votaries of scientific temperament therefore advocate that it
is better to wipe out such superstitions, to cut down out last banyan tree and
shoot our last monkey if we want to enter the new millennium as a rational society.
Even the priests
are willing to discard these traditions. Many have been happy enough to perform
rites to propitiate the deities, to obtain divine consent to cut down the giant
trees in the sacred groves, invest part of the money timber merchants are willing
to pay to construct a temple over the gods who are mostly in the open, and use
the balance for other purposes. The government too has extended little recognition
and legal protection for these traditions.
New motivation
The question then
is whether we should write off these traditions as irrelevant in modern day
context, or build upon them, modifying them to suit present day conditions.
Obviously religious beliefs, especially those rooted in powers of nature spirits
are on the wane. For instance as money and market gains ascendance peepal trees
are given the axe to fire brick kilns or monkeys shot at when they damage coconuts
or mangoes. So if the living diversity protected by these traditions is to be
conserved in days to come, new ways will have to be devised to motivate people.
People may be compelled
to protect through fear of punishment, or through positive motivation of monetary
rewards or social recognition. The fear of divine punishment may then be replaced
by that of government through handing over the control of sacred trees or groves,
of fish or ponds to the Forest Department. The control could also be modelled
on Joint Forest Management Committees, with local people drawn into enforcement.
However, as there
may be no material rewards such as access to non-timber forest produce, some
other rewards, such as special grants to the community, may have to be introduced.
Since a variety of different kinds of protection are offered through cultural
traditions, these cannot be captured easily through legislative provisions.
It may then be desirable to authorize gram or Taluk Panchayats to declare particular
trees or stretches of rivers as protected. We might also wish to ensure that
such traditions are taken into account in course of Environmental Impact Assessments.
Crop varieties
evolved by farmers through selection over generations are also part of our rich
resources of living diversity. The bright red Byadri chilles, the deliciously
sour Appimidi mangoes, the salt-resistant Kagga strains of paddy and myriads
of other varieties of filed and tree crops are a part of the rich heritage.
This variety has evolved over generations of low input cultivation through selection
by women and men to adapt the crop to the local soil, moisture, pest and disease
environment. Modern agricultural practices have changed all this. For one, they
have homogenized the environment. A small number of high-yielding varieties
have then been introduced to take advantage of the higher inputs, eroding diversity
while enhancing productivity. Plant breeders have been conscious of the great
value of genetic diversity embodied in traditional varieties. So as HYVs have
rapidly replaced these, the genetic matterial has been systematically collected
and maintained with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, or other institutions
and seed companies. It was one such cultivar from Pattambi in Kerala that provided
the gene for resistance against the insect pest, Brown Plant Hopper that threatened
to wipe out Southeast Asia's paddy crop some years ago.
Sovereign
property
At that time, prior
to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) formulated in 1992, such genetic
resources were considered a common heritage of mankind. Now they are treated
as a sovereign property of the country of origin. Under the present regime,
India would have claims on part of the economic gain resulting from use of the
pest-resistant genes from the Pattambi cultivar. CBD also recognizes the contributions
of farmers to the evolution of these cultivars. The new Protection of Plant
Varieties and Farmers' Rights Bill of the Government of India proposes setting
up a National Gene Fund for channelizing such benefits to the farmers.
Recent years have
also witnessed another development the fatigue of Green Revolution. The rates
of increase in farm productivity have now fallen off, even as the government
is finding it difficult to sustain subsidies. This means that farmers may no
longer find the HYVs as profitable over the traditional varieties. Indeed, they
may now be better placed in going back to some of the old cultivars.
Some of the older
varieties, although less productive, are disease resistant. Since retrieving
older strains from the ICAR collections may not be easy, farmers may be better
off maintaining some of these under limited cultivation on their own fields.
An important added advantage to on-farm maintenance of crop genetic diversity
is that the cultivars would then continue to evolve properties such as resistance
to newer disease strains.
Documentation
It would be essential
to develop a good system of documentation of the identity and properties of
such cultivars to facilitate the farmer community taking advantage of these
genetic resources through exchanges amongst themselves, as well as to sustain
claims for payments from the National Gene Fund. Such documentation poses complex
scientific challenges since the cultivars do not constitute distinct, stable,
uniform varieties, nor do they have standardized names.
Much thought then
needs to be devoted to decide on how to motivate farmers to maintain traditional
varieties on the farm. This may need a system of incentives, the converse of
subsidies that promoted replacement of these cultivars. Just as farmers are
awarded titles like Krishi Pandit for demonstrating high crop productivity,
they may also be given recognition for maintaining high levels of crop genetic
diversity.
Such systems of incentives would also need good systems of documentation. A variety of different institutions, agriculture department, panchayat raj institutions, agricultural universities, seed companies and NGOs may play a role such an endeavour. By
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