Nobel laureate Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore when visited Karwar, a coastal town in south Indian state of Karnataka in 1882, dedicated a chapter in his memoirs to this town. But that was in the past. The town known mostly for its long stretched sun kissed beaches, old Portuguese remnants, Maratha past, sea food, mangrove islands and lot more has gone under the hammer of ‘development’ for some time now and remains very less about anything that would inspire another Tagore. We all are very much aware how development of any city has its own drawbacks – people get displaced, vegetation gets destroyed and lot more happens that we all have got used to for now. And most of us agree it’s fine when pros weigh down the cons of any such development plan. But consider this now. There is a plan (as you read this the work is already under progress on ground) for widening of National Highway 66 from Kundapur to Karwar to make 4 lane roads into 6 and from 2 to 4. In a RTI application filed by this writer it says, as per the joint assessment of the highway side trees by DPR consultants and the Forest Department, the total number of trees to be cut is 23491 numbers of which 18600 are already uprooted as on 16th April, 2016. Now you may be wondering that like big cities we may be facing traffic woes or other issues that demand for such a dramatic step but let me tell you, we face none such. Except when a celebrity arrives, I have heard never that we have faced any traffic snarl. Over 40% of the trees on this stretch are more than 100 years old. Even today if you walk inside the market perimeter of Karwar, even during mid-afternoon, you will least face the sun, thanks to the huge trees spanning their branches all along. Similar was the tale of driving by the sea on Natioanl Highway few months ago before all these trees were felled to give way for this project. The proposed six lane highway passes less than 500 meters from the high tide level, which will destroy many eco-sensitive mangrove forests, in turn affecting marine life.

When should the environment give way for such a development is a question environmentalists ask every time they hear about any such developmental project. There are always ways in which loss can be minimized or averted but most of the time authorities and contractors in wish of saving some extra money ignore them all. “Climate Change is real,” said Leonardo Caprio while receiving his Academy award. Most of us shared that video on social network and elsewhere but did we really thought about it? Did we ask ourselves what we can do and what we can avoid to help save this planet of ours? I fear not. Recently NDTV anchor Ravish Kumar while doing his daily prime time show on Chennai floods talked about the rampant ‘development’ ignoring the environment as one important reason for such large scale devastation due to nature’s fury. There is case of Marathwada suffering from consecutive drought; Latur which has gone under the severe hammer of development leaving it void of any trees! There are numerous such cases but it looks like we learn nothing out of them. 23491 is a figure arrived at after some survey but the real figure would be quite more. And this figure would have effect on environment. People living around the stretch are bound to suffer in near or far future, and then we will run to call it ‘nature’s fury’ on newspapers and television channels, realizing scarce how we all contributed to it.

There is also the case of people being displaced. What is surprising is how some people who gave land to Naval Base Seabird in Karwar will be required to give away their land for second time. Many people who gave their land for the Seabird project 20 years ago are yet to receive the promised compensation. Most of the land acquisition that happens for big ticket development ends on similar note in India. People are promised big; their lands are taken and then begin the long saga of people left begging for the price of their own land.

On other hand, no construction is allowed near historical monuments and sites but in Karwar, before its people could know any of such things, a whole site is being bulldozed which could have been saved otherwise. But saving would have came at a cost. And cost here was a newly constructed hotel which belongs to local politician. So to save his hotel a historical site was made to pave way for the former minister’s business interests. The historical site belongs to the times of Shivaji Maharaj who otherwise commands huge respect in popular parlance. It was situated on the half of the hill(in picture above) which is being destroyed to save the hotel.

Watch ‘Taking down a hill and bulldozing an archaeological site to save Minister’s Hotel!’

Between all this, the reactions from local people are all mixed and protests from minimal to none. There were some protests earlier but they somehow fizzled down quite at early stages. A friend of mine was happy to see the road getting wide but when asked what difference will it make, he had no plausible answer. Most have the opinion that this was misplaced priority when there are other issues where the same resources could have been channeled. Karwar receives humongous amounts of rain yet during summer few regions go dry and people therein are made to travel long distances to fetch water or rely on water tankers. Despite all the signs, the authorities are yet to wake up to the task of water conservation, rain water harvesting or improving the levels of ground water. Just to make the reader understand the importance of rain water harvesting, consider the case of Marathwada which is reeling under drought for the second consecutive year. If you are not living under the rocks you will be aware of record number of farmer suicides (9 farmers daily ) due to crop failure and debts, and also the deaths related to water shortage and unbearable heat in the region. There was also that story of 12 year old girl walking miles for fetching water and falling to death because of heat stroke on her journey. There are many such stories and one simply can’t blame rain gods and pass the buck to skies. We have collectively created the drought and if we are not serious and fail to revive the groundwater then perhaps Maharashtra will have its first desert in the name of Marathwada. Bottom-line – We have created the drought! I’m not suggesting Karwar is anywhere closer to grim picture of Marathwada but a decade ago nobody had the clue Marathwada would be where it is today. So if not anything we need to prepare ourselves for the worst. Rajasthan last year received half the amount of rain Marathwada received but they aren’t facing the problems which drought hit Marathwada is facing. And no, they don’t have some magical perennial river to quench their thirst but they had prepared for summer in advance; they had not let rain drops go waste but had caught them, saved them for future. They had done rain water harvesting! Ground-water is precious. But somehow those in Karwar and elsewhere are using that precious water for construction of buildings and everything where any other water can be put to use.

Development is necessary but what sort of development and who will decide that and for whose sake. Big contractors, builders and politicians all fill their pockets and snore in their air-conditioned offices while the poor face the brunt of their actions on ground in the way of rising heat and ground water shortage. The place where I live – those who live on ground, who are local farmers and indulge in small jobs get water for once a week but at same place, those who live in multi-storied buildings get water daily. Why? Simple, because they can afford it!

I’m nowhere suggesting roads shouldn’t be built or they not be widened, we had ambitious Konkan Railway project where huge number of trees were cut but that route was absolutely necessary considering the joining of southern states with financial capital of Mumbai but how necessary is present one? And this is not building new ones but widening it. I will leave it to my wise reader to decide what is right and what is wrong. Just remember one thing though, your decision and opinion has widespread ramifications, not just to the present generation but it holds its effects to future generation as well. We are increasingly harming mother earth, damaging her ways and when it hits back, call it ‘nature’s fury’ when it is but fruits of our own deeds!