Letters

Tax groundwater too

Uday Shankar's commentary on the Groundwater Bill was well written. Groundwater should be essentially used by trees and not by any other life system. We humans are to satisfy our needs by harvesting rain water and animals, with surface availabilities.

I think a use-oriented taxation is a much better deterrent than any other administrative or legal measure to regulate groundwater usage. Permits and controls are useless as they often lead to coercion and corruption. Use-oriented taxation can be based on the depth of the well, diameter of the delivery pipe and the energy used for pumping water. It would be easier to tax and check overdrawing of groundwater if the taxation is based on the energy used in pumping water. Non-power-based lifting of groundwater and surface storage pumping can be exempted from such taxation.

Surface runoff water from a river or stream can be effectively used by installing a system of weirs and tanks. This system can be much more efficient than the large dam-cum-canal irrigation model and can be handled by local people. In fact, the former system is responsible for the maintenance of south India's groundwater levels. There is no doubt that areas without this system are affected more severely by a drought.

As irrigated agriculture provides an assured income, government schemes for rational use of irrigation water and taxing the same accordingly is not going to be resisted by farmers. As far as they are concerned, any other form of intervention other than taxation is nothing but mischief.

...

Responsible forestry

With the rise of green consumerism, more and more timber products are now labelled "sustainably produced".

What does "sustainably produced" mean? At the most basic level, it can simply mean that for each tree cut down, a seedling was planted. If the seedlings are cared for properly and all goes well, the level of wood production would be maintained over the years.

But this is not enough. Forests are more than just sources of timber. To maintain the complex forest ecosystem and its benefits to local communities, many more safeguards have to be met before timber produced can be truly described as "sustainable".

At the moment, anyone can claim their wood products are "sustainably produced". But how do we know these claims are genuine, and that by buying those products we are not contributing to forest destruction? The Soil Association intends to end this confusion. Our new forestry project will carry out research to clearly define forestry practices that do not damage the environment and benefit local communities. We call this "responsible forestry".

Our forestry awareness campaign will help consumers to make informed decisions when buying wood products because they can be sure that wood products bearing our label are genuinely from a well-managed source.

...

Fellowships

The Centre for Science and Environment is offering fellowships-cum-travel grants to journalists, photographers, artists and freelancers who are interested in writing about environmental issues in India. Fellowships are open to both professionals and freelancers. Details of the scheme may be obtained from CSE, F-6, Kailash Colony, New Delhi 110 048....

Letters Letters