cdn.cseindia.orgcdn.cseindia.org/userfiles/annualplan1997-1999.pdf2017-07-06Mandate he Centre for...

cseDIRECTOR’S REPORT 1997-99

Centre for Science and Environment

New Delhi

CSE


41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area

New Delhi 110062

Tel: 6081110, 6086399, 6081124, 6083394

Fax: 6085879

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.cseindia.org

Leaves of important survival trees of India — MAHUA, ALDER, OAK, KHEJDI, PALMYRA

Mandate

he Centre for Science and

Environment is a public interest

research and advocacy

organisation, which promotes

environmentally-sound and

equitable development

strategies. The Centre’s work

over the past 17 years has led it

to believe and argue, both

nationally and

internationally, that

participation, equity and

community-based natural

resource management systems

alone will lead the nations of the

world towards a durable peace

and development.

As a public interest

organisation, the Centre supports

and organises information flow

in a way that the better

organised sections of the world

get to hear the problems and

perspectives of the less

organised. Environmental issues

are seen in an anthropocentric

perspective that seeks to bring

about changes in the behaviour

of human societies through

appropriate governance systems,

human-nature interactions, and

the use of science and

technology.

Though the public

awareness programmes of the

Centre have been its key

strength and focus of work, it

has endeavoured to move into

associated areas of work like

policy research and advocacy in

the past years. Learning from

the people and from the

innovations of the committed has

helped the Centre to spread the

message regarding environment

without its normal association

with doom and gloom. Rather,

the effort of the Centre is to

constantly search for people-

based solutions and create a

climate of hope.

The Centre has always

been, and will continue to be,

editorially independent of

interest groups, governments,

political parties, international

agencies and funding sources.

CSE never accepts funding to

push a donor’s viewpoint. All its

outputs are available for public

dissemination.

T

Contents

OVERVIEW

Miles to go… ……............………...…..…. 4

INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Managing Change ………………..………. 8

PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS

Pushing for solutions ..………………….. 14

Green messenger …...…….…………...… 58

Catching them young ……….………..… 64

Green treasure trove .…..………….....… 68

Reaching out…………….…………......… 72

Landing a helping hand .………….....… 74

Events..………………………..……......... 76

RESOURCES

Quote, unquote .....…...……....………... 80

Financial overview…………....………... 82

CSE’s executive board ....…………....….. 85

Who’s who at CSE .....………….............. 86

Overview

This surely cannot be the India of ourdreams. Dirty, filthy and deadly. Andinsane…..

All over the world, experience has shown pol-lution rises extremely rapidly with industrialgrowth. A study carried out by the WorldBank showed that when the Thai economydoubled during the 1980s, the total quantityof poisonous pollutants released went up tentimes. The Centre for Science andEnvironment found that during the period1975-1995 during which the Indian economygrew by about 2.5 times, the total quantity ofpollutants increased by eight times. Not sur-prisingly, almost every Indian town and city ischoking because of vehicular pollution today.

Most people tend to think that Delhi is one

of the most polluted cities in the world. Thehigh levels of deadly particles in Delhi’s airprobably make it the worst in the world.Mexico City looks clean in front of Delhi. Allthis is relatively well known because theWorld Health Organization (WHO) monitorsair pollution in some 20 metropolises of theworld and Delhi indeed comes out pretty badin this sample of cities.

But what is not well known is that whenDelhi’s air pollution is compared with the airpollution in other Indian cities, this capitallypolluted city appears quite clean. The CentralPollution Control Board has just released dataon air pollution levels recorded in 90 cities in1997. This data shows that Shillong is the onlytown that has clean air round the year.

Should all this be surprising? Not at all.Within just 15 years of what economists callthe post-Second World War economic boom(1945-1960), a period during which theWestern world created unprecedented

material wealth, literally every Western cityfrom Tokyo to London and Los Angeles beganto gasp for clean air and every Western riverfrom the Rhine to the Thames had become asewer, much like our Yamuna. And Japan wasreeling under unknown and crippling neuro-logical disorders like the frighteningMinamata disease. The same is happening inIndia today and, in fact, all across Asia.

This growing pollution led to a powerfulenvironmental movement that then forcedWestern politicians to take the matter serious-ly. They did two things. During the 1970s and1980s, these countries poured in enormoussums of money to control pollution.According to one estimate, nearly 25 per centof the industrial investment in Japan in thepost-70s period went towards pollution con-trol. And the governments strictly enforcedtheir pollution control laws. As a result, the airand water had become a lot cleaner by thelate 1980s and early 1990s, that is, in a periodof about 20 years or one generation. The bat-tle is, however, still not won. The West stillhas to find ways to deal with carbon dioxidepollution of the atmosphere, disposal of haz-ardous industrial waste (which often getsshipped to developing countries), growinggroundwater pollution and disruption of thenitrogen cycle because of largescale use offertilisers and manure, among a number ofother vexing problems.

The question that we need to ask our-selves is whether we will be able to see a turn-around in India in the next 20 years? It isextremely doubtful that this will be the case.India’s economy is just beginning to grow.Industrial development, agricultural moderni-sation and urbanisation — all of which pumppoison into the environment — are still at anascent stage. We still have a long way to go.Therefore, we can see enormous quantities ofpoisons being produced in the decades tocome. And on top of all this, at the turn of thecentury, India does not have the wherewithalto emulate the West of the 1970s. Firstly,India’s current per capita income is still noteven a fraction of Western per capita incomesof the 1970s. As a result, India will remainheavily constrained in investing in high quali-ty, environmentally-sound technology. Indiawill continue to use low quality, highly-pol-luting technologies for a long time.

Secondly, India’s regulatory system ishighly corrupt and incompetent in dealingwith the new challenges arising out of pollu-tion. And, finally, there is as yet no powerfulpopular movement against pollution, whichcan translate into votes and put the fear of god

Overview

Director’s Report 1997-994

8.0

4.0

2.6

Miles to go…

Director’s Report 1997-99 5

into our politicians. What we, therefore, see is absolute may-

hem in the years to come. What took the Westone generation to control could take ouralready heavily polluted India as much as twoto three generations to control, in otherwords, some 40-50 years. The future is, therefore, nothing less than frightening.

…but there is a glimmer of hope in ruralIndia

But just as I am pessimistic about the urbansector I am increasingly more and more opti-mistic about the possibility of change in ruralIndia. In the 1980s and 1990s we have seenoutstanding work to promote communitybased natural resource management in manyvillages and if we can ensure that these effortsare replicated on a large scale then a largepart of India’s rural poverty can be wiped outin the coming years. Rural Indians live on,what I call, a biomass-based subsistenceeconomy. Food, fuel, fodder and feed for theiranimals, building materials like thatch andtimber, and medicinal herbs, all come fromplants and animals found or grown in theirimmediate environment. Water, too, comesfrom the immediate environment and plays akey role in determining the productivity of theavailable lands. Environmental degradation,therefore, takes a very heavy toll on the localsubsistence economy and the daily lives ofthe rural people, resulting in acute poverty,hunger and distress migration, especially ofmales. This is ecological poverty, differentfrom the cash economy, our economists loveto count.

During the last 25 years, land degradationin India has resulted in increased poverty and

drought-prone conditions across large areasof the country. But in these conditions wehave seen some outstanding community-based responses to reverse the land degrada-tion and thus revive the local biomass-basedeconomy. Two villages – Sukhomajri, situatedin the sub-Himalayan Sivalik hill range, andRalegan Siddhi, situated in the drought-proneDeccan plateau region of Maharashtra – start-ed their efforts in the 1970s. Tarun BharatSangh, a non-governmental organisation,began encouraging village communities liv-ing in the Aravalli ranges of Alwar district ofRajasthan in the mid-1980s to revive their tra-ditional water harvesting system called johadsand is today working with nearly 500 villagesin the area. Inspired by the outstanding transformation of Ralegan Siddhi, DigvijaySingh, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh,modelled a state-wide community-basedwatershed development programme which in four years, by 1998, had reached nearly8000 villages.

In all these transformations, developmentof transparent and participatory community-based decision-making institutions and estab-lishment of community property rights overthe local natural resource base was critical.These institutions decided natural resourcemanagement priorities, resolved conflictswithin the communities, and determined bur-den- and benefit-sharing rules. Techno-logically, the starting point was rainwater harvesting – centuries-old tradition of Indianvillages – which slowly led to the regenera-tion of the entire ‘village ecosystem’ and theassociated rural economy. Indian villages sit-uated in semi-arid to sub-humid environ-ments (500 mm to 1200 mm rainfall) tradi-tionally worked within an agrosylvopastoral

Overview


system with interacting land components ofcroplands, grasslands and tree and forestlands which supported a rural economy con-sisting of agriculture, animal husbandry andartisanal crafts. This mixed economy helpedthe villagers to withstand both intra-annualand inter-annual deviations in rainfall condi-tions. Rainwater harvesting was usually a keyactivity for maintaining the sustainability ofthe transformed ecology.

In all cases, as the local carrying capacityincreased, there was not just an increasedcapacity to withstand droughts. But alsoreverse rural-urban migration, which indi-cates that if ecological regeneration of thiskind is carried out on a regional scale, itcould even affect the current pattern of ‘dis-tress urbanisation’ seen in most cities of thecountry.

But the key obstacle to these effortsremains the current bureaucratic administra-tion of natural resources inherited from thecolonial days which prohibits communitymanagement of natural resources like forests,grasslands and water channels. In all the threecases, where non-state actors took the lead,communities had to struggle against govern-ment agencies to secure their right to managethe local resource base.

Challenges for CSEIn these circumstances, institutions of the civilsociety like CSE have to play a vital role inbringing change. CSE today is what I wouldcall a knowledge-based activist institution.We believe in generating knowledge and thenbuilding networks to be able to spread that

knowledge so that there is an understandingwithin the government and within non-stateactors.

In the last 3 years our work has grownfrom environmental awareness creation topolicy research and advocacy. Our way ofdoing things has also changed. I am describ-ing two efforts we have made, one to dealwith air pollution and the other to deal withwater shortages and particularly groundwaterrecharge issues in the last 2-3 years todescribe the challenges we face.

When we began working on the problemand pollution, and we found that the govern-ment had absolutely no clue what to do aboutit. This is not surprising. The incompetence ofour government to deal with the problem isenormous because even in a country likeIndia, which has otherwise invested a lot inscientific research has not invested in envi-ronmental sciences.

Therefore, we are essentially facing a sce-nario in which there is almost total lack ofknowledge. In such a situation, whenever welaunch a campaign, our first strategy is tounderstand that issue and in that process pro-duce a scientific, rigorous, prescriptive publi-cation that helps us to consolidate our ownthinking on that subject. The publication alsohelps us to get in touch with experts in Indiaand abroad.

Once such a publication is available, weextend this network to activists who are inter-ested in the issue to create a public debate.And one of the simplest ways in a large coun-try like India is to initiate dialogues and getdiscussions going in different states. We try


and organise 25-30 meetings across differentparts of the country – one in each state orregion. We request a local NGO to take onthe responsibility to organise the meeting andget that particular publication released bysomebody very eminent in that area. It couldbe a chief justice of the local high court, apolitician, a chief minister or whatever butone who will attract the media. So the resultis that within a few months of the publication,we not only get dialogue, involvement of thecivil society and media coverage.

This exercise helps us involve people whoare interested in dealing with the problem.The next step is to try and build up capacity todeal with the issue. This is particularly impor-tant in the case of air pollution as it is bothlocale-specific and highly scientific.Therefore, capacity building becomes a veryimportant issue.

In this case we have found that it is vitalto build international networks — to gatherinformation and to influence. To do thiseffectively, modern communication andinformation technology plays an importantrole. We have been in touch with a numberof environmental NGOs across the world foryears, who in turn very quickly put us intouch with leading experts looking at air pol-lution issues — engine design, fuel quality,traffic management, environmental healthexperts. So within a few months, we are ableto create a network of over 50-60 expertsacross the world, ranging from people in theWorld Health Organization to the USEPA, toSwedish EPA, and so on and so forth. And,therefore, if there is ever any query that israised during our campaign against air pollu-tion — and there is no dearth of queries,every single company is trying to sell ussome line or the other – we can quicklymobilise our own community of experts torespond. This has meant that we can take onthe giants with confidence. For instance, wehave been able to respond quickly andauthoritatively to the “disinformation” ofcompanies like Ford or Mercedes-Benz oranyone else. But, most importantly we havefound that we have to keep ahead – in termsof information and research – of all our‘opponents’. Campaigning has been a con-stant exercise in policy research and infor-mation dissemination.

On the water issue, we have followed thesame strategy but with some key innova-tions. As in the case of air pollution, we pub-lished Dying Wisdom, which looked atIndia’s traditions in water management. Weknow 150 years ago, India’s management ofwater was one of the best in the world. Wewere known as the ‘hydraulic society’. Thisbook gave us the perspective on the solution.But as this is primarily a rural issue, informa-tion technology is marginal in our network-ing. In this case the complexity of the net-work and the cost of the network becomes

much higher. Our strategy has been to usethe book to build a network.

In October 1998 we organised a state ofthe art conference on the theme of “catchingwater where it falls”. The conference thatbrought together over 300 activists, practi-tioners, academics and policy planners wasinaugurated by the President of India, ShriK.R. Narayanan as we wanted to make astrong statement. The President committedhimself to implementing rainwater harvestingin Rashtrapati Bhawan. It brought media cov-erage. It raised the profile of the issue. Andwith the conference began our network. Nowour efforts are to work at regional and statelevels and to promote networks that bringstogether professionals and activists to imple-ment water harvesting solutions.

Therefore, when we deal with criticalissues that concern the marginalisation ofpoor people, where poverty, water manage-ment and land management are very centralissues, networking is going to be far morecomplex. Networking demands interpersonalcommunications and printed publications,which makes it slower and much moreexpensive. But in all cases we find the mostcritical input to advocacy and indeed to bringabout change is policy research and docu-mentation. Only in this case the research istargetted and is used deliberately to push forchange. It is for this reason that we say todaythat CSE is involved in “knowledge basedactivism”.

Institutional development


CSE has been responding to the environmen-tal challenges in Indian society for nearly 18years now. In its early years, when there wasan urgent need to create environmental consciousness in the Indian society, CSE produced the Citizens’ Reports on the State of India’s Environment. The first reportappeared in 1982 and four in all have beenpublished since then. These reports helped tokick-start a nationwide environmental movement.

India faces a major challenge in the years ahead in moving towards sustainabledevelopment. On one hand, populationgrowth and high levels of poverty demandrapid economic growth and, on the other,urbanisation, industrialisation and agricultur-al modernisation are exerting an enormousand adverse impact on the country’s environment and natural resource base.Having played an important role in puttingenvironment on the national agenda, CSEnow wants to channelise its efforts to help theIndian society find solutions to meet that challenge. This can only be achieved throughdetailed and consistent policy research andnetworking with diverse groups within thecivil society.

Therefore, CSE is slowly making the transition from being an awareness creationorganisation to one that uses its strengths in information gathering, analysis and presentation to undertake policy research andpush for policy change. This poses a seriousmanagement challenge for us. CSE is alreadygrowing from a single-focus institution like

the World Watch Institute in USA to a multi-focus institution which is a cross between theWorld Watch Institute, World ResourcesInstitute (which has a focus on policyresearch), and Greenpeace (which has a focuson campaigns). Given below is a chart thatshows how the Centre’s programmes areorganised.

But growth in programmes – particularlyhighly responsive and academically rigorousactivities – is not possible without a backup ofmanagement systems. Therefore, during thelast three years, CSE has been working hard todevelop management and programme support systems that will help it take up thesechallenges.

1. Programme Management Systems

The key elements of the programme manage-ment system that we have developed over thelast three years are as follows:

a. Building a culture of working togetherThe organisation design of the Centre hasbeen evolving and changing in response tothe needs and changing character of the institution. In the early years, when the staffconsisted of a few committed professionals,the organisation design was very informal andvery flat. As the Centre grew, it was necessaryto bring in a degree of hierarchy. Some yearslater we found that while we needed organisational hierarchy we also neededcoordination and flexibility between units.We needed people to work both within a

Managing change

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS IN INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Objectives Awareness raising Policy research and advocacy Documentation Education and training

Programmes Down To Earth Health and Environment Books and documents School education

State of India’s Industry and Journals Training for decision-Environment Reports Environment makers (proposed)

Films Pollution management Newsclippings(air, water and waste)

Website Natural resource management (water, forests, Audio-visualbiodiversity, wildlife and resourcespoverty and environment)

Information Global environmental Databasedissemination governance

Organisation of the Centre’s programmes


vertical and a lateral structure. This is important for us in order to optimise ourresources so that staff can contribute to different activities. Currently, the Centre has afairly structured organisational structure butone that promotes programme coordinationbetween different programme units.

The organisational framework for programmes is based on distinct cells andunits/teams. Cells demarcate the overall programmatic theme and the direction ofwork. A Team/Unit is a cohesive group of staffworking within a cell. This structure allows fora flexible organisational structure that canmeet the requirements of the Centre’s programme. But the disadvantage of cells isthat they can easily become too compartmen-talised and inward looking.

There is the danger of overstaffing as eachcell will try to get all the skills it needs withinitself rather than sharing skills and humanresources with others. But we are trying toovercome these problems by instituting various institutional mechanisms:● Interlinking through LAN covers all

staff members and enables them to com-municate more with other members.

● A system whereby all major campaigns,conferences and other programmes areopportunities for all staff to come togetherand share responsibilities.

● A formal work commitment in the annualplans whereby each staff member hasresponsibilities to contribute to the workof other teams. For instance, every staffmember has a responsibility to contributeto Down To Earth, to the State of India’sEnvironment Reports, State of GlobalEnvironmental Negotiations Report and tothe website. The Gobar Times and the documentary films teams also use onthe research material produced by theprogramme teams of the Centre.In 1995, we began to restructure the

existing teams to enable the Centre to moveinto new programme areas — to move awayfrom a single focus on journalism to other focion policy research, studies, campaigns andeducation.

We developed teams to do more thanjournalism. But we did this not so much byadding new staff but by internal restructuringto form specialised research and advocacyteams. The staff who have formed specialisedteams are doing far more rigorous researchand their advocacy work demands from themmore varied skills of communication and networking. As part of their efforts to build aconstituency and influence they publish articles.

An important indicator of our reengineer-ing efforts is our staff strength. From 1995 tilldate it has remained more or less constant – from 85 in 1995 to 94 in 1999. Butin these years, the number of activities andpublications has risen considerably.

b. Building a deadline cultureOur past experience in CSE was that researchhad no deadline. The best of schedules couldbe modified as there was always somethingmore that was needed to be done. And mostreports remained manuscripts in drafts. Thedeadline was always director-driven.Therefore, we wanted to organise work thatwas driven by the individual, and was organ-ised in a way that the product was determinedand the output assured. This was in fact a keyreason why we collaborated on starting thefortnightly Down To Earth. The magazine pro-vides us with an inbuilt programme monitor-ing mechanism – to ensure that the internalresearch is deadline driven.

c. Annual programme planningAlthough the Centre has been doing annualplanning exercises for several years now, wehave now set up a system that makes itdetailed, rigorous and structured. Every pro-gramme unit in the Centre participates in thisexercise. The exercise provides the Centre’sprogramme staff with an exposure to manage-ment issues like budgeting, staff planning, fundraising, project development, commitments toother groups in CSE and time management.

The annual planning exercise ensures that every staff member plans his/her workoutput in advance and thereafter is responsiblefor the outputs. The system of clear deadlinesand monthly monitoring of those deadlinesensures that programmes are kept on track.The annual reviews also help to identify over-all weaknesses — in staff members, in theplanning process, in the monitoring process.

Staff and activities: Increase in the number of activities andproducts (1995 to 1999)

No. of staff No. of products No. of activities

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99

Note: The baseline for number of staff has been taken as 70. (70 =1)



d. External review of staff performanceBeginning 1998-99, we have instituted a sys-tem of involving outsiders in the reviewprocess to make it more objective and ensurehigh standards of quality. Each programmeunit is required to make a presentation to apeer group of experts in that particular area.The expert group assesses the quality andquantity of work done over the last year andprovides directions for the next year’s programmes.

This process will serve as a mechanismto open up the institution to skills and exper-tise available in civil society and strengthenthe organisation and be an integral part of

the Centre’s institutional development infuture. We hope to improve this process infuture.

e. Performance rewardsA system of performance rewards has beenstarted which provides rewards on a monthlybasis as part of a total emolument package.This provides a more immediate incentive forstaff members to turn out good performancesand maintain quality consistently.

2. Management Support Systems

Between 1995 and 1996, we also organisedthe management support structure. It consists of the following units: Accounts and Finance; Administration; Sales andDespatch; Production; Computer and System support. Each of these units is headed by a senior manager and with theexception of Accounts and Marketing, theother units report to a General Manager,Management Support Services. Each unit head is assisted by executives andadministrative support staff have been kept ata minimum to keep the structure as flat aspossible.

Systems have been developed to enablethe manager of each unit to function in adecentralised manner. The function of everystaff member of the units has been definedand a management information system foreach support unit has been developed andimplemented. The managers report on amonthly basis on the progress of these activi-ties through a MIS system of routine reports,priority reports and exception reports. Thesereports enable the top management to moni-tor the functioning of these units with regardto the stated objectives and targets as well asassist the managers to solve exceptionalproblems.

The top management is more and moreable to operate on the principle ofManagement by Exception as these reportsbring to the attention of the top managersonly the priority and critical issues that needintervention or decision making at the high-est level.

3. Future Challenges

For any organisation to keep performing, it isimportant for it to keep innovating. We haveidentified the following key areas for us todevelop in the coming years:

a. Building a strong, skilled teamCSE’s problem is that its programmes are not moulded along the skills in society. It demands a combination of skills from its staff:• Ability to do rigorous but fast and dead-

line-oriented research;• Ability to communicate to the public;• Ability to lobby, advocate ideas;• Ability to manage information.

In addition, we need people who arehighly motivated, are able to take high pressure work and are committed to change.Also, we demand from our coordinators,managerial skills and fund-raising abilities.

Therefore, in order to contribute productively to CSE’s work, programme staffneed the following qualities: good writingskills, an understanding of environmentalissues, an ability to look at issues in depth

Unit

Natural resource management

Air & water pollution

Global Environmental Governance

Health & Environment

Down to Earth

State of India’s Environment Reports

Environment Education

Films and Television

External review panel-1999

Resource persons

Dr.N.C. Saxena, Secretary, Planning Commission;Dr. Ujwal Pradhan, Program Officer, FordFoundation; Jes Boye Moller, Minister Counsellor,DANIDA; Philippe Jacques, Advisor, EUDelegation

Kamal Meattle, CEO, Paharpur Business Centre;Dr. Padma Vankar, Head, Environment TestingLaboratory IIT, Kanpur; Prof. H.B. Mathur,Professor, Regional Engineering College; Prof. C.K. Varshney, Professor, School of EnvironmentalSciences, JNU.

A.K. Damodaran, former diplomat; C.V.Raghunathan, former diplomat; Prof. M. Lal, pro-fessor of Atmosphereic Sciences, IIT, Delhi

Dr. V. Ramalingaswami, former Director-Generalof ICMR; Dr. N. Kochupillai, Head, Dept. ofEndocrinilogy and Metabolism, AIIMS

Raj Chengappa, Deputy Editor, India Today;Ashok Parthasarathy, Secretary, Government ofIndia, V. Siddharta, Director, DRDO; IqbalMallik, Director, Vatavaran

Prem Shankar Jha, Columnist; Suman Dubey,CEO Dow Jones Newswire

Neeru Nanda, Secretary, Education, NationalCapital Region; Vikram Lal, Vikram SarabhaiFoundation; Chitra Narayanan, Officer, IndianForeign Service; Shobhit Mahajan, Lecturer, St.Stephen’s College

Anita Pratap, Columnist, Time magazine; KiranKarnik, Managing Director, DiscoveryCommunication India


and in a multidisciplinary perspective, anability to network and skills in advocacy. Thetwo major indicators of work in CSE aretoday publications and advocacy.

This brings us to the question of how dowe ensure that all staff acquire expertise in allthese areas. That is, skill, knowledge anddrive. We have made some headway in insti-tutionalising the methods to help staff acquirewriting skills, understand environmentalissues, and an ability to look at issues objec-tively, analytically, holistically and in-depth.The system is so inter-woven that it ensuresthat programme staff get to research issues in-depth and also write about them as populararticles in Down To Earth. This helps to builda combination of environmental knowledgeand communications skills.

But what we need to work on now is howto enable staff members to become good atadvocacy. This is not an easy task. Good advo-cacy requires not just skills and knowledge buteven more a drive – even an anger, a sense ofidealism and a high order of commitment tobring change. This combination of skill, knowl-edge and commitment is difficult to find.

We cannot find people with all thesequalities in the market. Therefore, we need tocreate systems and a culture whereby we caninstill these qualities in our staff members.This is a very slow process and we are stilllearning how to do this successfully. Weneed to continually adapt and modify thesesystems to changes and needs and work con-stantly to improve them so as to ensure thatthe organisational culture gets embedded inall staff members.

b. Retention: The problem of staff turnoverThis is an area of concern that we have identified for ourselves. We need to findappropriate policies which help us to retainour best professional talent. It has been ourexperience that we have to put in a lot ofeffort to build the combination of skill andqualities that are needed to contribute suc-cessfully to CSE’s work are not readily avail-able in the market.

For instance, when we hire journalists,they require training to understand the com-plexity of environmental issues, deal withtheir technical and scientific concerns and, in

Sir Ratan Tata Trust while considering the Centre for an endowment grant retained Professor Tushaar Shah currentlywith International Irrigation Management Institute, Colombo for an appraisal of the Centre. He says: “I found it interesting that the CSE does use best practices in several areas. For example, CSE has done outstandingly well inevolving a truly excellent and enviable core portfolio of products; similarly, CSE has excellent infrastructure that isappropriate to its needs and is used intensively and maintained very well. It has evolved a matrix- type organisa-tion with multiple and parallel reporting and accountability relationships. It is striving to evolve a culture of self reg-ulation, creativity, accountability and performance orientation. It has so far been able to generate all the resourcesit has needed to survive without in any way compromising its mission and character. An area where CSE probablyneeds and wants- to do more work is in talent hunt and retention.”

In order to evaluate CSE as a knowledge – institution, he assessed CSE in respect of best operative practices inseven areas that High Performing Knowledge Institutions (HPKI) follow. These are:1. Obtaining and retaining appropriate professional talent : HPKI strive and tend to acquire and retain high

quality professional talent by using appropriate search processes, by investing in competency-building and bycreating suitable pecuniary and non-pecuniary rewards.

2. Create a core portfolio of products and services : HPKI’s are known by their publics and customers by a coreportfolio of products and services that are valued highly; these drive the internal dynamic of the institution,define the institution’s core competence and determine the influence it wields in its domain vis- a vis its commensals; HPKI give their best to this core portfolio, guard its quality standards assiduously, and tend to beexceptionally careful and risk-averse in tinkering with it;

3. Organisation Design : HPKI tend towards non-hierarchial, matrix type organisation designs, vest functionalauthority in professionals, maintain a balance between professional and support staff, and adapt their designs toperformance needs;

4. Infrastructure : HPKI acquire adequate infrastructure which they utilise intensively and are able to maintain andadapt to their changing needs;

5. Resource generation : HPKI tend to generate the resources they need for survival and growth without compro-mising their autonomy, mission and character;

6. Organisational Culture : HPKI are distinguished from other knowledge organisations sharply by their internal culture that emphasises self-regulation and yet promotes accountability and performance orientation, thatencourages openness and democracy, and stimulates creativity and innovation;

7. Management and Operations: HPKI deploy management systems and operating policies designed to reinforcetheir culture and promote creativity and excellence; and ensure a high pitch activity in a strategically managedportfolio of work.

CSE, a knowledge institution



particular, appreciate the need to do in-depthresearch. On the other hand, academics andspecialists often lack good writing and com-munications skills. In addition, all our staffneeds training in policy research and advoca-cy that demands both skill building but alsoan attitude development.

To understand the problem of staffturnover we analysed the pattern of turnoverfor the last three years.

We found:● The turnover of the staff who have been

with us less than 2 years is very high.These staff members are very young andare highly unstable. As much as 73 percent of the staff who left CSE comprised ofthose who left before completing twoyears.

● That as staff progress in the organisation,they settle down. The group of people inthe 4-6 year category is a critical group,as they are in the middle managementcategory, often guiding new entrants. Wehave spent considerable time and efforttraining them. Therefore, retention of thisgroup is most critical to us.

● That the period of 6-8 years is again a crit-ical period, where staff may haveplateaued and are unable to drive them-selves to progress further and therefore,look for new opportunities. The turn-over on the less than two year

category is partly because we have started arigorous assessment procedure at the end ofthe probation period of one year. Therefore,the end of the first year is an important mark-er for us – staff who make it through the firsttwo years tend to stay with us. We have to betough because of the special skills and quali-ties we require. We cannot make furtherinvestments into young people who do notshow an inclination to grow.

A recent article in Fortune magazineshowed a similar pattern. The article talks about three critical periods — less thana year, after 3 years and after 5 years.According to their analysis, new employeesin the range of 0-3 years, are very vulnerable,frustrated at tackling a new job on their own;but, more worrying, and similar to our expe-rience, is the 5-8 year group staff with a”boredom or stagnation crisis”. It is evidentthat this is a serious problem across the boardfor all kinds of organisations and we have tolearn from the efforts of other people as wellas innovate our own solutions.

How do we meet this challenge? We find that CSE must respond to this chal-lenge by working to build capacity in society.We are starting an internship programme aswell as a short-term training programme tobuild skills and knowledge. These pro-grammes will help us find committed andskilled individuals for CSE’s programmes inthe future.

We are setting up a volunteers pro-gramme to engage young people to workwith us on a non-employment basis. It givesthem the opportunity to decide on theircareers and where they want to go. And itgives us an opportunity to assess their workpotential and priorities before we take themon for a job. Since 1997, we have had a vol-unteers programme which has been veryeffective. Down To Earth gives us a greatoutreach mechanism. In 1998-99 we had atotal of 49 volunteers. Today, there areatleast 20-25 volunteers/ interns workingwith us at any given time. A large majorityof these are graduates/post-graduates from avariety of disciplines such as economics,political science, management, social work,journalism, literature and environmentalscience.

We are also planning to start a formaltraining programme in the field of environ-mental journalism and maybe even environ-mental policy research and advocacy. If wecan take 10-15 people each year for such atraining programme we will be able to sub-stantially deal with the problem of non-avail-ability of skilled humanpower.

We need to think through a lot more tofind the right and innovative answers toretain our senior staff. We need to look at awide variety of mechanisms ranging frommonetary incentives to job satisfaction toopportunities for growth. These are far morecomplex and intangible and we are still look-ing for satisfactory solutions. But most impor-tantly we need to have internal systems toensure that our senior staff find the workrewarding and challenging. And, increasing-ly, develop a long term stake in the organisa-tion. We clearly need to keep learning andgetting better at this.

4. Financial sustainability

The Centre started nearly 18 years ago as afive-person operation without any corpus.Today, it is well established as a leading pub-lic interest organisation working in the area ofenvironment and sustainable development.From its early beginnings with an annualturnover of about Rs. 3 lakh, the Centre hasgrown to an organisation that has an annualturnover of over Rs. 3 crore. Today, CSE is atan important threshold — on the one hand, itis growing and expanding and would like totake on a greater role in providing the countrywith intellectual leadership in the area of sus-tainable development; and, on the other, tra-ditional sources of funding are fast drying up.Therefore, there is a need to innovate andexperiment in order to be financially self-reliant and at the same time retain theindependent character of the organisation.

We are clear that financial sustainabilityis a key requisite for programme sustainabili-ty. In order to chalk out a clear programme


that will help us to move towards financialsustainability, we recently undertook a studyon the Centre’s long-term financial sustain-ability. During the course of the study, wemet several eminent institutional leaders totry and understand how other institutionsworked towards financial sustainability. Atthe same time we also made an analysis ofthe experiences that CSE has had in fund-rais-ing in the past. This examination of livingexperiences and grounded perspectives wasthe best way for us to learn. The experiencewas very rewarding and we also found thatwe have a lot of work ahead of us to movetowards financial sustainability.

Some of the points we considered whiledeveloping the long term financial strategyare: (1) What does financial sustainabilitymean in the context of the Centre? (2) Doesthe Centre continue to depend on foreigngrants or should it move to Indian govern-mental support? What would it do to CSE’seditorial independence? (3) What can theCentre do to diversify its income base?Should we go into consultancy business? orwill this divert its attention and dilute its roleas a public research institution? (4) How doesthe Centre raise a corpus?

The study concluded that the Centre’sfinancial sustainability strategy will have tobe geared to provide financial independenceto the Centre so that CSE can maintain its roleas an independent watchdog of the country’ssustainable development policies. Withoutthis independence, either the organisationwould have to give up its current role or elselose its public credibility.

The financial support structure of theCentre that we are developing is as follows:

Institutional Support Grants and Corpus Fund

Programme Support Grants

Project Support Grants

Our strategy involves a three-prongedfund raising effort. At the top is the effort tosecure corpus donations and institutional

grants. Then comes securing support for individual programmes. Programme supportaims to cover some of the basic operationalcosts such as salaries and costs of core activ-ities and lastly, the programme teams willraise funds for all projects under the pro-gramme such as seminars, conferences etc.While the institutional support is the mostimportant for us, programme support plays avery key role particularly in enabling us toleverage a larger amount of support for thevarious activities under the programme. TheCentre’s entire programme staff is beinginvolved in raising support at the programmeand project level while the Centre’s top man-agement focusses on raising institutional sup-port and support for new programme areas.

Institutional Development GroupIn order to help us move towards financialsustainability we decided to pick the brainsof people who have skills and expertise in thearea of financial management and institutionbuilding.

The following persons are part of thisgroup: Vijay Mahajan, founder-director ofPradan and now with BASIX; R Sudarshan,Programme Officer, UNDP; O P Jain, Directorof Sanskriti Foundation, William Bissell,Director of Fab-India, Arun Duggal, ChiefExecutive Officer, Bank of America and RohitArora, of A R Credit Information Services. Ourchallenge to find answers and ways of functioning will continue.

Raising funds for programmesupport

An instance of just how well this strategy works canbe seen from the support we were able to raise forthe multifarious activities in the water managementprogramme. The Centre gets a programme supportfor three years from Ford Foundation (1998- 2001)of US $ 125,000. Assured of this stability, we wereable to set up the unit and carry out the basicresearch activities. Thereafter, we were able to raisea total of Rs. 40 lakhs from the following donors:UNDP-New York, Heinrich Boell Foundation,Oxfam, Catholic Relief Service, Indo-German SocialService Society, Madhya Pradesh Government,Danida, Action Aid, DFID and UN-IAWG-WES. Thishelped us to fund several activities in the area ofwater management: to produce a Hindi edition ofDying Wisdom; to organise a national conference ofwater harvesting, to distribute copies of DyingWisdom; to organise a journalists’ fellowship on theMP watershed management programme; and, toconduct a study on watershed policies and programmes in the Indian Himalaya.

Endowment from Sir Ratan TataTrust

The Sir Ratan Tata Trust approved CSE’sapplication for an endowment grant inMarch 1999. The Trust will provide CSE witha grant of Rs 2.50 crore. The grant is beinggiven on the condition that CSE will con-tribute Rs 1.50 crore to its corpus fund fromits publication income.

The Centre’s Policy Research and Advocacy work entered its third year. The teams endeavoured to understand the linkages between global, national and local environmental issues.As a result, the idea of a report on global environmental governance (GEG) was born. CSE researchers followed up global environmental negotiations such as biodiversity, forests, desertification, ozone and climate change, among others. As the NGO focal point for theGlobal Environment Facility (GEF) assembly held in New Delhi, CSE played an important role inproviding an alternative vision for the functioning of GEF.

The global environment governance group maintains up-to-date information on global andnational environmental issues by monitoring debates, negotiations, grassroots campaigns andreporting on them through news reports and position papers. It also continues to influence thesedebates not only through reporting, but also by participating in the high-level meetings with thegovernment and intergovernmental fora, and networking with other NGOs to bring about a con-sensus opinion on the required policy change. CSE organised workshops in New Delhi, Bonn(Germany) and Buenos Aires (Argentina). CSE helped to form a South Asia Atmospheric EquityGroup along with other members of South Asian countries, prior to the fourth Conference ofParties to the Framework Convention on climate change held in Buenos Aires in November 1998,to take forward a Southern mandate.

At the national level, studies on decentralised management and conservation of naturalresources such as forests, water, wildlife, biodiversity and air continued. As a result of sustainedcampaign against air pollution, a high power environment pollution control authority was set upby the Supreme Court to oversee pollution control in the national capital region. CSE director, AnilAgarwal, was nominated to this panel. The campaign against attempts to give forest lands to theindustry continued. As a result of an intensive campaign against captive plantations, the Uniongovernment had to retract its stand on the proposal to give forest lands to industry.

More in-depth understanding on the country’s wildlife management was developed throughdetailed case studies of some key national parks. CSE researchers travelled widely across the country to understand the key conflicts and management issues around these national parks. Theteam found that the present management strategy was not based on a scientific understanding of people-wildlife interface, but was based largely on anti-people biases, played up by the non-governmental conservationist lobby. The river pollution team continued to deepen its understanding of the complex factors that lead to river pollution, by studying several pollutedrivers.

In the last one year, CSE has focused attention on the issue of water management, as its campaign on reviving traditional water harvesting systems has met with tremendous response.Anil Agarwal was invited to become a member of the World Water Commission in 1998.

I. AIR POLLUTION

The objective of the Right to Clean Air cam-paign is to develop a policy framework to stopthe growing pollution in India’s metropolitancentres.

The campaign was launched after therelease of an indepth study on vehicular pol-lution in 1996 to improve decision-makingprocesses related to air quality planning, tobuild up pressure on the government for amore transparent policy mechanism, and raisepublic awareness about poor urban air qualityand risks to public health.

The campaign team propagates awarenessand works towards changes in policies thatwould result in better air quality. During 1997-1999, the campaign made a good impact onthe public, professional groups, media, courts,as well as the government.

Public supportSince its launch, CSE has interacted with

professionals, including the medical commu-nity, technologists and economists, to suggestmeans to solve the problem. The campaignhas met with considerable success, with people from various sections of the societycoming forward to bolster the campaign.

A meeting on ‘Technology to improvevehicle and fuel standards in India’ was organ-ised on April 4, 1997. Representatives fromleading automobile firms and officials from theministry of petroleum and natural gas attendedthe meeting, which deliberated on systems forsetting emission norms. R K Malhotra, chiefregional manager, Indian Oil Corporation(IOC), admitted that inferior quality crude oilwas being imported by the country because itwas cheap, and that this resulted in poor quality fuel.

Hippocratic awakeningThe medical community woke up to the prob-lem of health risks owing to air pollution. TheIndian Medical Association, East Delhi

Policy Research and Advocacy


Pushing for solutions

OBJECTIVE

◗ Policy Research and Advocacy

GROUPS

◗ Air Pollution

◗ River Pollution

◗ Natural Resource Management

(Water harvesting, biodiversity,

and poverty and environment)

◗ Health and Environment

◗ Industry and Environment

◗ Global Environment

Governance

CAMPAIGNS

◗ Right to Clean Air

◗ Make Water Everybody’s

Business

◗ Equal Rights to the Atmosphere

MAJOR PROJECT

◗ Rating of the Environmental

Performance of Indian Industry

branch, organised a national conference onrespiratory diseases and air pollution disordersin New Delhi on September 28, 1997.Realising the importance of such a forum,which for the first time was designed to sensi-tise doctors in the capital to health risks fromair pollution, CSE supported the initiative andparticipated in the meeting. Apart from outlin-ing the problem of vehicular pollution andresultant health risks, it stressed the urgency ofgenerating more information on health effectsof air pollution and the need for more activeinvolvement of the medical community withthis issue.

November 1, 1997On November 1, 1997, exactly a year after therelease of the report Slow Murder, the Centreorganised a public meeting titled ‘SlowMurder and Since’ to mark the first anniversaryof its launch in 1996. The meeting was organ-ised to draw attention to the perilous deterio-ration in urban air quality. In a crowded audi-torium, Anil Agarwal reviewed what the gov-ernment had done over the past year to controlvehicular pollution, and pointed out howinadequate and cosmetic the official effortshad been. “We don’t have our own method ofmonitoring pollution levels and the present sit-uation is grim. The future is bleak, and nobodyknows what to do,” he regretted.

The panel discussion which followed wasco-chaired by Delhi Transport MinisterRajendra Gupta, and CSE chairperson and for-mer director-general of the Indian Council ofMedical Research, V Ramalingaswami. Otherpanelists included eminent scientist and for-mer Union minister M G K Menon, formermanaging director of Maruti Udyog Limited RC Bhargava, chest specialist at Patel ChestInstitute, S K Chhabra, and chairperson of theCentral Pollution Control Board (CPCB), D KBiswas. The speakers agreed with Agarwal thatvery little was being done to control air pollu-tion, and no scientific data was available on

certain key pollutants. The same day, a public advertisement —

Dead by Breathing — was issued by CSE inThe Times of India, apprising people aboutCSE’s alarming findings. The advertisementhad one terse and caustic message: “Whileyou are forced to line up to get your vehicle’stailpipe tested, the real culprits go scot-free.”The advertisement clearly listed the culprits —the regulatory bodies and the automobileindustry — who are responsible for transform-ing our cities into gas chambers.

Queries from all over the country began topour in following the publication of the adver-tisement and media reports on the publicmeeting. Concern, appreciation, alarm, asense of despair at the sluggishness of theauthorities, impatience for action and aneagerness to help and aid the campaign topressurise the government to act — these werethe varying moods of responses that the infor-mation provided by CSE on the issue evoked.

Immediately after the release of the CSEfinding, Saifuddin Soz, the then UnionMinister for Environment and Forests (MoEF)reacted in the press on November 4, 1997,saying that he would soon bring out a whitepaper on air pollution in Delhi. Agarwal was

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CSE campaigner, Anumita Roychowdhury, makes a presentation at the public meeting held onNovember 1, 1997, New Delhi against air pollution.

A politician with a difference

At the same public meeting on November 1,1997, CSE had revealed that the death ratedue to air pollution had doubled in Calcuttabetween 1991-92 and 1995. Shocked by thisinformation, Manabendra Mukherjee, WestBengal’s Minister for Environment, Tourismand Youth Services contacted CSE to discussthe air pollution problem in Calcutta. Hesought CSE’s help to devise a policy frame-work for countering the problem in Calcutta.

Model minister

appointed as a member of the EnvironmentPollution (Prevention and Control) Authorityfor the national capital region, set up under theorders of the Supreme Court. The gazette notification was issued by the ministry of envi-ronment and forests on January 29, 1998.

Overwhelming support came from TheHindustan Times Group, which co-sponsoredthe public lecture. The event was organisedunder the joint banner of CSE and theHindustan Times Group. An exclusive frontpage story on November 1, 1997 was carriedby The Hindustan Times.

Prior to the public meeting, CSE had calledupon prominent citizens of Delhi to sign a‘Statement of Concern’, demanding their rightto clean air. Many eminent artists, writers andsportspersons came forward to express theirsolidarity with the cause.

Who’s phoney?The Delhi government decided to withdraw itsproposed ban on old and polluting commer-cial vehicles a fortnight before the 1998national elections, to soothe the ruffled feath-ers of the Federation of Transport UnionsCongress (FTUC). The organisation hadwarned that if the vehicles were banned, theruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would losetwo million votes.

CSE campaigner Anumita Roychowdhurywrote to M S Gill, the chief election commis-sioner (CEC), saying that the BJP government’sdecision violated the guidelines issued by theElection Commission on the model code ofconduct for political parties and candidates.“We hope that the Election Commission hastaken note of the media reports that the deci-sion to withdraw the ban was issued onFebruary 4, in wake of the agitation by FTUC.



The Government Is In Control.

JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN AGAINST AIR POLLUTIONBEFORE YOU BECOME ANOTHER VICTIM

DONATE TO ENABLE RESEARCH AND RAISE A FUSSWrite to: Anil Agarwal, Sunita Narain or Anumita Roychowdhury

CENTRE FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT

41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110 062

Tel: 698 3394, 698 1110, 698 1124, 698 6399 Fax: 698 5879

Email: anumita%[email protected]

YES, I would like to ❏ Join the campaign ❏ Donate money for the Campaign Against Air Pollution.

My contribution, Rs ——— in ❏ Cheque (No ————— )❏ Money Order ❏ Demand Draft is enclosed.

All donations are exempted from income tax under Income Tax Act 80G

Please keep me informed.Name:Occupation:Address:

_______________________________________Telephone:_________________ Fax: _______________Email: _______________________________________

ONE MORE YEAR OF SLOW MURDER

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is a public interest organisation engaged in research, and

lobbying for and communicating the urgency of sustainable development. CSE’s campaign against

air pollution began on November 1, 1996 with a public meeting, an exhibition and the release of

a first-time exposé on smoggy secrets: Slow Murder: The deadly story of vehicular pollution. Since

then, we have focussed on gathering information to better nail the culprits. We are networking with

interested people and institutions to appraise everyone of air pollution’s clear and present dangers.

For health’s sake, demand your right to clean air!

CSE

All 1995 figures are based on a CSE study. We fed

Central Pollution Control Board air pollution data for

1995 — the LATEST AVAILABLE! — to an epidemiological

model developed by World Bank staffers to calculate

pollution-related health and mortality costs. (The World

Bank used 1991-92 pollution data.)

A DELUSION!

Gas chambers!

Pollution is killing more people in Indian cities

More illness!

Rising pollution-related sicknesses and hospitalisation

1991-92 figures are of World Bank

1995 figures are generated by CSE

Delhi Mumbai Kanpur Chennai Calcutta

1991-92 7,491 4,477 1,894 863 5,726

1995 9,859 7,023 3,639 1,291 10,647

Delhi Mumbai Kanpur Chennai Calcutta

1991-92 39.5 lakh 25.5 lakh 8.03 lakh 4.5 lakh 29.3 lakh

1995 60.0 lakh 40.0 lakh 15.4 lakh 6.8 lakh 54.5 lakh

So It Thinks. YOU LINE UP FOR A TAILPIPE TESTWHILE REAL CULPRITS GO SCOT-FREE

MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS

No clear air quality reduction targets. No one knows when

our air will really become cleaner.

MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS

Monopoly producer of very, very dirty fuel.

MINISTRY OF SURFACE TRANSPORT

Does not even share with the public the data it collects

on the emission of new vehicles. Who knows if the new

vehicles have really improved their standards? Not only this.

It has no plans to deal with growing urban transport crisis.

MINISTRY OF INDUSTRIES

Soft on polluting industries.

MINISTRY OF FINANCE

Shying away from taxing the polluters.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH

Totally silent on health effects of air pollution.

AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY

Trading health for mobility and profits.

POLLUTION CONTROL BOARDS

Neither can they control pollution nor do they develop

effective control programmes.

POLITICIANS IN GENERAL

No interest in people’s health.

30% More Deaths In 1995! In Some Indian Cities Deaths Have DoubledAIR POLLUTION TOLL RISES FROM 40,351 IN 1991-92

51,779 DEAD BY BREATHING

CSE issued a public advertisement — Dead by Breathing — in The Times of India, on November 1, 1997, to mark its Right toClean Air campaign anniversary.

With Delhiites increasingly falling victim to airpollution related diseases, the governmentshould take its pollution-control decisionsmore seriously, particularly in the interest ofpublic health,” she wrote. However, theElection Commission refused to take actionagainst the ruling party. When contacted byCSE, Gill said he did not have time for such“trivial” matters.

Several citizens were outraged that thehealth of 9 million citizens of Delhi was beingtermed “trivial”. “Is our health being weighedagainst 20 lakh votes and being found less important?” asked Akhil Kishore, a civilengineer who contacted CSE after readingabout the campaign in the newspaper.

Supporting the CSE stand, doctors of theIndian Medical Association (IMA) and theDelhi Medical Association (DMA) expressedtheir disbelief at Gill’s supercilious attitude ina ‘Statement of Concern’ sent to him onFebruary 13, 1998.

The same day, CSE roped in citizens suf-fering from respiratory diseases to tell the chiefminister that their health could not be barteredfor votes. They wrote, “We, who have signedthis statement, are among the 60 lakh peoplein this city, who suffer from respiratory illnessbecause we breathe polluted air that is the creation of dirty politics your party plays. Doyou know that while you may have lifted theban on polluting commercial vehicles to pacify 20 lakh people and to secure theirvotes, you have at the same time signed ourdeath warrant?” the patients asked chief minister Saheb Singh Verma.

Responding to a call by the Centre onFebruary 12, 1998, just before the elections,chief minister Verma’s phone lines werejammed by irate citizens, who told him that hecould not barter their health for votes. CSEexhorted Delhi’s citizens to participate in a‘Jam their phone lines to be heard’ campaignand register their protest by calling up thechief minister’s office.

Early in the day, the staff put up their bestelection behaviour and politely took the calls.Besieged by the unending calls, however, theystarted banging down the phone on those whorang up later in the day.

CSE’s intervention through EPCAWith Anil Agarwal becoming a member of theEnvironment Pollution (prevention and con-trol) Authority (EPCA), CSE has had a rareopportunity to influence government policieson air pollution control in Delhi.

The Supreme Court had directed MEF toset up an environment pollution controlauthority for the National Capital Region(NCR) under the Environment Protection Actof 1986, to protect and improve the quality ofthe environment and prevent, control andabate environmental pollution.

CSE’s Right to Clean Air campaign teamdeveloped a series of policy options on

possible abatement measures for vehicularpollution control to support EPCA in its work.

In this regard CSE did research on the following policy issues: (a) dieselisation of theautomobile fleet including private vehicles, (b) benzene emissions, (c) improvement in fuelquality and import of better quality fuel, (d) taxation of vehicles based on emissions (e) emissions warranty from the automobileindustry, (f) improvement in air quality moni-toring and setting up smog alerts in the city,and, (g) control pollution from two-wheelers.This work became an important feature of theteam during 1998 and 1999.

Lt governor’s statement draws flakLieutenant Governor of Delhi, Vijai Kapoorwas, however, not impressed by the level ofpollution in Delhi. He told a newspaper inJune 1998 that, “pollution in Delhi is a veryoverstated problem. I have no proof of thefact that Delhi is the fourth-most polluted cityin the world. Also, the average pollution levels have marginally fallen from 1989 to1996.” Shocked at Kapoor’s statement underplaying the gravity of the air pollutionproblem in Delhi, CSE sent an open protestletter to him.

The letter was again signed by eminentpeople of Delhi like Sarod player UstaadAmjad Ali Khan, environmentalist HarshJaitley, artist Jatin Das, veteran journalist and writer Khushwant Singh, photographerRaghu Rai, political editor NDTV RajdeepSardesai, associate editor of Outlook TarunTejpal, theatre personality Zohra Sehgal, toname just a few.

In view of the growing scientific evidenceavailable on the declining air quality in Delhi,and the risks that it causes to public health,CSE was convinced that the statement hadbeen made either due to ignorance or with adesire to hide the government’s inability todeal with the air pollution problem.

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The Centre seeks expert advicefor its campaign

An advisory committee has been set up to for-mulate a strategy to carry forward the cam-paign on vehicular pollution. The advisorycommittee included H L Anand, retired HighCourt judge, Iqbal Mallik, director Vatavaran,who organised school children in Delhi tofight against vehicular pollution, ArunaVasudev, editor Cinemaya, A K Maitra, direc-tor, School of Planning and Architecture, K CSivaramakrishnan, former secretary in thegovernment of India, Shreekant Gupta, asso-ciate professor, Delhi School of Economics,Bibek Debroy, fellow, Rajiv GandhiFoundation, and Veena Kalra, additional pro-fessor, department of paediatrics, All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences.

The Central government had alreadyissued a white paper on pollution in Delhiwith an action plan admitting that “effectiveand coordinated measures for controlling pol-lution need to be put in place without delay”.Was all this being done for an “overstatedproblem”?

Deliberate faux pas Vijai Kapoor’s statement was followed imme-diately by a statement by the Delhi’s thenhealth minister Harsh Vardhan in June 1998.In an attempt to underplay the gravity of airpollution problem in Delhi, Vardhan statedthat there is no evidence to link air pollution toheart and lung diseases.

CSE strongly condemned this statement,too, saying that it is highly irresponsible, misleading and an attempt to underplay the illeffects of pollution in order to lull the citizensof Delhi into a false sense of complacency.The minister made the statement while releas-ing a report by the Centre for Occupationaland Environment Medicine at the MaulanaAzad Medical College, on the health effects ofair pollution.

Both the letters to the lt governor and thehealth minister received wide coverage in allleading dailies of Delhi. Following pressreports and the growing demand asking for retraction of the statement, the health minister issued a clarification saying that hewas misquoted.

CSE argued that rather than misleading the

citizens of Delhi about the gravity of the prob-lem by issuing such statements, it is in theinterest of the government to warn them of theill effects of pollution, and urge them to takeprecautionary methods.

November 1, 1998CSE presented the people’s charter on cleanair at a public meeting on November 1, 1998,to mark the second anniversary of the releaseof Slow Murder.

While delivering his lecture, Agarwal stated, “we have a serious problem here. It isnot only of air pollution, but also of inaction.”In view of the alarming deterioration in theurban air quality, he dismissed the variousaction plans drawn up by the state and thecentral governments, to curb air pollution asuseless pieces of paper, as they have failed toprioritise actions, that can make an immediateimpact on the air quality. The public meetingdrew a lot of media attention.

On November 2, CSE published an openletter to the prime minister in the form of apublic ad. The two ads brought CSE a pat onthe back even from the president of India, Shri,K.R. Narayanan. He wrote, “ The two publicnotices put out by the Centre for Science andEnvironment on the subject of air pollution arevery effective and I must compliment you onthe idea.”

Support also came from Deepak Shourie ofOutlook, a leading news weekly, immediatelyafter seeing the public advertisement in



CSE issued a public advertisement — in The Times of India, on November 22, 1998, to mark the secondanniversary of its Right to Clean Air campaign.

Roll down the window of your bullet-proof car, Mr Prime Minister Thesecurity threat is not the gun. It’s the air of Delhi

✔ PRODUCE CLEAN DIESEL, OR IMPORT ITDiesel emissions contain deadly particulate matter with traces of thestrongest carcinogen known till date.Indian diesel is 250 times dirtier thanthe world’s best.

✔ REMOVE BENZENE FROM PETROLIndia is moving towards unleadedpetrol. But this fuel contains too muchbenzene. Though we use one hundredtimes less petrol than USA, the totalamount of benzene emissions fromIndian vehicles is the same as in the US.

Benzene causes blood cancer and airshould have no benzene at all, saysWHO. Yet the level of benzene in andaround Connaught Place in Delhi is 10times higher than the European safetylimit. If you live in Delhi, your chancesof getting blood cancer are twice ashigh as people living in Bangalore,Chennai and Mumbai.

✔ STOP PRIVATE DIESEL CARSRegistration of all private diesel modelsshould be banned in cities like Delhi.Cheap government diesel means morediesel cars, including luxury models.

✔ TAX TO IMPROVE VEHICLE TECHNOLOGYPenalise vehicle manufacturers for producing polluting technology. Taxvehicles according to their emissionlevel. Manufacturers will then invest incleaner technology.

✔ INTRODUCE EMISSION WARRANTYMake the industry accountablefor the life-long emission efficiency of all vehicles they produce.

✔ MAKE EMISSION LEVELS PUBLICManufacturers must inform buyers ofthe exact emission levels of their vehicles.

✔ MONITOR ALL HARMFUL GASESImprove air quality assessment. A widerange of poisons are not monitored tilldate. Alert people about pollution levels in the city. It is done all over theworld.

P E O P L E S ’ C H A R T E R O N C L E A N A I RF O R I M M E D I AT E I M PA C T

Issued in public interest by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)

Hon’ble Prime Minister,

Here is something that just may convince you: while India’s GrossDomestic Product has increased two-and-half times in twodecades (1975-1995), the pollution load from industries hasgone up four times and from vehicles a shocking eight times.

A study by the Centre for Science and Environment shows thatthe number of people dying due to air pollution went up byalmost 30 per cent in four years between 1991 and 1995. An estimated 52,000 people are dying due to air pollution everyyear — about 10,000 of them in Delhi itself.

One person dies every hour due to air pollution in the cityruled by your party.

In Delhi vehicles are responsible for 70 per cent of the pollutionload. Because of the high toxicity of fumes from transport fuel,one out of every 10-15 people living in Delhi is likely to get cancer.

Your government has failed to arrest this deterioration of airquality in Indian cities. Worse still, it contributes to the pollutionin a big way by producing low quality fuel in state-ownedrefineries. Improving fuel quality is a short-term measure whichwill go a long way. Vehicles using clean fuel will pollute less.

Seeing your government’s inability to tackle air pollution, wepresent you with a peoples’ charter for clean air. This will helpto immediately improve the quality of the air we breathe.

Mr Prime Minister, 50 years into Independence, please give us ourright to clean air. We hope you will take our concern seriously.

Yours sincerely

Centre for Science and EnvironmentNovember 2, 1998 C

SE

Register your protest to the Prime Minister todayPMO, South Block, New Delhi 110 001Tel: 301 8939 Fax: 301 6857, 301 9817

Join CSE’s Right To Clean Air campaignCentre for Science and Environment41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110 062 Tel: 698 3394, 698 1124, 698 5879 Fax: 698 5879Email: [email protected] Website: www.cseindia.org

The Times of India. Shourie made a generousoffer of carrying the same advertisement inOutlook, free of cost. Shourie complimented,“very good advertising. We would like to supplement the effort by carrying the advertisement free of cost.... Congratulationson starting a much-needed movement !”

A two page, coloured advertisement wascarried in the Outlook issue of November 1998.It took the campaign to people outside Delhi.CSE received support from people of all walksof life, throughout the country, and abroad.

Clean air is our birth right By late 1998, another election was looming.But this time air pollution got ranked as animportant election issue, along with the onionprices and crime rate in Delhi, by the mediaduring the assembly elections for Delhi inNovember 1998. CSE asked candidates of the major political parties to pledge, that if elected, they would take necessary action to clean up Delhi’s polluted air. Theposition of the candidates was published inleading dailies like The Times of India and

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Lend us your ears, Mr Prime Minister

CSE publishes an open letter to the Prime Minister

“Roll down the window of your bullet-proof car, Mr Prime Minister. The security threat is notthe gun. It is the air of Delhi.” A day after the public meeting on November 1, 1999, CSE sentan open letter to prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, in the form of a public advertisement in the Delhi edition of The Times of India on November 2, 1998, to draw his attention to theimmediacy of the problem and people’s charter on clean air.

The letter stated, “seeing your government’s inability to tackle air pollution, we present youwith a people’s charter for clean air. Mr Prime Minister, 50 years into Independence, please giveus our right to clean air.”

It caught the imagination of Delhi’s citizens. CSE’s advertisement had asked people to call upor fax their concern to the prime minister’s office. The prime minister’s office babus predictablytried to shake the responsibility off their shoulders. Citizens also flooded CSE with calls to informabout the official response. By the end of the day, the officials replied by banging down thephone.

The response was reported from as far away as South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.

If you want our votesGIVE US CLEAN AIR

The citizens of Delhi have sought a pledge from the candidates for the Delhi Assemblyelection that they will take positive action to curb air pollution

IT ISN’T EVEN SAFE TO BREATHE IN THIS CITY !

• Air pollution takes one life every hour in Delhi. One out of ten kids wheeze with asthma.

• One out of every ten people in Delhi is likely to suffer from cancer

Promises come easy during elections. Yet even this was denied

Only 22 candidates out of the 85 we contacted have signed thepledge. Nine are from the BJP and 13 from the Congress

The Delhi chief minister was indifferent, among others

This is how much the politicians care for our health. We will closelywatch those who have signed the pledge. To ensure that they keeptheir promise if they are elected

Politicians who are indifferent should realise that we don’t vote forpollution and illness for our children. Clean air has votes, too

SOME OF THE CONCERNED CITIZENS WHO SUPPORTED THIS ADVERTISEMENT: A Dutta • Abhay Kaiker • Achila Imchen • Adit Dave • Ajay Ahuja • Ajay Mahajan • Ajay Talwar • Ajit Chak • Ajoy Bagchi • AK Saxena • AK Upadhyay • Akhilesh Kumar • Akila Seshasayee • Akshay Kumar • Aman Kasewa • Ambika S Pillai • Amit Nair • Amit Shanker • Amita Baig • Amita Baviskar • Anand Singh Rawat• Anandi Iyer • Anil Agarwal • Anita Anand • Anju Sharma • Ann Ninan • Anshika Varma • Anu Rana • Anudeep Bawa • Anumita Roy Chowdhury • Anupam Joshi • Anupam Verma • Anuradha Chatterjee • Aparna Sethi • Aradhya Roy • Arokia Raj • Arun Kumar Agarwal • Aruna Kumar • Arvinder Dhingra • Ashok Grover • Ashok Sharma • Atanu Chakraborty • Atul Moudgil • AV Nageshwara Rao •Ayushman • B Paul William • BG Verghese • Bharati Chaturvedi • Bhaswati • Bindu Susan • BN Sahni • Brig SC Sareen • Brigittee Klein • Business Workshop • BV Balasubramanian • Chandrabhusan • Choudhari • CK Marfatia • CK Varshney • Col Chandermohan • Col Manchanda • Col RS Verma • Concerned citizens of Mumbai • CP Bhatnagar • D Chakravorty • D Thapliyal • Davis • Deepali Manglik• Dinesh Goel • Dinesh Mehta • DM Nair • DN Puri • Ecotech Services • Staff of Danish Embassy • Franz Haller • G & T SHV Energy Distribution Co. Ltd • G & T Diesel Controls Pvt Ltd • G & T Yugo Tech Pvt Ltd • Gargi College Students • Gauri Angrish • Gautam Soni • GB Bajai • Geeta Dutt • Gita Kavarna • Gopal Agarwal • Gurinder Singh • Harbans Wasir • Hari Parmeshwar • Harsh Sethi • Hay Soree• I Khan • Ila Varma • Indira Khurana • IS Gupta • Itwarilal • Jagdeep Gupta • Jainamma • Jamal Kidwai • Jatin Das • Jaya Iyer • Jaya Rawat • Jitendra Verma • Justice HL Anand • Jyotsana Roy Chowdhury • Kalyani • Kalyani Mitra • Kamla Bhasin • Kanta Reddy • Kapil Raina • Karan Dhingra • Kavita Dutta • Kesar Singh • Kiran Krishna Real Estates Pvt Ltd • Kiran Kumari • Kiran Pandey • Kirpal Singh •KK Sud • Kompella Srinivas • Krishna • KT Dineshan • Kulan Amin • Lalit Arora • Lawrence Surendra • Lena Bose • Lovina Zeya • M Thirumeninathan • Maan Shree • Madhu Shankar • Madhumita Paul • Mainak Hazra • Maj Gen Bugga • Manish Tiwari • Manoj Mohan • Meenakshi Kaul • Meera Chatterjee • Mily Chakrabarty • ML Dewan • Mohan George • Mohit Agarwal • Monali Zeya • Monika Malhotra• Mr& Ms Akshay Kumar • Mridula Chettri • Mukesh Asija • Neena Menon • Neeraj Ahuja • Nikhat Jamal Qaiyum • NKochupillai • NL Kalra • Nyay Bhusan • Ombir • Onkar Goswami • Oroon Das • P Arbani • P Chopra • Panda’s Family • Parag Gupta • Patrick Krause • PD Francis • Pearl International Tours & Travels Pvt Ltd • PKS Mani • PN Tacker • PP Sanghal • Prabhu Ghate • Pragya Agarwal • PratibhaRamakrishnan • Prayag Mehta • Prema Anand • Prithvi Dutta • Prof Yashpal • Puja Chough • Punam Gupta • Puneet Saluja • Puneeta Roy • Pushpa Thapliyal • Rahul Bedi • Rahul Ram • Raja • Rajat Banerjee • Rajat Baran • Rajgopal • Rajiv Jain • Rajiv KR • Rajiv Sethi • Rakesh Sachdeva • Rama Nair • Ramesh • Ranjana Subramanian • Rashi Kumar • Rashmi Mohan • Rekha Rajkumar • Renu Chopra •Richard Mahapatra • Richard Montanari • Riti Jain Dhar • Ritika Poddar • RK Ratan • Rohit Chibber • Roop Brar • Rosemarie • RP Sharma • RS Rawat • RSG Infotech • Rukmani Sekhar • Rupa Das • Rupa Lal • Rustam Vania • S Jeevan • S Shankar • S Sudha • Safdar Agha • Sahasranaman • Sailendra Misra • Samaj Bharti Trust • Sameer Akbar • Sameer Srishti • Samyabrata Ray Goswami • Sandhya Batra• Sangeeta G Bawa • Sanjeen Sahni • Sanjeev Lowe • Sanjeev Sharma • Sanjeevan • Sanrachna • Sarvjeet Bedi • Sashikala Imchen • Sasi Mehta • Satish VC • Saurabh Prakash • Savita Bagai • Seema Varma • Sehel Khan • Shalini Chhabra • Sharda • Sharon Susan • Sharupa • Shashank Rohatangi • Sheeja • Shefali Verma • Shiuli Chowdhury • Shivasankaran • Shri Krishan • Shroff Eye Centre • ShyamKumar • Simon Franken • SK Akhtar • SK Kacker • SK Sinha • Smita Divan • Sohail Khan • Sona Marketing • Sonia Lokku • Sopan Joshi • Srabani Sen • Srinivasan • Subir Ghosh • Sudhakaran Nair • Sudhanshu Rawat • Sudipta Mukhopadhyay • Sujata Mitra • Sumedha Rajendran • Sumeet Saxena • Sumita Sachdeva • Sunil Kumar • Sunita Narian • Suparna Das • Supriya • Supriya Akerker • Surat Singh• Surender Singh • Suresh Sadana • Susan Chacko • Sushil Saigal • Systems Graphics • Team Computers Pvt Ltd • Tejasi Bhatnagar • Tejbir Singh • Tito Joseph • Tripta Singh • TT Kanwar • Uma Hiremath • Uma Khan • Usha Narain • Usha Soni • Vaid Balendu Prakash • Vandana Varma • Vanita Bagga • Veera Angrish • Venugopal • Vikas Khanna • Vikram Roy • Vinayak Rao • Vinod Chettri • Vinod Kumar• Vinod Sharma • Vishal Narang • Vivek • Vivek Verma • VP Sharma • VS Rao • Walter Jahn • Yoga Rangatia

Candidates who endorsed thepledge (keep an eye on them)

• SHEILA DIKSHIT, CONGRESS

• KIRTI AZAD, BJP

• RAJENDRA GUPTA, BJP

• KIRAN WALIA, CONGRESS

• PROF. RAGHUVANSH SINGHAL, BJP

• JAGDISH ANAND, CONGRESS

• RADHEYSHYAM KHANNA, CONGRESS

• ASHOK SINGH, CONGRESS

• MAHABAL MISHRA, CONGRESS

• MANGAT RAM SINGHAL, CONGRESS

• SHASHI PRABHA ARYA, BJP

• DR YOGANAND SHASTRI, CONGRESS

• JAGDISH BHARATI, BJP

• RAM RATTAN GUPTA, CONGRESS

• JYOTSNA AGGARWAL, BJP

• BHISHAMBER SHARMA, BJP

• ABDUL HAMID BABU KHAN VARSI, CONGRESS

• SALAUDDIN, CONGRESS

• DR V V MAHAJAN, BJP

• BHOLANATH VIG, BJP

• AZIZ AHMED SIDDIQUI, CONGRESS

• SARLA KAUSHIK, CONGRESS

Write to: ANIL AGARWAL, SUNITA NARAIN, ANUMITA ROYCHOWDHURY AND SHEFALI VERMARIGHT TO CLEAN AIR CAMPAIGN

Centre for Science and Environment41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110 062 Tel: 698 3394, 698 1124, 698 5879 Fax: 698 5879Email: [email protected] Website: www.cseindia.orgC

SE

CSE issued a public advertisement, paid for by a number of concerned citizens of Delhi — in The Times of India,on November 22, 1998, to draw attention of the voters – days before Delhi went for assembly election.

Navbharat Times, on the eve of the election. Itwas significant that the new chief minister ofDelhi, Sheila Dikshit, was among those whosigned the pledge to clean up Delhi’s air. Thethen chief minister, Sushma Swaraj, was, however, fearful of making a green promise.

The Delhi assembly elections presented arare opportunity to galvanise public opinion tomake politicians aware of the electorate’s concern for clean air in the capital.

CSE drew up a clean air pledge, whichoutlined the necessary actions that the politicians would commit themselves to, ifvoted back to power, to clean up Delhi’s air.

Though promises come easy during elec-tions, even these were denied to the citizens ofDelhi. Out of 84 candidates from the twomajor political parties — the Congress and theBharatiya Janata Party, approached by CSE, 22candidates responded by signing the pledge.Predictably, the reaction of the candidates varied from scepticism to indifference to evenover-eagerness to agree to anything duringelection time.

The pledge was published in The Times ofIndia and Navbharat Times on November 22,1998, as a public interest advertisement. Theadvertisement was entirely paid for by a number of concerned citizens of Delhi.

Media responded favourably with reportsregarding the citizens’ initiative. Whileacknowledging the emergence of air pollutionas an important electoral issue, NDTV, in itsprime-time news slot of November 23, 1998,flashed the pledge. Several leading dailies alsocarried the news. In one of the election bulletins conducted by NDTV, former ChiefMinister of Delhi, Sahib Singh Verma, admit-ted that citizens’ concern for air pollution wasa major election issue.

Technology studyBad vehicular technology had been identifiedin its book Slow Murder as among the majorreasons for poisonous air in urban areas.

When industries are asked to improve theirtechnology they shoot down most suggestionsas being economically unfeasible. Since boththe government and the industry work in anon-transparent environment, it becomes diffi-cult for environmentalists to call their bluff.

Providing clean technology to consumersdoes not make good business sense to indus-trial firms, as investment in cleaner technologyincreases the cost of production and the firmslose their marketshare. In such a situation, anemissions-based tax on vehicles can help toovercome this problem.

If only emissions standards are applied,manufacturers consider the standard as themaximum effort they have to make to meetenvironmental objectives. If they make anextra effort individually, their vehiclesbecomes more expensive and they begin tolose their marketshare. As a result many coun-tries have introduced tax benefits togetherwith emissions standards which encouragesmanufacturers to consider the standards astheir minimum effort. If they exceed the standards, they can avail of tax benefits.

Therefore, it is important to provide fiscalincentives to encourage industry to meettighter standards. But to be able to design anappropriate fiscal package it is very importantto estimate the cost that a firm would incur tomove to cleaner technology.

Therefore, in December 1998, CSE con-tacted Peter Ahlvik, a consultant from theEcotraffic, Sweden, to conduct a study forCSE, on the cost of improvement to advancedtechnology to cut emissions from differentcategories of vehicles. The team providedinformation support and also organised fieldtrips in India.

The study analysed emission controloptions for each category of vehicles (two andthree wheelers, both petrol and diesel cars,alternative fuels for cars, trucks and buses) and assessed the environment benefits. It alsoinvestigated the problem of particulate



Engines of the devil

A monograph was prepared in March 1999 to sensitise Delhiites about serious threats from toxic diesel fumes

“It is necessary to ban the registration of new diesel-based private vehicles immediately inorder to prevent their rapid growth in Delhi. Even if the government initiates measures to setnew standards for diesel cars or equalise diesel and petrol prices, these measures will take timeduring which manufacturers will have increased their investments and many diesel cars wouldhave already been purchased by consumers. It is best to reduce the use of diesel to the minimum extent possible because of increasing evidence of the acute cancer causing potentialof diesel-related pollutants and other health effects. A ban on the registration of diesel drivenprivate vehicles fits well with the precautionary principle.”

This is the conclusion of the monograph ‘Engine of the Devil’ prepared by the Centre. Theobjective of the document is to sensitise people about the serious threat posed by toxic diesel fumes to public healthand to pressurise the Delhi government to take immediate action to curb the deadly trend of dieselisation.

A CSE analysis of data on daily air pollution levels in Delhi provided by the Central Pollution Control Boardclearly shows that the diesel-related pollutant — suspended particulate matter–reaches alarming levels in the winter and it would be dangerous to allow further rise in diesel consumption.

emission from diesel vehicles. CSE now intends to push for a fiscal

incentive package to move towards improvedtechnology fast.

Say ‘no’ to diesel...CSE launched a campaign against dieselisa-tion of the private vehicles fleet, with themajor automobile companies rolling out morediesel private cars to give their customers acheap run for their money (as diesel prices aremuch cheaper than petrol). The EnvironmentPollution (prevention and control) Authority(EPA) had already taken note of the toxiceffects of diesel fumes, and recommended tothe Supreme Court that all buses running inDelhi be converted to CNG. The SupremeCourt had already accepted this recommenda-tion in July 1998 and had given an order to theDelhi government accordingly. With publicbuses getting out of diesel, it is a total negationof the spirit of the Supreme Court order toallow private cars to get into diesel.

The automobile industry was furious atthe proposed ban, as it hurt their businessinterests. On October 29, 1998, theAssociation of Indian Automobile Manu-facturers organised a press conference to givediesel a ‘green’ face.

At a press conference on December 9,1998, CSE flayed the automobile industry formisguiding the public about the proposed ban on new diesel cars in the national capitalterritory (NCT) of Delhi. The Centre also

provided scientific information on the toxicityof diesel fumes.

While addressing the press conference,CSE stressed that it’s intervention had becomenecessary to challenge the recent attempts bythe automobile industry to make profits, at thecost of citizens’ health.

CSE also flayed the government for itsflawed fuel pricing policy of keeping dieselprices cheap as it works as a major incentivefor automobile manufacturers to go in formore diesel models.

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Diesel pricing policy: Price to kill

The ever widening gap between prices of petrol and diesel will encourage the use od diesel, and result in killing thousands more due to air pollution, says CSE, in a press statement issued on June 6, 1998

The Union budget for 1998-99 was out with a mandate to kill. CSE expresses deep anger at the price hike in petrolwithout corresponding increase in prices of diesel as this would make dirty diesel even more attractive and aid indieselisation of the automobile fleet killing thousands more due to air pollution.

Scientific evidence on the carcinogenic effect of toxic particulate emissions from diesel, particularly the poorquality diesel produced in India, has bypassed the planning pundits completely. Diesel fumes are more dangerousthan what was previously thought. Recent reports from the USEPA show that diesel engines emit almost 10 to 100times more particulate matter than gasoline engines.

The myth attached to the government policy to keep diesel prices cheap, ostensibly to help agricultural poorand to avoid adulteration of diesel with subsidised kerosene, has long been exploded. The pricing policy on fuel isonly providing fiscal incentive to the private vehicle sector to go for more diesel models for upper class mobility. Allautomobile majors in India are clamouring to introduce more diesel cars. Maruti Udyog Limited, joint venture ofMitsubishi and Hindustan Motors, Premier Automobile Limited, Mercedes Benz, Ford Escorts are all producing diesellines. TELCO which is venturing for the first time into personal vehicle segment has already introduced 1400 ccdiesel Indica Mint. Several industries argue that use of diesel helps to control global warming.

This dieselisation of cities is poised to take off based on extremely dirty diesel produced in India. Indian dieselis one of the dirtiest in terms of sulphur content which contributes linearly to toxic particulate formation. Sulphurcontent in Delhi’s diesel is 0.5 per cent. CSE has already reported the trend in mortality and morbidity due to veryhigh level of suspended particulate matter in Indian cities.

The new budget seemed even more myopic as it failed to see how such concessions on products like paraxylenemeant to pamper big business in synthetic yarn industry is likely to impact upon vehicular emissions. The import dutyon paraxylene, a product from petrochemical plants and an important input for synthetic fibres and yarn, was dras-tically cut from 15 per cent to 5 per cent. This is potentially dangerous because substance such as this can be usedto adulterate automotive fuel. This can lead to more toxic aromatics in the air. CSE, therefore, demanded that thegovernment should immediately rationalise its pricing policy on fuel in the interest of public health.

II. RIGHT TO CLEAN RIVERS

In early 1997, the Centre published a book,Homicide by Pesticides: What pollution doesto our bodies on the pollution of Yamuna bypesticide runoffs from the agricultural fields ofHaryana. The book was released at a publicfunction by Atal Behari Vajpayee, the PrimeMinister of India. P N Bhagwati, former ChiefJustice of India and V Ramalingaswami, formerdirector of Indian Council of Medical Researchwere the chief guests and spoke on the need for preventive management practices andadvocated active involvement of the people.

CSE’s associate director was interviewedon this issue by the Australian BroadcastingCorporation and the Canadian BroadcastingCorporation. The book also became the basisof a public interest petition in the High Courton the pollution of the Yamuna.

While hearing the public interest petition onthe pollution of the Yamuna on May 28, 1997,the bench asked the Haryana government to filethe latest reports on the quality of Yamunawater. Earlier, the Delhi government had tried toshow that no pesticides were present in theYamuna waters, by selectively presenting theresults of water samples taken in January 1996.In the affidavit, it wrongly stated that, “theCPCB report on micropollutants in water andsediments of river Yamuna indicate that aldrin,dialdrine and endosulphan were observed to bebelow detection level.” However, the CPCBreport attached with the affidavit that “theresults of micropollutant analysis in water andsediment indicate that some of the pollutantslike dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane (DDT)and hexachloro cyclohexane (HCH) are presentin significant amounts.”

The Delhi government made other misleading statements in the affidavit. It statedthat the question of agricultural runoff did notarise during nine months of the year as therewas no rainfall and during the monsoons, theconcentration of pesticides was low. But theCPCB report and Homicide by Pesticideshowed that during monsoons the level of pesticides was significant.

CPCB, in an affidavit filed in the DelhiHigh Court on May 7, 1997, accepted thatDelhi’s water supply was polluted with pesti-cides. “CPCB has been monitoring the water



A half-burnt body floating in the holy Ganges.

Along the Ganga in 22 days

CSE researcher Rajat Banerji takes a close look at the state of the river Ganga and Damodar

Twenty-two days were all he had to coast along nine cities down the Ganga and the Damodar in the sweltering summer heat. The time frame: mid-May to early-June. The task: to observe the implementation of different aspects of theGanga Action Plan (GAP), and also to see the Damodar which had been included by the government in GAP phase II.

Hit and run. One had to do just that; hit a city, meet and speak to important officials involved in the plan, collectas much data as possible, ascertain for oneself the progress of the schemes, meet the local people involved unofficiallyin overseeing the implementation of the plan, and run on to the next, and in the bargain take a plunge in the Ganga,in more ways than one.

Despite all he had read about the state of the present day Ganga, CSE researcher Rajat Banerji was just not prepared for what he was exposed to as he drifted downstream in a boat. Grotesquely bloated corpses, massivesewage treatment plants discharging untreated sewage straight into the river, a family offering prayers at the Sangam,their three-year-old screaming protests at being forced to shave his head, hordes of people bathing by the ghats ofVaranasi, the 7 km long ghats themselves seeming to pulsate with a life of their own.

Armed with figures provided by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, which indicated that virtually hundredsof crore of rupees had been spent in “cleansing” the river, the enormity of the issue struck one forcefully. Clearly, thecleaning of a river that drained and served an area larger than two or three European countries put together was notan easy affair.

The “sorrow of Bengal” had become the “sorrow of both Bengal and Bihar”, as a study on the Damodar had noted.With steel plants, thermal power stations whose flyash turned the river waters greyish-black, moon-scaped countryside mined out and abandoned. The Damodar has been classified unfit for any use by the Central PollutionControl Board. But, this water is being used for drinking and other purposes downstream.

quality of this river at several locations alongits course.... The results indicate that somepesticides and heavy metals are present in theriverwater and on some occasions the valuesare exceeding the World Health Organizationguidelines for drinking water,” commented S PChakrabarti, member secretary, CPCB, in the75-page affidavit.

The affidavit was submitted after a tour by ateam comprising members of CPCB, DelhiWater Supply and Sewage DisposalUndertaking (DWSSDU) and Haryana PollutionControl Board officials along the Yamuna riverand the Western Yamuna Canal. Both are thesources of 70 per cent of Delhi’s water supply.

Preparing for the launchCSE’s river pollution team is busy document-ing the state of polluted rivers of India. Thebook will be released at the national confer-ence on river pollution.

Till March 1999, CSE Clean Rivers cam-paigner Rajat Banerji had travelled to theGanga, Yamuna, Damodar, Subarnarekha andthe Betwa, Bhavani-Noyyal and the Luni basin.Documentation of these travels has also beencompleted. Some of the information collectedhas already been published in the Citizen’s FifthReport on the State of India’s Environment.

The national conference on water pollutionwill also mark the launch of the Right to CleanRivers campaign. The participants of the confer-ence will be invited to become the key membersof a national network against river pollution.

CSE is planning to publish a quarterlynewsletter to keep the network members fullyinformed on the progress and activities of theRight to Clean Rivers campaign. CSE is alsoplanning River Parliaments in different riverbasins.

Miles to go...CSE has also been participating in several offi-cial fora on river conservation. CSE’s director,Anil Agarwal, is a member of the NationalRiver Conservation Authority and of its stand-ing committee. A committee on the GangaAction Plan has also been formed which con-sists of eminent people, NGO representatives,as well as representatives from renowned sci-entific institutions. Rajat Banerji became amember of the committee. Two meetings ofthe committee were held in Delhi. The com-mittee members visited various sites underGAP phase I in Hardwar, Kanpur and Varanasi.

NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

CSE has continued to work towards a betterunderstanding of sustainable and participatorynatural resource management strategies. Inorder to understand issues that lie at the inter-face of environment, poverty, economic devel-opment, culture and knowledge, democracy,equity and justice, and people’s participation,

CSE undertakes programmes on sustainableand participatory natural resource manage-ment, which look at issues like wildlife protection, forest management, biodiversityconservation and water management. In thelast two years, CSE has focussed attention onthe issue of water management, as its cam-paign to ‘Make Water Everybody’s Business.’has met with a tremendous response.

III.WATER HARVESTING: MAKE WATER EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS

Water harvesting systems can help to meetdomestic requirements of our towns and vil-lages. Since the early 1990s, CSE has beenstudying small and traditional systems ofwater harvesting in India. In early 1997, theCentre released the citizens’ fourth report onthe state of India’s Environment which wassub-titled — Dying Wisdom: rise, fall andpotential of India’s traditional water harvestingsystems. The book documents the extraordi-nary diversity of water harvesting systems thathave evolved in different parts of the country,and affirmed the relevance of these systemseven in modern day water management.

To generate awareness about the messagecontained in the report and to trigger off adebate in favour of community- based watermanagement systems, public meetings wereorganised all over India to coincide with itsrelease at different places. At each place, CSEinvolved an NGO concerned with relatedissues to help organise the meeting. TheCentre invited influential opinion-makers fromthe area to formally release the book, hopingthat such persons will become carriers of ideason the issue. Select individuals, activists andorganisations were also honoured for their significant contribution towards preservation

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Mrs Sonia Gandhi releasing “Dying Wisdom” on March 11, 1997 in Delhi

and strengthening of such traditional rainwaterharvesting systems at these meetings.

The book was released in Hyderabad,Delhi, Leh, Pune, Kochi, Ahmedabad andIndore in March 1997. The book was alsoreleased in Chennai, Mumbai and Patna inMay 1997.

Jhabua: In August, the book was released inJhabua, Madhya Pradesh, by the state’sPanchayat and Rural Development Minister,Harbans Singh. Madhya Pradesh chief minis-ter Digvijay Singh had chosen Jhabua as theplace to release the book because of the

impact of the ongoing Rajiv Gandhi Missionon Watershed Development on that district.Several ministers of the state, legislators andsenior district officials were present at thefunction. Hundreds of village people involvedwith watershed development attended therelease. The function was organised by the dis-trict administration. Harbans Singh offered toget the Madhya Pradesh government to givehelp for the translation of the book in Hindi.

Chennai: “Information is lower than knowl-edge in the hierarchy of ideas, and knowledgeis lower than wisdom. And yet, we in India are



Releasing of Dying Wisdom accross the country

No Place Date Partner Organisation Person releasing the book

1. Hyderabad March 10 Society for Promotion of Prabha Shankar Mishra, Chief Environment and Quality of Life, Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Hyderabad Court

2. Delhi March 11 Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of RGFNew Delhi

3. Leh March 12 Ladakh Ecological Development Thupstan Chhewang, Chairman and Group, Leh Chief Executive Councillor, Ladakh

Autonomous Hill DevelopmentCouncil

4. Pune March 22 Oikos: Centre for Natural Resources Anna Hazare, famous social activistManagement, Pune

5. Kochi March 25 Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad, K K Usha of Kerala High CourtKochi

6. Ahmedabad March 29 PRAVAH, Ahmedabad S K Shelat, Chief Secretary of Gujarat

7. Indore March 30 Nai Duniya, a leading Hindi daily B R Yadav, Madhya Pradeshof Madhya Pradesh Agriculture and Cooperative

Minister

8. Chennai May 6 M S Swaminathan Research V C Kulandiaswamy, Chairman of Foundation, Chennai High Level Committee for

Wastelands Development and Poverty Alleviation Programmes, Government of Tamil Nadu and former Vice Chancellor of IndiraGandhi National Open University

9. Mumbai May 6 Samarthan, Mumbai Prakash Javdekar, ExecutivePresident of Maharashtra StatePlanning Board

10. Patna May 17 East and West Educational Society, B P Singh of Bihar High CourtPatna

11. Jhabua August 12 Government of Madhya Pradesh Harbans Singh, Minister forPanchayat and Rural Development, Madhya Pradesh

losing something as important as wisdom inthis information age, says Dying Wisdom. It istime we conserved our wisdom,” assertedeminent agricultural scientist M SSwaminathan at the release of the book inChennai on May 6, 1997. Water conflictswould become inevitable if people are notcareful in conserving water, he cautioned. Thefunction was organised by the M SSwaminathan Research Foundation.

The book is an extraordinary documenta-tion of the country’s water harvesting systems,felt V C Kulandaiswamy, chairperson of thecommittee for wastelands development,watershed development and poverty allevia-tion programmes of Tamil Nadu. ”More couldhave been added on the water harvesting traditions of southern India,” he pointed out.“To revitalise traditional water harvesting systems, a strategy for providing propertyrights to local communities and a system of fiscal incentives to improve the quality andproductivity of the country’s water resources isneeded,” contended co-editor of DyingWisdom, Anil Agarwal.

“Apart from traditional technologies, thepotential of minor irrigation works should alsobe tapped,” added V S Agarwal, chairpersonof the Federation of Indian Chambers of

Commerce and Industry committee on agriculture and rural development, who waspresented with a copy of the book.

Mumbai: “If only 20 per cent of rainwater isharvested, it will solve the water scarcity problems in the country,” argued VasantGangavane, chief guest at a function organ-ised by an NGO, Samarthan, to release DyingWisdom, in Mumbai on May 6, 1997. The har-vested water can be used to generate electric-ity through microhydel generators, he said.

Prakash Javdekar, executive president,Maharashtra State Planning Board, promisedhe would urge the concerned state govern-ment department heads to buy the book.

Former state education minister and president of Samarthan, Sadanand Varde, congratulated CSE on the publication, andrequested that the book should be translatedinto Marathi.

Patna: “Today, the onslaught of human civili-sation on environment is skyrocketing, result-ing in an imbalance between nature andmankind. To restore this balance, we will haveto move away from large projects and imple-ment smaller ones at the grassroot level. Theroot cause of the drought and flood problems

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Appreciating wisdom

CSE publication Dying Wisdom has been widely appreciated. Excerpts of some of the letters received by the Centre:

We want to convey to you our appreciation for CSE’s new publication Dying Wisdom which I think can only be classified as a classic work. I think the work ranks in range, scope and importance with CSE’s First Citizen’s Reporton the State of India’s Environment. Our congratulations to you and the CSE team for bringing out such a fine work.

We have found the report extremely useful in our work, especially as Narmada Bachao Andolan is now trying tofocus more on the “alternative” approaches as the next significant phase of its struggle. We hope to use it extensivelyin this regard. I have heard that CSE is planning to bring out a Hindi version of the book. It will significantly enlargethe reach and impact of the work. Such a translation will be of great use to us as we can use it at the village-level.

SHRIPAD DHARMADHIKARY, Narmada Bachao Andolan, Vadodhara, Gujarat

This (Dying Wisdom) is another milestone for the entire nation who have for long ignored such critical themes likewater conservation. Your dedicated team deserves sincere applause for this great and noble task.

MAHENDRA P LAMA, associate professor,School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

We got the copy of Dying Wisdom in time for our consultation on “water harvesting for mountain households” inChengdu, China. It reinforced our own ideas that the new technologies as promoted by the Chinese should not overlook indigenous knowledge and age-old practices.

EGBERT PELINCK, director general, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal

I must compliment you on the publication of Dying Wisdom, which is indeed of a very high standard. I am sure weshall find it useful for our radio programmes.

O P KEJARIWAL, director-general, News Services Division, All India Radio, New Delhi

The book (Dying Wisdom) as aptly titled, is really a treasure of our traditional wisdom. I sincerely appreciate theeffort made by CSE in making such an extensive survey and congratulate it for its laudable achievement.

K VIJAYAKUMARAN, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Visakhapatnam

of Bihar is the neglect of traditional water har-vesting systems,” said Justice B P Singh ofPatna High Court, at the launch function ofDying Wisdom. The meeting in Patna on May17, 1997, was presided over by Harivansh,editor of the Hindi daily Prabhat Khabar.

Make water everybody’s businessIn order to spread the message of community-based water harvesting to other countries, CSEorganised a special workshop on decentralisedwater management, community control andrainwater harvesting during the StockholmWater Symposium on August 12, 1998.Environmentalists, social activists and tradi-tional water harvesters from China, Japan,Kenya and India shared their experiences ofrainwater harvesting through communityinvolvement.

The workshop was held as the second halfof a seminar on ‘Meeting hydroclimatic vari-ability in the tropics and sub-tropics: Strategiesfor drought effect migration’. It dealt with thepotential role of and technique for rainwaterharvesting as a way of smallscale protectiveirrigation during temporary dry-spells.

Several papers were presented at the workshop. CSE’s Anil Agarwal presented apaper on ‘Rainwater harvesting in a new age:Where modern groundwater and riverexploitation has reached its limits’. CSE deputydirector Sunita Narain spoke on ‘Regeneratingvillage natural resources in a semi-arid regionin India based on rainwater harvesting cou-pled with land-use management’. Socialactivist Anna Hazare made a presentation on“rainwater harvesting, watershed development

and people’s mobilisation”. Among others who presented papers at the

workshop were Zhu Quang of China, whospoke on ‘Rainwater harvesting as sustainabledevelopment of water resources in China’. InChina, 300 out of 600 cities lack adequatewater supply and 114 have serious watershortage. The conventional way to solve theproblem of water crisis was through river val-ley projects or inter-river basin diversions.These are increasingly running into trouble”Quang added.

Dunglena of Mizoram made a presentationon rooftop water catchment systems ofAizawl. “Today Aizawl meets most of its waterneeds from roof-top rainwater harvesting...and this entire effort was undertaken by the peoplethemselves with no government support,” saidDunglena. Makoto Murase of Japan spoke on‘Rainwater harvesting in the urban context’.“Rain is an incredibly important resource. It isessential to city planning and to mitigate watershortages, control flood and disasters,” saidMurase.

John Mbugua of Kenya presented a paperon Rainwater harvesting and poverty allevia-tion: the Laikipia experience. Mbugua said,“The Kenya rainwater association has been setup to coordinate individuals and institutionsinterested in utilising rainwater,” Mbuguaadded.

Participants agreed that rainfall was theonly potential source of water and communitycontrol of water management was the key to solving the global problem of availability of water. The workshop was rated as one of the best of the entire symposium. In 1997,



Anna has the last laugh

CSE galvanised into action and joined the campaign against Anna Hazare’s arrest

Anna Hazare’s arrest on September 9, 1998 was bad news for CSE. The man behind Ralegan Siddhi, the unique modelof self-sustained villages, had been put behind bars. His crime: defamation. Hazare had made an allegation of cor-ruption against a minister of Maharashtra, which he could not prove on technical grounds.

CSE responded by holding a meeting on September 11 at the India Habitat Centre. A statement signed by NGOs and individuals, insisted that the turn of events would have “serious implications” for civil society, people’smovements and the media. Among the first to express solidarity in Delhi were the Indian Social Institute, NationalAlliance of People’s Movements, Centre for Education and Communication, Srishti and individuals like KamalaChowdhry, Rajni Kothari and Anupam Mishra. Meanwhile, CSE also explored possibilities of moving a higher court.

The same day DTE reporter Manish Tiwari reached Pune and interviewed Hazare in jail. Tiwari also spoke to thepeople of Ralegan Siddhi, the village which Hazare hasturned into a model for people’s watershed management.Activists in Pune told another DTE reporter Max Martinover the telephone that they were very delighted to see people expressing concern over the incident in Delhi.Hazare also appreciated CSE’s move, but objected tolegal recourse. CSE received many support letters fromNGOs and individuals all over the country.

Protest demonstrations were held in Pune. Peoplegathered outside the Yerwada jail where Hazare waskept, and held hunger strikes. In response to widespreadprotests, Anna Hazare was released. On September 23,Hazare walked out of jail.

Anil Agarwal was also invited to become amember of the World Water Commissionwhich has been set up to develop a vision forwater management in the 21st century.

Catch water where it fallsHaving created this interest in water harvest-ing, CSE decided to bring together all thosepeople interested in water harvesting in Asia toform a water harvestor’s network. CSE, therefore organised the National Conferenceon Potential of Water Harvesting: Traditions,Policies, and Social Mobilisation fromOctober 3-5, 1998, in New Delhi. The purpose of the conference was not just toreview the traditional water harvesting systems, but to see the potential, and to builda network of people working in the field.

The three-day conference attracted expertsin the field of water management from India,as well as abroad. Around 250 eminent peopleworking in the area of water harvesting madepresentations at eight sessions.

“I have been asked by Anil Agarwal ifRashtrapati Bhavan would use rainwater harvesting techniques. I would welcome CSE to do so.., ” said the President of India, K R Narayanan, while inaugurating the

national conference. The President congratu-lated CSE for the imaginative and creativemanner in which the conference had beenorganised. Felicitating five outstanding ruralengineers and water managers, the Presidentsaid they were “the heroes of rainwater har-vesting in the country. Even the sophisticatedscientists have a lot to learn from their excel-lent work,” he remarked. CSE presented a filmon the life and work of theses rural engineers

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A memoir being presented to the President of India, K R Narayanan, while the Minister of State for Rural Areasand Employment, Babagouda Patil, looks on (extreme left).

The President of India hailed rural artisans as ‘heroes’ of the nation

The President of India, K R Narayanan, was pleased to present certificates of appreciation to five outstanding and creative artisans for their significant contribution in promotion and preservation of rainwater harvesting systems.These ‘rural engineers and managers’ ranged from Leh, Jaisalmer and Churu to Kasaragod and Madurai district.What made their physical presence larger than life was a video film on each of their works, preceding the pre-sentation of certificates. The President hailed them as ‘heroes’.

Chewang Norphel, a retired government officer, devised innovative methods of making artificial glaciers in Leh to recharge waterbodies. Magga Ram Suthar, a carpenter from Jaisalmer, digs bedis (also called kuis), which are narrow, deep wells in sand, lined with gypsum, to draw sweet water in the harsh environs of the Thar desert. Ran Singh, a farmer in Churu village, is famed for his great engineering skills in making reliable kundis, which aresmall dome-shaped, covered tanks.

Kunhikannan Nair, also a farmer of Kasaragod in Kerala, has carved out a surangam, a 300-metre-long and intricate tunnel in rock, which collects rainwater from the ghats and unlike other canals retains water through-

out the year. Ganesan, a neerkatti or watermanager from Madurai, is known for his acumen in dealing with the intricate sluicevalves of the irrigation canals. One mistake inthe calculation in water flows and timing ofthe valves could ruin a farmer’s crop. Yet, it never happens. If the Cauvery water dispute was left to Ganesan, it would beresolved, was a comment made in the videofilm, in lighter vein.

Later, the President remarked, “theseartisans are the best teachers of water literacy. Even sophisticated scientists have alot to learn from them.”

Describing CSE director Anil Agarwalas a “pioneer crusader”, the President saidthat he would be delighted to use water harvesting technology at Rashtrapati Bhavan,provided he succeeded in getting aroundbureaucratic hurdles.

Rural engineers receive recognition

The President of India lauded the efforts of rural water harvesters and presented them certificates in recognition fortheir work.

who today even face problems of daily survival the president was deeply moved.

Earlier, A Vaidyanathan, professor, MadrasInstitute of Development Study, who was thechairperson of the conference, said the confer-ence was not a result of a romantic nostalgia forthe past, but had its roots in the urgent need ofthe hour to manage dwindling water resources.

This was followed by a keynote address byAnil Agarwal. “In the last 150 years, the statehas emerged as the primary water supplier,and reliance on surfacewater and groundwaterhas increased, compared to the earlierreliance on rainwater,” he pointed out.

Union Minister of State for Rural Areas andEmployment, Babagouda Patil, who was thespecial guest at the function, said that every-body should make efforts to conserve it.

The conference is the second one to beorganised by CSE on water harvesting, the firstbeing held in 1990 on traditional water har-vesting systems whose outcome was the book:Dying Wisdom: The Rise, Fall and potential of

India’s Traditional Water Harvesting Systems. The conference aimed to address the

issues of (a) tapping the various traditions andtechnologies related to water harvesting; (b)working out of national policies to encouragethese systems; and, (c) social mobilisation bycreating awareness in relevant sectors andamong people.

The conference, in addition to the regularpaper presentation, had four working groups todeliberate on issues for action and policy advo-cacy. The conference called for a new watermanagement paradigm, whereby state andinternational development agencies could worktogether with civil society institutions to pro-mote a nationwide ‘water literacy’ programme.

At the conference, suggestions were madefor promoting research on scientific and tech-nological aspects and, the economic and socialdimensions of water harvesting. Finally, theconference called for building a national move-ment through water harvester’s network atregional and international level, for people to



Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay Singh, social activist Anna Hazare and CSE directorAnil Agarwal at the book release function of the Hindi version of The Citizens’ Fourth Report:Dying Wisdom: Rise, fall and potential of India’s traditional water harvesting systems, onOctober 5, 1998 at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi.

Anna says…

Hazare delivered a powerful speech at a fully-packed auditorium

A public lecture was organised as a special event by CSE, on the final day of the conference, where the well-knownsocial activist Anna Hazare, delivered a speech.

Anna said: “Had the development model adopted by our government not been so city-centred, the country wouldnot have been facing the problems it faces today. Due to development in cities, people migrated to urban centres,bringing with them the problem of over-crowding.”

Having said this, Anna Hazare made a strong case for changing the economic policy of the country. Criticising thepresent policy of liberalisation, he opined, “this is being realised in the form of multinational companies setting up factories on Indian soil. The kind of factories that are coming up are chemical factories, which are banned elsewhere.This is yet another example of the short-sightedness of our planners, who never look beyond immediate benefits whileframing policies. Neither does the government take into confidence the people in the decision-making process.”

Anna’s emphasis was on village as the centre for development, as advocated by Mahatma Gandhi; the development approach should be from top to bottom; and, the need to involve people at all levels.

work together in raising awareness, advocatepolicy changes and research programmes thatsupport community-based water harvesting.

At the concluding session, the governmentwas criticised for not having a clear-cut policyto conserve water and protect the local engineering systems developed by the communities over the years to conserve everydrop of rainwater.

Delivering the valedictory address, thechief minister of Madhya Pradesh, DigvijaySingh, cited the example of Jhabua district inMadhya Pradesh, where the people, with helpfrom administration, have been able to turnthe tide and make an almost barren areagreen. The chief minister admitted that theyhad made Anna Hazare’s Ralegan Siddhi village in Maharashtra a ‘model.‘ He alsoreleased the Hindi version of the CSE publica-tion – Dying Wisdom: Rise, fall and potentialof India’s traditional water harvesting systems— Boondon ki Sanskriti translated by ArvindMohan and coordinated by Sanjay Kumar.

Earlier, former Lok Sabha speaker, P ASangma, regretted that water was not an issueof interest to politicians. Former Member ofParliament Mani Shankar Aiyar suggested thatif 80 per cent of funds for watershed develop-ment were routed directly from the centre tothe panchayats, then by sheer availability offinances there would be consciousness aboutthe programme.

The participants were unanimous that it isimportant to protect and revive the full potentialof existing water harvesting structures in bothrural and urban areas. They suggested fiscalincentive and regulatory mechanism for promo-tion of water harvesting in the urban areas.

As a special feature of the conference CSEpublished three daily newspapers on three different days of the conference, which weredistributed to the participants early in the morning. The newspapers reported theproceedings of the conference in details.Special posters were distributed among theparticipants.

Poster exhibition In order to spread the message to schools, CSEproduced a 20-poster exhibition on India’s traditions in water harvesting. CSE organised aexhibition of these posters at the UnitedNations General Assembly Special Session(UNGASS) in New York, from June 23-27,1997. The theme of the exhibition was‘Technology for sustainable development’.NGOs from various parts of the world participated, and displayed exhibits on subjectslike renewable energy resources and improvedcrop varieties. The CSE exhibit highlighted traditional water harvesting systems in India.The colourful posters depicted the diverse andtraditional ways through which communitieshave been using and managing water in a sustainable manner by evolving water harvest-ing structures that are both scientific and location-specific.

Among dignitaries who attended the exhibition were UNGASS president RazaliIsmail of Malaysia and the then IndianMinister of Environment and Forests, SaifuddinSoz. Several other delegations and NGO

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Post-conference

Impact of the conference

■ The conference resulted in the formulation of a Statement of Shared Concern. The statement took note of the conclusions drawn by the participants from a wide cross- section of the society and the recommendationsforwarded by them towards making water harvesting a mass movement.

■ The conference helped in developing a network of people and organisations working in a sustained way on issuesof water management. This network would result in a better flow of information and exchange of ideas betweenthem.

■ Water Links: A comprehensive directory of waterharvesters from India and abroad was prepared. The directory includes names and addresses of individuals and institutions (including water management experts,NGOs and academics) actually involved in or associated with water harvesting work, the kind of work and thearea of their activity.

■ As a major outcome of the conference Rashtrapati Bhavan expressed an interest in constructing a rooftop water harvesting system. Water harvesting experts, Rajendra Singh, R N Athavale, R Jeyakumar and Anil Agarwalvisited the Rashtrapati Bhavan in November 1998 and advised the staff of the President’s Estate on this issue.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reviewingdisplays for the Sustainable Development inAction exhibition put up during the UnitedNations General Assembly Special Session,New York, June 23-27, 1997. The CSE exhibition was one of 12 selected for display.

representatives also attended the exhibition.On an average, 250-300 people visited theexhibition every day.

NGOs from Israel took particular interestin the book Dying Wisdom on which theCentre’s exhibition was based.

The CSE publication Dying Wisdom, alongwith a set of 20 posters on traditional waterharvesting systems, was also displayed by theSwedish Environment Institute (SEI) at theStockholm Water Symposium and GlobalWater Partnership meeting in August 1997. SEIalso put up information on the book, theposters and CSE on its website.

Charity begins at homeFollowing the president’s invitation to under-take water harvesting in his estate, a team fromCSE, on November 27, 1998 visited thePresident’s estate to identify the potential forwater harvesting. The team met several officialsinvolved with the management of the estate ledby Gopal Gandhi, secretary to the President.

The CSE team included the Centre’s director Anil Agarwal, CSE campaigner V SSaravanan, R N Athavale, scientist at theNational Geophysical Research Institute inHyderabad, Rajendra Singh of Tarun BharatSangh, Alwar, R Jeyakumar of Rajparis civilconstruction limited, Chennai, who has beeninvolved with rooftop water harvesting, andUjjwal Pradhan, a water resources expert fromNepal and currently working with the FordFoundation in New Delhi.

The discussion focussed on identifying thepotential of water harvesting and the availabil-ity of information needed to develop specificproposals. After the discussion, the team visit-ed select spots in the estate to gain first-handinformation of the area and also about thepeople living there.

If the President’s estate were to arrest all its‘rainwater endowment’ it would also help toreduce the annual floods in the Yamuna, said

the team. The rainwater can also be used torecharge the groundwater below the presi-dent’s estate, which the CSE team was told, isdepleting.

The team found considerable use ofuntreated raw water on the president’s estatefor gardening purposes, which was full of con-taminants and heavy load of nitrogen. Use ofthe untreated water would slowly contaminatethe groundwater making it unfit for drinking.

CSE team members also noted, after hold-ing discussions with the residents in the estate,that they were using different sources of water.For instance, drinking water is supplied by theNew Delhi Municipal Corporation, Yamunawater is used for gardening, and groundwaterfrom borewells and handpumps is used tomeet contingencies, including drinking water.It raised a concern whether a new source ofwater like rainwater would be easily acceptedby the residents.

A report of the initial survey was submittedto the President, which he read “with greatinterest and happiness”. “This is a good begin-ning,” remarked the President.

Catching water for the President A two-day workshop was conducted at theCSE office on March 4-5, 1999. The workshopaimed at utilising all the rainwater that falls inthe estate. Participants deliberated on the latest information available and drafted aworking plan for water harvesting atRashtrapati Bhavan and the remaining area ofthe President’s estate. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate to the country howimportant water harvesting is.

Gopal Singh, a villager working withRajendra Singh also joined the team. Gopalhas been assisting Tarun Bharat Sangh inselecting sites for the numerous johads, (tradi-tional water harvesting structures), that havebeen constructed in Alwar. A simple villagerwithout an impressive degree, Singh dependson traditional knowledge to select his site.

The working plan for harvesting water inthe estate included the construction of ajohad, to impress upon the visitors ofRashtrapati Bhavan, the need and the effec-tiveness of these structures. While the commit-tee members went around the estate to selecta suitable site for the johad, Singh identifiedone site and predicted the slope to be 2.5 feet.He had no instruments to back his claim. Hisevaluation was based on experience. A seniorengineer present at the site disagreed. Gopalstuck to his guns. The impasse was resolved bybringing the dumpy level and checking out theslope. Gopal was found to be the wiser.

To raise awareness on the importance ofthe project, CSE would publish two pam-phlets, one describing the technical measuresundertaken, and the other illustrating theimpact of the intervention. These pamphletswill be distributed to the public who visitRashtrapati Bhavan and the Mughal Garden.



Water harvesters’ directoryThe Centre is also working on a directory ofpeople and organisations involved in water-related issues with emphasis on local waterharvesting issues. This directory includes government organisations, international agen-cies, NGOs, individuals and communitygroups who are interested in the issue. It willbe published by April 1999.

IV. POVERTY AND ENVIRONMENT

Though CSE does not have a structured team todeal with the issue of poverty and environ-ment, but CSE has had a long standing interestin the way the poor relate to their environment.CSE’s studies and reportage have focussed onhow the poor can be mobilised to manage theirenvironment and natural resource base andhave helped to focus the country’s attention onthe potential that a participatory naturalresource management paradigm offers. CSE’sdirector and deputy director have tried to workon this issue, amongst other things. In 1989,CSE had published Towards Green Villages, astudy which presented a macro-strategy fornatural resource management built on themicro-successes in this field for the then PrimeMinister, Rajiv Gandhi, who was advocatingchanges in the Indian Constitution to promotevillage level governance.

In 1997, the chief minister of MadhyaPradesh, Digvijay Singh had invited CSE’sdirector and deputy director to release DyingWisdom: Rise, fall and potential of India’s traditional water harvesting systems in Jhabuadistrict. CSE was deeply impressed by the turn-around in the land-water-forest situation in thedistrict through a pioneering, people-orientedwatershed management programme. In 1998,CSE’s directors wrote several articles on theoutstanding work undertaken by the MadhyaPradesh government as the urban-orientedmedia had totally forgotten to cover this exemplary development.

Simultaneously, for a study commissionedby the United Nations, CSE worked withexperts from the Institute of Economic Growth,Delhi, to survey the ecological, economic anddemographic changes that have taken place inIndia’s two pioneering villages, Ralegan Siddhiand Sukhomajri, where rural communities haveundertaken natural resource management.

After the surprising electoral victory of theincumbent Digvijay Singh in November 1998state elections, which CSE’s research showedhad been influenced to some extent by the rul-ing party’s work in participatory watershedand education programmes, CSE approachedthe president of the Congress party, SoniaGandhi, who had released Dying Wisdom inNew Delhi in 1997, to encourage the chiefminister of Rajasthan, where her party hadalso won in November 1998 elections, toundertake a similar programme in southern

Rajasthan, which is ecologically similar toMadhya Pradesh. Thereafter, Agarwaladdressed a meeting of senior politicians andofficials of Rajasthan on the same subject. Thechief minister, Ashok Gehlot, promised to takea personal interest on this matter.

CSE has since prepared a paper whichshows that dramatic economic transformationcan be achieved at the grassroots level by poorpeople themselves, if efforts are made toaddress their ‘ecological poverty’. CSE’s studydevelops this argument using four case studies– Sukhomajri and Ralegan Siddhi villages, thework of Tarun Bharat Sangh (an NGO) inAlwar, and one government case study: theRajiv Gandhi Watershed DevelopmentMission of the Madhya Padesh government.All the case studies show that the starting pointof addressing ‘ecological poverty’ is goodcommunity based water management.

Agarwal was invited to Brussels to presentthis paper at a joint European Union (EU)-United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) meeting and was subsequently invit-ed to present these findings at a luncheonmeeting of environment ministers attendingthe Commission on Sustainable Developmentin New York in April 1999. The Chinese min-ister took keen interest in CSE’s presentationand requested UNDP to take up similar exper-iments in his country. The meeting was held toseek the views of the ministers present on aproposed EU-UNDP ministerial-level meetingon poverty and environment in September1998 to focus on a forgotten aspect of the Rio PR

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Agenda,poverty, which also covers an important part of the Copenhagen agenda.

Agarwal has had a long relationship withUNDP on the subject of poverty and environ-ment. In April 1997, he was invited by UNDPto give a talk on this subject at a side eventorganised during the Commission onSustainable Development meeting. Soon after,in June 1997, he was invited again to address

UNDP’s Executive Board on the importance ofthe same subject.

CSE intends to develop a structured programme in this field now. At a lecturedelivered in Oslo at a meeting organised by NORAD in December 1998, Agarwal iden-tified two key environment issues of concernto the South which the global civil societywould have to confront in the 21st century –



Following a last minute change of plans, MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, deputed thestate’s Panchayat and Rural Development Minister,Harbans Singh, to release the CSE publication, DyingWisdom: Rise, fall and potential of India’s traditionalwater harvesting systems, in Jhabua. The chief ministerchose Jhabua himself as he felt that it was most appro-priate to release the book there because of the impactof the ongoing Rajiv Gandhi Mission on WatershedDevelopment.

The report was released on July 31, 1997, in the presence of over 500 villagers involved with watershed development in the district. Harbans Singh presented a copy of the report to a tribal womanfrom the district and insisted that CSE produce a Hindi edition of the book so that the Madhya Pradeshgovernment could purchase them and distribute among all village leaders of the watershed developmentprogramme in the state.

The Madhya Pradesh government organised the meeting and invited several activists working onwater harvesting issues in the state and journalists fromleading newspapers, including Prabhash Joshi, the editorial consultant of Jansatta, who knows the regionextremely well. Some ministers of the state, several legislators and senior district officials were present atthe function.

CSE director Anil Agarwal and deputy directorSunita Narain attended the release function of Dying Wisdom in Jhabua on behalf of the organisation,along with officials from the United NationsDevelopment Programme and the Swedish InternationalDevelopment Agency, who wanted to see the watersheddevelopment work in Jhabua.

“For me personally, it was a moving occasion. In1986, when the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi asked CSE to make a presentation to the Union Council

of Ministers on the state of India’s environment, Ishowed pictures of a moon-like landscape of Jhabua.Later, I showed these pictures to the members of Parliament. I told them this is what the rest of India would be like if its leaders did not wake up intime. To me, Jhabua was about the worst that a placecould reach,” said Agarwal.

“Today, 12 years after I had visited Jhabua in 1985,it was truly great to see thousands of villagers and district officials involved in the regeneration of the land. R Gopalakrishnan, the state coordinator of the Rajiv Gandhi Mission, who reports directly to the chief minister, said that nearly a fifth of the district’s land is being treated under water developmentprogrammes, and nearly 2.8 million hectares are being treated in the entire state — about 1 per cent ofthe total land area of the country,” added Agarwal.

The district forest officer claimed that when jointforest management (JFM) — management of forestsundertaken jointly with the people — was initiatedtogether with watershed development works, thegrowth of plants and grasses — local biomass produc-tivity — was far more rapid than when only JFM was taken up. Water and forest conservation, when they go together, bring greatly enhanced economic and ecological returns, and because the work was being handled by the people, the total cost was also extremely low — less than Rs 3,000 per hectare. In just three years, villagers were getting enormousquantities of grass, for which they earlier had to pay in lakhs. Then the grass used to be brought from neighbouring Gujarat. But Jhabua villagers now oftenhave so much grass that it not just meets the needs ofthe village animals, but there is also some left over tosell in the local market.

Over the years, Jhabua could well become a modelprogramme that shows how drought-prone tribal areascan literally pull themselves out of their poverty, and alldone sustainably and cheaply.

Now: There is life coming back.

A decade later

Before: It was a moonscape with no sign of life around.

the ‘ecological poverty’of the poor living inthe world’s degraded lands and the growingair and water pollution that the South will facewith its economic growth. Both issues can getneglected unless the global civil society takesthem up in a concerted way.

V. COMMUNITY WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

CSE has been focusing on the need to recon-cile the priorities of biodiversity conservationwith meeting the livelihood requirements andhabitat rights of local communities. CSE iscampaigning for appropriate changes in thewildlife policy that will propagate a centralrole of people in the management of parks andmaking them the biggest beneficiaries of theseparks.

CSE researchers travelled to RajajiNational Park (Uttar Pradesh), Gir NationalPark (Gujarat), and Balaram-Ambaji Sanctuary(Gujarat) and Pench National Park (MadhyaPradesh). The visits revealed that while on theone hand, species like the elephants, lions andtigers are facing imminent danger of poachingand reducing habitats, people living in andaround are also fast losing support for conser-vation. Reports on these field visits have beenprepared and they were incorporated into thestatus report on nature park management, anedited version of which was published in theCitizen’s Fifth Report on the State of India’sEnvironment.

VI. PEOPLE’S FOREST MANAGEMENT

Currently, about one-fourth of the entire landof India is with the forest department. To reachthe target of bringing one-third of the country’slands under forest cover, at least 10 percent ofthe private lands needs to be afforested. CSEadvocates a dual strategy of rejuvenatingdegraded land through community forest man-agement and raising tree cover on privatedegraded lands. The long term goal of thecampaign is to bring about policy change inthe management of India’s forests and to bringin community control over state forestresources.

No, Prime MinisterIn October 1997, Prime Minister I K Gujralassured representatives of the paper and pulp industry that the National Forest Policywould be revised to make it industry-friendly. Fearing that the proposal for captiveplantation had reared its ugly head again. C H Hanumantha Rao, former Chief Justice P N Bhagwati, and some NGOs sent a jointletter to the prime minister cautioning himagainst such a move.

CSE campaigner Supriya Akerkar, metenvironment minister Saifuddin Soz andexplained why CSE was opposed to the pro-posal. Assuring the Centre that he was not infavour of such a proposal, Soz briefed theprime minister about his ministry’s oppositionto the proposal.

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‘World Bank ignoring issues’

CSE campaigner pushed the government and the World Bank to reconsider the EcodevelopmentProject consultation meeting in New Delhi

CSE campaigner Neena Singh told an NGO-World Bank consultation held in New Delhi, and made a statement on itsexperience of trying to discuss the ecodevelopment projectwith the bank.

The statement clearly brought out the fact that the WorldBank, though professing greater openness and sensitivity toNGO opinions, rarely pays any heed to issues being raised. Thestatement elaborated on the number of times CSE madeattempts to get the bank to respond to concerns about ecode-velopment. The bank responded with platitudes but littleaction. The statement said, “at its level, CSE would continue tomobilise opinion against such projects and keep a hawk’s eyeon the progress of the project”.

The statement was received with interest by other NGOs present at the meeting. If the bankhad looked at the NGO-World Bank meeting as an exercise in public relations and image building, written proof of negative NGO opinions would have made it unhappy.

The ecodevelopment project closely monitored by CSE through NGOs in the project site areas,and through visits to the areas by CSE campaigners, showed that the project was facing seriousproblems. This was because the Global Environmental Facility and the World Bank, co-sponsorsof the project, did not bother to understand environmental and policy realities.

Wildlife populations would be better served if Indian officials applied their minds to thegrowing people-park conflicts before rushing to international donors for money to solve theseproblems.

CSE campaigner also met the thenCongress president Sitaram Kesri, BharatiyaJanata Party general secretary Govindacharya,and the then union minister for agriculture,Chaturanan Mishra, to brief them on the issue.

After the Prime Minister’s announcement,two working groups were set up in MoEF tolook into the captive plantation proposalcovertly. The first under the chairpersonship ofA K Mukherjee, retired inspector-general (for-est), was to “review afforestation policies andrehabilitation of wastelands”. The other underthe chairpersonship of S K Pandey, deputyinspector-general (forest) was to review forestpolicy.

The recommendations by the Mukherjeecommittee included a paragraph which calledfor the controversial strategy of “promotingreforestation through State Forest DevelopmentCorporation (SFDC) or some combination ofSFDC and industry and farmer-industry-SFDCcooperation on degraded lands”, whichincluded private and forest lands.

It also suggested that “forest developmentcorporations should take the lead to identifylocal entrepreneurs and act as facilitators fordeveloping afforestation projects.” CSEopposed these measures as they gave prece-dence to the needs of the industry over theneeds of local people and tribal communitiesliving in and around these areas.

A CSE statement on the pro-industry bias of

the A K Mukherjee committee was given widecoverage by the media. The statement saidimplementation of the recommendations wouldviolate the National Forest Policy. CSE sent aletter to Suresh Prabhu, the new environmentand forest minister, signed by several peopleappealing to him to reject the proposal. Therecommendations of the report were brought tothe notice of other NGOs working on the issue.

VII. PEOPLE’S RIGHT TO BIODIVERSITY

The Indian government ratified theConvention on Biological Diversity (CBD) inFebruary 1994. The then minister for environ-ment and forests, Kamal Nath, promised tointroduce a legislation to ensure that the ben-efits of conserving biodiversity would perco-late down to the local communities. But as ofdate, the legislation on biodiversity has notbecome a reality. The ratification of CBD canonly be meaningful if it is followed up withnational legislation. The Centre has beencampaigning for a speedy legislation on thisissue. It is also reviewing the status globally,in a bid to gauge its impact on India’s biore-sources and traditional knowledge systems.

CSE organised a workshop on GlobalEnvironmental Facility (GEF) in April 1997,during the GEF Assembly session. The



“We have several reasons to oppose captive plantationson state forest lands but we list only a few key ones. Ifindustry is permitted captive plantations, small and mar-ginal farmers will stop growing trees on their lands: Withtheir raw material requirements being met from captiveplantations, industry will not buy pulpwood grown byfarmers or would force prices down to levels that wouldnot be remunerative to farmers. This would destroy anywood market from emerging in the country as no farmerwould find farm forestry an attractive economic propo-sition. ■ Captive plantations will adversely affect the ongoingprogrammes of joint forest management involving manypoor, rural communities: Over the years, the governmenthas involved rural communities in regenerating degradedforests through joint forest management. Many tribalcommunities are now seeing the fruits of their effortsspread over 2.5-3 million hectares. If industry is given thesoft option of having its own captive plantations on gov-ernment lands, the market for this wood will also crash. ■ Captive plantations will not create enough ruralemployment: Captive plantations owned by industry willuse relatively sophisticated technology and create muchless labour than farm forestry.■ Industry’s innovativeness will suffer: Studies con-ducted by the Centre for Science and Environment show

that the paper and pulp industry over the last five toseven years has been steadily learning how to deal withfarmers.■ Captive plantations will have adverse social and eco-logical impact: Apart from mollycoddling industry andreducing incentives to innovate, captive plantations willalso be very bad from a social and ecological viewpoint.The land that will be given for captive plantations is usedas common land by millions of poor people to meet theirbasic needs of fuel, fodder and small timber. Not onlywould these people be further impoverished, they wouldbe forced to increase their pressure on, and degrade,other nearby forests.■ The genetic diversity of India’s forests will sufferbecause of captive plantations.

Following the guidelines laid down in the NationalForest Policy, we suggest a two-fold proactive strategy toachieve this:

Rejuvenating our state-owned forests throughafforestation or regeneration with the help of communityparticipation with the wood coming out of these effortsbeing sold to industry.

Raising tree cover on degraded private and revenuelands through farm forestry by encouraging the poorfarmers to grow trees on their degraded lands and sellingit to industry.”

Letter of protest

Excerpts of the letter sent to the Prime Minister by CSE and various leading experts reiterating their stand against theproposal for captive plantations:

objective of the workshop was to gauge theimpact that GEF approved projects on biodiversity have had till now.

Objections raisedIn January 1998, MoEF came out with a thirdcircular formulating rules and norms on howbiological materials (plants, animals andmicroorganisms) and the knowledge pertain-ing to their various uses would be sharedamong Indian and foreign universities andtechnical institutions.

CSE argued that the circular would effec-tively make scientists the owners by givingthem the rights to negotiate. CSE issued a pressrelease pointing out weaknesses in the circu-lar. The Centre’s stand was widely covered bythe media.

Special meetingCSE took part in a meeting organised by MoEFto discuss the Indian government’s stand vis-a-vis Article 8 (which recognises the role playedby traditional communities in conservationand sustainable use of biodiversity) at thefourth conference of parties (CoP-4) in

Bratislava. CSE took part in the discussion anddefined its stand.

CSE reactsThe MoEF circulated yet another draft outlineof the proposed Biodiversity Act in June 1998.CSE reacted to it in an article in Down ToEarth, which pointed out that the draft wasessentially a repetition of the report that wasprepared by the expert committee set up bythe erstwhile ministry in October 1997, andcontained all the shortfalls of the first draft. Itdoes not offer a single provision to define therole of the local and indigenous communitiesin the process of conservation and manage-ment of biological resources and knowledgesystems. It makes no attempt to include themin the decision-making process, too.

All powers have been conferred upon theNational Biodiversity Authority, a body whichwould be monitored and controlled by theCentral government, with half of its membershailing from various government departments.In other words, its sole purpose seemed to beto strengthen the Centre’s stranglehold overbioresources.

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GEF workshop

CSE organised a workshop on ‘Global Environmental Facility and Biotechnology‘ in New Delhi

The Centre organised a workshop on Global Environment Facility and Biotechnology in New Delhi. CSE made a presentation which pointed out that GEF money allocated for biodiversity conservation was being largely allocated toprepare lists of medicinal and food plants. Such ‘inventories’ make the information easily available to transnationalpharmaceutical and seed companies, who use it for their own commercial benefit. The CSE presentation questionedthe interests of such investments on part of GEF, since the transnational companies are the ultimate benefactors.Whereas GEF was providing little support to developing countries to come up with biodiversity acess and benefit-shar-ing legislation.

The workshop was attended by eminent persons such as M S Swaminathan, director of M S Swaminathan Foundation,P Pushpangadan, director of the Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute, Mano Ramos from GEF secretariat,Desmund Mohan from Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) secretariat, representatives from the ministry of environment and forests, department of science and technology, and department of biotechnology among others.

CSE director Anil Agarwal and campaigner Sumita Dasgupta at the GEF workshop, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE

Attempts to manage global environmentalproblems are being made within a variety ofintergovernmental fora, ranging from theConferences of Parties (CoP) dealing withtreaties relating to climate change, biodiversi-ty, ozone layer depletion, trade in toxic wastesand endangered species and trade and intel-lectual property rights, to name a few, to thegoverning councils of institutions like theUnited Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), Commission on SustainableDevelopment (CSD), World Bank, UnitedNations Development Programme (UNDP),Global Environment Facility (GEF), etc. Veryfew NGOs, diplomats and government offi-cials have an overview of the negotiations thatare ongoing, the perspectives of differentcountries, the decisions reached, and theissues that have been pushed aside. Few peo-ple know how governments are reducing thesenegotiations to business transactions instead of developing governance systems built onprinciples of justice, equality and democracy.The lack of continuous public and mediaattention means that governments get awaywith as little as they can do.

VIII. ANNUAL REPORT ON GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT NEGOTIATIONS

CSE has decided to prepare an annual reporton global environmental negotiations toreduce the distance between the civil societyactors in the South and the negotiating capitalsof the world, and to provide relevant informa-tion for the protection of the world.

The report will analyse important environment-related conventions in the lightof their origin, decisions taken so far and thepolitical influences that have resulted inthose decisions. It will particularly examinethe politics between rich and poor nations inthese conventions, and how the stand of onecountry influences the other. It will be a useful source of information for governmentsand NGOs around the world. No such document exists, particularly from a Southernperspective.

The report, which is being compiled, willalso review the changes taking place in inter-national institutions such as the UnitedNations and the World Bank in their effort tomove towards sustainable development.

Though the analysis will be written by in-house and commissioned writers, the Centrewill also involve individuals and groups fromaround the world in contributing additionalinformation and reviewing the chapters. CSEhas started building an information networkamong NGOs around the world, and buildinga list of three kinds of contacts for the reports— partner institutions, partner individuals andresource persons. The resource persons will bethe experts on particular treaties or institutionsto be covered, while the partner individualsand institutions will help the CSE team toaccess all relevant information useful for thereport.

CSE is also sending out an electronicnewsletter on Global EnvironmentalGovernance (GEG) to collaborating individu-als and institutions to keep them informed ofthe progress on the Global EnvironmentalGovernance Report. Initial letters describingthe purpose of the report were sent to every-one on the GEG newsletter mailing list.Expressing their willingness to collaborate,many of them responded with names of otherpeople working in different fields of globalenvironmental governance.

To help partially fund the publication ofthe report, the GEG team sent out advanceorder forms to select institutions and individu-als. Those institutions and individuals arebeing requested to purchase the report at aspecial price of fs US $100.

Interventions and reports on global negotiationsIn order to collect information on the ongoingnegotiations, CSE staff members attend variousconferences of parties and also try to influencethe deliberations.



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Africa Resources Trust (ART), Zimbabwe Besides being a collaborator for the Global EnvironmentalGovernance Report, ART invited CSE to attend the 10th Conference ofParties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Speciesat Harare, Zimbabwe. ART also collaborated on the workshop on pro-tected area management.

Association for North South Campaigns (INZET), Amsterdam,Netherlands Collaborating with CSE on its the Annual Report on its GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Both Ends, Amsterdam, Netherlands Collaborating with the Centre For Science And Environment for theAnnual Report on Global Environmental Governance.

Centre for Environment, Technology. and Development (CETDEM),Petaling, Malaysia Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Climate Action Network (CAN), CSE is an active member of CAN and participated in CAN strategymeetings in Bonn during the eighth meeting of the subsidiary bodies tothe United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC).

Climate Network Africa (CNA), NairobiCNA invited CSE to participate in a Regional Workshop for Eastern andSouthern Africa on Clean Development Mechanism of the KyotoProtocol to the UNFCCC to be held in Nairobi.

CODEFF - Friends of the Earth, Santiago, ChileCollaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Economie et Humanisme, FranceCollaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

ENDA- Tiers Monde, Dakar, SenegalCollaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

European Environmental Bureau, Brussels, Belgium Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Focus on the Global South, Bangkok, Thailand Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Forum on Environment and Development, Germany Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Friends of the Earth- International (FOE-I), Amsterdam FOE-I and CSE have an agreement to consult each other on globalenvironmental issues.

Friends of the Earth- Canada, Ontario, Canada Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on Global EnvironmentalGovernance.They also have a joint project to monitor the MontrealProtocol to phase out ozone depleting substances. FOE-C has also facil-itated CSE’s participation in the Conference of Parties meetings.

Global Biodiversity Forum, SwitzerlandProvides information on global biodiversity information. Invited CSE togive a presentation on the role of water in biodiversity management inarid regions

Global Environment Facility-NGO Network, Washington, DC CSE is a member of this international NGO network.

Heinrich Boell Foundation (HBF), Berlin, Germany HBF collaborates with CSE to promote awareness about environmental

issues worldwide.

International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development(ICTSD), Chemin Des Anmones Geneva, Switzerland Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on Global EnvironmentalGovernance. CSE is a member of its programme advisory board.

Indonesian Forum for Environment - WALHI, Jakarta, Indonesia Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

International Institute for Environment and Development,London,UKCollaborating with the Centre For Science And Environment for theAnnual Report on Global Environmental Governance. IIED also col-laborates with CSE on joint analytical projects.

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Karachi,PakistanCollaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Kiko Network, Kyoto, Japan A Japanese network of NGOs that has collaborated with CSE in itscampaign on climate issues. The Network facilitated participation ofCSE at the Third Conference of Parties (CoP-3) to the UNFCCC and hasextended similar support for COP-4.

Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke (MS), DenmarkCollaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Metropolitan Planning, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana,Azcapotzalco, Mexico CityProvides information on smog alert and pollution emergency system inMexico City.

Norwegian Forum for Environment. and Development , Norway Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Oroverde Foundation, Frankfurt, Germany Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

People’s Forum 2001, Tokyo, Japan Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Project for Ecological Recovery, Bangkok,Thailand Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Socio-Ecological Union, Russia Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Islamabad, Pakistan Collaborating with CSE for the Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

Swedish Society for Conservation of Nature (SSCN), Stockholm, Swedon Collaborates with CSE to generate reports on environmental eventsworldwide and for the Annual Report on Global EnvironmentalGovernance.

Swiss Coalition of Developmental Organizations, Berne, Switzerland Collaborating CSE for the Annual Report on Global EnvironmentalGovernance.

World Economy, Ecology and Development (WEED), Bonn, Germany Collaborating with the Centre For Science And Environment for theAnnual Report on Global Environmental Governance.

Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Energy and Environment, GermanyCollaborating with CSE for the production of Annual Report on GlobalEnvironmental Governance.

GEG partners worldwide

Survival strategiesIn June 1997, CSE researcher Anju Sharmaattended the Harare Conference of Parties ofthe Convention on International Trade inEndangered Species. Sharma found that it wastime for India to evaluate its own strategies tosave some of its endangered species.

India has been supporting trade bans onspecies in every CITES Conference of Parties.In Harare, India voted against some develop-ing countries regarding the opening of trade in species. These countries have beeninsisting that conservation is expensive. Theywant to be allowed to trade in species whichare abundant in their country. The money gen-erated would be pooled in partly for conserva-tion and partly for the development of localcommunities badly hit by conservation. Byvoting against these proposals, Indian officialsrevealed their apathy towards the concerns ofpoor people affected by conservation. Theyalso ignored some basic environmental issuesin developing countries.

Sharma also participated in the activities ofa group of community representatives broughttogether by the Africa Resources Trust. Thegroup addressed several press conferences tocounter claims of wildlife NGOs present at themeeting, who spoke against the use of wildlifeas a resource. Sharma visited Mahenye, a village in south-east Zimbabwe, where a pro-gramme called ‘communal areas managementprogramme for indigenous resources’ is prov-ing that community management of wildlifecan indeed work. The wildlife in these

community areas is managed by villagers, whosell the right to kill some animals to trophyhunters from the West. The money generatedfrom trophy hunting is used for development ofthe area, including the building of schools andgrinding mills. The people of the village have asay in how the money will be spent, besideshaving a share in tourism revenue.

While trophy hunting may not be a viableoption for India, which does not face the prob-lem of wildlife overpopulation, communityaccess to tourism revenue would make themview wildlife as a desirable resource ratherthan as competition for scare resources.

Participation in GEF As a member of the Global EnvironmentFacility (GEF) NGO network, CSE has been theNGO focal point for South Asia. CSE staffmembers have been attending the councilmeetings of GEF in Washington DC. CSE wasalso invited by the Ministry of Environmentand Forests to be a part of a working groupthat will coordinate the preparation for theGEF Assembly to be held in Delhi, speciallyon NGO-related activities.

CSE was actively involved in the run-upto the first participant assembly. The Centrewas requested by the NGO network tobecome the local host for the NGOs, organiseworkshops and panel discussions, coordinatewith the network, and initiate local consulta-tions, briefing sessions and networking. TheNGO network prepared a paper on GEF andits evaluation before the GEF Assembly.



At UNGASSThe Global Environment Facility held its firstParticipant Assembly in New Delhi on April 1-3,1998. The Assembly was attended by repre-sentatives of over 150 governments, UN agen-cies and NGOs from all over the world. TheCentre, in its capacity as the South Asian NGOFocal Point of the GEF-NGO network, organ-ised and coordinated all NGO related activi-ties at the Assembly. This was the first majormeeting that provided an opportunity to par-ticipant governments and NGOs to interactwith GEF and evaluate the programme.

The Centre organised a meeting onFebruary 9, 1998 in New Delhi to provide anopportunity for GEF Secretariat staff andNGOs to meet and discuss issues of concern.The Centre also organised a preparatory meet-ing on March 28 to bring together NGOs fromacross the world participating in the GEF. Themeeting was to discuss issues of concern andto articulate the NGO position. The Centrealso briefed participants about the various GEFprogrammes that are open for NGO participa-tion such as the small and the medium termgrants which are funded by the GEF.

Mr. Anil Agarwal of the Centre was invitedto present a statement on behalf of the GEF-NGO network on the opening day of theAssembly, April 1, 1998. The statement, enti-tled, The GEF in the 21st Century: A vision forstrengthening the Global EnvironmentalFacility. The statement called on the GEF tolook beyond the current narrow environmen-tal mandate and play a greater role in bringingabout sustainable development. It said thatthere is also a need to interact with the sec-tions of the society other than the government— the NGOs, the private sector and the sci-entific community.

The Centre also organised a series of meet-ings and panel discussions at the NGO forumduring the Assembly to inform, catalyse andbuild capacities of NGOs. The Centre invited

eminent citizens of Delhi to an informal meeting to meet Mr. Klaus Topfer, the execu-tive director, UNEP on April 2, 1998. The pur-pose of this meeting was to begin a dialoguebetween the Indian environmental and scien-tific community and UNEP on issues of criticaland emerging issues of interest to India.Although, Mr. Topfer could not attend thismeeting, it was attended by several eminentpersons such as Mostafa Tolba, former execu-tive director of the UNEP; M S Swaminathan,agricultural scientist; Vibha Parthsarthy, princi-pal of Sardar Patel Vidyalaya; Kiran Bedi,

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member of a special group set up to deal withDelhi’s environmental problems and others.

The Centre organised a meeting betweenpeople from Nagarhole, the Indian government,the World Bank to discuss the EcodevelopmentProject being funded by the World Bank andthe GEF. NGOs spoke out sharply against thisprogramme that is moving out people from parkareas against their consent. However, despitesevere opposition from tribes living insideNagarhole and other national parks in Indiawhere the project is to be implemented in itspilot phase, the World Bank refused to discussthe issue at this meeting.

CSE campaigner Supriya Akerkar attendedthe Earth Summit-II in New York (June 23-27,1997), and lobbied against the forest conven-tion proposed by the European Union andother Northern nations. A CSE statementopposing the forest convention was distributedat the UN General Assembly.The statementappealed to the Southern governments tooppose the convention saying “opportunitiesfor sustainable forest management must bebuilt upon and created through communitycontrol and participation. We firmly believethat without community control there can beno sustainability in forest use, managementand conservation. We, therefore, stronglyoppose the effort to globalise the managementof forests”. Among those who backed CSE’sstand was the official representative of Gabon.

Akerkar, with the Indian delegation also metthe then Union environment minister, SaifuddinSoz. The minister took a forthright stand in thenegotiations on forest convention and said, “wedo not need a forest convention”.

Akerkar also closely monitored the negoti-

ations on other contentious issues such as cli-mate change, energy, transport, finance, trade,technology transfer, desertification and pover-ty, and also worked with the NGO Caucus onEnergy and Climate Change, which monitoredand strategised the ways to influence variousgovernments on the issue.

Hazardous trade CSE has lobbied at home and abroad for ban-ning trade in hazardous wastes. Even thoughCSE has not concentrated in this field before,the Centre is in the process of documentinginformation on hazardous wastes for Citizen’sSixth Report on the State of India’sEnvironment.

CSE correspondent Rajat Banerji travelledto Kuching in Malaysia as an NGO represen-tative, to the fourth Conference of Parties(CoP-4) to the Basel Convention. This conven-tion deals with transboundary movement ofhazardous wastes. Prior to leaving forKuching, CSE became part of the Basel ActionNetwork (BAN), a group of NGOs from acrossthe globe closely monitoring the BaselConvention.

CoP-4 has since been hailed a historicconference, as it was here that a contentiousissue, the list of hazardous wastes bannedfrom international trade, was agreed upon,with some countries expressing their reserva-tions on the list. Our another contentiousissue which was left unresolved , was that ofannexe VII countries. This sub-note had beenintroduced at CoP–3 to differentiate thosecountries which are a part of the EuropeanUnion, though not of the Organisation forEconomic Cooperation and Development



(OECD). Countries keen to see trade in hazardous wastes were quick to identify theloophole, as the language of annexe VII issuch that there is no way, at this presentmoment to prevent annexe VII countries fromtrading with each other.

Surviving desert stormsCSE campaigner SupriyaAkerkar attended the firstConference of Parties(CoP) of the Conventionto Combat Desertifi-cation, which met inRome from September 29to October 10, 1997.

At CoP, the Centre issued a statement onthe strategy to tackle desertification. The statement called upon delegates and NGOrepresentatives to adopt a proactive stance bygenerating a global survival fund through aninternational income tax on the world’s rich toensure a sustainable livelihood for the world’spoor. It urged the conference to follow the village ecosystems management approach bypromoting appropriate community-basedtechnologies and empowering local communities to handle their own funds.

The CSE statement received a mixed reac-tion from NGOs. Several African NGOsagreed with the statement. Enoch Okpara ofthe Nigerian Environmental Study/ActionTeam (NEST) said, “the statement raises several important points. Community-basedecosystems approach will help combat deser-tification in various parts of the world.”However, there was a clear divide on the issueof “community empowerment” among thosepresent. Michael Brown, an NGO representa-tive from the United States, felt such anapproach was bound to fail.

CSE also circulated another statementhighlighting traditional water harvesting systems. It was welcomed by Bo Kjellen, the chairperson of the intergovernmentalnegotiating committee, the panel which hadnegotiated the convention. Kjellen said, “theconvention places a lot of importance on thetraditional knowledge systems. This text is auseful contribution to the convention.”

Countries party to the United NationsConvention to Combat Desertification(UNCCD) met again in Dakar, Senegal, fromNovember 30, to December 11, 1998. CSEwas also invited to make a presentation on tra-ditional water harvesting systems in India, atthe plenary session, on behalf of ReseauInternational D’ong sur la desertification(RIOD), the NGO network attached to thedesertification convention.

CSE campaigner Anju Sharma participatedas an NGO observer during the second weekof negotiations. CSE criticised UNCCD’sinability to move out of aid-politics andaddress the problem of desertification, whichaffects 41 per cent of the total land area on

earth, and 900 million people in 100 countries, most of them in the least developedparts of the world.

There are several causes to which desertifi-cation is attributed — population, poverty,national debts, international trade in cash cropsand poor governance — all of which put directand indirect pressure on land. The desertifica-tion convention was meant to deal with almostevery aspect that affect the poor — governance,land and water management, livestock management and good agricultural practices.

Taking a lookCSE campaigner Anju Sharma went toToronto, Canada, to attend the Toronto multi-stakeholder meeting for business voluntary initiatives. The purpose of the meeting was to look at voluntary initiativestaken by industries around the world, as partof the Commission for SustainableDevelopment (CSD) process.

A voluntary initiative was taken up byBritish Petroleum for trading in carbon emissions, but CSE pointed out that such volun-tary initiatives, could work against Southerninterests, especially if they are to serve as a trialrun for future trading of emissions betweendeveloped and industrialised countries.

Commission on SustainableDevelopmentCSE’s director Anil Agarwal attended the 1997meeting of the Conference on SustainableDevelopment at the invitation of UNDP to talkon sustainable livelihoods, poverty and environment at a UNDP sponsored event. In1998, Agarwal was invited by the NorwegianForum for Environment and Development to participate in CSD’s deliberations on sustainable industrialisation.

CSE correspondent Rajat Banerji attendedthe sixth session of the Commission onSustainable Development (CSD 6) convenedfor two weeks in New York from April-May1998. Freshwater and industry were the sectoral themes at CSD 6. It was a significantmeeting as CSD adopted a decision to usemanagement tools and the corporate sector forsustainable development. It represented a par-adigm shift from the earlier concept that sus-tainable development would be driven by aidand overseas assistance. CSD 6 also adopted agrowing notion that the environment was notmerely a user of water, but it also played a fun-damental role in maintaining the quality andsupply of water resources.

As is the case in most international nego-tiations, perspectives of the developed Northand the developing South differed all the way.For instance, while the North was keen to seewater used as an economic good by all users,the South had a large number of subsistenceusers who would not be in a position to seewater in the same light. Same with the emerg-ing knowledge that sustainable development

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was directly linked with private investment.UNEP and the World Business Council for

Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released areport at the session titled, ‘Industry, freshwa-ter and sustainable development’. Dubbed the‘wake up call to business and to the other sectors of society’, the report documented the number of companies which managefreshwater resources more sustainably.

Highlighting the state of the world’s freshwater, the report noted that a number ofregions in the world were suffering from freshwater shortages. While assuring the participants that the world was not running outof freshwater, the report added that it was notdistributed equally. “ Industry could be at riskwhen freshwater shortages occur. Water forindustry is often given relatively low priority.Water would then become a limiting factor for sustainable development and future industrialisation in water scarce regions.”

IX. RIGHT TO THE ATMOSPHERE

Educating GujralCSE has had a long interest in global warm-ing, especially in the equity dimensions ofsharing the climate change abatement bur-den. During the 1997-98, the Centre sent abriefing letter to the then prime minister InderKumar Gujral on what position India shouldtake at the Third Conference of Parties (CoP)to the United Nations Framework Conventionon Climate Change (UNFCCC), at Kyoto inDecember, 1997. The letter was released at awell attended press conference on November6, `1997. Copies of the letter were also sent toPresident K R Narayanan, Commonwealthheads of State and ambassadors of variouscountries.

Since the 1992 Earth Summit at Rio, theCentre’s stand has been that the atmosphere isa common global resource, and therefore, itsbenefits must be shared equitably.

However, the environment section of thestatement endorsed by Gujral at the

Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting(CHOGM) at Edinburgh stated that, “afterKyoto, all the countries will need to play theirpart by pursuing policies which would resultin significant reductions of greenhouse gasemissions, if we are to solve a global problemthat affects us all.” Describing the CHOGMstatement as one that would “damage the posi-tion of the entire South and force it to mort-gage its present and future,” the Centre sent a10-page letter to Gujral, explaining whatIndia’s position should be at Kyoto.

Cautioning the then prime minister againstsuccumbing to the diplomatic designs of a fewcountries, CSE urged him that,“India must takea firm, imaginative and bold stand at the Kyotoconference”. CSE’s position on equitable enti-tlements was strongly appreciated by environ-ment minister Saifuddin Soz who requestedCSE director Anil Agarwal to accompany himfor the ministerial segment of the KyotoConference to give him support during thenegotiations.

Anju Sharma also attended the conferencein Kyoto. Sharma spoke at NGO fora to raisesupport for the CSE position and also helpedthe Indian delegation in articulating India’sposition.

The stand taken by the Indian delegation atthe Kyoto meeting on climate change ensuredthat CSE’s work in the run up to the meetingdid not go in vain. The US strongly advocatedthe inclusion of emissions trading, whichwould permit them to buy emission rights fromdeveloped countries. The Indian delegation,pointed out that such trading cannot be per-mitted till countries have emission entitle-ments which are their’s to buy and sell. Thisposition was supported by G-77 members andChina, as a result of which the sorting out ofdetails of emissions trading was postponed tothe next Conference of Parties (CoP).

Where’s the equity?The Centre’s director Anil Agarwal, deputydirector Sunita Narain and campaigner NikhatJamal Qaiyum attended the eighth session ofthe subsidiary bodies to the United NationsConvention on Climate Change in Bonn inJune 1998.

Why is the question of ‘emissions rights’important? What do we mean by ‘meaningfulparticipation’ of developing countries? Globalwarming prevention means putting a cap ongreenhouse gas emissions. How will the capbe distributed in a world that is marked withenormous inequality? And in a situation whenemissions control has economic costs? Howdoes one deal with global warming in a waythat is ecologically effective, equitous andsocially just?

These were some of the critical questionsraised by CSE at its workshop co-sponsored bythe German NGO, FORUM. The workshopheld on June 6, 1998, at Stadthalle, Bonn, wascalled to discuss the per capita entitlements



principle for allotment of equal rights toatmosphere. Key presentations were made atthe workshop by Anil Agarwal and SunitaNarain, Jurgen Maeir on behalf of the GermanNGO, FORUM, and Nick Mabey from theWorld Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

What emerged as a key concern at the endof the session was the need to recognise percapita entitlements principle as the startingpoint for defining the rules and modalities forany trading mechanism under the ClimateConvention and its protocol. It was interestingthat two government delegates attended theabove CSE workshop for NGOs. They camefrom Pakistan and China – a few weeks afterIndia had exploded the atomic bomb andthese countries were strongly offended by thedevelopment. But the two delegates stronglyappreciated CSE’s stand on climate change.

Special event with negotiators: A few dayslater, on June 9, 1998, CSE invited negotiatorsfrom both developed and developing coun-tries to a workshop on the climate change andper capita entitlements. The two-hour work-shop was scheduled as a special event of thethen on-going eighth session of the subsidiarybodies to the United Nations Convention onClimate Change in Bonn.

CSE strongly believes that there is a needto advocate a strategy that would lead to “longterm changes in climate trends”, and wouldalso lead to ‘meaningful participation’ of all. CSE said the strategy must reiterate the following:• Emission trading proposed under the Kyoto

Protocol must be built upon the principleof equal per capita entitlements of all people.

• Within the framework of entitlements, the

principal of contraction and convergencemust be accepted which would provideincentives to developing countries to tradetheir unused entitlements and to movetowards a low-emissions developmentpath. We cannot have a world in whichsome countries have to freeze their carbondioxide emissions at one level and othercountries at another level.

• The emissions trading price should bepegged to a cost that would encouragedeveloping countries to move away fromfossil fuels to solar energy pathways.

Seeking an insightThe Dutch National Committee forInternational Cooperation and SustainableDevelopment (NCDO) organised a series ofworkshops and presentations from September9-15, 1998 in the Hague, the Netherlands. Thepurpose of the discussions and presentationson the climate issue was to seek an insight intothe developing countries’ position and per-spectives on critical issues in the post-Kyotoclimate negotiations, and to assist the DutchNGOs and climate negotiators in formalising anational position for the Fourth Conference ofParties (COP-4) meeting to be held in BuenosAires in November 1998.

CSE was invited as one of the key devel-oping country NGOs, actively engaged in cli-mate negotiations and the debate on the KyotoProtocol. CSE campaigner Nikhat JamalQaiyum attended the workshop sessions onbehalf of the Centre. Three other NGO repre-sentatives invited by NCDO were fromUruguay, Cameroon, and, Ukraine. The activities of the group were facilitated by theDutch NGO, Both ENDS. Qaiyum made apresentation on ‘The Kyoto Protocol flexible

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Centre’s director Anil Agarwal and deputy director Sunita Narain at the workshop on entitlementswith NGOs at Stadthalle, Germany.

mechanisms and equity considerations – con-cerns of developing countries’. NCDO andBoth ENDS also requested the four partici-pants to submit a briefing paper, based on theirrespective NGO positions. The briefing paper,titled ‘Reversing Climate Change-DevelopingCo-operation between North and South’,would be used as a developing countries’position paper at the Dutch national parlia-mentary debate on what should be the Dutchposition at the November fourth conference ofparties (CoP-4) in Buenos Aires.

The ‘equity’ perspectiveIn an effort to facilitate regional consultationfor preparation of the CoP-4, in Buenos Airesin November 1998, CSE brought together rep-resentatives from the South Asian NGOs toparticipate in a workshop on climate changein New Delhi on October 24, 1998. CSE tookforward the mandate of the South AsiaAtmospheric Equity Group, and organised twoevents during the CoP-4 to brief negotiatorsand NGOs on the Southern position.

At the South Asian workshop titled “A fairshare: Demanding Entitlements in anEquitable and Sustainable Climate Regime”,CSE organised three events — a strategy meeting with the NGOs in the morning ses-sion, followed by a press conference in the

afternoon and, a public lecture in the eveningby Anil Agarwal.

The South Asian NGO participants, whoattended the workshop included DipakGyawali, Nepal Water ConservationFoundation, Kathmandu, Nalin Ladduwahetty,Mihikatha Institute, Colombo, NalakaGunawardene, Television Trust for theEnvironment, Colombo, FarooqueChowdhury, Unnayan Shamannay, Dhaka,Shaheen Rafi Khan, Sustainable DevelopmentPolicy Institute, Islamabad.

The participants from Pakistan, Sri Lanka,Nepal and Bangladesh expressed ‘full support’to CSE’s position of ensuring equity and ecological effectiveness in an equitable andsustainable regime negotiated, to implementthe objectives of the climate convention.

CSE proposed that the principles of equi-table entitlements and contraction conver-gence, are critical for developing a just frame-work for global cooperation on climatechange. The entire objective of the coopera-tion would be to move as fast as possible to anon-carbon, renewable energy economy and,thus, avoid economic and political damage.

At the end of the day’s deliberations, theNGO participants adopted a statement ofshared concern on behalf of the South AsiaAtmospheric Equity Group. The statement was



Members of the South Asia Atmospheric Equity Group Dipak Gyawali of Nepal, FarooqueChowdhury of Bangladesh, Shaheen Rafi Khan of Pakistan, Nalin Ladduwahetty and NalakaGunawardene of Sri Lanka, CSE director Anil Agarwal and deputy director Sunita Narain (L to R), addressing the press at India Habitat Centre on October 24, 1998.

CSE distributed factsheets and statements to the NGOs and negotiators

As part of the activity to brief delegates at the South Asian workshop, CSE prepared a dossiercontaining factsheets and a CSE statement. The dossier is a follow-up of the two briefing papersand statement which the Centre had prepared in June 1998, analysing politics and sciencebehind the climate negotiations post-Kyoto. The statement of the South Asian AtmosphericEquity Group was also included in the dossier and circulated at the Fourth Conference of Parties(CoP-4) meeting in Buenos Aires. Both the NGO community, as well as the negotiators, fromboth North and South, received the dossier at the November climate meetings very well.

Briefing facts

endorsed by Khawar Mumtaz, Shirkat Gah,Lahore, Aban Marker Kabraji, IUCN- WorldConservation Union, Karachi, Anil Agarwal,Sunita Narain, and, Nikhat Jamal Qaiyum.

The message was clear: The industrialisedcountries cannot be allowed the politicalexpediency of not taking action, by claimingeither that there is uncertainty in scientific evi-dence on global warming, or that developingcountries are not acting responsibly. Theregional workshop presented a strong case fordeveloping countries, even if there is need towork harder in this direction. Industrialisedand developing countries must act for savingthe planet from the threat of climatic destabil-isation by green house gas emission, butindustrialised countries must commit first fortheir significant reduction. Any responsibilitymust commensurate with the rights. Globalresponsibility will result only when the atmos-phere is treated as a global common.

Heat in Buenos Aires On November 7, 1998, CSE organised a work-shop titled, “Clean Development Mechanism:A perspective from the South,” which was reg-istered as a special event at CoP-4. The work-shop was well attended, and there was a greatdeal of interest expressed in CSE’s views.

The CoP-4 meeting was attended by AnilAgarwal, Sunita Narain, Anju Sharma andNikhat Jamal Qaiyum.

On November 8, 1998, CSE co-organisedanother workshop “Towards Equity andSustainability in the Kyoto Protocol”, with theStockholm Environment Institute.

In Buenos Aires, CSE proposed a rights-based approach in regulating climate change –treating the atmosphere as a limited commonresource to be managed under an equityregime, based on per capita entitlements. Sucha system could take into account the historicalemissions of the developed countries – their‘natural debt’.

CSE exerted a considerable influence onthe Indian government’s position. In BuenosAires, the Indian delegation took a strong posi-tion based on the principles of equity and entitlements. In his statement to the CoP-4 plenary session on November 13, 1998, erst-while Minister for Environment and Forests,Suresh Prabhu, categorically said, “the debateon sustainability cannot be complete unless itrecognises that the South has not had its fairshare of the environmental space.” Hestressed, “the convention recognises that theemissions of the developing countries willcontinue to grow from the current, as yet relatively low, energy consumption levels.”

Along with its interactions with the delega-tions from G-77 and China, CSE also held discussions with key European environmentministers, such as Dominique Voynet, theFrench Minister of Environmental Affairs, whomade a very strong statement in favour ofequity during the CoP-4 plenary meeting. The

Danish Minister for Environment and Energy,Svend Auken, and the Dutch Minister ofHousing, Spatial Planning and Environment,Jan Pronk, also supported CSE’s position. CSErepresentatives also discussed these issueswith Yolanda Kakabadse, environment minis-ter of Ecuador, and Julia Carabia, environmentminister of Mexico.

Surplus entitlements with less pollutingcountries can give way to an internationalemissions-trading regime. Further, an interna-tional tax can be levied on countries exceed-ing the limits imposed by their permissibleentitlement allocation. Such a levy of tax canbe based on the precedent of the ‘polluterpays’ principle. Resources generated by the taxsystem and the market-based solution of emissions-trading will aid the process ofresource transfer in real terms.

Negotiating atmosphereFollowing Buenos Aires, the German non-gov-ernmental organisations, World Economy,Ecology and Development (WEED) and theNorth-South Initiative, GERMANWATCHorganised the Debate 21- an international dia-logue-process of social movements and NGOsfor a global framework towards a democratic,equitable and environmentally sound develop-ment- on January 17-18, 1999, at Hannover,Germany. CSE deputy director Sunita Narainpresented a paper on instruments for sustain-able development for the climate sector.

“It is clear that we are talking about sharing a global common, which is the atmos-phere. Therefore, the world is negotiating, notglobal warming or cheap emission reduction,but the principles on which the atmosphericspace will be allocated and the modalities thatwill govern the global commons. In sum, theownership of the atmosphere is being negotiated,” Narain said.

The world, therefore, needs an “ecologi-cally effective” international mechanism thatprovides incentives to all nations to put thisplan into action. Every effort to delay puts theworld especially its poor people, at greaterrisk,” Narain explained.

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CSE urged the Prime Minister to do his homework

In October 1998, CSE wrote to the Prime Minister, Atal BehariVajpayee, emphasising why it was vital that India went to BuenosAires well prepared and with a clear brief from the Cabinet, to protect the current and future economic rights of its people, and topresent a strategy that protects the global ecology. CSE advocatesthat the South cannot forsake the right of its current and futuregenerations to grow economically, by accepting undue constraintson the use of energy. If the South has to accept certain constraintsto save the world from global warming, then it is obvious that all nations and people on earth would equitably share those constraints. CSE also briefed the environment minister, SureshPrabhu, on the issues involved.

Look before you leap

IX. INDUSTRY AND ENVIRONMENT

When green begins to mean ‘stop, look andthen proceed’, corporate bigwigs and chiefexecutives had better take note. The greenwatch on industry in India has begun.

On May 2, 1997, CSE launched its GreenRating Project (GRP) and CorporateEnvironment Responsibility Programme at theUnited Nations Development Programme(UNDP) conference hall in New Delhi. For thefirst time, industrial firms in India will be ratedon the basis of its eco-friendliness.

The failure of State measures to curb pollution and over-exploitation of resourcesby industry has prompted the birth of GRP. The last 50 years have shown thatbureaucratic measures to control pollutionhave failed miserably, resulting in an unsus-tainable and environmentally dangerousgrowth pattern. Government controls permitindustry to produce waste on condition that it is treated before being discharged intothe environment. Some industrial firms inventingenious ways to circumvent their responsi-bilities. Therefore, in practice, the entireprocess has been reduced to a farce of obtain-ing clearances from ministries and pollutioncontrol boards, giving rise to new forms ofcorruption that have permitted polluters to goscot-free.

The launch of the project: Speaking at theproject’s inauguration in New Delhi,Manmohan Singh, former finance ministerand the architect of industrial liberalisation inIndia, pointed out that for Indian industry,“being environment-friendly is not only a moral obligation, but also makes good economic sense”.

Stressing that while economic growth wasa must for India, Anil Agarwal stated that itwas also imperative not to forget environmen-tal concerns, and the launching of the projectwas a small step in that direction.

The response to the project so far has beengood. GRP has been approved by the Ministryof Environment and Forests (MoEF) andaccepted by UNDP for inclusion in its countryplan 1997-2001. Telco, Essar, Eicher, the Tajhospitality group and Hero Motors Limited are

some of the corporate giants which haveevinced interest in the project.

Speaking on the occasion of the project’slaunch, Arvind Pande, chairperson of SteelAuthority of India Limited (SAIL), said the initial efforts made by his organisation in pol-lution control have been paying rich divi-dends in terms of higher productivity amongworkers, and increased profitability for thepast 10 to 12 years. According to him, SAILhas been regularly making huge investmentsin pollution control and prevention for the last15 years and would now like to take fulladvantage of it, in terms of getting nationaland international recognition for efforts infavour of environment protection. “We wouldnow like to take a leadership position in environment protection and disclose ourachievements regularly in our annual reportsand other documents,” Pande said. “Othersshould do the same,” he added.

Expansion in industry means a corre-sponding rise in pollution generated by indus-try. This is why it has become imperative toeducate — through GRP — the consumer, thefinancier and the producer about the hazardsof unsustainable growth.

History of GRP: The preparations for the pro-ject began in early 1995 with initial feasibilitystudies, brainstorming sessions, field visits anda pilot study to assess Indian industry’sresponse, which was positive. In October1996, Paul Hilton, who had experience incorporate environmental rating working witha public interest research organisation in NewYork (US), joined CSE’s GRP team. Followingthis, the government of India recommended tothe UNDP to include GRP in its country planfor 1997-2001.

The project builds on company data, butalso looks at feedback from other sources likestate pollution control boards, the media, pub-lic opinion and NGOs to cross-check whetherthe information provided by the companies istrue and fair. If companies refuse to cooperate,GRP undertakes independent research aboutthe environmental performance of that com-pany and furnishes its report to the companyfor comments before making the assessmentpublic.

The procedure for assessment followedby the project as follows is quite simple. It • focusses on a company’s future environ-

mental commitments together with itspast track record;

• gives high weightage to voluntary disclosure of information;

• provides the company the first opportuni-ty to inspect the report; and,

• operates on a transparent rating methodology.All companies in a sector chosen for rat-

ing are approached for information on theways they take care of the environmentalproblems arising out of their operations.



How GRP will help: ProvidingReputational Incentives

The benefits of green rating are:■ Increased voluntary improvement and

disclosure by industry■ Increased public awareness■ Empowerment of investors and con-

sumers■ Competitive advantage■ Move towards sustainable industrial

growth

Questionnaires are distributed to firms for theirresponses. This information is then used toproduce the company environment profilewhich is publicly disclosed and disseminated.

Before making the assessment public,however, each company gets the opportunityto view the interim report and give its clarifi-cations and further inputs which can then beincorporated in the final report. A businessadvisory panel and a technical advisory panelcomprising leading industry figures, environ-mentalists, policy-makers and research anddevelopment experts are involved in definingthe evaluation criteria for GRP’s assessmentprocedures.

Evaluation of pulp and paper sector: CSE isevaluating the paper and pulp sector in thefirst phase of the project. The assessment willthen be extended to more sectors. Given theimportance of paper, the demand for it isexpected to grow over the long term, particu-larly as the Indian economy and industryexpands. The paper industry is one of theworld’s worst polluters. It not only eats upforests, but also pollutes the atmosphere, landand water by producing toxic by-productssuch as dioxins and other organochlorines asproducts of the bleaching process. The industry is a major consumer of energy andwater, too. As a result, it has been the subjectof study internationally, in terms of resourceproductivity and environmental management.CSE has also been involved with issues offorestry and fibre supply for the pulp andpaper industry and, therefore, has developedconsiderable experience in various issuesinvolved in the sector.

A total of 32 paper and pulp mills in thestates of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat,Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, TamilNadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal havebeen chosen for the project.

The criteria and weightages for rating thepulp and paper industry of India has beendivided into two broad categories. While oneset deals with corporate policy, organisationalstructure, management systems, etc, the otherset is based on hard data about company’sresource consumption, pollution generation,its future commitments, etc.

Networking to complete a gigantic taskUndertaking a primary survey and data collec-tion exercise for all sample companies was notpossible given the time constaints andresource limitations. It was extremely difficultfor the GRP team to do this exercise on all 31industrial plants on its own.

To manage this huge assignment, CSEdecided to involve the civil society. CSE alsoformulated its survey and data collection exercise in such a way that irrespective of thecompany’s willingness to participate in theproject, it would be able to undertake the

rating exercise on the pulp and paper sector. By October 1997, CSE had established its

Green Rating Network (GRN) – a network ofaround 200 well qualified volunteers from allover the country to undertake an industry-monitoring exercise on behalf of CSE. GRNwas activated in March 1998 and around 20volunteers were selected based on their qualifications and proximity to the sampleindustrial units. A detailed guideline docu-ment was sent to them to undertake this surveyand data collection exercise.

CSE adopted a two-fold strategy for datacollection-primary data from companies them-selves and secondary data from pollution control boards, local community, localNGO’s, local media, etc. An extensive photo-documentation exercise was also included asa part of this exercise.

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CSE director Anil Agarwal and former Union Finance MinisterManmohan Singh at the launch of the Green Rating Project inNew Delhi, in May 1997.

The green inspectors sent back voluminousdetails and damaging pictures.

Eminent people join hands to guide therating of industries Green Rating of Indian Industry Project (GRP)aims at assessing the environmental perfor-mance of Indian corporations or firms in India.Considering the technical and political natureof GRP’s work, CSE decided to form two advi-sory panels to advice and guide the project. ATechnical Advisory Panel (TAP) advises andguides the project in carrying out research andsetting the rating criteria and a ProjectAdvisory Panel (PAP) oversees the project andlends credibility to it.

At the onset of the Green Rating Project,CSE set up a project advisory panel (PAP)comprising industry leaders, judges, researchand development experts, policymakers, acad-emicians, environmentalists, journalists andother eminent members of the civil society.

PAP was formed to advise, guide andsteer the project and give the entire ratingprocess a holistic and credible outlook. It wasassumed that the huge and seemingly power-ful industry would easily be able to dismiss anNGO’s attempt to assess their environmentalperformance. Therefore, to give weightage tothe entire rating process, eminent people fromvarious walks of life were involved. Their pres-ence gave the project the much-needed credi-bility.

A competent technical panel is vital forthe Green Rating Project. Keeping this inmind, CSE selected three leading technologistsin the pulp and paper sector to form theTechnical Consultants Panel (TCP) to help inrating the industry. The TCP members are: N JRao, P K Bhattacharya and T N Chaturvedi.

The TCP became a stakeholder in theentire exercise of rating the pulp and papersector. Besides, by getting involved in GRP,they gave the project enormous technicalcredibility. The basic role of the TCP was to:• Guide the GRP team in preparing ques-

tionnaires;• Review the information supplied by com-

panies and the company profiles preparedby CSE and identify the possible lacunaeand technical drawbacks;

• Review the work done by CSE on overallrating format, criteria and weightages; and

• Guide CSE in finalising the ratings. Despite the fact that the TCP members

were consultants to paper companies, they didnot fear any reprisals from the companies andwent through the data with a fine-tooth comb.They were excited by the project and kepttelling the GRP team that it will really give theindustry a new perspective.

Going step by stepBy the end of 1996, the mood of Indian indus-try was upbeat due to the opening of theIndian economy but its thoughts werenowhere near environmental protection.Industry was multiplying its production capac-ity but environment was its lowest priority.Except for some bold actions of the SupremeCourt and various High Courts, the issue ofindustrial pollution was not even being dis-cussed in various public fora. It was in thisscenario that GRP team started its interactionwith industry for the first time to understandthe existing ground realities pertaining to cor-porate environmental responsibility. Here ishow its work went:

Phase-1: (October-November 1996) — TheGRP team carried out a detailed survey andresearched issues involved in assessing



CSE’s green inspectors

CSE’s green inspectors Background

Anand Bishey Mediaperson with experience and expertisein industrial and economic journalism,Nagpur

P N Udaya Chandra Reader, environment and ecology, S D Mcollege, Karnataka

Ravinder Dhami Sub-divisional officer, Punjab electricityboard

Vandana Gupta Former CSE volunteerPriya Shah Mediaperson with expertise in scientific

journalism, MaharashtraN P Mahammad, Coordinator, Centre for Voluntary Actions

and Rural Development, KeralaRanjit Prakash M Phil student, environment and ecology,

Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityRachna Yadav Environmental activist and eco-journalist,

AssamDileep Chandan Editor, Assam Bani, Assam,J V Dash Environmental activist and journalist,

Orissa,R V Singh Ph D, Biodiversity, New Delhi,Paramjeet Singh Environmental planner, Gujarat,B D Gowda Urban and regional planner and president,

Centre for Rural Development, Karnataka

Volunteers learn new things while tracking down mills.

corporate environmental responsibility andthe major initiatives made in the developedworld.

Overall the study clearly identified thatthere is a demand for an initiative which willgive due recognition to environmentally pro-active companies and, thus, force poor per-formers to improve their environmental perfor-mance to survive in the market.

Phase - 2: (February-March 1997) — After for-mulating the basic framework of GRP, CSEdecided to invite all major Indian companiesto voluntarily join the project. Letters weresent to around 1,250 companies . By the endof April 1997 around 50 companies hadreplied affirmatively.

The response tothe second phase ofinteractions withindustry convincedCSE that there was abasis to start thisproject and thatwhatever be thecase, good compa-nies will come forward to join ane n v i r o n m e n t a l initiative.

Phase - 3: (June-July,1997) — Pulp andPaper was selectedas the pilot sectorby CSE to test thevalidity of its rating methodology.

Thirty one production units spread over 12states were selected for rating. The first lettersent to them contained a brief introduction ofthe project and requested them to send theirannual reports and brief profile.

However, a subjective analysis of thisphase clearly indicated that except for onecompany all the others had sent their annual reports without understanding theaim of this project. This was proved by the factthat all these reports were sent by the accoun-tants of the companies. Only in case of ITC-Bhadrachalam, it was sent by its vice-president (plantations).

Phase - 4: (November – December 1997) —After the completion of the issues paper and

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The Sounding Board

The project advisory panel is to serve as a sounding board for the GRP and the ultimate groupto clear the ratings. It consists of:

Chairperson Dr. Manmohan Singh, Former union finance minister

Deputy Chairperson Justice P N Bhagwati, Former chief justice of IndiaDr. M S Swaminathan, Chairperson, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation

MembersProf. Saifuddin Soz, Former union minister of environment and forestsProf. M K Prasad, Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, KochiFather C J Saldanha, Director, Centre for Taxonomic Studies, BangaloreT N Ninan, Editor- in-chief, Business StandardAshok Parthasarathi, Secretary, National Commission on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, GOIAloke Mookherjea, Director,(corporate affairs), Asea Brown Boveri LimitedArun Duggal, Chief executive officer, Bank of America, IndiaR Rajamani, Former secretary, government of IndiaA S Dhillon, General manager, Tata Iron and Steel CompanyRajiv Dubey, Managing director, Tata Metaliks LimitedM L Gulrajani, Dean, Industrial research and development, Indian Institute of Technology, DelhiA N Jha, Senior vice-president, Essar InvestmentsSreekant Gupta, Associate professor, Delhi School of EconomicsBibek Debroy, Economist, Rajiv Gandhi FoundationV N Das, Director, (safety, health and enviornment) Ranbaxy

Technical consultants panel

T N Chaturvedi, consultant, pulp and

paper sector andexpert on agrowaste-

based small-scalepaper industry

P K Bhattacharya,professor, chemi-cal engineering,

Indian Institute ofTechnology,

Kanpur

N J Rao, professor,Institute of Paper

Technology,Saharanpur, Uttar

Pradesh

the basic format for rating the pulp and papersector, CSE sent a formal invitation along witha corporate and policy-level questionnaire toall the companies requesting them to disclosetheir environment performance-related information.

Phase - 5: (April – October 1998) — In thisphase CSE decided to involve the nationwidecivil society for primary survey and data col-lection. CSE also formulated/designed its sur-vey and data collection exercise in a way thatirrespective of the company’s willingness toparticipate in the project, CSE would still beable to undertake the rating exercise on thepulp and paper sector.

During this period a strong communica-tion link was established with a majority of thesample companies and by the end of October1998, a substantial amount of data was col-lected. It is to be noted here that only fourteen14 out of the 31 sample units had disclosedtheir information to CSE during this phase.

Phase – 6: (January – April 1999) — By mid-January 1999 a draft company environmentalprofile was completed and sent to all the sam-ple units for their feedback. The response CSEreceived during the feedback phase wasamazing. It seems that most of the companieswere not aware of the level of information CSEhad collected on them and immediately afterreceiving their draft profiles, all sample com-panies (31 out of 31) got back to CSE with theirresponse. During the feedback phase, profileswere sent to the companies, for their com-ments. It was here that they understood thatthe project is not being done with some witch-hunting intention by CSE, that they too are astakeholder in this whole exercise, and thus,all of them voluntarily disclosed informationto the project.

The level of seriousness shown by thecompanies during the feedback phase can begauged by looking at the number of people intop management that started interacting withCSE at this stage. Several of them visited CSEindividually to interact with the GRP team andseveral CEOs kept in touch with the unitthrough long distance communication.

One of its kindGRP is similar to 15 other environmental rat-ing programmes in other parts of the world.But they depend on government data, and areall from developed countries. CSE’s data isself-generated and that is what makes GRPunique in the world.

The key challenge in developing GRP hasbeen the fact that government data on envi-ronmental performance of Indian companiesis not readily available and when available,not credible. GRP’s challenge lay in creatingan altogether new and credible database oncorporate environment performance outsidethe official system. To keep the project manageable, the projects’ scope was limited tocompanies on the stock market.

The early response of the industry wasquite positive. Fifty leading companies suchas Telco, Tisco, Bajaj and Titan expressed adesire to participate in the project. GRP hasproved that the companies are open to partic-ipating in environment performance ratingprojects. Companies value public reputation.It has also proved that people across thecountry are prepared to give their time to helpimprove the environment at the level of seri-ous members of India’s middle class, at thelevel of technical professionals and at the toplevel of India’s civil society and the politicalworld. Monetary compensation is not the onlymotivation for people to get involved. It is,therefore, possible to develop a credible regulatory system through public participa-tion — that regulation need not rely only ongovernment inspectors.

Making its presence feltThe recent trend, particularly in developed



0

25

50

75

100

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June-July 1997

November-December 1997

April-October 1998

January-April 1999

First letter sentto the

companies

Invitation sent tothe mills to join

GRP

Visit of the GreenRating Network

inspectors

Draft profiles sentto companies fortheir feedback

3.6(1)

3.6(1)

50(14)

100(28)

Step by Step

How the industry gradually started disclosing information

NOTE: Figures in the parenthesis indicate the number of companies who disclosed their data to CSE

GRP coordinator, Chandra Bhushan giving a presentation to Dr Manmohan Singh and other members of the project advisorypanel.

countries, is that finance and fund managersare increasingly providing information onenvironmental and social responsibilities ofcompanies to investors. This is becauseinvestors have become more socially awareand responsible and want to invest theirmoney in companies that are environmentfriendly. This trend has ushered a new dimen-sion in industrial pollution control/preventionall over the world. Now instead of giving moreimportance to control-and-command mecha-nisms, market mechnanisms are being used toimprove the environmental performance ofcompanies.

However, there is one big problem indifferentiating a good company from a badone. Companies publish their reports butthere is no uniformity in these reports. Thismakes it very difficult for investors, con-sumers and regulators to compare results.The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) hasbeen formed to promote international har-monisation in the reporting of relevant andcredible corporate environmental, social andeconomic performance information toenhance responsible decision-making. TheGRI is convened by CERES (Coalition forEnvironmentally Responsible Economies) andincorporates the active participation of cor-porations, non-governmental organisations(NGOs), international organisations/UNagencies, consultants, accountancy organisa-tions, business associations, universities, andother stakeholders from around the world.CSE’s director Anil Agarwal has beeninvolved in this project as a streeing commit-tee member, the committee which will clearthe final disclosure format.

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Making industries eco-friendly

The ratings of pulp and paper industry were finalised

A Project Advisory Panel meeting of GRP was held on March 27, 1999. The meeting was attended by ManmohanSingh, V N Das, Arun Duggal, Rajiv Dubey, Ashok Parthasarthy, Cecil Saldanha, R Rajamani, M L Gulrajani, M KPrasad and others. The purpose of GRP is to rate the environmental performance of Indian companies.

CSE director Anil Agarwal presented a brief overview of GRP. It included the purpose of the project, key impacts,methodology adopted for assessing the environmental performance of the companies, challenges and strategy.The discussions in the meeting ended with the following action points :■ GRP should take two sectors in a year and supplement this with corporate environment policy and management

ratings. Each of the sectors should be reviewed once in three years. It was decided that the automobile and thechemicals would be the next two sectors to be taken by GRP.

■ As suggested by Mr. Arun Duggal, it was decided that rather than visiting the top three mills, CSE could con-sider visiting one each from the top , middle and bottom ratings.

■ Mr. Rajamani said that before any new project, or any expansion activity in some old mill, the company gets aEnvironmental Impact Assessment (EIA) done. Mr. Agarwal agreed that GRP ahould write to ministry asking forE IA reports.

■ It was also decided that CSE would give its feedback to the industries on a uniform style disclosure in the annu-al reports or in other published documents. The publications should be priced and the best practices adoptedby the paper mills worldwide should be published and highlighted.In his concluding remarks, Manmohan Singh said, “I think ultimately a country like India cannot be governed

by accepted regulations which rely more and more on self –performance and self improvement rather than mere reg-ulations. And ratings can help in inducing that change of mindset.

Sole crusader

CSE was the sole NGO representing the Southat a meeting organised by the United NationsConference on Trade and Development(UNCTAD) in Geneva which included participants from the International LabourOrganization (ILO), International StandardsOrganization (ISO) and a number of NGOsinvolved in assessing corporate environmen-tal responsibility.

The meeting discussed the need for collaboration between NGOs and otherstakeholders in the developed and the devel-oping world, so as to develop methods forassessing the environmental and social performance of transnational companies,using a set of common indicators.

The Greening of Industry network wasset up in 1991 with nodes in Universiy ofTwente, The Netherlands and ClarkUniversity in USA. The network organisesthe annual conference on Greening ofIndustries conference to provide a platformfor sharing research results , practical experiences and visions of the greening of theindustry. Pradeep Dutt from CSE participatedin the Greening of Industry Conference fromNovember 16 to 19, 1997 at the University ofCalifornia at the invitation of United States-Asia Environmental PartnershipProgramme (USAEP). Nearly 200 participantstook part in the conference.

X. HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT

CSE had set up its Environmental Health Unitin 1996 to focus attention on the impact ofenvironmental change on public health. Withthe aim of understanding how pollution isaffecting health, the Health and EnvironmentUnit of the Centre set up in October 1996decided to identify and bring together envi-ronmental health experts from across thecountry and organised a National Conferenceon Health and Environment in July 1998. Inaddition, it undertook studies and activities inthe field of air pollution, changing vector ecol-ogy and pesticides to make environmentalhealth problems known to policy-makers andthe general public.

Death by inhalation The Health and Environment team and theRight to Clean Air team organised a publicmeeting called “Slow Murder And Since” onNovember 1, 1997, exactly a year after therelease of the report Slow Murder: The dead-ly story of vehicular pollution in India. Themeeting was organised to draw attention tothe alarming deterioration in urban air qualityby releasing shocking findings that prematuredeaths in 36 Indian cities have increased byabout 28 per cent due to air pollutionbetween 1991-92 and 1994-95. The meetingcoincided with the publication of a report onair pollution and health entitled Death byBreathing. The story documents the results ofa study to predict the levels of respiratorymortality and morbidity in 36 cities of India

due to air pollution.During a literature survey of scientific stud-

ies on air pollution and health, CSEresearchers found that there were no epidemi-ological studies conducted in India to estab-lish the link between air pollution and health.The only relevant data was from a World Bankstudy, Valuing Environmental Costs in India:The Economy Wide Impact of EnvironmentalDegradation by Carter Brandon and KirstenHomman. The World Bank formulated amodel to establish a relationship between airpollution and human mortality and morbidity.The model was subsequently used to assessthe environmental and health conditions in asample of air pollution data provided by theCentral Pollution Control Board pertaining to36 Indian cities. The report said air pollutionkilled 40,351 human beings in 1991-92.

The Health and Environment team decidedto feed the latest available data into the WorldBank model and estimate the health impacts.The researchers finally got the latest datawhich was for the year 1995. The results werealarming. A 30 per cent increase in deaths dueto respiratory problems was estimated from1991-92 to 1995, adding up to 51,800 deathsin Indian cities. A city-wise analysis of thehealth status based on the model revealed that



Monetary losses due to prematuredeaths (in Rs crore)

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

3,507

4,500

1991-92 1995

Monetary losses due to hospitaladmissions and sicknesses requiringmedical treatment(in Rs crore)

0

50

100

150

200

1991-92 1995

122.2

159.6

Number of hospital admissionsand sicknesses requiring medicaltreatment (in millions)

0

10

20

30

19

25

1991-92 1995

Number of prematuredeaths

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

40,351

51,779

1991-92 1995

For whom the bells do not toll

There has been a clear rise in prematuredeaths and sicknesses and correspondingmonetary losses in 36 Indian cities due toair pollution

deaths and illnesses increased in major citiessuch as New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta andChennai. For some cities such as Pune, Agraand Bhopal, where CPCB reported a decreasein air pollution, health problems were estimat-ed to have declined. The figures were releasedto the public at a meeting held on November1, 1997.

At the panel discussion that was held aspart of the meeting, co-chaired by Delhi trans-port minister, Rajendra Gupta, and CSE chair-person and former director general of theIndian Council of Medical Research, VRamalingaswami, speakers drew attention tothe lack of data, lack of political will on thepart of the government and the outdated tech-nology being used by the industry. Panelistsincluded eminent scientist and former unionminister, M G K Menon, former managingdirector of Maruti Udyog Limited, R CBhargava, chest specialist at Patel ChestInstitute, S K Chabra, and chairperson of theCentral Pollution Control Board, D K Biswas.Dr. Chabra said that studies being undertakenby the Patel Chest Institute pointed to thehealth impacts of air pollution.

On the same day, a public advertisement— Dead by Breathing was issued by CSE inThe Times Of India, informing people aboutCSE’s alarming findings. The advertisementclearly listed the culprits — the regulatorybodies and the automobile industry — whoare responsible for turning our cities into gaschambers.

Queries came from all over India followingthe publication of the advertisement andmedia reports on the public meeting. Concern,appreciation, alarm, a sense of despair at thetotal inaction of the authorities, impatience foraction and an eagerness to help and supportthe campaign — these were the varyingmoods of responses that the information pro-vided by CSE on the issue evoked. Besides,there were queries from hundreds of otherpeople asking what they could do to helpstrengthen the campaign against vehicularpollution, particularly in the capital.

As part of this campaign, the Centre placedpamphlets on the health effects of air pollutionand donation boxes at 20 prominent places atDelhi.

Alternative vector controlThe growth of mosquito-borne diseases,malaria, is directly related to the creation ofunfavourable conditions through neglectedinland water bodies, irrigation and construc-tion projects. Unfortunately, pesticides used tokill mosquitoes are no longer effective in con-trolling malaria, since the indiscriminate use of pesticides have rendered mosquitoesresistant to chemicals. Malarial parasites havealso become resistant to medicines.

Therefore, in order to check the incidence ofmalaria, mosquito breeding would have to bestopped. This is the essence of the bio-

environmental method of controlling such bigdisease carriers. But the administration never roseup to the task. The problem is not one of strategy but of implementation and management.Environmental management of vectors is a majorsolution to tackling the vector problem.Therefore, raising public consciousness on theissue was the first step that CSE took towardsreaching the goal.

The Centre conducted a study on India’sexperiences in bioenvironmental managementof vectors. CSE researchers and reporters weresent to seven places – Goa, Hardwar, Kolar,Hassan, Chennai, Pondicherry and Khedawhere the Malaria Research Centre (MRC) andVector Control Research Centre (VCRC), bothorganisations under the Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR), had conductedpilot projects to implement bioenvironmentalcontrol of malaria and filaria, respectively.

In the short run, bioenvironmental manage-ment effectively controlled malaria. However,an inability to set up community-based institu-tions to carry forward the pioneering workcaused its failure in the long run in Goa, Kolar,Hassan, Pondicherry and Kheda. Policy-mak-ers were clueless on how to institutionalise thebioenvironmental approach.

In Hardwar, efforts to keep up with environ-mental sanitation did not fail completely in thelong run, only because the infrastructural facilitiesof a huge public sector company were availableafter the MRC phased out its project.

Without people’s participation, no amountof government effort or science and technolo-gy will produce the desired result. Environ-mental management is essential to the contain-ment of the disease, and people’s participationis necessary for environmental management.

CSE researcher made a field visit to Khedawhere the Malaria Research Centre had starteda demonstration and feasibility project onnon-chemical method of controlling malariain 1983, which ended in 1989. He found thatthe commencement of alternative methods ofmalaria control had reduced the incidence ofmalaria considerably compared to the non-project areas under chemical control. It wasenvironment- friendly and also cost-effective.However, neither the state health services nor

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the Central government did anything to promote the alternative method. As a conse-quence, the areas under the project had fallenback to the old pesticide regimes.

Priti Kumar and Raj Kishore Khaware ofthe health unit of the Centre wrote an articletitled‘ Bioenvironmental Malaria Control inKheda District, Gujarat, India’ which was pub-lished in a WWF- USA publication called‘Disease Vector Management for PublicHealth and Conservation’.

National Conference on Health andEnvironmentThe conference on health and environmentwas organised from July 7-9, 1998, at the IndiaInternational Centre, New Delhi. The purposeof the meet was not just to review the state-of-the-art in this field, but also to build a networkof people working in the area of environmen-tal health.

In order to organise the conference onhealth and environment, CSE set up an advi-sory committee which held two meetings onJanuary 31 and February 14, 1998. The com-mittee consisted of: Dr V Ramalingaswami, Dr P K Ray, Dr N Kochupillai, C K Varshney,Dr V P Sharma and Dr Mira Shiva.

The three-day conference attracted someof the finest medical scientists, public healthspecialists, environmentalists and education-ists from India, and even some from abroad.The Vice-President of India, Krishan Kant,inaugurated the conference.

Inaugurating the conference, Krishan Kant

said, “our unrestrained faith and reliance ontechnology and the consequent material uplifthas resulted in creating monstrous cities, gasp-ing for breath, virtually collapsing under theirown weight”. He stressed the need for achange in people’s habits, attitudes andbehavioural patterns and referred to them asbasic factors, which affect the relationshipbetween environment and health.

In his keynote address, ‘Health and envi-ronment – An Environmentalist’s perspective,’Anil Agarwal pointed out that the number ofscientists and environmentalists working in thearea of health and environment are few. “But



CSE deputy director Sunita Narain presenting a Tulsi plant to Vice-President Krishan Kant at the inauguration of theNational Conference on Health and Environment, in New Delhi on July 7, 1998.

Advisory Committee

CHAIRPERSON:Dr V Ramalingaswami, Former DirectorGeneral, Indian Council of Medical Reserach

MEMBERS:P K Ray, Director, Bose InstituteDr N Kochupillai, Professor and Head,Department of Endocrinology andMetabolism, All India Institute of MedicalSciencesProf C K Varshney, School of EnvironmentalSciences, Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityDr V P Sharma, Former Director, MalariaResearch CentreDr Mira Shiva, Head - Public Policy Division,Voluntary Health Association of India

their numbers must grow and their sciencemust keep us on our toes. Environmentalhealth is an issue of life and death,” he said.“Environmentalists love to paint gloom anddoom. But this is a conference to avert thatdoom and generate hope and action,” assertedAgarwal.

V Ramalingaswami, CSE executive boardchairperson, said, “this conference aims tousher in a new era of environmentalism, firm-ly based on science and with a focus on com-munity participation and municipal gover-nance”.

Addressing the valedictory session at theend of the three-day meet, the then union min-ister for environment and forests, SureshPrabhu, announced the formation of an expertcommittee on health and environment.

Altogether 11 sessions were held in which82 participants presented papers on issueslike water pollution and health; environmentalmanagement of disease vectors; environmen-tal toxins and health; ambient air pollution;impact of environmental changes and healthwith special reference to deforestation,women’s work burden and aerobiology;indoor air pollution and health; health effectsof lack of sanitary and waste disposal facilities;industrial accidents and health; environmentalchanges on nutrition; radiological pollutionand health; and, noise pollution and health.

Apart from scientific issues, the conferencelaid emphasis on policy issues in environmen-tal health. Chairpersons of each of the sessionswere requested to document the key policyrecommendations that emerged in their ses-sions. Subsequently, a discussion including thechairpersons, CSE chairperson VRamalingaswami and Anil Agarwal was organ-ised on July 8, 1998, at the India HabitatCentre to finalise the recommendations. Adraft policy statement on how to improve theenvironmental health situation in India wasprepared on recommendations of 84 eminentscientists and health managers present at CSE’sconference on Health and Environment in July1998. The statement has been sent to partici-pants for their comments. The final documentwill be sent to relevant ministries for furtherconsideration.

A public lecture on ‘Implications of cli-mate change on health’ was also organised onthe same day at the India Habitat Centre.Deputy director of Health, Environment andDevelopment, World Resources Institute, AKarim Ahmed, spoke on the issue.

Pollution way ahead of GDPPriti Kumar of CSE, along with SujataBhattacharya of Jawaharlal Nehru University,conducted a study to estimate the rise in pollution load, from the industrial and trans-port sectors in the entire country. The studywas the first of its kind to be carried out in thecountry, and it supported the Centre’s cam-paign against air pollution.

The results revealed that the rate of pollu-tion growth far overshot economic growth.The country’s gross domestic product doubledbetween 1975 and 1995, but vehicular andindustrial pollution went up eight and fourtimes respectively.

The findings of the study were revealed onNovember 1, 1998, at a public meeting heldon the occasion of the third anniversary ofCSE’s right to clean air campaign, whichfocussed on the environmental price the coun-try paid, for its development in the past twodecades. The findings were extensively cov-ered by the media.

According to the Centre’s study in 1995,the pollution load from vehicles in India was5.789 million metric tonnes, compared to industries’ share of 1.996 mmt. Of the coun-try’s vehicular pollution load, Delhi aloneaccounted for almost 10 per cent.

Results of the study showed that vehicleswere releasing an estimated 15,862 metrictonnes of pollutants everyday in 1995 com-pared to 2,114 mt in 1975. Carbon monoxidetopped the list, followed by nitrogen oxide,hydrocarbon, suspended particulate matter(SPM) and sulphur dioxide. Hydrocarbon lev-els were 10 times higher in 1995 compared tothe 1975 level.

The study covered only two aspects of pol-lution: vehicular and industrial. It did not takeinto account pollution from thermal powerplants and agriculture, or that from house-holds, especially urban. If it did, the Centre’s

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Making news

The conference on health and environment received wide press coverage:

CSE organised press briefings on all three days of the conference. The aim was to inform the media about the importance of issues being covered in the conference.

Eminent scientists like Veena Kalra from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; S R Kamat fromKEM Hospital, Mumbai; Kseniya Lvovsky, from World Bank, USA; Kamala Gopalakrishna from the Institute forResearch in Reproduction, Mumbai; Devika Nag from King George Medical College, Lucknow; Kirk Smith ofUniversity of California, Berkeley, USA; and, A Gopalakrishna, formerly with Atomic Energy Regulatory Board participated in the press briefings.

The conference was widely covered in all leading newspapers including The Times of India, The HindustanTimes, The Indian Express and The Financial Express.

estimates would have been higher. CSE’s studyto estimate industrial pollution was based on amodel called the industrial pollution projec-tion system (IPPS), developed by the WorldBank. The study concluded that among the sixpollutants, heavy metal pollution registered afour-fold increase, followed closely by sulphurdioxide and SPM. Chemicals, rubber, textiles,iron and steel, non-metallic products, foodproducts, pulp and paper, printing and pub-lishing make up some of the top pollutingindustries.

As no systematic database exists on pollu-tion from industrial activities in India, CSEstudy assumed technology in India, to be the

same as the 1988 United States technology ofproduction. Moreover, the Centre’s modelonly took into account pollution at the pro-duction stage. But industries pollute at everystage of the life-cycle of their product — fromraw materials extraction — to their conversioninto a product and to the use of the productand its disposal.

Vanishing vulturesOn October 3, 1998, CSE received a letterfrom Asad R Rahmani, director, BombayNatural History Society (BNHS), Mumbai,mentioning a drastic decline in the vulturepopulation of the Keoladeo National Park inBharatpur. Rahmani wrote, how, within ashort span, the number of vultures in theregion dropped drastically from 2,000 to justfour pairs.

Samples of decaying flesh collected byCSE indicated that vultures were probablydying because of their food. The tests showed that the samples contain high levels of DDT,hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) and dieldrin.CSE conducted the special study in collabora-tion with the Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) in Kanpur .

The results of the investigation were pre-sented by CSE toxicologist Amit Nair at a pub-lic meeting ‘Science for ecological security’,organised by CSE on the January 14, 1999, inNew Delhi.

According to Nair, the pesticides, DDTand HCH, were present in all samples. Thelevels of HCH were more than those of DDT.He said, “the mere presence of pesticides likeDDT and BHC are of great concern.” Theresults indicated that pesticides were trans-ferred from carcasses into vultures. Vultures



Price to kill

Between 1975 and 1995 India’s GDPdoubled, but industrial and vehicular pollution went up four to eight times

CSE director Anil Agarwal delivering his speech at the public meeting on ‘Science for EcologicalSecurity’ at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Also seen are director of Bombay Natural HistorySociety, Asad Rahmani, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Sompal, CSE deputy directorSunita Narain, CSE toxicologist Amit Nair.

Gross domestic product 2.6Industrial pollution 4.0

Vehicu

lar pollu

tion 8.0

were being slowly poisoned because of contaminants. The threshold for these contam-inants in vultures were exceeding their bodyburdens. This led to the decline in vulture population.

Asad Rahmani gave an overview of themajor birds’ found in India. He said, “it is verylikely that these birds are suffering from pesti-cide poisoning. They feed on insects likegrasshoppers, which in turn feed on agricul-tural produce, which is liberally sprayed withpesticides.”

CSE director Anil Agarwal said, “econom-ic growth brings with it an enormous burdenof poisons.” He said that the issue of vanishingvultures not only affected the animal kingdom,but also human beings. He demanded greaterexpenditure on environmental healthresearch.

Union minister of state for agriculture,Sompal said that reviving the traditional sys-tem was the only alternative to check chemi-cal pollution. He requested those present tomake a people’s agenda, whereby, politicianswould be required to react to it.

There was a tremendous public responseto the meeting. The event was covered exten-sively by the media. The work done by CSEappeared in almost all leading dailies in Delhi.The study was also covered by New YorkTimes.

Developing a knowledge baseThe Health and Environment team is workingon the State of India’s Environmental Health.This book would be of use to medical professionals, urban and rural developmentmanagers, policy-makers and educationists in

India. Health and environment is still a largely untouched area and the scientificinformation contained in the report will alsobe of great use to people in other developingcountries, too. Although, the report wouldfocus on the environmental changes that arespecific to India, health implications of thosechanges would be based not only on Indianliterature, but also on worldwide literatureand experiences.

The book will cover issues like changingvector ecology, ambient and indoor air pollu-tion, impact of pesticides, natural resourcedegradation, effects of deforestation on health,industrial hazards, climate change, noise pol-lution, hospital waste and dioxins and policyissues in environmental health. It will alsocontain research papers presented at thenational conference on health and environ-ment organised by CSE in July 1998.

Special studies were commissioned for thereport for which information was collected byundertaking several field trips. For the chapteron hospital waste and dioxins, Max Martin vis-ited Mandala in Andhra Pradesh, S Vishwanathfrom Chennai and Ranjita Biswas from Calcuttaalso gave inputs for the chapter. Nidhi Jamwalcollected data from in and around Delhi andManish Tiwari from Vadodara and Vapi inGujarat for the industrial accidents chapter.Inputs for the chapter on women’s work burden was obtained from Ranjita Biswas inCalcutta, S Vishwanargin in Chennai andMonisha Behal from Assam and Nagaland. For the chapter on noise pollution, inputs were obtained from Ranjita Biswas in Calcutta.Divya Shukla, did extensive field work to collect statistical data for the book.

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Fatal food

Indians consume dangerous amounts of pesticides through their food everyday

The average daily diet of an Indian contains 0.27mg of DDT, reported The Hindu in 1991. Since then, researchersand scientists believe this amount has gone up much further. But systematic, all-India studies are lacking. Despitethese hurdles, The Pesticide Trust’s book The Pesticide Hazard: A Global Health and Environment Audit, publishedin 1993, has managed to cull information that is sure to frighten every Indian citizen. In India, where infant milk formula in Punjab, Gujarat and Mumbai had DDT in all four samples tested, can anyone be safe?● The United Nations-sponsored Global Monitoring Programme chose India as part of a 10-nation survey for study-

ing pesticide residues in human breast milk. The results are frightening: studies of 50 women showed DDT andBHC residues at least four times higher than those in other countries.

● A similar study of breast milk and maternal blood serum of 25 women from Delhi, tested three days after delivery, revealed high levels of aldrin and dieldrin.

● A government study detected pesticide residues in vegetables. Seven out of eight chillies studied contained 100to 160 times the permissible levels of malathion and other pesticides.

● Out of 104 samples of cereals, pulses, milk, eggs, meat and vegetables analysed, 108 contained pesticides, 88 hadtraces of more than one pesticide and 69 had residues more than the permissible limits.

● Cereal and cereal produce in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Delhi, Mumbai and Andhra Pradesh (AP)showed DDT in 53 per cent of 1,651 samples.

● Pulses in Punjab and AP had DDT in 25 per cent of 171 samples, vegetables had DDT in 27 per cent of 2,154samples and fruits had DDT in 14 per cent of 90 samples.

● Meat in Delhi Punjab, AP and UP had DDT in 96 per cent of 134 samples and HCH in 90 per cent.● Milk in Delhi and AP had DDT in 95 per cent of 980 samples, HCH in 90 per cent and dieldrin in one per cent.

Any organisation or group working to improvesocial and environmental conditions cannotundermine the pivotal role of accurate andcomprehensible information. In the past year,CSE’s activities related to dissemination of infor-mation registered hearty progress. Down ToEarth (DTE), one of the centre’s main associatesin this field, has created a space in the Indianmedia that is quite unique and widely appreci-ated. At a time when the mass media is payinglittle attention to issues relating to the environ-ment and science, DTE has become a magazinethat provides leadership to the Indian media oncrucial issues of human survival.

But to say that DTE’s sphere of influenceis limited to India would be doing injustice tothe numerous readers across the world whorely on the magazine for a comprehensiveview from the South on the most critical issuesof human existence.

By no means is it an easy task to scientifi-cally explain — in a layperson’s terminology —the complex maze of issues that intermingleand influence every sphere of the natural world.Not only does the research have to be authori-tative and comprehensive but the presentationof the findings have to be so lucid and simplethat any literate person can make sense of it. So,whether it is the politics of the automobileindustry and the science of air pollution that iskilling urban Indians or the hidden economicand sociological beauty of a success story ofecological regeneration from rural India, CSE’sresearch has brought it all to the reader.

SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT REPORTAGE TEAM

CSE’s research on natural resources has beencentred around two aspects: their degradationand their conservation and consolidation.While much has been said about the pollutionand depletion of air, water and land — even inthe sad excuse that India has in the name ofscientific community — the Indian civil soci-ety has been late in waking up to the plethoraof solutions in managing natural resources. Inthis, CSE’s research and advocacy has usheredin a fresh perspective. And nowhere more sothan in the seminal issue of water.

Every drop countsRainwater harvesting, an area that has beenneglected by Indian governments and themedia alike, has become one of the mostimportant issues that are regularly covered inDTE. However, when it comes to rainwaterharvesting, people tend to think only of ruralareas. In October 1998, the cover story enti-tled ‘A social force called water’ featured someoutstanding examples from around the worldof catching rainwater in urban areas. Therewere reports from Japan, Germany, thePhilippines, the Caribbean, Thailand,Denmark, China and Kenya, and from twoplaces in India, namely Chennai andMizoram.

Jungles in jeopardyIndia’s poor people rely on the forests for their livelihood, so the health of forests has been a crucial issue of CSE. In June 1997,the story entitled ‘Dark truths and lost woods’ showed how pristine forests coveredless than 3.5 per cent of the country’s areaand how plantation forests are growing at the cost of natural forests. It showed how thegovernment’s forest policy is not being implemented properly and brought forth thecontradictions in government figures onIndia’s forests.

Another aspect of forest mismanagementin India was put in perspective in October

Awareness-Raising and Public Information


Green messenger

Titanic Junkyard

Scrapped ships from across the world arriving at Alang, Gujarat arebringing disaster to the region

After DTE carried the Alang story in its issue dated March 15, 1998,the Gujarat government formed a committee to look into the safe-ty and pollution problems. Even, union ministry of enviroment andforests (MoEF) officials visited the area and took stock of the situa-tion. The committee recommended several changes in the earlierpolicies and ordered the Gujarat Maritime Board, responsible forshipbreaking works at Alang, to take appropriate safety and pollu-tion control measures in the area.

Today, Alang has a totally new look. Two new hospitals havebeen started in the area, and five fire-fighting vehicles have beenplaced in Alang. Since its inception about 17 years ago, the area didnot have a proper road facility. The 11-km coastal stretch has nowa very good road facility. The GMB has provided helmets and otherbasic safety kits to workers.

After the story appeared in DTE, countries like Denmark decidednot to send their ships to Alang. Moreover, several news papers andmagazines worldwide followed the DTE story that aroused mass-con-ciousness about the inhumane attitude of authorities in Alang and cre-ated furore among officials related to the shipbreaking industry.

1997 in ‘Catch me a colossus’. While the government is persecuting poor forest-dwelling communities and villagesnear protected areas, Veerappan, a forestbrigand, poacher and sandalwood smugglerwho has killed at least 119 people, has madea mockery of the government machinery ofthe states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. CSE’sresearch concluded that Veerappan is a monster created by the State which alienatespeople from their land and resources and penalises them if they cannot protectgovernment property.

Threatened biodiversityIn Vietnam, an astonishingarray of species are beingthreatened by deforestationand an illegal trade inwildlife, The governmenthas started taking reformmeasures. The cover story‘on the edge’ examineswhether the reforms are

producing results or are stronger laws and adifferent approach needed to save the nation’srich legacy of traditional knowledge and bio-diversity. The magazine carried a series of arti-cles on the threatened biodiversity of India,looking at a variety of resources such asdomestic animals, fruits, pollinators, grasses

and microorganisms, among others. InSeptember 1997, a CSE research pointed outthat while a lot of noise was being made aboutpatenting of upmarket products involvingplants like neem, India’s unique biodiversity ofdomesticated animals was disappearing forwant of attention. The analysis revealed thatgovernments have not encouraged research.That Indian scientists know precious littleabout the genetic makeup of most domesticanimal breeds. That crossbreeding pro-grammes have backfired in India, producingnondescript and useless ‘mongrel’ breeds,while indigenous breeds, which may not be asproductive but have several invaluable traits,are disappearing. It profiled some preciousbreeds that are being lost to pointless scientif-ic experimentation.

One extremely important aspect — com-monly ignored — of the complex web of life isthe role of pollinators. In August 1997, in thearticle entitled ‘Who will play Cupid?’, CSEresearchers drew attention to the plummetingpopulations of pollinators — small insects likebees and butterflies, animals like bats andbirds like the hummingbird — and how theirdying out would affect plants that depend onthem for reproduction. The reason for thisdecline was traced to rampant use of pesti-cides, loss of habitat, rapid urbanisation andintroduction of alien species. The conclusions

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Just action

Gujarat High Court took action based on DTE reporter Manish Tiwari’s report on the people’s plight in Bajwa

Heavy rains in Bajwa, a small town in Vadodara district of Gujarat. Forty lakh tonnes of waste,piled up by the Gujarat State Fertilizer Company (GSFC) in its premises, overflowed into contiguous residential areas on July 6, 1998. Replete with toxic impurities such as lead, cadmium, zinc, cobalt, gypsum and chalk, the refuse clogged the streets and ponds of thesmall town and trickled into people’s houses. It was an environmental disaster.

When Down To Earth (DTE) reporter Manish Tiwari, accompanied by CSE photographerAmit Shanker, reached Bajwa they found washed-up waste all around, the water was unfit fordrinking, the air was full of toxins, and the farmlands were degraded.

After an indepth investigation, DTE published a special report in its issue dated August31, 1998, which analysed the extent of damage caused by GSFC in the area. Soon after, theGujarat High Court issued a suo moto notice against GSFC on the basis of the DTE report.The court summoned GSFC officials, representatives of the Gujarat government, the GujaratPollution Control Board (GPCB) and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). It alsoordered DTE reporter Tiwari and Suren Choksi, a Vadodara-based geologist, who was quotedin the DTE story, to be present for the court’s hearing on September 8, 1998.

During the hearing, all involved parties agreed with the DTE report that on July 6, 1998,the mountain of gypsum and chalk waste collapsed due to heavy rains and swamped the adjacent residential areasafter breaking through the boundary wall of the compound. GSFC officials pleaded that they had reconstructed theportion of the boundary wall that was washed away by the muck. While the district magistrate, the GPCB lawyer andCPCB officials informed the court about their steps in this regard, GSFC also provided a photograph of the newlyconstructed portion of the wall to the court.

When asked about his views, the DTE reporter apprised the judges about the extent of the problem which hehad already reported in the magazine. Tiwari told the court that GSFC officials should take immediate measures sothat the ecology of the region is not disturbed.

The division bench comprising justice S D Dave and justice J R Vora in its verbal order on September 8 direct-ed GSFC to ensure that the boundary wall of the company can withstand heavy rains in future. The court requestedSuren Choksi to produce all the materials in his possession and apprise the court about his views on the incident. Thecourt also observed the need to have both longterm and immediate measures to prevent such incidents. The courtappreciated CSE’s efforts in collecting all particulars and bringing the issue to the forefront.

of the research pointed out the potential boostto agriculture that pollinators can give if theirrole is understood and encouraged.

With its diverse climatic range, India hasmuch to offer in terms of fruit diversity. For theAugust 1997 article ‘Fabled fruits!’, a CSEresearcher travelled from the Thar desert to theHimalayan foothills to the tiny state ofMizoram in the Northeast and found out thatthe country has already lost several fruit vari-eties and several others are disappearing. Itwas quite sad to note that genetic erosion wasleading some of the most luscious native fruitvarieties on their way to extinction. Likewise,grasslands have also been victims of the gov-ernment’s unwillingness to scientificallyunderstand the most important environmentalproblems facing the country. ‘The milk that atethe grass’ explored the state of this neglectedarea of no mean ecological importance, andhow the mismanagement of India’s vast cattlepopulation was mowing down grasslands.

Energy: False predictionsEnergy is also a relativelyignored area. For years,energy experts and forestershave been screaming them-selves hoarse, claiming thatthe poor will eat away theforests of the developingworld like locusts in order tomeet their ever-growingdemand for firewood. InMay 31, ‘False predictions’

assessed the latest survey of the NationalCouncil for Applied and Economic Research,

New Delhi, and found that despite populationgrowth, people were using more firewood inplace of cowdung and crop residues and bet-ter firewood than before without destroyingthe forest cover. The study analysed whyIndians could be getting their understanding ofrural environmental issues all wrong.

Rural India: a watershedWhen it comes to environmental manage-ment, governments in India seldom have any-thing to show. So, when the government of thestate of Madhya Pradesh made a success of theRajiv Gandhi Mission for WatershedDevelopment, DTE did an extensive analysisof the environmental, social and economicturnaround in the district of Jhabua throughregeneration of wastelands. The state govern-ment’s watershed development programmehad decentralised power straight to the vil-lage-level watershed management commit-tees. Once empowered, people had regenerat-ed the ecology of the area through watershedinterventions. ‘When the old gods died’, pub-lished in February 1998, chronicled how apolitical leadership dedicated to rural devel-opment could just change the lives of ruralfolk and the environment. The Jhabua miracleis an example of what wonders can happenwhen the political leadership, the bureaucracyand the people come together to work onpressing environmental problems.

A stark contrast to the success story ofJhabua came from the village of Sukhomajri inHaryana. After the inspiration and guidance ofenvironmentalist P R Mishra, the villageundertook a novel experiment in regenerationand conservation. Prosperity followed. Butwhat followed that prosperity was the inter-vention of the forest department, whichspoiled all the efforts made by the people,recorded the December 1998 cover story‘Sukhomajri at the crossroads’, a story timed toremind the Indian civil society of the 25thanniversary of Mishra’s experiment.

The power gameIn 1998, it had been observed for some timethat the government was adopting severalmeasures to stifle the civil societies and NGOsas they were emerging as major threats to vest-ed interests that wanted absolute power. It dis-cussed in an open manner how voluntaryorganisations were being labelled as corruptor anti-national. The story reported the violentattacks on social activists and some govern-ment moves to channel funds of NGOs, whichreeked of political vendetta.

However, for an organisation that tries tocreate awareness on issues the gravity ofwhich is yet to be appreciated in India, noth-ing can be more serious than withholdinginformation — something of a habit of theIndian state. In August 1997, DTE published‘Closed systems, open minds’, a stingingrecount of the struggles that the organisation



Playing Holmes in search of news

DTE reporter Kazimuddin has an adventure while doing a story

It all began with an SOS letter from a school teacher in Peera Garhivillage, in north-west Delhi. Failing to find the sender of the letter,Down To Earth reporter Kazimuddin Ahmed took a walk inside thevillage, accompanied by another school teacher. Numerous plasticrecycling factories and chemical factories were operating in theby-lanes of the crowded village. The residents hardly spoke and thefactory owners pretended indifference.

Trouble started when he went to Peera Garhi once again, actingon another complaint from a resident of an adjoining colony. Ahmedwas told by some villagers that the factory owners had the supportof local political leaders. Posing as a prospective factory owner,Ahmed was told that it was very easy to open a chemical or plastic-based factory there, as it was a residential area and, therefore, thearea had continuous power supply, unlike industrial zones.

Finally, when Ahmed started taking photographs, some peoplebecame suspicious of him. Initially, the factory owners thought hewas from the pollution control board and, hence, tried to bribehim. However, when they realised that he was not a governmentofficial, they tried to browbeat Ahmed and his local contact intorevealing his true identity.

DTE editor, Anil Agarwal, took up the matter with theEnvironment Protection Authority (EPA). The chairperson of EPAordered immediate action to be taken.

has had to undertake to access simple infor-mation which should be readily available toevery citizen of the country. It highlighted theappalling lack of transparency and account-ability in the Indian governance system. Itraised the cry for the ordinary citizen’s right toinformation.

In December 1998, Madhya Pradesh wasto have elections to the state legislative assem-bly. Quite against the predictions of most poll-sters and Exit Polls, chief minister DigvijaySingh of the Congress party beat the anti-incumbency factor to retain power. Threereporters travelled through the state to get asense of the reasons for this. ‘In tune with themasses’ reported that an unusually highturnout in tribal areas was an important reasonfor the Congress victory, and the people ofthese areas were the direct beneficiaries of thewatershed development programme. The storynoted something that had completely escapedthe attention of the Indian media. That envi-ronmental management had become a politi-cal plank and politicians were being judgedon the basis of their record in environmentalmanagement.

Death is in the air The issue of pollution is a matter of survival.Pollution is a major threat to public health, itseffects can be immediate even as they gounnoticed. In November 1997, CSE

researchers came out with some startling find-ings on the state of air pollution in Indiancities. The study used a model prepared by theWorld Bank and extrapolated air quality datafrom the Central Pollution Control Board for1994. It showed that in 1995, 52,000 Indiansdied prematurely in 36 cities due to extremelyhigh levels of particulate pollution — up fromabout 40,000 in 1991-92. It revealed that oneperson dies every hour in Delhi.

The study was one of the first in India toshow the role of diesel exhaust emissions inthe air pollution, particularly in terms of thesmaller particles that are more dangerous andgo deeper into the respiratory tract. The CSEstudy was widely picked up by the media andwas the starting point of a very vigorous cam-paign against vehicular air pollution.

The 1997 study was followed by severalarticles that looked into air pollution fromevery angle possible. The science of air

pollution, the state of the existing technology,the magnitude of the threat to public health,the politics of the automobile industry, themeasures and policies required to tackle theproblem and the need for good air qualitymonitoring, among other things. An importantresult of such stories has been the increasedawareness of how government sops, such asthe indirect subsidy on diesel, is wreakinghavoc in Indian cities.

Pests, Pesticides, PovertyThe first issue of DTE in 1999 brought a storythat created an uproar in the scientific circlesas well as the media. ‘What’s eating the vul-ture’ was the result of an observation by anoted ornithologist that vultures were disap-pearing from India. To find out the reason forthis decline, CSE sent its toxicologist to collectsamples of carcasses that vultures feed onfrom the Keoladeo National Park. The sam-ples were tested at the Indian Institute ofTechnology, Kanpur. All the samples revealedhigh levels of two pesticides common inIndia: DDT and BHC. The study sent shockwaves through the conservationist circlesabout a very serious aspect that had beenignored: maybe the vulture was falling victimto pesticides. And if the animal at the end ofthe food chain was being affected by pesti-cides, just how much chemical pesticidesdoes our environment have? Another alarm-ing factor was that like vultures, humans arealso at the end of the food chain.

A story that was widely covered by theIndian media was the plight of cotton farmersof Andhra Pradesh who were committing sui-cide to in order to get government compensa-tion for their debt-trapped families after thecrop failed due to pest attacks in the winter of1998. While the media largely failed to lookbeyond the immediate distress of the farmersof the region, a CSE researcher investigatedthe trap that the farmers were falling into, atrap laid by the powerful pesticides lobby. TheDTE story revealed how the situation hadbeen brought about by overuse of pesticides,which created pesticide resistance amonginsects that destroyed hectares upon hectaresof cotton fields. The story also showed howgovernment agencies responsible for creatingawareness among the farmers about judicioususe of chemical pesticides and the traditionalmodes of cultivation, all the while pushingfarmers to cultivate cash crops like cotton thatare terribly vulnerable to pest attacks andrequire a lot of capital inputs. But for theseessential capital inputs, the farmers of theregion would never have been trapped in thepesticide treadmill.

Greening the judiciaryIn May 1997, the story ‘Courting green’assessed a phenomenon that was quite new atthe time — judicial activism. The story lookedat the effectiveness of the courts stepping into

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the environmental arena with reference to fourrepresentative cases from Bichhri in Rajasthan,Patancheru in Andhra Pradesh, the Ridge inDelhi and the Span Resorts in HimachalPradesh. The story analysed the court decisionsand arrived at the view that most orders passedby the Supreme Court were to good effect, thedecisions taken have left a lot to be desired.

A rather unique story was based on a spe-cial study by Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narainon how corruption was affecting the country’snatural estate. It showed how good environ-mental management was impossible whencorruption makes it difficult to implementenvironmental laws that are aimed at control-ling polluters. It explained how India’s envi-ronment was so degraded despite the fact thatall the laws and institution to control this werein place.

Planet politicsFor 10 days in Kyoto, the world saw highlymoral arguments put forth by political leaders to save our planet. But behind all those argu-ments was murky national self-interest. AnilAgarwal and Anju Sharma gave an eyewitnessaccount of the much-hyped squabblingbetween the world’s nations. The analysis in theDown To Earth issue of December 31, 1997,examined the politics of environment manage-ment that emerged during the Kyoto meet.

The vision of a ‘common future’ appears tohave been lost somewhere along the way fromthe Rio Earth Summit in 1992 to the first assem-bly of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) atNew Delhi. The meet highlighted that there is aneed for commitment from the North if any-thing is to be achieved by the GEF. Max Martinanalysed the politics of the GEF assembly in theMay 15, 1998 issue of Down To Earth.

The Kyoto Protocol agreed in December1997, was the first step to curtail emissions ofthe industrialised world. It is now being usedto set up a trading system to buy and sell car-bon emissions. Anil Agarwal and SunitaNarain provided a review of Post-Kyotomovers and shakers, swaps and deals, andantagonists and protagonists in the Down ToEarth issue of July 31, 1998.

STATE OF INDIA’S ENVIRONMENT

The State of India’s Environment Team’s mainobjective is to disseminate information relatedto science and environment. It draws uponresearch material generated by the campaignand research teams of the Centre, and thentransforms them into books, newsletters, otherpublications, and the English and Hindi fea-ture services.

During 1997-98 to 98-99, the Centre’s dis-semination team produced a variety of newpublications like the Hindi edition of DyingWisdom: Rise, fall and potential of India’s tra-ditional water harvesting systems, Challenge of

the Balance, the children’s book Chilika, andreprints of older publications like the First andSecond State of India’s Environment reports.

Dying Wisdom in HindiAfter the overwhelming response CSE got onthe Citizens Fourth Report on the State ofIndia’s Environment entitled Dying Wisdom:

Rise, fall and potential of India’s traditionalwater harvesting systems, the Centre decidedto translate the book into Hindi. The book wastranslated by Arvind Mohan, assistant editor,Hindustan. It was reviewed by AnupamMishra of Gandhi Peace Foundation. TheHindi version was released by MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh onOctober 5, 1998. The entire translation workwas overseen by Sanjay, editor of Deshkaal.

Green featuresCSE continued to produce its weekly featureservice on environmental issues in English.The Hindi feature service was also started inAugust 1997. Different articles have been pub-lished in 20 publications.

The Citizens’ Fifth ReportThe team worked towards the production of theCitizens’ Fifth Report on the State of India’sEnvironment. This time the report will consist oftwo volumes. The first will provide a nationaloverview and the second a statistical database.

An effort is being made to organise thework in a way that The State of India’sEnvironment Report is produced every year.These reports have been highly appreciated inthe past and have been used extensively as reference publications by those interested in the environment. Like its predecessors, the Fifth Citizens’ Report will be an indepth



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stocktake of the state of natural resources in India, the ways in which natural resourcesare being managed, and possible alternatives tostem the rot that threatens to corrode the eco-nomic growth-environment balance. The reportwill look at a wide range of issues such aswater, land, air, forests, biodiversity etc. It willprovide a picture of hope in the rural sectorwhere there have been a number of extraordi-nary efforts in environmental regeneration sole-ly due to community efforts. But the urban pic-ture is one of despair where there are problemsin every area –from water supply, water quality,sanitation, air pollution, housing etc and thereare not many examples of civil society efforts.

The Fifth Citizens’ Report returns to theformat of the First and Second Citizens’Reports. It does not focus on any one particu-lar issue or practice, but provides an overviewof the state of India’s environment. It will pro-vide information reinforced with statistics.

An advertisement was carried by DTE,informing its readers about the State of India’sEnvironment series, and requesting the readersto share environmental information of theirregion. The Centre received a positiveresponse from DTE readers. The response tothe advertisement was broadly divided in twocategories, those who required information tofurther disseminate the report and, those interested in giving or receiving informationpotential writers/ contributers fell under thesecond category.

ENVIRONMENTAL FILMS

The Environmental Films team plans to spreadgreen messages through its films and documen-taries. The team made the following four pilotprogrammes: The Spirit of the forest – A videoon sacred groves of India, Life and Wildlife – Avideo on wildlife management in India, SmogInc.- A video on vehicular pollution LivingWord – A film on North-South dialogue on sus-tainable development, Waterworks India -–Four engineers and a manager – A film on waterharvesting engineers of India, and Harvest ofRain. The pilots were used by the environmenteducation and the campaign teams.

These films were submitted toDoordarshan in January 1998 to be aired a sweekly programmes. Doordarshan gave itsapproval for 26 episodes in the sponsored pro-grammes category to CSE in March 1999.

Catching water on celluloid A video film on the water harvesters who werefelicitated by the President of India was madeduring 1998. The film featured rural waterharvesting engineers Chewang Norphel fromLeh in Ladakh, Magga Ram Suthar fromJaisalmer, Ran Singh from Churu in Rajasthan,Kunhikannan Nair from Kasaragod in Kerala,and Ganesan from Madurai in Tamil Nadu.

The film was presented at the inauguralsession of the national conference on water harvesting systems and was very well received.

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Home work done

A lot of hard work and detailed research went into the making of the Citizens’ Fifth Report

CSE researcher Rajat Banerji travelled along the river Ganga, submitted a first hand account of pollution in the Gangesand the government’s inaction and efforts made by individuals to clean the holy river. The water chapter of the Reportcaptured the Ganga Action Plan and the problems being faced by it. Subsequently, Banerji also travelled down southto see for himself the pollution in the Noyyal and Bhavani rivers and how the citizens of Tirrupur were living with ariver-turned-toxic stream. He also drew attention to pollution in the Betwa and Damodar rivers.

DTE reporter Jitendra Verma investigated sal borer attack in the affected areas of Madhya Pradesh. Yoga Rangatiaof CSE studied ‘People’s movement against large dams in India,’ for the dams chapter of the Report.

CSE commissioned a study to look at how small towns are coping with rapid urban and industrial growth. Thefindings were startling; neither the citizens nor the civic authorities had a clue how to manage the citys’ burgeoninggrowth. Ludhiana, Jetpur, Tiruppur, Rourkela, Aligarh, Bhagalpur, Kottayam and Jaisalmer were drowning under itsown sewage, solid waste or industrial toxics.

Anil Agarwal’s pioneering work on ‘Ecological degradation and women’s workburden’ since the 1980s, and morerecently on ‘Education of the girl child’ was captured in the people chapter. He argued that ecological degradation andheavy work burden of mothers deprive the girl child of education as she takes to helping her mother. CSE conducted adetailed study of a Himalayan village, Syuta, and its ecosystem which only confirmed that heavy workload of the womenmeans that the daughter cannot avail of education even when a school is accessible.

A study on rates of morbidity and mortality due to ambient air quality found its way in the health chapter.Economic costs of illnesses due to air pollution is estimated to be a whopping Rs 4,550 crore annually, even as 52,000people have been estimated to have succumbed to premature deaths in 1995 as a result of breathing polluted air.

A study on rural firewood consumption pattern laid to rest the myth that firewood shortage would result in a forest crisis. The energy chapter gives an account of how the crisis was averted. CSE researchers trekked to variousnational parks in India to look at people’s point of view in conserving national parks. The people’s verdict was unambigious – anti-people, state-dominated wildlife policy has aggravated the problems in conserving national parksand sanctuaries. Reports from Rajaji, Gir, Nagarhole, Simlipal, Pench and Periyar echoed that people living within theprotected areas are fed up with the forest department’s high-handed approach, some of them have even taken up armsagainst the department. The study argues that the policy of keeping reserves free from human intervention has led toerosion of traditional rights of communities dependent on forest resources.

Environment education has, for long, beenlimited to a narrow focus on nature andwildlife, topics on which a vast amount of literature already exists. CSE launched anenvironment education team (EET) in June1997, to equip people to make the right connections, and to help young people makeinformed choices.

EET targets schoolchildren and college/university students, besides the general public. The team produces quality communi-cation material and literature at one level, andpromotes direct interaction between students,teachers, parents and the general publicthrough a variety of programmes, such as anetwork of ‘green educators’ or a forum thatwill have a multiplying effect in bringingabout a more ecologically-conscious way ofthinking and living.

In May 1998, EET launched a supplementto Down To Earth called Gobar Times (GT). ByMarch 1999, EET had published six issues ofGT. It aims to make students aware of theirrole as urban consumers and its impact upontheir immediate environment, hinterland andbeyond.

Campus concern As part of the Right to Clean Air campaign, theenvironment education team organised a talk-cum-film show on Slow Murder: The deadlystory of vehicular pollution in India, at St.Stephen’s College, New Delhi. The Centrewas invited by the Wildlife Society of the college. A documentary film produced by CSEwas screened on the occasion. CSE campaign-er Anju Sharma spoke on the issue of vehicu-lar pollution.

On November 24, 1997, the team partic-ipated in Prakriti ’97 — the annual wildlife

festival of St Stephen’s College. Prakriti is aweek-long festival featuring debates, quizzesand panel discussions centering on environ-ment and nature-related issues.

Prizes in the form of annual subscrip-tions, copies of Down To Earth and T-shirtswere sponsored by CSE.

Talking environmentIn January 1998, the Centre embarked on athree-month-long environment education pro-gramme under its ‘Lecture on Environment’series. The key component of the programmewas traditional water harvesting systems ofIndia through which the larger issue of waterscarcity was addressed. Other issues high-lighted during the series were the problems ofnature parks and water and air pollution. Theseries was initiated to disseminate informationon these issues and involve students directly.The programme included talks by experts, filmshows, poster exhibitions and sale of CSEpublications at various colleges of Delhi.

The series was launched at HinduCollege on January 22, 1998, with a talk andposter exhibition on traditional water harvest-ing systems of India. The talk was presentedby Rustam Vania of CSE. The students evincedkeen interest in the issue and volunteered tobe involved in programmes that CSE mightundertake in the future.

The programme at Jesus and MaryCollege — the second in the series — wasorganised entirely by the National ServiceScheme (NSS) wing of the college. Followinga slide show on traditional water harvestingsystems, a student commented, “I wish ourcollege had a system of rooftop rainwater har-vesting so that it could, at least, take care ofthe water needs of the plants and bathrooms.”

Its festival time: On February 1, 1998, a pre-sentation was made at the Indo-GermanSocial Service Society, jointly with Pravah, anon-governmental organisation, working withschool and college students towards socialsensitisation for its Students MobilisationInitiative in Learning through ExposureProgramme.

At Gargi College, the event was spreadover two days. On the first day, Vania gave aninformative talk, and Pradip Saha, CSE’s artdirector, presented a film on traditional waterharvesting systems of India. LecturerMadhulika Banerjee and her students of envi-ronmental sciences actively supported CSE bymobilising students and teachers from differ-ent departments of the college. On the secondday, Anupam Mishra of Gandhi PeaceFoundation, an expert on the issue, presented

Education and Training


Catching them young

Child power

On February 26, 1998, students of Summer Fields School hosted anawareness programme on the environment called ‘Rescue Mission:Planet Earth’. The conference, based on the tenets of Agenda 21,saw student delegates presenting the perceived problems and proposed solutions of various countries in the form of charters forconsensus, in true United Nations Summit fashion. Prizes wereawarded to three best charters. CSE campaigner Sumita Dasguptawas on the judges panel.

CSE’s involvement with the Summer Fields project was sparkedoff by a visit to the Centre by a handful of students and teachersfrom the school in search of information for the respective charters.

‘Rescue Mission: Planet Earth’ was the first step towards making students look at the big picture. Some thoughtful observa-tions were made and solutions proposed at the mock-summit.

his slide show on water harvesting systems ofRajasthan. This was followed by a field trip tothe traditional water harvesting sites inMehrauli. The visits to Hauz-e-Shamsi, Jharna,Sukhi Baoli (Rajaon ki Bain) and GandhokBaoli were, for most students, their first glanceat traditional water harvesting sites.

Back to the north campus on February 12,1998, CSE participated in the history festival –Itihaas – of Ramjas College. Mukul Manglik ofthe department coordinated the programmeand helped put up the poster exhibition.

In February 1998, CSE also took part in athree-day event organised by the life sciencesdepartment of Jawaharlal Nehru University. Theevent covered the issues of vehicular pollution,protected areas and water harvesting. CSE cam-paigner Anumita Roychowdhury spoke on thetopic. A discussion with the students ensuedwith Roychowdhury and Priti Kumar, coordina-tor of CSE’s health team, answering queries onthe subject. Protected areas: whose business?, afilm on conflict between people and forestdepartment over protection of national parks,was screened later. CSE campaigners SupriyaAkerkar and Neena Singh answered queries onthe issue of conservation, which was focussedupon in the film.

Gobar with a differenceCan one stimulate young minds to questionprevailing development patterns, lifestyles andgovernance systems? Or equip the architectsof tomorrow with an awareness that helpsthem make the right connections, and betterchoices?

These and other similar questions gavebirth to Gobar Times, Down To Earth’s children’s supplement. Gobar Times aims topublish news and views on the environment,science and technology; stories from varioustraditions including environmental move-ments and inventions; features highlighting thesocial implications of scientific issues; and,comic strips, cartoons, quizzes, essay compe-titions and interactive pages, where childrencan put their views.

Gobar Times was officially launched at awell attended function on May 3, 1998 byactress Dina Pathak and special secretary tothe lieutenant governor of Delhi, Kiran Bedi,in New Delhi. The launch was the culmina-tion of an event that had taken place the previous day — the Yamuna yuk-ride (see section on Yamuna yuk-ride).

Why gobar?Speaking at the function on the unusualchoice of the name Gobar Times, the Centre’sdirector, Anil Agarwal, said that gobar (cowdung) is one of the best examples of wealthfrom waste. Chief among its myriad uses is itsvalue as a healthy diet for plants, an enormousenergy conserver and an insect-repellent.

Besides being sustainable and cheap,gobar is inextricably linked with the daily-life

of millions of Indian lives, and is the perfectmetaphor of what environment should meanto every individual, Agarwal said.

Dina Pathak reminisced about her child-hood and the importance a small river had inher life: “In our day, the environment was veryclose to us, but now its your concern and youmust do something to live in a clean environ-ment”. Echoing her concerns, Kiran Bediraised a few laughs by imitating today’s children who waste water when showering orbrushing their teeth. Her remark, “selfish children become selfish adults,” just aboutsummed up today’s attitude. But if the enthusi-asm, concern and desperation to ‘do something’, displayed by the yuk-riders is anything to go by, Gobar Times and theEcological Footprint Project will have morethan served their purpose.

Looking back to look aheadIn August 1998, three months after the launchof Gobar Times, and having received a positive response from children across thecountry to the supplement, the environmenteducation team felt that it was the right stageto incorporate changes.

A meeting was organised on August 8,1998, at the India Habitat Centre, to discussissues pertaining to the editorial content andformat of the supplement. Should Gobar Timesbe theme-based or should it continue in amagazine format dealing with various topics.What do children look for in a magazine andwhat methods should be used to get the message across. Should Gobar Times be tar-geted directly at children and simultaneouslyserve as a useful teaching aid in classrooms forteachers. Should one interface with the schoolcurriculum, were questions that needed theadvice of persons experienced in teaching andpublishing magazines for children.

Anil Agarwal, Sunita Narain, formerTarget editor Vijaya Ghose, Summer FieldsSchool teacher Shalini Dutta, Sardar PatelVidyalaya principal Vibha Parthasarthy, Eco-Rev director Ashish Shah, Vasant Valleyteacher P K Sharma, Eco-friends activistRakesh Jaiswal, Council for Advancement of

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Actress Dina Pathak (left) and special secretary to the lt governor Kiran Bedi (right) at the launch of Gobar Times atthe India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

People’s Action and Rural Technology deputydirector Arun Shah, and members of the environment education team of CSE took partin the meeting.

Future of Gobar Times: The participants con-cluded that it was too soon to decide whetherthe supplement should be theme-based. Itwas felt that the magazine format suited theattention-span of the target readers. Most ofthe schoolteachers present wished that thesupplement was more frequent. The view thatthe focus of Gobar Times should be to makethe reader understand the ‘entirety’ of environmental and social issues and makeconnections, was echoed wholeheartedly byall present. It was also felt strongly that children should be actively involved in exer-cises that helped them internalise the fact thatthe decisions they and their families take,affect the environment.

Opinion on whether Gobar Times shouldbe incorporated into the school curriculumwas divided. Some teachers felt that since theCentral Board of Secondary Education cur-riculum did not provide anything on environ-ment, Gobar Times could fill the void. Othersfelt that Gobar Times would lose its unique-ness if it was made a part of the curriculum.

However, the demand for Gobar Times toinclude sections as teaching aids was strong,since teachers themselves, who had a muchbigger impact on students, were in need ofenvironment education. It was widely felt thatGobar Times should provide more opportuni-ties for students’ involvement, through projectsand articles. It was also suggested that studentsbe used as resource persons for the upcomingEcological Footprint Project.

Ecological Footprint ProjectBuilding on the success of Yamuna-yuk-rideand the growing popularity of the Down ToEarth supplement, Gobar Times, the environ-ment education team of CSE launched theEcological Footprint Project. It consists of apackage of four eco-tours for Delhi schools,which includes the Yamuna yuk-ride, traditional water harvesting sites, the Delhiridge, and waste disposal units in Delhi.

Yamuna yuk-ride: The Yamuna yuk-ride wasthe first of a series of tours planned by theenvironment education team, as part of theirEcological Footprint Project for Delhi schools.

The Yamuna yuk-ride took 50 school-children from 12 schools on a boat-ride down the river Yamuna on May 2, 1998,

Education and Training


Children take to Gobar Times

The environment education team of CSE received numerous letters from student readers ofGobar Times. Here are some of the comments received:

Reading ugly facts about our environment is not easy. I feel guilty for everything.Sonam Kala, Noida, 13 years.

I like Gobar Times because of the name Gobar and I would like to have some more funny pictures of Gobar.

Archit Goyal, Soami Nagar, 11 years.Gobar times is a magazine which inspires all citizens of India to take part in saving wealth from waste.

Pranav Piyush, Alaknanda, 13 years.

I am a student of class V. On 1st November I saw thick fog and also read about air pollutioncaused by suspended particulate matter and carbon monoxide in the same day’s newspaper.I alsofelt very sorry about the fact that people were dying due to air pollution in Delhi.My father toldme more about air pollution and informed me about CSE. I would like to contribute Rs.100 savedfrom the gifts received during Diwali for CSE’s campaign against air pollution. Please inform mewhat I can do to control pollution and have a healthy and long life.

Upasna Chadha NOIDA, UP.

I am a student of VIIth standard and read the inaugural issue of Gobar Times and I am very happythat at last a practical, useful and educational, ecological magazine for children has beenlaunched. I’ve enjoyed reading useful facts about gobar and the other articles.

Soumya Mukerji, Gorakhpur, U.P

My father gave me the September 98 issue of Gobar Times which I found very useful. I sharedit with my teachers and friends. I feel very sorry when I see people who do not bother to savetrees and love animals. I don’t know what to do?

Tanmoy Bhatt, Noida.

I like Gobar Times a lot. First I use to hate gobar and thought of it as something dirty. But nowI know how useful it is.

Tarun Pandae, Hyderabad

accompanied by experts from the CentralPollution Control Board (CPCB), DevelopmentAlternatives and CSE. The students were provided with cameras to photograph theirexperiences on the ride.

If CSE wanted to jolt the kids out of theirapathy, it could not have chosen a better way.Comments like “but it looks like coke, notwater!” and “I heard that the Yamuna was in abad shape, but I never dreamed that it couldbe like this,” were heard on each of the fiveboats, but nothing could match their chagrinwhen they saw children of their own age,bathing and swimming, and drinking the filthy,smelly water. As the sun grew hotter, stinkingfumes rose off the black surface silencing thechatter and drawing out of hankies.

Later in the day, some of the children pre-pared a special edition of Gobar Times withthe help of CSE staff while others prepared acolourful photograph and painting exhibitionbased on their experiences. Students trainedby the Delhi Environment Action Network(DEAN) demonstrated how to test the waterquality of the samples collected on the boat-ride. Besides getting to know about theYamuna, the exercise aimed to give the student-investigators hands-on experience inthese professions.

The paintings and slogans were exhibitedand the children talked about their yuk-rideexperiences at a later meeting. The pho-tographs and crayoned slogans like ‘Yamunasmells, looks like hell’, ‘I don’t want theYamuna to die’ and ‘I want a change in theattitude of people’ had great impact on theaudience which comprised of teachers andstudents from various schools. The GobarTimes special edition and impressions of theboat-ride were presented to the audience.

Great escape: The Centre has also undertakenthree such tours to traditional water harvestingsites in Mehrauli. The first tour was with thestudents of Naval Public School, the secondhad participants from Vasant Valley Schooland the environment club, Green Beans, ofKamla Nehru College. Delhi Public School,Noida, was the participant of the third eco-tour. The tours took the students to Hauz-ai-Shamsi, the water tank, Jharna, asmall 18th century garden with now defunctcascades and waterfalls, and the two stepwells – Gandhak Baoli and Sukhi Baoli.

The tours were preceded by an interactivesession with students, which brought forththeir perception about the environment, andtheir notion of development and progress.

During the interactive sessions it wasfound that many students associated environ-ment with just trees and wildlife, and theirknowledge source was confined to theDiscovery and National Geographic channelson television. Not many associated environ-ment with development, urbanisation andlifestyles. Almost none had ever heard of

traditional water harvesting systems, or wereaware about their existence in Delhi. A slideshow, which showed different water harvest-ing systems across the country, aroused thestudent’s interest on the subject. History wasused as an intervening point to introduce students to different ways in which peoplemanaged their water needs, leading up to contemporary water problems.

The algaed and stagnant water of Hauz-ai-Shamsi drew mixed responses from theyoung visitors. A student from Delhi PublicSchool, Noida, wanted to know why the tankhad shrunk from being one of the biggestwater tanks of its time, to a dirty waterbody.“Why don’t we clean it up?,” remarked another. Naval Public School students couldnot understand why garbage dumping in thetank was allowed by the authorities con-cerned. The dilapidated state of Jharna, too,drew similar reactions from the students ofKamala Nehru College. The observations ledto questions on water management and governance systems through the ages.

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The Yamuna yuk-ride: School kids were shocked to see slum childrenbathing, swimming and drinking the filthy, smelly water of the river.

Name of the school Trip to Yamuna/Mehrauli

Water harvesting sites

Delhi Public School, R K Puram May 3, 1998Noida, Mathura Road; Apeejay School, Saket;Summerfields School, DLF; St. Mary’s SchoolShri Ram SchoolBlue Bells School

Naval Public School November 21, 1998

Vasant Valley School November 27, 1998

Kamla Nehru College November 27, 1998

Delhi Public School, NOIDA December 11, 1998

Amity International School, Saket January 15, 1999

Ecological footprints

As we step into a new century, research onenvironment will be the key towards definingour strategies for a green and clean world. This research will require comprehensiveenvironment-related databases and informa-tion systems.

During1997-99, the library computerisedthe library resources and developed a numberof programmes to make the library resourceseasily accessible to staff and visitors alike. Al-though the library resources were already com-puterised, the software had become obsolete.A new software was installed which combinesthe tasks of servicing users by providing infor-mation as well as performs library administra-tion functions. This new software incorporatesall the resources – books, journals, documents,newspaper clippings and indexed articles.

The software has also enabled us to makethe library resources available to research staff through the local area network (LAN). Thismeans that programme staff can, sitting at theirdesks, know what new products have comeinto the library and what are the key environ-mental news items of the day.

The Centre also worked hard to upgrade themaintenance of audio-visual resources. A newcomputer software was developed that enablesus to scan the pictures, keyword and classifythem. Again, this software has enabled us toprepare a database of slides, black and whitephotographs, negatives and videofilms. Userscan browse through the computer searching onkeywords to find specific pictures.

ENVIRONMENT RESOURCE UNIT

Bookworms’ fodderThe Environment Resource unit (ERU)received a number of valuable journals duringthis year. Around 603 books were purchasedby the library in 1997-99 and it received 1,906complimentary books/documents during thissame period from UN agencies, World HealthOrganization (WHO), Government of India,publishers and other national and internation-al NGOs. Ravi Srivastava of the Guru NanakUniversity, Amritsar, has donated books fromhis personal collection to the library. The col-lection includes 495 books, 217 documents,29 journals and 114 newsletters. The libraryreceived 116 books from the Saurabh Prakash,the centre’s solicitor. The collection includedbooks on democracy, jurisprudence, and gov-ernment. The section also received about1,797 different journals and newsletters.

The Internet is the new mantra of our timesand the unit did not lag behind. It preparedlibrary data for our web page. Internally, libsys(library system) helped users track theresources from their own workstations. Theinformation is provided through LAN. Otherthan this enormously useful service, BookAlert, Periodicals Alert, Articles Alert, EmailAlert, Conference News, Biblio, Earth andCurrent Awareness Service are some of theother services that have been initiated to keepstaff members up to date about availability ofthe latest information in the library.

AUDIO-VISUALS TEAM

Image gallery onlineDuring the health conference held in July1998, the audio-visual unit added more than600 slides on environmental effect on health.These include pictures and graphical data onmalaria, fluorosis, effects of noise pollution,radiation, toxins, etc. The team also acquiredpictures on Gujarat cyclone, Florida fires, cli-mate change meet in Bonn. All these are avail-able to external users. A catalogue of picturesand video films produced by the team areavailable on LAN and will be available on CSEwebsite too.

Snapping them shotData on slides called Image Bank as well as adatabase on video films are available on LAN.Information on photographers and photoagencies is now available for staff members. Avideo newsletter, Green Screen is put up onthe website regularly.

A total of 3,500 slides and 1,900 bromides

Environmental Resources and Products


Green treasure trove

The following services have been initiated to keep staff members upto date about availability of the latest information in the library:

• Book Alert: provides information on new arrivals of books anddocuments on LAN

• Periodicals Alert: provides information on recent arrivals of journals, magazines and newsletters

• Articles Alert: provides information on important articles fromjournals and newsletters

• Email Alert: provides updates on information received through e-mails

• Conference News: provides updates on upcoming conferences,workshops, trade fairs, seminars;

• Biblio: This service gives a bibliography of recent arrivals in thelibrary

• Earth: provides a valuable information published in Down To Earth;• Current Awareness Service: This bi-monthly bulletin provides

information on 100 other journals that are not available in ourlibrary and a journal database of 1,500 journals for the libsys wasalso prepared. The library gleaned information from the internetand other libraries on environment, global environmental governance, pesticides, forests and natural resource management.

Easy access to information

taken by CSE staff have been added to the col-lection. We now have 40,000 slides and19,300 negative frames. A total of 58 videohome system (VHS) films were also added andnow there are around 350 films. A slide pack-age on Traditional Water Harvesting Systemwas shot. The unit distributes films producedby the Television Trust for the Environment(TVE), and TVE helped CSE to produce a videobrochure on films being distributed by CSE.The basic aim is to bring together people fromall backgrounds to view the collection of 350videos the Centre possesses on environment,and to encourage them to become members ofour video club. The poster database providesdetails on all available poster in our collec-tion. We have also introduced a digitisedphoto bank by acquiring images from outsidesources.

The unit regularly conducts videoshowsfor staff and also during environmental educa-tion programmes undertaken by CSE. Theteam provided slides and pictures to severalorganisations and individuals.

Rajni Tandon, the convenor of The Templeof Understanding, Delhi centre, an NGOshowed her film on Patterns of Understandingfor Nurturing, which was followed by a dis-cussion on the film. Danish filmmaker DolaBonfils’ film Our Living Word: Part II wasscreened for CSE staff.

With support from Television Trust for theEnvironment (TVE), a UK-based organisation,the team brought out with a video brochure onthe films available at the centre. The aim is tobring together people to view the collection of325 videos that the Centre possesses on envi-ronment and to encourage them to becomemembers of our video club.

NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINESTEAM

Compiling newsThe newsclipping unit has been able to widenits coverage since July 1997 by accessingnews from the Internet. The South Asia GreenFile and the Global Green File have benefitedgreatly from this source. The unit now access-es newspapers from South Asia, Thailand,Korea, Latin America and Commonwealth ofIndependent States. Subscribing to newspa-pers from these regions before was expensiveand the service was unreliable. International

newspapers including The Daily Star(Bangladesh), Dawn, The Nation (both fromPakistan), St. Petersburg (Russia), Korea Herald(South Korea), The Bangkok Post (Thailand),The Washington Post (United States), TheColombian Post and Costa Rica Today aredownloaded regularly.

The unit compiles the Daily Bulletin Boardthat gives highlights of the day’s environmen-tal news. This bulletin is available to all staffmembers and is available on the website.

The team has brought out issue-basedcompilations of newsclippings on the follow-ing issues:

Two volumes of Renewable EnergyResources of India-1986-95 have beenbrought out.

Five volumes of Forest resources of India,1986-95 have been brought out. Volume onecovers forest resource, management, whilevolume two covers deforestation. Volumethree includes afforestation and social forestryand volume four covers wasteland develop-ment, forest research and education, forestfires and diseases. The fifth volume includesinformation on forest-based industries.

Issues on wildlife — An Indian perspective(1986-95). The issues are arranged statewise.Under each state, the issues have been cate-gorised as: policies, sanctuaries, endangeredspecies, wildlife trade, conflicts and zoos.

Scanning industries for a green hueThe team launched the CorporateEnvironment Inc, a monthly compilation ofnews on industrial and environmental issues.The news items are gleaned from over 70 lead-ing national and international newspapers andit covers domestic, joint sector and multina-tional companies. The publication is indexedaccording to the names of individual compa-nies and are further sorted by industrial sectorsfor reader’s convenience. This information isalso available as specialised digital/ printedpackage every six months.

DATABASE TEAM

The database team developed certain impor-tant packages: • Daily Bulletin package: A software was

developed for the Daily Bulletin Board • Down To Earth database: The new soft-

ware helped in indexing Down To Eartharticles, according to authors and subject.

• Conference package: This provides infor-mation on forthcoming conferences.

Job made easierThe database team came out with two majordirectories in 1998-99: The Health Directoryand the CSE Administration Directory. Apartfrom these directories, the team also createdvarious other databases on Indian and interna-tional environmental book publishers, people

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working on sacred groves, media and globalenvironmental negotiations. A resource personsdatabase consisting of persons and organisa-tions, national and international, with a strongpresence in areas of environment, be it wildlife,forests, energy, biodiversity etc was also devel-oped. These are available on LAN and can beaccessed by an individual on his/her own workstation through resource person database. A listof prominent 2000 environmentalists of Indiahas also been put together.

Water linksTraditional water harvesting methods arebecoming popular with more and more people understanding how important thesestructures are. This growing interest in water harvesting has encouraged the Centre to compile and produce a directory of water harvesters. The directory will help like-mindedindividuals and groups to interact and shareinformation on water harvesting and dissemi-nate technologies in water harvesting. Thedirectory has been prepared from responses toa questionnaire issued by the database team.

WEBSITE TEAM

Surfing in cyber spaceThe Centre launched its website on January23, 1998. The site has been designed, createdand implemented by the website departmentwith multimedia features and interactive capa-bility. It is colourful and attractive interspreadwith interesting cartoons. The site with morethan 150 pages have comprehensive informa-tion on CSE publications and the activitiesdone by the different units. The entire libraryand images from the audio-visual unit are onthe website. All available information can besearched by a keyword, title or the author’s

name. The CSE videos can also be searchedthrough it and a small video clip can be seen.The daily bulletin board of environmentalnews runs across the site as a ticker tape.

The website will be constantly updated withnews on CSE publications, activities, bulletinsand press releases. The current issue of DownTo Earth is published on the web simultaneous-ly. A selection of articles is available with eye-catching pictures and graphics. The back issuesof DTE and order forms are also available onthe web. Each one of the CSE campaigns arefeatured on the website. This keeps viewersinformed on the organisation’s position on thevarious issues, the press releases as well as aresponse page for interested people to contactus with their views.

All CSE publications along with theirbrochures and abstracts are available. Viewerscan place online orders. The Notebook, thequarterly newsletter about CSE’s activities ispublished on the website regularly. TheCSE/DTE Feature Service is also available.Information is also available on the environ-ment and health team and the environmentand industry team. Gobar Times, the children’ssupplement of Down To Earth is also publishedon the website, complete with articles, images,cartoons, contests, response pages etc.

The CSE website devoted a separate section on the first participatory assembly meet-ing of GEF held in New Delhi. CSE, in its capac-ity as the South Asian NGO focal point of the



CSE website has been eliciting tremendous response from surfers worldwide. Following are some of the response.

I am currently pursuing my environmental engineering degree and I was really interested in the CSE site, which seemsto be the only one of its kind paying attention to the environmental hazards facing India. Best of luck.

Indian student, New ZealandWe’d love to have your organisation pursue its agenda in our area. Your site is great. Is there anyway I can subscribeto news by e-mail so that I do not have to spend so long on the web?

Sue Wheat, Journalist, UKI cover environment and other related issues for the paper. I would be grateful if you could keep me posted with infor-mation, updates, etc on issues and events in the field of environment, especially, relating to Mumbai and Maharashtraor send me information on how I can best access such material.

Vaishnavi Sekhar, The Times of India, MumbaiVisited your web page from Kalmar-Sweden. Keep up the good work.

Frederick Noronha, journalistExcellent website. Just wanted to convey that the information put out on your site is proving to be a tremendousboon for writers and campaigners like myself.

Bittu Sahgal, editor, Sanctuary Magazine‘Your website, is terrific!’

Dave Trouba, editor, Stockholm Water Front, a quarterly by the Stockholm International Water Institute.

Eliciting response

Best of Asia PacificCSE website was awarded the Best of Asia

Pacific award in the category of nature

and environment for the year 1998.

ORDER YOUR COPYRIGHT NOW!

GEF-NGO network, organised and coordinatedall NGO-related activities at the assembly. Thewebsite also reported on the first NationalConference on Health and Environment organ-ised by CSE. It also provided extensive coverageto the CSE Conference on The Potential ofWater Harvesting Traditions, Policies and SocialMobilisation Conference which was held inOctober 1998. Again, the website provided anuptodate information on activities relating toCSE’s campaign on climate change including itsparticipation at SUBSTA meeting at Bonn andthe CoP4 Conference at Buenos Aires.

CSE has also started a new mailing list service where an email is sent to everyone onour database highlighting new CSE events,activities and DTE articles. This has been appre-ciated and quite a few people have sent us theiremail to be added to this list. This has also pro-vided a feedback on our events, articles etc.

The website has also been registered insearch engines like, Yahoo, AltaVista,WebCrawler, HotBot and Lycos. This is anongoing process and the website team isexploring ways to get listed to new searchengines under important keywords.

Tracking HitsIn March 1999, CSE had 20,000 page viewson the website. If, on an average a person goesthrough four to five pages of the site, it translates to approximately 4,500 visitors in amonth or 150 visitors in a day. In March 1999,CSE moved to 11th place out of 300 in thesites hosted by Oneworld; from 40th place out of 200 in March 1998. Our reports show that people from 53 different countries fromaround the world visit the website.

ERU on the internetThe audio-visual resources of the organisationare available on the site. Images and videos ofour audio/visual unit can be searched andthumbnail pictures can be viewed. Theseimages and videos will be available for online

ordering through email. We have also planned to put up specialised directories of people and organisations specialising in water,biodiversity, health.

To achieve all these the website unit havetried to get help from several external vendors.But, cost has been a limiting factor. Finally, aspecial software which publishes databases onwebsite was acquired and the unit learnt it byhit and trial. This search activity was donefrom scratch and at a fraction of the cost givenby the vendors.

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Tracking HitsMonth No of requests for pages No of visitors No of visitors

(assuming 4-5 pages per visitor) for the month per day

Mar 98 5266 1000 35Apr 98 9660 1900 64May 98 10236 2200 73June 98 14051 2800 85July 98 14329 2900 95Aug 98 23075 4600 153Sept 98 29883 6000 200Oct 98 28379 5700 190Nov 98 22563 5200 175Dec 98 23472 5300 180Jan 99 26000 5780 193Feb 99 31000 6960 232Mar 99 20017 4500 150

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

AugustMonths (98-99)

September OctoberNovember December January February March

USA 1%

UK 28%

Australia 2%India 8%Japan 1%

Global 46%

Rest of the World 2%Canada 3% Rest of Europe 9%

Percentage of visitors from various domains/countries to CSE Website

Visits to CSE website

Note: Unresolved numerical addresses not included

Rest of Europe:Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherland,Norway, Ireland, Finland, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, France,Greece, Spain, Poland, Luxemburg, Hungary, Turkey,

Rest of World:Nepal, Kenya, Thailand, Newzealand, Argentina, Singapore,Malaysia, Senegal, Botswana, Bosnia – Harzegovina, Mexico,South Africa, Brazil, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, Phillipines,Israel, Latvia, Costa Rica, Pakistan, Oman, Lebanon, Ecuador,Colombia, Hong Kong, Turkey

USA:.gov (US Government), .mil (US military)

Global:.com, .net, .edu, .int, .arpa, .org,

Hits

ENVIRONMENT INFORMATIONDISSEMINATION UNIT

Producing information is of no value unlessthere are mechanisms to distribute that information far and wide. Marketing of CSEproducts has been an area in which we havenot been able to do as much as is needed andshould be an area of attention in the future.The Centre is keen to develop programmes totake up dissemination of information on a pro-fessional footing. But it will take time to estab-lish this work as we are competing in a marketwhich is spread out across the country. Thebiggest challenge is to develop a crack mar-keting team within an NGO. Unfortunately,NGOs do not attract innovative marketingprofessionals. We need innovative profession-als because CSE is not really selling products,it is more into selling what marketing profes-sionals would call a ‘concept’. Our bigachievement already is that we have reachedoutside the environmental community.

During the period the Centre’s dissemina-tion team streamlined its activities and geareditself to outreach the Centre’s different prod-ucts. There were a number of new products —new publications like Dying Wisdom,Challenge of the Balance and the children’sbook, Chilika; reprint of older publicationslike the first and second state of India’sEnvironment reports; videofilms, clippingcompilations, feature service and other audio-visual products like photographs.

Direct mailing strategy: During these two years, the direct mailingstrategy was strengthened and streamlined-

• As a first step, it was decided to produceseparate and attractive mailers for eachpublication so that the target group foreach publication is identified and reachedefficiently.

• Secondly, the task of collecting addressdatabases for specific target groups wasalso systematised. Mailing lists are todaycompiled on an ongoing basis of educa-tional institutions, libraries, internationalorganisations, central and state govern-ment organisations, research organisationsand others.

• The third step was to set in motion a sys-tem whereby mailings are done on a reg-ular basis. A target of 25,000 mailers foreach quarter has been set. Mailers arecoded to identify the source and the typeof lists from the responses. The responserate is around 2% which is slightly morethan the normal rate of return for directmailers.

The success of this strategy can be gaugedfrom the fact that in the last two years the pub-lication income has increased dramatically.While the income from the sale of publica-tions in 1997 was Rs. 2 lakhs, it had risen toRs. 13 lakhs in 1998 and Rs. 15 lakhs in 1999.We printed 2000 paperback editions and1200 hardback editions of Dying Wisdom.These were completely sold out in this periodand we had to go in for a reprint; We sold847 copies of the reprinted first and secondState of India’s Environment reports.

Reaching out The team took part in several book fairs suchas the Delhi Book Fair, Ecofair’97, CalcuttaBook Fair, Water Asia’97, Exhibition India 98,Madras Book fair, Ahmedabad Book Fair,World Book Fair’98. The publications werealso displayed at public events organised by



Reaching out

Various organisations have come forward to help CSE disseminatethe message of water harvesting by purchasing copies of DyingWisdom: Rise, Fall and potential of India’s traditional water har-vesting systems.

The Fourth Citizen’s Report on the State of India’s Environment,Dying Wisdom: Rise, fall and potential of India’s traditional waterharvesting systems, was released in March 1997 in New Delhi.Simultaneously, the book was also released in several cities acrossthe country with the active involvement of local NGOs.

The report received a very good response at all places, waswidely covered in the media and has catalysed widespread interestin the subject. In order to translate this interest into policy initia-tives for the sustainable water management, the Centre realisedthat there was a need to reach the book to policymakers, adminis-trators, NGOs, media, academics and other interested persons.

The Centre sought help from other organisations includingdonor organisations to help it disseminate the message of waterharvesting by purchasing copies of the book on behalf of the target groups. The Centre received a very good response to this request and the book is now being sent to key decision makers, administrators, NGOs, mediapersons and others acrossthe country.

The following organisations have purchased copies for dis-semination as follows :CARITAS, India – 200 copiesCatholic Relief Services, New Delhi -101 copiesIndo-German Social Service Society, New Delhi – 200 copiesOxfam, India – 200 copiesFoundation for the Progress of Man, Paris – 50 copiesHeinrich Boell Foundation, Pakistan – 250 copiesUNDP, New York – 500 copiesUNICEF, New Delhi – 175 copies

Bulk Sales

the different programme units of the Centre.The participation in these fairs served toincrease the visibility of CSE publications andcreated an awareness about environmentalissues as well as about CSE.

An effort was also made to market CSEproducts through local book shops. Some of thebookshops which stock CSE publications are:Bookworm, Bahri & Sons, Galgotia & Sons,

Paramount Book Store, Empire Book Depot,New Book Depot, English Book Store,Crossword, Teksons, Panama Book Distributors,International Book Distributors, Oasis Books(Chennai), Earthcare Books (Mumbai),Earthworm, C.B.S. Distributors, Jain BookAgency, Green Bookshop. All these effortsresulted in an increase in the visibility of CSEpublications considerably.

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Students from the Amos Tuck Business School, Dartmouth College, at Hanover in NewHampshire worked with DTE for two months in mid-1998 to suggest ideas in developing a strate-gic approach to marketing DTE. Joanne Hogan, Michael Koester, Jane Ngo and Raul Uranga stud-ied current strategies adopted by DTE, its pricing policies, financial results and also held discus-sions with DTE staff members, readers and distributors.

At the end of their stay they prepared a report and made a presentation to the staff onSeptember 3, 1999. The team recommended that the magazine needs to focus its resources,build membership and brand Down to Earth – by creating a special issue like the WorldEnvironment Day or starting some annual project like Time’s Person of the year or Fortune’s 500list. The report suggested that in order to make marketing efficient, the marketing team mustwork in close coordination with the editorial team.

Amos Tuck

Mailers for each publication produced to identify and reach the target group efficiently.

Volunteers


Lending a helping hand

We began to involve volunteers and student interns on a regular basis in late1996. Although webegan this in a rather ad-hoc manner, we found it worked extremely well. For instance, during theperiod November 1996-February 1998, a period of 332 working days, volunteers and studentinterns had put in 460 working days with the Centre. Assuming a monthly remuneration of Rs 5000, these volunteers had contributed about Rs. 1,11,000 to CSE through their voluntarylabour. Given a staff strength of about 90 (and therefore, an annual labour contribution of 90 person years), volunteers contributed to about 2 per cent of the total person-years contributed bythe permanent staff during 1997-98.

A good volunteer base can help the organisation in many ways — (1) firstly, volunteersbecome a part of CSE network of friends and serve as CSE’s ambassadors to carry the environmental message; (2) Secondly, the inflow of a lot of young people helps to energise theinstitution and CSE events are carried out with commitment and enthusiasm; and (3) Most impor-tantly, volunteers also serve to reduce our staff cost considerably. In fact, if organised properly, thisactivity, has an enormous potential to cut down expenditures. It should be possible to ensure thatvolunteers contribute between 15-20% of the total human-day contribution of permanent staff.

We are fortunate that we are in a very good position to access a large number of volunteers —through Down To Earth and through our environment education programmes that interacts withschools and colleges. Over the past two years, the Centre has worked to organise the volunteeractivity in a systematic manner and is now able to respond well to the numerous requests that itreceives constantly from highly qualified young professionals and students. Today, there areabout 25 volunteers, on an average, working in CSE at any given time.

These are young people looking for work experience which may be useful in their futurecareer; students wanting to use their vacation time usefully; and, retired government servants look-ing for opportunities to spend their time in contributing to society.

The Programme Management Unit which now coordinates the activities of volunteers in CSEtoday has spent time to identify requirements of different programme units in the Centre.Simultaneously, it has also categorised volunteers according to their qualifications, interests andskills. This enables us to match the requirements of the different units to the interests of volunteers.

While the volunteers contribute to the orgnisation without any expectation of remuneration,they are given a token honorarium of Rs 75 per day to compensate for the travel and lunch expens-es. The Centre also gives complimentary copies of CSE publications and keeps in touch with themthrough regular CSE reports, invitation for CSE conferences and training programmes.

MEERA DHINGRA, a class XII student studying inFlorida, USA, worked as a volunteer in theBooks and Newsletter Production Unit. Meeracollected materials on air pollution and wrotean article on it. Her work has been included inthe Citizens’ Fifth Report on the State of India’sEnvironment.

JYOTIRMOY CHOUDHARY is doing his BA(Hons) in English at Jamia Milia IslamiaUniversity, New Delhi. He worked as a volun-teer in the Books and Newsletter ProductionUnit. Jyotirmoy conducted research work onriver pollution in India and wrote an article forthe Citizens’ Fifth Report on the State of India’sEnvironment.

ASMITA BHARDWAJ, a student of the School ofPlanning and Architecture, worked as a volun-teer in the Book and Newsletter PublishingUnit. Asmita conducted research work for theState of India’s Environment Report.

RAJAT BOSE is doing his Bachelor of Planningfrom the School of Planning and Architecture.He worked as a volunteer in the Book andNewsletter Production Unit and conductedresearch on the State of India’s EnvironmentReport.

MRIDUL UPRETI, a final year student of

Bachelor of Planning at the School of Planningand Architecture, also worked as a volunteer inthe Book and Newsletter Production Unit Bookand Newsletter Production Unit. He also conducted research on the State of India’sEnvironment Report.

JUHI SAHAY worked with the Book andNewsletter Production Unit. She assisted indata collection for the Citizens’ Fifth Report onthe State of India’s Environment Report.

PRITPAL SINGH worked with the Book andNewsletter Production Unit. He assisted in datacollection for the Citizens’ Fifth Report on theState of India’s Environment. He has done hisgraduation in economics from Ramjas Collegeof Delhi University.

SUNANDA RABINDRANATHAN has done herMasters in Sociology from AnnamalaiUniversity. She helped the Book and NewsletterProduction Unit by collecting data.

ADITI DUTTA is doing her M Phil in PoliticalScience from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Sheworked with the Book and NewsletterProduction Unit of CSE. She was involved incollection of data for Citizens’ Sixth Report onthe State of India’s Environment.

DIVYA SHUKLA assisted the Book and

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Newsletter Production Unit in data collectionfor the Citizens’ Sixth Report on the State ofIndia’s Environment. She is doing her gradua-tion from Delhi University.

JYOTSANA worked with the Book andNewsletter Production Unit. She assisted indata collection for the Citizens’ Sixth Report onthe State of India’s Environment. She is a civilengineer.

HIMANSHU HOODA worked with the Healthand Environment team. He assisted the team incollecting and compiling data for the environ-mental health directory. He is doing his gradu-ation in commerce from Delhi University.

SUMI MEHTA, a student pursuing a mastersprogram in public health and epidemiology atthe University of California, Berkeley, volun-teered with the Health and Environment team.Sumi prepared a review paper on the status andhealth effects of indoor air pollution in India. Hercontributions will be included in the Report onState of India’s Environmental Health.

MANISH GUPTA volunteered with the Healthand Environment team during July-August,1997. He is doing his M Phil in economics atthe Centre for Social Studies, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, New Delhi. Manish analysed the lat-est air quality trends using the most recent dataof the Central Pollution Control Board andutilised these data to update the results of amathematical model that links air pollution tomortality. Manish’s work came out as a coverstory in Down To Earth.

ANISHA CHAUDHURY worked as a volunteerwith the Health and Environment team on thepreparation of the Health and Environment con-ference. She is a final year political science stu-dent at Gargi college.

CHANDNI KHANDUJA worked as a volunteerfor a period of 10 weeks with the Health andEnvironment team on the conference. She is astudent of political science at Gargi college.

SUJATA BHATTACHARYA, a Ph D. student inenvironmental economics at Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, worked as a research intern withHealth and Environment team on a data analy-sis project. The results of her work were pub-lished in Down To Earth.

LOPAMUDRA BANERJEE is doing her post-grad-uation. She worked with the Right to Clean AirCampaign team. She helped with the prepara-tions for the November 1, 1998 public meetingon air pollution.

HARINDER SINGH GREWAL is doing his gradua-tion. He worked as a volunteer in the Right toClean Air Campaign team to prepare on thedossier on green areas.

SWATI JAIN, a second year student of B.Com(Hons), worked as a volunteer with the Right toClean Air Campaign team in organising the vol-unteer’s meeting as well as the signature cam-paign against the Lt Governor’s statement.

EDWARD MUMMERY worked with the GlobalEnvironmental Governance (GEG) team. Hewrote a paper on international negotiations onfishery. He helped in bringing out the GEG

newsletter, and also assisted in the networkingfor the GEG annual report. He studied Englishliterature and history at the University ofEdinburgh.

S C BHOWMIK worked as a volunteer withthe Environment Resource Unit. He worked onthe CSE thesaurus. He retired from HindustanFertilizer Corporation.

SISIL PETER has been working with theEnvironment Resource Unit. He helps the datacleaning person in re-labeling, re-shelving andidentifying missing records.

SHEEJA holds a degree in library science. Sheworked as a volunteer with the EnvironmentResource Unit. Sheeja worked on the CSE the-saurus.

SUJATA SHUKLA helped the Audio-Visualteam in filing slides and photographs. She hasdone her graduation from Delhi University.

SARBJEET BUTALIA helped the Audio-Visualteam in making data entries.

RASHMI NAIR, a final year student of psychol-ogy from Delhi University, worked as a volun-teer in the Campaign for Equal Rights to theAtmosphere in May 1998. Rashmi providedcommunication support in preparation forCSE’s workshops on climate change, whichwere held in Bonn in June, 1998.

SHRUTI MAHAJAN, a student of the School ofPlanning and Architecture, undertook her sum-mer internship at the Centre with the Right toClean Air Campaign Team on hospital wastesand did a case study on three major hospitals inDelhi, Safdarjung hospital, Batra hospital andAIIMS.

TANYA, a student of School of Planning andArchitecture, worked with the GlobalEnvironmental Governance team. She collectedinformation for a dossier for the GEG reportfrom various libraries in Delhi.

DEEPIKA ARORA, a student of the School ofPlanning and Architecture, helped the GlobalEnvironmental Governance team in buildingdossiers for the GEG report.

RAHUL SENGUPTA, a graduate from the DelhiUniversity with a diploma in tourism, workedwith the Campaign on Equal Rights to theAtmosphere. He assisted in despatching over2,000 copies of CSE’s briefing papers.

DINESH HARODE, a post-graduate with adiploma in urban and regional planning, didresearch work on the paper sector helped inprofile preparations of paper sector. He is also involved in research activities on the autosector.

K KARTIK an electrochemical engineer, hasbeen assigned to conduct research and preparean issues paper for the auto sector with theIndustry and Environment team of CSE.

JOJO JOHN is a commerce graduate and hasa masters degree in social work from TataInstitute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He hasbeen assigned to conduct research on the autosector for the Industry and Environment teamof CSE. His work mainly concentrates on datacollection for the issues paper.

Events organised by CSE

Launch of CSE’s Corporate EnvironmentalResponsibility Assessment and GreenRating Project by Manmohan Singh, for-mer finance minister, New Delhi, May 2,1997.

CSE Public Meeting ‘Slow Murder and Since’,at the World Wide Fund for NatureAuditorium, New Delhi, Nov 1, 1997.

Seminar on ‘Traffic and air quality issues’, CSEjointly organised the seminar with theIndian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhiand Max Mueller Bhavan, at IIT, Delhi,Dec 9-10, 1997.

Meeting of NGOs to Prepare an Agenda forthe Global Environment Facility CouncilMeeting, CSE organised the meeting, NewDelhi, Feb 9, 1998.

Workshop on “Is the GEF money only pro-tecting Northern country interest in theCBD?”, organised by CSE, VigyanBhawan, New Delhi, April, 1998: SumitaDasgupta presented a paper: Anil Agarwalchaired the meeting.

Official launch of Gobar Times organised by CSE, India Habitat Centre, NewDelhi, May 3, 1998: Actress Dina Pathakand senior police officer Kiran Bediattended.

NGO workshop on “Emission Trading andEntitlements” organised by CSE and co-sponsored by German NGO FORUM,Stadthalle, Bonn, Germany, June 6, 1998:Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain madepresentations. Nikhat Jamal Qaiyumattended.

National Conference on Health andEnvironment, organised by CSE, IndiaInternational Centre, New Delhi, July 7-9,1998: Full CSE staff attended.

Public lecture on “The Implications ofClimate Change on Health,” organised byCSE, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi,July 8, 1998: A Karim Ahmed, deputydirector of Health, Environment andDevelopment, World Resources Institutedelivered the lecture.

Workshop on water harvesting, Stockholm,organised by CSE, August 10-11, 1998:Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain partici-pated.

National Conference on Potential of WaterHarvesters: Traditions, Policies andSocial Mobilisation, organised by CSE,Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, October 3-5,1998: Full CSE staff attended.

Public lecture organised by CSE, India HabitatCentre, New Delhi, October 5, 1998:Anna Hazare, social activist, delivered thelecture.

Workshop on climate change ‘A fair share:Demanding Entitlements in an Equitableand Sustainable Climate Regime,’ organ-ised by CSE, India Habitat Centre, NewDelhi, October 24, 1998: Anil Agarwal,Sunita Narain and Nikhat Jamal Qaiyumparticipated.

Public lecture on ‘Slow Murder: The deadlystory of vehicular pollution in India’,organised by CSE, WWF auditorium,November 1, 1998: Anil Agarwal delivered the lecture, Priti Kumar made apresentation.

Workshop on ‘Clean DevelopmentMechanism: A Perspective from theSouth,’ organised by CSE, Buenos Aires,November 7, 1998: Anil Agarwal, SunitaNarain, Anju Sharma and Nikhat JamalQaiyum participated.

Workshop on ‘Towards Equity andSustainability in the Kyoto Protocol,’co-organised by CSE and StockholmEnvironment Institute, November 8, 1998: Anil Agarwal, Sunita Narain, AnjuSharma and Nikhat Jamal Qaiyum participated.

Press Conference on ‘Why private diesel carsneed to be banned’, organised by CSE,India Habitat Centre, New Delhi,December 9, 1998.

A public meeting titled ‘Science for ecologicalsecurity’ organised by CSE, India HabitatCentre, January 14, 1999: Amit Nair madea presentation.

Lecture on ‘Wood fuel trade’, organised byCSE Bhopal, February 17, 1999: AnilAgarwal delivered the lecture.

A public meeting to felicitate Sikkim ChiefMinister Pawan Chamling, organised byCSE, February 28, 1999.

A meeting on the impact that WTO wouldhave on Indian agriculture, organised byCSE, February, 1999.

Business Advisory Panel meeting of GRP,organised by CSE, March 27, 1999: CSEdirector Anil Agarwal and ChanderBhushan made presentations.

Events Attended by CSE

Speech on ‘Vehicular Pollution in India’,organised by Jadavpur University AlumniAssociation on the theme of ‘Delhi 2000’,India International Centre, New Delhi,April 12, 1997: Anumita Roychowdhurydelivered the speech.

Speech on ‘It is possible to deal with poverty:A new paradigm for poverty eradication,employment and rural resource manage-ment’, at the annual session of theCommission on Sustainable Development,

During the year


Events

organised by UNDP, New York, April 14,1997: Anil Agarwal delivered the speech.Sunita Narain attended.

Speech on ‘It is possible to deal with poverty:A new paradigm for poverty eradication,employment and rural resource manage-ment’, at the University of California,organised by department of agriculturaleconomics, College of Natural Resources,Berkeley, April 23, 1997: Anil Agarwaldelivered the speech.

Programme Policy Meeting, organised byWASTE Consultants, Gouda, theNetherlands, May 13-15, 1997: SunitaNarain attended.

Release of The Living World Part-II, a film onCSE, Copenhagen, May 14, 1997.

Speech on ‘Have we made much progresssince Rio?’, at an NGO meeting on Rio5,organised by a coalition of Danish NGOs,Copenhagen, May 15, 1997: Anil Agarwaldelivered the speech.

Speech on ‘Multilateral EnvironmentalAgreements and the WTO’, at the WTOSymposium on Trade Environment andSustainable Development, organised byWorld Trade Organization, Geneva, May20-21, 1997: Sunita Narain delivered thespeech.

Speech on ‘Sustainable Livelihoods andPoverty Eradication’, to the GoverningCouncil of UNDP on Poverty andEnvironment, organised by UNDP, NewYork, May 21, 1997: Anil Agarwal deliv-ered the speech.

Meeting of a study group on PublicAwareness and Participation, organised byIndependent World Commission onOceans, Lisbon, May 28-31, 1997: AnilAgarwal participated.

Speech on ‘Sustainable Development fromthe Perspective of the South’, at theCongress on ‘Ways out of the GrowthTrap’, organised by Heinrich Boll Stiftunge.v., Hamburg, Germany, May 30-31,1997: Sunita Narain delivered the speech.

Speech on “Issues in Vehicular Pollution inIndian Metros’, organised by Nature’s Soul’Freeing Delhi Of Pollution’, IndianInstitute of Technology, New Delhi, May31, 1997: Anumita Roychowdhury deliv-ered the speech.

Sub-committee meeting on NGOs, farmersand trade unions, organised by the gov-ernment of India as part of its efforts tocommemorate the 50th anniversary ofIndia’s Independence, New Delhi, June 4,1997: Anil Agarwal chaired the meeting.

Speech on ‘Vehicular Pollution and Policy’,organised by World Wide Fund ForNature-India and Imperial College ofScience and Technology, London, on‘Impact of Air Pollution on Agriculture inIndia’, New Delhi, June 9-10, 1997:Anumita Roychowdhury delivered thespeech.

Plenary speech on ‘Environmental Security’,at the 1997 open meeting of the HumanDimensions of Global EnvironmentalChange Research Community, IIASA,Luxembourg, June 12-14, 1997: SunitaNarain delivered the speech.

Speech on ‘Fifty years of India’s Environment,organised by East and West EducationalSociety, Patna, June 21, 1997: AnilAgarwal delivered the speech.

Convention on International Trade inEndangered Species in Flora and Fauna(CITES), Conference of Parties, organisedby IUCN, Harare, June 5-28 1997: AnjuSharma attended.

United Nations General Assembly SpecialSession, Earth Summit-II, New York, June23-27, 1997: Supriya Akerkar attended.

Ninth Meeting of the National RiverConservation Authority, New Delhi, July12, 1997: Anil Agarwal attended.

Conference on ‘Delhi — Control ofPollution’, called by Minister forEnvironment and Forests, Saifuddin Soz,New Delhi, July 15, 1997: Anil Agarwaland Sunita Narain attended.

Meeting with Expert Members, National RiverConservation Authority, New Delhi,August 27, 1997: Anil Agarwal attended.

Consultative Meeting on Public Informationand Consultation of the SectoralAssessment of the Hazardous WasteManagement, organised by the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests, New Delhi,September 2, 1997: Pradeep Dutt attended.

Conference on the Implementation ofMultilateral Environmental Agreement,Ways and Means, organised by theNetherlands Ministry of Environment, TheHague, September 15-16, 1997: SunitaNarain chaired.

Launch Workshop for Enhanced MalariaControl Project, New Delhi, September15-17, 1997: Priti Kumar participated.

Media Consultation Meeting, organised by theMedia Advocacy Group in collaborationwith UNICEF, Nutrition and ChildDevelopment section, New Delhi,September 13, 1997: Priti Kumar partici-pated.

The first Conference of Parties of theConvention to Combat Desertification, Rome, September 29-October 10, 1997:Supriya Akerkar attended.

Plenary speech on ‘Science and Environment:Issues Facing India in the 21st Century’, atthe Harvard Conference on Hinduism andEcology, organised by the department oftheological studies, Loyola MarymountUniversity, California, at Harvard, Oct 2-5,1997: Anil Agarwal delivered the speech.

Speech on ‘Governance for SustainableDevelopment’, at a lecture series spon-sored by the Environmental StudiesProgramme and the Office of the Provost,

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the American University, Washington DC,Oct 8, 1997: Anil Agarwal delivered thespeech.

Keynote address, on Managing WaterScarcity: Experience and Prospects, organ-ised by Indo-Dutch Programme onAlternatives in Development, Amersfoort,the Netherlands, Oct 13-17, 1997: AnilAgarwal delivered the speech.Weltwislschaft, Okologic & Entwichlunge.v.

Workshop on ‘Beyond Rio: Perspective ofInternational Civil Society Five Years AfterRio’, organised by WEED, Bonn, Germany,October 21-23, 1997: Sunita Narainattended.

Meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee(TAC) of the Global Water Partnership(GWP), Denmark, Oct 23-25, 1997:Sunita Narain participated in the meeting.

Council meeting of the Global EnvironmentalFacility, Washington, Nov 1-4, 1997:Neena Singh attended.

The Asia Regional Workshop on North-SouthDialogue on Climate Change, organisedby a consortium of environment anddevelopment organisations, Dhaka, Nov 8-10, 1997: Nikhat Jamal Qaiyum attended.

Task force meeting of the GlobalEnvironmental Facility, Nov 10, 1997:Sunita Narain attended.

Speech on ‘The Common Heritage of theGenetic Pool’, at the Conference on Peaceon the Oceans on the theme of CommonHeritage and the 21st Century, organisedby the International Ocean Institute, Gzira,Malta, Nov 15-18, 1997: Anil Agarwaldelivered the speech; Sunita Narainattended.

Speech on ‘Environment, Technology andLifestyles’, at the Sixth Indira GandhiConference on Post Colonial World-Inter-Defence and Identities’, organised by theIndira Gandhi Memorial Trust, New Delhi,Nov 19-22, 1997: Anil Agarwal deliveredthe speech.

Forum ’97: New Linkages in Conservationand Development, organised byConservation Development Forum,University of Florida, Istanbul, Nov 16-21,1997: Sunita Narain attended.

The Third Conference of Parties of the UnitedNations Framework Convention onClimate Change, Kyoto, Dec 1-10, 1997:Anil Agarwal and Anju Sharma attended.

Speech on ‘Environmental and AyurvedicFormulations’, at the seminar on the Stateof Ayurvedic Formulations in India, organ-ised by the Cancer Research Foundation,Dehradun, India International Centre,New Delhi, Dec 13, 1997: Anil Agarwaldelivered the speech.

Speech on ‘Conservation of Environment: Roleof Science and Technology’, organised bythe Defence Science Centre, DefenceScience Auditorium, New Delhi, Jan 1,

1998: Anil Agarwal delivered the speech.Implementation Monitoring Committee

Meeting on Various Issues Related toPlastics Waste Management, organised byMinistry of Environment and Forests,Paryavaran Bhawan, New Delhi, Feb 12,1998: Anil Agarwal attended.

International Dialogue Forum on GlobalWater Politics: Cooperation forTransboundary Water Management,organised by German Foundation forInternational Development, Bonn,Germany, Mar 3-5, 1998: Anil Agarwalattended.

India Water Partnership Steering CommitteeMeeting, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi,Mar 7, 1998: Anil Agarwal attended.

Environment Protection Authority Meeting,New Delhi, Mar 11, 1998: Anil Agarwalattended.

First Assembly of the Global EnvironmentFacility, New Delhi, April 1-3, 1998: AnilAgarwal addressed the plenary session.

International Symposium on ”Financing andCommercialisation of Hydro Power inIndia,“ New Delhi, April 14: SunitaNarain presented a paper.

Global Water Contract meeting organised byUniversidad Politecnica de Valencia,Spain, May 27–28, 1998: Sunita Narainattended.

Global Environmental Management Dialogueorganised by Yale University, School ofForestry and Environmental Studies, NewYork, USA, June 4–5, 1998: Sunita Narainattended.

Eighth Stockholm Water Symposium, spon-sored by Global Water Partnership,Sweden, August 10-11, 1998: AnilAgarwal and Sunita Narain attended.

Workshop on climate change, organised by theDutch National Committee forInternational Cooperation and SustainableDevelopment (NCDO), The Hague,Netherlands, September 9-15, 1998: CSEcampaigner Nikhat Jamal Qaiyum attended.

Meeting of Waste, Netherlands, September28-29, 1998: Sunita Narain attended.

Fourth Conference of Parties (CoP-4), BuenosAires, November, 1998: Anil Agarwal,Sunita Narain, Anju Sharma and NikhatJamal Qaiyum attended.

Meeting on ‘UN Convention to CombatDesertification,’ organised by UnitedNations Organization, Senegal,November 30-December 11, 1998: CSEcampaigner Anju Sharma attended.

A meeting on ‘Global Health Watch,’ organ-ised by The Rockefeller Foundation, Italy,November 9-13, 1998: Anil Agarwalattended.

Conference on ‘Corporate SustainabilityReporting Guideline’, organised byGlobal Research Initiative, Geneva,December 10-12, 1998: CSE representa-tive Chandra Bhushan attended.

During the year


A lecture on ‘Environment, Civil Society andGovernance’, organised by NorwegianForum for Environment andDevelopment, Oslo, December 16 1998:Anil Agarwal delivered the lecture.

Lecture on air pollution and child health,organised by Indian Academy of Pediatrics,New Delhi: CSE health unit coordinatorPriti Kumar delivered the lecture.

35th Biennial Conference organised by CMAIHyderabad: CSE health unit coordinatorPriti Kumar made a slide presentation onissues of environmental health,December, 1998.

Debate 21 organised by WEED and GER-MANWATCH, Hanover, Germany,January 17-19, 1999: Sunita Narain pre-sented a paper on ‘the debate on instru-ments for sustainable development for theclimate sector’.

UNDP-EC Poverty and Environment initia-tive, Brussels, January 19-21, 1999: AnilAgarwal made a presentation.

Workshop on ‘Interdisciplinary Dialogue onClimate, Biotechnology and Food andWater Security’, Chennai, February 2,1999: Anil Agarwal attended.

Meeting titled ‘Future of Mitigation, SouthAsian Disasters’, organised by DuryogNivaran and Disaster Mitigation Institutewith Ministry of Agriculture, Governmentof India, February 5-6, 1999: SunitaNarain attended.

Agenda for the Project Partner Meeting,Colombo, Sri Lanka, February 14-20,1999: Sunita Narain made a presentationon ‘What possibilities there are for “greenpolitics” in Asia and what is meant by“green politics” in the Asian context’.

Multi-stakeholder Consultative Meeting toIdentify the Key Elements of a Review ofVoluntary Initiatives, organised by theDepartment of Economic and SocialAffairs, United Nations, Toronto, Canada,March 10-12, 1999: CSE campaignerAnju Sharma attended.

Meeting with ministers and government offi-cials, Japan, March 11, 1999: AnilAgarwal attended the meeting.

Lecture on ‘Water pollution and its impacts onhuman health’ organised by Leadership inEnvironment and Development (LEED),New Delhi, March 11, 1999: CSE healthunit coordinator Priti Kumar delivered thelecture at the symposium.

World Commission for Water in the 21stCentury, Cairo, Egypt, March 23, 1999:Anil Agarwal attended the meeting.

A meeting with ministers and senior officials ofRajasthan government, March 11, 1999:Anil Agarwal addressed the gathering.

Workshop on developing a distance educa-tion certificate course on health andenvironment, organised by IGNOU,March 23-24, 1999: CSE health unit coor-dinator Priti Kumar participated.

A board meeting of The Information Centrefor Low External Input and SustainableAgriculture (ILEIA), organised by ETCFoundation, The Netherlands, September,1999: Sunita Narain attended.

Government Committee member: Anil Agarwal

1. Member, Implementation Committee, toCelebrate the 50th Anniversary of India’sIndependence, Government of India, 1997.

2. Member, Chairman, Advisory Group onFarmers, Trade Unions and NGO’sNational Committee to Celebrate the50th Anniversary of India’sIndependence. Government of India,1997.

3. Member, Visitor’s (President of India)nominee on the Selection Committee forthe post of professor in Centre for EnergyStudies and Centre for RuralDevelopment and Technology, IndiaInstitute of Technology, 1997.

4. Member, National River ConservationAuthority, Government of India, 1997.

5. Member, Working Group on theProspects of Leasing out Degraded ForestLands to the Private Entrepreneurs/ForestCorporations, Planning Commission,Government of India, 1997.

6. Member, Standing Committee, NationalRiver Conservation Authority, Govern-ment of India, 1997.

7. Member, International Working Groupon Sustainable Livelihoods, UnitedNations Development Programme, NewYork, 1997.

8. Member, World Water Commission,Stockholm, 1998.

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“Dying Wisdom” ,the fourth in CSE’s series ofState of India’s Environment reports, calcu-lates that rainwater collected by low cost tra-ditional methods in just some five percent ofthe country’s land area can meet most ofIndia’s farm and family needs. Kuensel,Bhutan, May 10, 1997.

“Slow Murder is a powerful investigation ofvehicle pollution in Indian cities, From oilrefineries to vehicle exhaust pipe and from traf-fic planner’s drawing board to smog monitor’slaboratory, no one anywhere in the world hasanatomised this global pandemic of noxiousfumes and cancerous particles so well.” Opinedthe New Scientist, England, May 10,1997.

On rain water harvesting, “ Given the alreadyhorrendous and still growing pollution ofIndia’s rivers with Industrial contaminants andfertiliser and pesticide run offs from farm-lands,Indians may soon have no other optionbut to capture raindrops”, said Anil Agarwal,Director, CSE. Bangladesh Observer, Dhaka,May 12, 1997.

“Centre for Science and Environment hasbeen doing yeoman service in making peopleaware of the problems consequent to ecologi-cal degradation and means to save our envi-ronment. The CSE’s seminal contributionstarting with its first status report to the nationon environment in the early 1980s and itshigh quality journal Down to Earth over thelast couple of years, is at its best in thisreport.” Opined The Economic Times,Hyderabad, May 18,1997.

Expressing surprise at a recent statementmade by Delhi health minister Harsh Vardhanthat there is no evidence to link pollution toheart and lung diseases, the Centre forScience and Environment called it “irrespon-sible, misleading and an attempt to underplaythe ill effects of pollution in order to lull thecitizens of Delhi into a false sense of compla-cency.” The Hindustan Times, New Delhi,June 18, 1999.

On the lower Gangetic plains, “ There is anurgent need to evolve an alternative develop-ment strategy in the lower Gangetic plainswhich has the maximum human concentra-tion in India. Despite the prevailing gravity ofthe situation, the government did not take anysteps to restore the old irrigation and drainagesystems or construct a new system, opined thenoted environmentalist, Mr. Anil Agarwal.Times of India, Patna, June 23, 1997.

For the first time in India, a Delhi based non-governmental organization, the Center ForScience and Environment has started a projectfor rating industries for eco friendliness.Significantly , the Green Rating Project hasbeen approved by the Ministry of Environmentand Forest and UNDP for inclusion in thecountry plan (1997-2001) reported the SundayObserver, New Delhi, July 13,1997.

On the quality of the drinking water suppliedto Delhi, Anil Agarwal warned that, “danger-ous pesticides and heavy metal residues arecontaminating the water in all the three watertreatment plants in Delhi and the presence ofsuch pollutants in drinking water could evenlead to cancer.” Rashtriya Sahara, NewDelhi, August 1,1997.

“If wrongs are not righted now,” Anil Agarwalwarned, “India may become the world’s mostpolluted zone”. Asia week, Hong Kong,September 5, 1997

Criticising Mr. Gujral’s endorsement of thethe Commonwealth Economic Declaration onpromoting shared responsibility, Mr. AnilAggarwal and Ms. Sunita Narain said that , “Itmarked the beginnning of the end of mostimportant principles of global environmentalpolicy of common but differentiated respon-sibility which was central to negotiations atRio in 1992.” The Hindu, New Delhi,November 7,1997.

The air in our cities and towns is so unfit forbreathing that a recent survey by the CentreFor Science and Environment (CSE) put allour major cities on the “unfit for breathing”list, opined India Today, New Delhi,November 17,1997.

On sea level rise due to global warming, AnilAgarwal responded by saying that , “ It’s onlythe blind who will say that such calamitousimpact of climate on a neighbour likeBangladesh won’t affect India”. The Outlook,New Delhi, December 8, 1997.

Flaying the inadequate data on pollution parameters, Anil Agarwal of CSE said,“Pollution control is a scientific exercise.There are no proper monitoring systems andthere is no data on the exact sources andnature of the pollutants. Such data is essentialin massive modelling exercise which have tobe done to understand the pollution issue.”Economic Times, New Delhi, December 12,1997

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On environmental activism, “India has one ofthe world’s most energetic NGOs as the Centrefor Science and Environment, which reports onthe state of the country’s environment” quotedthe New Scientist, December 13, 1997.

On A K Mukherjee’s recommendation thatforest land be given to industry for plantationsMs. Supriya Akerkar was quoted as saying,“The farmers who had switched over to farmforestry from agriculture stand to lose asindustry would stop buying their raw materi-al.”The Hindu, New Delhi, January 1, 1998.

“The situation in urban slums where most ofthe informal sectors operate is the worst.According to some estimates by the turn of thecentury 75 percent of the Mumbai’s populationwill be living in slums(Centre for Science andEnvironment 1985)” quoted by The Economicand Political Weekly, January 10, 1998.

On the circular of the MoEF setting out rulesand norms on sharing of biodiversityresources and knowledge among Indian andforeign universities and institutions, theCentre for Science & Environment reacted bysaying that, “it was a poor excuse for the gov-ernment’s failure to come with a national bio-diversity act, on which it has been dragging itsfeet ever since india ratified the conventionon biodiversity in Feb 1994.” The Hindu,New Delhi, February 26,1998.

On US patent for a strain of rice derived fromBasmati, Ms. Sumita Das Gupta said that,“The government has not introduced laws onbiodiversity and the protection of plant vari-ties even though India ratified the Conventionon biological diversity four years ago.” TheAsian Age, New Delhi, March 8,1998.

“Industry continues to get preferential treatmentand forest land on a platter, while the local people and tribal communities living in andaround the forest areas are thrown out to makeplace for the industry and are thus deprived oftheir livelihoods.” says a position paper of theCentre for Science and Environment. IndianExpress, New Delhi, April 19, 1998.

The Centre for Science and Environmentpoints to the irony inherent in GEF structurewhich it says, places, “the responsibility ofmanaging the environment in the hands of thevery agencies that helped to precipitate theenvironment crisis.” The Hindu, New Delhi,April 27, 1998.

On traditional water harvesting, Anil Agarwalwas quoted as saying, “Rain captured fromjust one or two percent of its land with simpletechniques could provide as much as 100litres of water per person daily-much morethan the 2.5 litres needed.” Kathmandu Post,Kathmandu, October 4, 1998.

“India needed a people’s movement in “waterliteracy” to meet its water needs and to pro-tect its water resources,” said the President,Mr. K R Narayanan at the inauguration of thenational conference on the potential of rain-water harvesting systems organised by theCentre For Science and Environment. TheStatesman, New Delhi, October 4, 1998.

“Noted environmentalist Anil Agarwal is ofthe view that the country does not have morethan 3.5% of pristine forest cover against thenorm of at least 33% suggested by theNational forest policy.” Deccan Herald,Bangalore, October 25, 1998.

Criticising the Indian government for sellingpoor quality diesel , Mr. Anil Agarwal said,“The diesel manufactured by the public sectorIndian refineries is 250 times dirtier than theworld’s best.” The Hindu, New Delhi,November 2, 1998.

A study conducted by the Centre for Scienceand Environment has revealed that, while theGDP in India has gone up by two and a halftimes during 1975-95, industrial air pollutionhas gone up four times and pollution fromvehicles by a shocking eight times. The AsianAge, New Delhi, November 2, 1998.

The Centre for Science and Environmentadded Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee‘shome phone number to list of demands formeasures to help ease the air quality crisiswhich claims 10,000 lives annually in Delhi.Harried staff at the PM’s residence werebewildered when hundreds of callers rang tocomplain about disastrous air pollution levelsin the capital. The South China Morning Post,Hong Kong, November 4, 1998.

Clean air is obviously not a priority for thoseliving in Delhi, the fourth most polluted cityin the world. Not surprisingly, only 22 of the815 candidates contesting the Delhi assem-bly elections have signed the “Clean Air”pledge issued by Centre for Science andEnvironment. The Times of India, New Delhi,November 26, 1998.

On the decline in the population of vultures,“Vultures are on the same food chain ashumans,” said Mr. Anil Agarwal, and added,“We depend on the same species as the vul-tures for dairy meat products and are probablyaccumulating the same toxins in our bodies.The Statesman, New Delhi, January 15, 1999.

On the decline in the population of vultures,teaming up with the Centre for Science andEnvironment in Delhi, the BNHS scientistshave now confirmed high levels of deadlypesticides like DDT and BHC in animal car-casses on which vultures feed. India Today,New Delhi, January 25, 1999.

Financial Overview


Rs. in Lakh

I. Sources of Funds 1998-99 1997-98

Capital Fund 501.37 424.57Corpus Fund 25.84 –Total 527.21 424.57

II. Utilisation of Funds(a) Fixed Assets (Buildings, Equipments, etc.) 238.29 238.68(b) Corpus Investments 25.60 –(c) Other Investments 218.37 152.38(d) Current Assets

Receivable for Services 12.15 7.27Other Receivable & Advances 17.18 11.44Accrued Interest 11.52 2.75Cash & Bank Balances 10.30 24.73

Less: Current LiabilitiesAdvances (1.66) (1.27)Expenses Payable (4.54) (11.41)

Total 527.21 424.57

Table 1: Financial summary - 1997-98 and 1998-1999

Percentage expenditure

1998-99

Communication 4.32

Computer and Stationery 2.39

Film Production, Exhibition and Public Advertisement 1.79

Honorarium 6.93

Paper and Printing 14.78

Repair, Maintenance and AMCs 4.52

Resource Material 3.22

Salaries and Employee benefits 35.21

Seminar and Conference 8.66

Travelling and Conveyance 11.75

Miscellaneous 6.33

Total 100.00

Table 2: What we spend on: distribution of expenditure by account heads

Graph 1: Trend in total expenditure (1990-91 to 1998-99)

40

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120

160

200

240

280

320

360

1990

-91

1991

-92

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1997

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1998

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Expe

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Our Donors 1997-99

We are grateful to the following for supporting the various programmes of the Center during thepast two years:

Corpus GrantsSir Ratan Tata Trust, Mumbai

Institutional GrantsSwedish International Development Agency (SIDA), New Delhi

Programme GrantsEvangelische Zentralstelle Fur Entwicklungshilfe E V (EZE), Bonn

Ford Foundation, New Delhi

DanChurchAid, New Delhi

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New Delhi and Ministry of Environment andForest.

MacArthur Foundation, Chicago

Rockefeller Foundation , New York

Project Grants Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi

Rajiv Gandhi Mission for Watershed Management, Madhya Pradesh Government, Bhopal

Danish International Development Agency, New Delhi

Action Aid, Bangalore

United Nations InterAgency Working Group on Water and Environmental Sanitation (UN-IAWG-WES), New Delhi

Department for International Development (DFID), New Delhi

Worldwide Fund for Nature, Global Threats Program , Washington D.C.

Worldwide Fund for Nature, Russell E. Train Education for Nature Program, Washington D.C.

Commonwealth Science Council, London

Heinrich Boell Foundation, Lahore & Bonn

Small Project Environment Fund of the Canadian International Development Agency, New Delhi.

Indo-German Social Service Society, New Delhi.

Graph 2: Programmewise distribution of expenditure for 1988-1999

Films MiscellaneousProject (2%)

EnvironmentInformation andDissemenition (2%)

EnvironmentEducation (6%)

Research and advocacyprogrammes (41%)

Science andEnvironmentInformation (33%)

EnvironmentalResource (16%)

Financial Overview


• A Dutta • Abhay Kaiker • Achila Imchen • Adit Dave • Ajay Ahuja • Ajay Mahajan • Ajay Talwar • Ajit Chak • Ajoy Bagchi • AK Saxena • AK Upadhyay • Akhilesh Kumar • Akila Seshasayee • Akshay Kumar • Aman Kasewa • Ambika S Pillai • Amit Nair • Amit Shanker • Amita Baig • Amita Baviskar • Anand Singh Rawat • Anandi Iyer • Anil Agarwal • Anita Anand • Anju Sharma • Ann Ninan • Anshika Varma • Anu Rana • Anudeep Bawa • Anumita Roy Chowdhury • Anupam Joshi • Anupam Verma • Anuradha Chatterjee • Aparna Sethi • Aradhya Roy • Arokia Raj • Arun Kumar Agarwal • Aruna Kumar • Arvinder Dhingra • Ashok Grover • Ashok Sharma • Atanu Chakraborty • Atul Moudgil • AV Nageshwara Rao • Ayushman • B Paul William • BG Verghese • Bharati Chaturvedi • Bhaswati • Bindu Susan • BN Sahni • Brig SC Sareen • Brigittee Klein • Business Workshop • BV Balasubramanian • Chandrabhusan • Choudhari • CK Marfatia • CK Varshney • Col Chandermohan • Col Manchanda • Col RS Verma • Concerned citizens of Mumbai • CP Bhatnagar • D Chakravorty • D Thapliyal • Davis • Deepali Manglik • Dinesh Goel • Dinesh Mehta • DM Nair • DN Puri • Ecotech Services • Staff of Danish Embassy • Francis Wacziarg • Franz Haller• G & T SHV Energy Distribution Co. Ltd • G & T Diesel Controls Pvt Ltd • G & T Yugo Tech Pvt Ltd • Gargi College Students • Gauri Angrish • Gautam Soni • GB Bajai • Geeta Dutt • Gita Kavarna • Gopal Agarwal • Gurinder Singh• Harbans Wasir • Hari Parmeshwar • Harsh Sethi• Hay Soree • I Khan • Ila Varma • Indira Khurana • IS Gupta • Itwarilal • Jagdeep Gupta • Jainamma • Jamal Kidwai • Jatin Das • Jaya Iyer • Jaya Rawat • Jitendra Verma • Joe D’Souza • Justice HL Anand • Jyotsana Roy Chowdhury • Kalyani • Kalyani Mitra • Kamla Bhasin • Kanta Reddy • Kapil Raina • Karan Dhingra • Kavita Dutta • Kesar Singh • Kiran Krishna Real Estates Pvt Ltd• Kiran Kumari • Kiran Pandey • Kirpal Singh • KK Sud • Kompella Srinivas • Krishna • KT Dineshan • Kulan Amin • Lalit Arora • Lawrence Surendra • Lena Bose • Lovina Zeya • M Thirumeninathan • Maan Shree • Madhu Shankar • Madhumita Paul • Mainak Hazra • Maj Gen Bugga • Manish Tiwari • Manoj Mohan • Meenakshi Kaul • Meera Chatterjee • Mily Chakrabarty • ML Dewan • Mohan George• Mohit Agarwal • Monali Zeya • Monika Malhotra • Mr& Ms Akshay Kumar • Mridula Chettri • Mukesh Asija • N C Bose Croos • Neena Menon • Neeraj Ahuja • Nikhat Jamal Qaiyum

• NKochupillai • NL Kalra • Nyay Bhusan • Ombir • Onkar Goswami • Oroon Das • P Arbani • P Chopra • Panda’s Family • Parag Gupta • Patrick Krause • PD Francis • Pearl International Tours & Travels Pvt Ltd • Phillippe Jacques • PKS Mani • PN Tacker • PP Sanghal • Prabhu Ghate • Pradeep Monga • Pragya Agarwal • Pratibha Ramakrishnan • Prayag Mehta • Prema Anand • Prithvi Dutta • Priya Paul • Prof Yashpal • Puja Chough • Punam Gupta • Puneet Saluja • Puneeta Roy • Pushpa Thapliyal • Rahul Bedi • Rahul Ram • Raja • Rajat Banerji • Rajat Baran • Rajgopal • Rajiv Jain • Rajiv KR • Rajiv Sethi • Rakesh Sachdeva • Rama Nair • Ramesh • Ranjan Samantaray• Ranjana Subramanian • Rashi Kumar • Rashmi Mohan • Rekha Rajkumar • Renu Chopra • Richard Mahapatra • Richard Montanari • Riti Jain Dhar • Ritika Poddar • Ritu Kumar • RK Ratan • Rohit Chibber • Roop Brar • Rosemarie • RP Sharma • RS Rawat• RSG Infotech • Rukmani Sekhar • Rupa Das • Rupa Lal • Rustam Vania • S Jeevan • S Shankar • S Sudha • Safdar Agha • Sahasranaman • Sailendra Misra • Samaj Bharti Trust • Sameer Akbar • Sameer Srishti • Samyabrata Ray Goswami • Sandhya Batra • Sangeeta G Bawa • Sanjeen Sahni • Sanjeev Lowe • Sanjeev Sharma• Sanjeevan • Sanrachna • Sarvjeet Bedi • Sashikala Imchen • Sasi Mehta • Satish VC • Saurabh Prakash • Savita Bagai • Seema Varma• Sehel Khan • Shalini Chhabra • Sharda • Sharon Susan • Sharupa • Shashank Rohatangi • Sheeja • Shefali Verma • Shiuli Chowdhury • Shivasankaran • Shri Krishan • Shroff Eye Centre• Shyam Kumar • Simon Franken • SK Akhtar • SK Kacker • SK Sinha • Smita Divan • Sohail Khan • Sona Marketing • Sonia Lokku • Sopan Joshi • Srabani Sen • Srinivasan • Subir Ghosh • Sudhakaran Nair • Sudhanshu Rawat • Sudipta Mukhopadhyay • Sujata Mitra • Sumedha Rajendran • Sumeet Saxena • Sumita Sachdeva • Sunil Kumar • Sunita Narian • Suparna Das • Supriya • Supriya Akerker • Surat Singh • Surender Singh • Suresh Sadana • Susan Chacko• Sushil Saigal • Systems Graphics • Team Computers Pvt Ltd • Tejasi Bhatnagar • Tejbir Singh • Tito Joseph • Tripta Singh • TT Kanwar • Uma Hiremath • Uma Khan • Usha Narain • Usha Soni • Vaid Balendu Prakash • Vandana Varma • Vanita Bagga • Veera Angrish • Venugopal • Vikas Khanna • Vikram Roy • Vinayak Rao • Vinod Chettri • Vinod Kumar • Vinod Sharma • Vishal Narang • Vivek • Vivek Verma • VP Sharma • VS Rao • Walter Jahn • Yoga Rangatia

Donors for the public interestadvertisement on air pollution

We are grateful to the following concerned citizens who supported our advertisement in

The Times of India and Navbharat Times on November 22, 1998: (see page 19, Clean air is our

birth right)

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CSE’S executive board (31.3.99)

V Ramalingaswami ChairpersonEminent medical scientist; for-mer director of the All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences;former director-general of theIndian Council of MedicalResearch; currently a NationalResearch Professor

William Bissell, TreasurerDirector of Fab india OverseasLtd and the managing Trustee ofthe Bhadrajun Artisans Trustwhich runs schools in Jodhpurdistrict of Rajasthan.

Anil Agarwal Director Environmentalist and journalist,former science correspondent ofThe Hindustan Times and TheIndian Express, and fellow of theInternational Institute ofEnvironment and Development,London

Sunita Narain Deputy DirectorEnvironmentalist and journalist;author and co-editor of severalbooks on environment

Ela BhattNoted social worker; founder of SEWA, Ahmedabad; and former Planning Commissionmember.

Kamla ChowdhryManagement expert; formerchairperson of the NationalWastelands DevelopmentBoard; currently, chairperson ofthe Society for Promotion ofWastelands Development.

Vikram LalIndustrialist and Chairman of the Eicher Group. Currentlywith the Vikram SarabhaiFoundation.

G N GuptaTax expert, former chairperson ofthe Central Board of Direct taxes,Government of India

Virendra Kumar Professor of botany, environ-mentalist, an expert onHimalayan flora, and formeradviser (hill areas) to thePlanning Commission.

B G VergheseEminent journalist; former editorof The Hindustan Times and TheIndian Express; currently workswith the Centre for PolicyResearch on South Asian WaterIssues.

ObituaryAVANINDER SINGH, member of the executive board of CSE, passed away on December 16, 1997after suffering from cancer for over a year. During CSE’s brief association with him, the Centrebenefited enormously from his advice on a variety of issues. He was one of the first industry lead-ers to have an enlightened outlook about environmental protection and did pioneering work asthe chairperson of the Environment Committee of the Confederation of the Indian Industry. Singhtook very active interest in the Centre’s programmes and helped it enormously by interacting withand advising members of different programme units on diverse issues.

He will be missed acutely by CSE and will always be remembered as a friend, counsellor andmentor.

V K LAROIA, who was the Treasurer of the Centre, passed away on May 4 of a heart attack. MrLaroia involved himself deeply in the affairs of the Centre and went out of his way to help withsuggestions, ideas, and contacts for our various programmes — be it the air pollution campaignor the green rating programme. He provided the Centre invaluable support in management issueslike finance or marketing and was full of ideas at Board meetings. He also shouldered the respon-sibility of being the Treasurer of the Centre and lent his expertise on financial management of theCentre.

His passing away was a great blow to the Centre and he will be greatly missed by CSE.

Executive board

Staff


DIRECTORAnil Agarwal

Director’s OfficeS SudhaJainamma GeorgeK SahasranamamAnil Kumar

DEPUTY DIRECTORSunita Narain

Deputy Director’s OfficeV S Rao

BOARD AND FUNDINGGita KavaranaAnuradha Chatterji

PROGRAMME MANAGEMENTAND RECRUITMENT TEAMJagdeep Gupta

CELL FOR POLICY RESEARCHAND ADVOCACY

Pollution prevention and controlAnumita Roychowdhury

Rajat Banerji

Natural Resource ManagementIndira KhuranaV S Saravanan

Global EnvironmentalGovernance teamAnju SharmaAchila ImchenNikhat Jamal Qaiyum

CELL FOR SCIENCE ANDENVIRONMENT INFORMATION

Science and EnvironmentReportage Unit

News TeamMax MartinJitendra VermaRichard MahapatraKazimuddin AhmedManish TiwariLian Chawii

Copy TeamAjit Chak

Darryl CorreyaSopan JoshiMridula ChettriS S JeevanJamal Kidwai

Commissioning TeamSamyabrata Ray GoswamiD M Nair

Art and Design TeamPradip SahaAmit ShankerSuparna DasRajat Baran ChakravartyAkhilesh Kumar

Books And NewslettersProduction TeamSrabani SenPremangshu RayYoga RangatiaSubir GhoshSanjeev SharmaMily Chakrabarty

Environmental Films TeamPradip Saha

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION TEAMRustam VaniaLena BoseAyushman Choudhary

WebsiteUsha ShekharS Shankar Lingam

CELL FOR ENVIRONMENTRESOURCES AND PRODUCTS

Books, Documents andJournals TeamN VenugopalanK M SheejaD S ThapliyalKiran Kumari

Audio-Visuals TeamSabari ChoudharyAnita ChoudharyRupa ChatterjeeIndu M G

Newspapers andNewsmagazines TeamKiran PandeyMadhumita PalPushpa Thapliyal

Sushan ChackoTito Joseph

Database TeamMonika MalhotraVikas Khanna

INDUSTRY AND ENVIRONMENT TEAMChandra BhushanMonali ZeyaMeenakshi Kaul

HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTTEAMPriti KumarAmit Nair Nidhi Jamwal

ENVIRONMENT INFORMA-TION DISSEMINATION TEAMI KhanRajiv Kumar

CELL FOR MANAGEMENT SUPPORTC Mohan

Accounts and Finance Safdar AghaAnupam VermaAjay KumarK RajagopalanB V Balasubramaniam

Sales and Despatch L Mukunda PaiK C R RajaBiju Joseph

Administration and EstateManagement K SivasankaranJ K SharmaSuresh KumarM A JoseSayed Haider RazaKesar SinghAshish Giri

Production and PrintingB Paul WilliamR Arokia RajShri KrishanAnand Singh RawatKirpal SinghSurender Singh

Systems and Communications K S L SrinivasanRajendra Rawat

Who’s who at CSE

DOWN TO EARTH?

S C I E N C E A N D E N V I R O N M E N T F O R T N I G H T L Y

DownToEarthw o

Send payment to: Society for Environmental Communications

41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi-110 062

Phone: 6081110, 6081124, 6086399 Fax: 91-11-6085879

Email: [email protected] Website: www.cseindia.org

Finance

Economics

Politics

Markets

Diplomacy

Conflicts

Developments...

...Down To Earth looks at all this but

with the eyes of science and environment.

While journalism normally focuses only

on specific events, the high points of human

endeavour and existence,

Down To Earth also adds analyses of the

underlying trends and processes to its

reportage—the slow erosion that ultimately

produces a vast, barren landscape.

The magazine presents an international

spectrum of current events, but its global

outlook is juxtaposed with a concern born out

of Indian reality.

Since learning is best done by listening,

Down To Earth will always endeavour

to bring reports from farms, fields, forests,

factories and laboratories—where the struggle

for survival and for progress is at its peak

and at its best.

PREPARING YOU TO CHANGE THE FUTUREE V E R Y F O R T N I G H T

Yes,Please send me 24 / 48 / 72 issues of Down To Earth

Name _____________________________________________________________________

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✄

DownToEarth

The PIL impasse: the undoing of environmental activismWrong assumptions: UK's air quality monitoring models

Visionary transplants: from foetuses to the blind

Bang

lade

sh: T

aka

58.0

0 / P

akis

tan:

Rs

58.0

0 / N

epal

: Rs

38.0

0 / S

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: Rs

117.

00 /

Mal

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f 28

.00

/ Bhu

tan:

Ngu

ltru

m 2

4 / R

est

of t

he W

orld

(Sou

th):

US$

2.7

0 / R

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(Nor

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US$

3.4

0

SUBS

CRIB

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NO

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SALE

S C I E N C E A N D E N V I R O N M E N T F O R T N I G H T L Y

MARCH 15, 1997

Rs 20.00

A three-millennia-old tradition of harvesting water is being driven to

extinction by government apathy. Even as many are trying to revive it

Water wealth

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE MORE THAN 55%

1yr 2yrs 3yrs24 issues 48 issues 72 issues

INDIA Rs 264 Rs 455 Rs 642

DISCOUNT 45% 53% 56%

pg 87

STATE OF INDIA’S ENVIRONMENT

First Citizens’ Report-1982 (SOE-1) Hardbound Rs. 290 US $12 Paperback Rs. 190 US $10

Second Citizens’ Report-1984-85 (SOE-2) Hardbound Rs. 490 US $18 Paperback Rs. 290 US $12

Third Citizens’ Report-1991 (SOE-3)Floods, Flood Plains & Environmental MythsHardbound Rs. 290 US $12 Paperback Rs. 190 US $10

Fourth Citizens’ Report-1997 (SOE-4)Dying Wisdom: Rise, Fall and Potential of India’sTraditional Water Harvesting SystemsHardbound Rs. 490 US $18 Paperback Rs. 290 US $12

Fifth Citizens’ Report-1999 (SOE-5)Paperback Rs. 590 US $39

Towards Green VillagesA Strategy for Environmentally Sound andParticipatory Rural DevelopmentPaperback English Rs. 60 US $10

Hindi Rs. 30 US $5

Towards a Green WorldShould Global Environmental Management be builton Legal Conventions or Human Rights?Hardbound Rs. 350 US $18 Paperback Rs. 200 US $10

The Price of ForestsProceedings of a Seminar on the Economics of theSustainable use of Forest ResourcesHardbound Rs. 180 US $22

The Challenge of the Balance Environmental Economics in India,Proceedings of the National Environment andEconomics MeetingHardbound Rs. 590 US $22

GLOBAL WARMINGIn an unequal World A case of environmental colonialismRs. 30 US $6

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL NEGOTIATIONS-1 (GEN-1)Paperback Rs. 590 US $26

Children’s Story BooksNaina’s Village Rs. 20 US $5 Chipko Rs. 20 US $5 The Chilika Lake adventure Rs. 65

STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT SERIESThe Curse of the White Gold (SOE Series-1)Paperback Rs. 75 US $7

Protection of Nature Parks Whose Business? (SOE Series-2)Paperback Rs. 75 US $7

Slow Murder The Deadly Story of Vehicular Pollution in India (SOE Series-3)Hardbound Rs. 390 US $19 Paperback Rs. 75 US $7

Homicide by Pesticides What Pollution does to our Bodies (SOE Series-4)Paperback Rs. 75 US $7

WEALTH OF THE NATION VIDEO SERIES

The Living Word32 mins Pal VHS Rs. 750 US $25

Harvest of Rain48 mins Pal VHS Rs. 750 US $25

Thar: Secrets of the Desert52 mins Pal VHS Rs.750 US $25

The Village Republic50 mins Pal VHS Rs. 750 US $25

Set of 4 cassettes Rs. 2,500 US $90

DIRECTORIES

Health LinksA Directory of experts on environmental healthRs. 65 US $6

Natural Resource LinksA Directory of Government departments and institutions dealing with India’s natural resourceRs. 490

Water LinksA Directory of Water HarvestersRs. 65 US $6

CSE PUBLICATIONS

CSE CENTRE FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT

41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi - 110 062

Tel: 91-11-608 6399, 608 3394, 608 1110 Fax: 91-11-608 5879

Email: [email protected] Website: www.cseindia.org

pg 88

Centre for Science and Environment41, Tughlakabad Institutional AreaNew Delhi 110 062Tel: 91-11-6081110, 6081124, 6083394, 6086399Fax: 91-11-6085879, 6080870Email: [email protected] Website: www.cseindia.org

All visuals are from CSE libraryCartoons and graphics are by Rustam Vania, Satya Viswanathan and Akhilesh

Printed at Excellent Printing House, New Delhi

Inside pages are printed on relatively environment-friendly paper made out of bagasse and cover is printed on paper made out of 100% recycled wasteCSE

cseDIRECTOR’S REPORT 1997-99


New Delhi

CSE


41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area

New Delhi 110062

Tel: 6081110, 6086399, 6081124, 6083394

Fax: 6085879

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.cseindia.org

Leaves of important survival trees of India — MAHUA, ALDER, OAK, KHEJDI, PALMYRA

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