Supreme Court of Canada Grants Aboriginal title over Tsilhqot'in First Nation land

"A Supreme Court of Canada decision has granted the Tsilhqot'in First Nation of British Columbia Aboriginal title over a wide area of traditional territory. The unanimous 8-0 decision, gives the Tsilhqot'in First Nation rights to more than 1,700 square kilometers of land. The group now has rights to the land, the right to use land and the right to profit from the land.

Reports indicate that this is the Supreme Court's first on Aboriginal title, and can be used as a precedent wherever there are unresolved land claims."

Supreme Court of Canada Grants Aboriginal title over Tsilhqot'in First Nation land
http://natural-justice.blogspot.in/2014/06/supreme-court-of-canada-grants.html

The Tsilhqot'in Language: http://www.terralingua.org/voicesoftheearth/tsilhqotin/

Ethics & Land

"The first ethics dealt with the relation between individuals; the Mosaic Decalogue is an example. Later accretions dealt with the relation between the individual and society. The Golden Rule tries to integrate the individual to society; democracy to integrate social organization to the individual.

There is as yet no ethic dealing with man's relation to land and to animals and plants which grow upon it. Land, like Odysseus's slave-girls, is still property. The land-relation is still strictly economic, entailing privileges but not obligations."

Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac, 1949
Page 69, ‘Finding Beauty in a Broken World’, Terry Tempest Williams

http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Beauty-Broken-World-Vintage/dp/0375725199

Extending Our Idea of Community

"I offer my opinion to The New York Times, on Groundhog Day, 2003, just weeks before we invade Iraq:

.....As we find ourselves on the eve of war with Iraq, why should we care about the fate of a rodent (the prairie dog), an animal many simply see as a "varmint". Why should we as citizens of the United States of America with issues of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, racism, and a shaky economy care about the status and well-being of an almost invisible animal that spends half of its life underground in the western grasslands of this nation?

Quite simply, because the story of the Utah prairie dog is the story of the range of our compassion. If we can extend our idea of community to include the lowliest of creatures (call them the "untouchables") then we will indeed be closer to a path of peace and tolerance. If we cannot accommodate "the other", the shadow we will see on our own home ground will be the forecast of our own species' extended winter of the soul."

Page 89, ‘Finding Beauty in a Broken World’, Terry Tempest Williams

http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Beauty-Broken-World-Vintage/dp/0375725199

Saving rivers

A friend cycled all the way to Sivagange to attend this event where Ramon Magsaysay award winner Rajendra Singh, popularly known as ‘Water Man of India’ (credited for having rejuvenated seven rivers in Rajasthan) delivered a lecture about the need to rejuvenate the Kumudavati river. I like it that they are reaching out to children too, building awarenes at that level.

Save Arkavathi, Kumudvathi basins, says Rajendra Singh

http://newindianexpress.com/cities/bangalore/article588331.ece

Photos: Mayank's photos of the event, and the volunteer desilting activity that followed: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151206783138714.518919.601093713&type=1

Mayank Rungta: http://mynk.posterous.com/

How One Woman Revitalized a Watershed

This amazing woman prevented the Kosi river in Uttarakhand from drying up by teaching the villagers that the forests belong to them, not to the government – and therefore it is their responsibility to actively prevent deforestation, for their own survival.

http://www.thebetterindia.com/5131/basanti-and-the-kosi-how-one-woman-revitalized-a-watershed


Positive News. Happy Stories. Unsung Heroes: http://www.thebetterindia.com/

Please Help!

To Bangaloreans:

Remember the beautiful open grasslands next to Nrityagram, where Vasanthahabba used to take place? Please sign this petition if you want to help prevent it being destroyed to construct a theme park.(AAAARGHH!)

Hesaraghatta is the last remaining grassland in and around Bangalore and requires immediate protection.  It took me less than a minute to sign, it's a very simple process.

Please sign and share on your FB walls, thank you!

http://www.change.org/petitions/karnataka-government-don-t-destroy-hesaraghatta-grasslands 

The Tundra Book

The Tundra Book: A Tale of Vukvukai, the Little Rock

Director: Aleksei Vakhrushev
Russia I 2011 I 105 minutes I Russian and Chukchi with English subtitles

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpQjoFWsoKY

The Tundra Book: A Tale of Vukvukai, the Little Rock presents a rare and stunning documentary about the lives of the Chukchi people who inhabit a remote Russian peninsula in the Arctic Circle, leaving them virtually isolated from modern life.

The story centers on Vukvukai and his community. Vukvukai, the Little Rock, is Chukchi from eastern Russia and lives along the Bering Sea region. He has lived his lifetime as a reindeer herder and thus is known in his community as a true man of the tundra whose life is inseparable from the reindeer. The Chukchi herd more than 14,000 reindeer. Vukvukai lives in one of the harshest climate zones in the world, the Arctic Circle.

His story and that of the Chukchi is one of a nonstop struggle for survival, but the people believe that following the practices of their ancient, nomadic, cultural traditions contributes to the perseverance of their survival in the unyielding, frozen tundra. The film presents a glimpse into a land, culture, and people that few have ever dared to capture, since it is so remote. For now, the nomadic Chukchi culture remains virtually intact away from the influx of modernity.

By the All Roads Film Project: http://events.nationalgeographic.com/events/all-roads/film/

 All Roads Seed Grant

This grant funds film projects by or about indigenous and underrepresented minority cultures from around the world and seeks to support filmmakers who bring their community stories to light through first-person storytelling.

*Photo from Google Images

Call and get a Sparrow House

"As part of this campaign, we are distributing nearly 10,000 'Sparrow Houses' for free. You can put it up in your balconies and verandahs. You can hang it down from pergolas, or even put it up on a tree if you have one. We will also give shrubs, seed balls, and a small packet of grains to facilitate a proper nesting atmosphere for these birds.

If you are in Bangalore, please call: 9686456287 / 9686192739 to find out where you can pick up your 'Sparrow House' from!"

http://gubbigoodu.in/sparrow_houses.html

An initiative of Zed Habitats (www.zed.in)
BCIL, Poonam Chambers, Opp Food World,
397, 13th Cross, Sadashivanagar Main Road, Bangalore
Tel: 080-4018 4018. Cell: 91-96864 56287.

*Sandhya, who works at http://www.zed.in, says they have changed the design into horizontal now.

People of the Deer

After ages, a book where you feel at home, a book which is a crucifix against the world, a book which carves a cave into which you can retreat, when incomprehension rages outside. Once in Canada, you wanted to go to Hudson Bay, with a one-way ticket. Actual isolation, perhaps, more bearable, than that within the crowd?

"In 1886, the Ihalmiut people of northern Canada numbered seven thousand; by 1946, when Farley Mowat began his two-year stay in the Arctic, the population had fallen to just forty. With them, he observed for the first time the phenomenon that would inspire him for the rest of his life: the millennia-old migration of the Arctic's caribou herds. He also endured bleak, interminable winters, suffered agonizing shortages of food, and witnessed the continual, devastating intrusions of outsiders bent on exploitation.

Here, in this classic and first book to demonstrate the mammoth literary talent that would produce some of the most memorable books of the next half-century, best-selling author Farley Mowat chronicles his harrowing experiences. People of the Deer is the lyrical ethnography of a beautiful and endangered society. It is a mournful reproach to those who would manipulate and destroy indigenous cultures throughout the world. Most of all, it is a tribute to the last People of the Deer, the diminished Ihalmiuts, whose calamitous encounter with our civilization resulted in their unnecessary demise."

Peru bans GM Foods

Peru Passes Monumental Ten Year Ban on Genetically Engineered Foods

"In a massive blow to multinational agribiz corporations such as  Monsanto, Bayer, and Dow, Peru has officially passed a law banning genetically modified ingredients anywhere within the country for a full decade before coming up for another review. 

Peru’s Plenary Session of the Congress made the decision 3 years after the decree was written despite previous governmental pushes for GM legalization due largely to the pressure from farmers that together form the Parque de la Papa in Cusco, a farming community of 6,000 people that represent six communities. They worry the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) will compromise the native species of Peru, such as the giant white corn, purple corn and, of course, the famous species of Peruvian potatoes. Anibal Huerta, President of Peru’s Agrarian Commission, said the ban was needed to prevent the ”danger that can arise from the use of biotechnology.”

The rest here.

Economic Localization, the need of the hour?

The Economics of Happiness: a documentary film about the worldwide movement for economic localization.

Site: http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TheEconomicsofhappiness

"The Economics of Happiness' describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, government and big business continue to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, all around the world people are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they’re starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm – an economics of localization.

We hear from a chorus of voices from six continents, including Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten, Samdhong Rinpoche, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Michael Shuman, Zac Goldsmith and Keibo Oiwa. They tell us that climate change and peak oil give us little choice: we need to localize, to bring the economy home. The good news is that as we move in this direction we will begin not only to heal the earth but also to restore our own sense of well-being. 'The Economics of Happiness' challenges us to restore our faith in humanity, challenges us to believe that it is possible to build a better world."

The Ashaninka, A Threatened Way of Life

"The Ashaninka are one of the largest indigenous groups in South America, their ancestral homelands ranging from Brazil to Peru. Since colonial times, their existence has been difficult -- they have been enslaved, had their lands taken away or destroyed, and were caught up in the bloody internal conflict in Peru during the late 20th century.

Today, a large communal reserve set aside for the Ashaninka is under threat by the proposed Pakitzapango dam, which would displace some 10,000 Ashaninka. The dam is part of a large set of hydroelectric projects planned between the Brazilian and Peruvian governments - without any original consultation with the Ashaninka.

Bowing to recent pressure from indigenous groups, development one other dam in the project, the Tambo-40, has already been halted. The Pakitzapango dam on Peru's Ene River is currently on hold, though the project has not been withdrawn yet. Survival International has collected these images of the Ashaninka and their threatened homeland, and provided the text below, written by Jo Eede."

Photo-story: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/12/the-ashaninka-a-threatened-way-of-life/100208/

Timbaktu

A fantastic success story of re-greening barren land, and resurrecting lives, in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, India:

Where the earth meets the sky – Timbaktu Collective

http://www.thebetterindia.com/1596/where-the-earth-meets-the-sky-timbaktu-collective/

This is the story of a land that was at one time lying ravaged, drought stricken and forsaken. It was a committed revolution led by a couple, Bablu Ganguly and Mary Vattamattam, which has now transformed this land into an agro forest habitat. The unproductive soil was rejuvenated, rain water was harvested, trees were planted, crops were cultivated and the entire land blossomed...................

Timbaktu? Arcadia!

A couple—armed with ideas, patience and a Fukuoka blueprint—come to a withered Andhra district. Then the earth responded.

http://www.outlookindia.com/printarticle.aspx?278010


Video:  Watch this video where Bablu and Mary take you through the 20 years of Timbaktu.


Visit Timbaktu to know the true spirit of this land. Find information about them on their website www.timbaktu.org.


Photo from Google Images. 

The Healer of Broken Things

 

The Buddha, when he was a small child of seven or eight, was once taken to watch the annual Ploughing Festival, where his father, the King, ceremonially guided the bullocks in plowing the first furrow. At the end of the day, they find the little child seated upright in the same position they had left him, deeply disturbed by the plight of the tiny creatures who lost their homes and their lives in the plowing.

It is this story that came to mind when you spent a morning with Saleem, who runs the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre. Day in day out, he looks after wounded animals brought from all over the city and outside, with an indescribable gentleness. Hardly anyone to help him, practically no comforts in this remote overgrown small place near Banngerghatta National Park. But he lives there all by himself, facing the dangers of wild elephants and hostile villagers.

You first met him when you went there to transport a wounded kite with a friend. The image of Saleem calmly putting his hands in and lifting the huge wild bird whom we had spent 30 mins gathering the courage to touch, never leaves your mind. You know you will return.

The death of the environment ministry. An obituary

http://www.munnaontherun.com/search/label/Environment

Happiness

 

Nov 15, 2006. Yet another beautiful sunny day at the Animal Rehabilitation Centre. The grass has grown higher. Tension and Sonja, the dogs, come running to greet you.

Cleaning, and cleaning. You thought you were stubborn. Until you met dried bird shit.

You realize you are small enough to fit in the mongoose cage. The small snake has recovered, and has been set free in its habitat in the Sakleshpur ghats. A rat snake is trying to catch a rat above the monkey cage. Much drama.

Saleem has been ill, with a slipped disc - he is overworked. Today he is out and active, narrating stories, cracking jokes, eagerly showing me his stunning collection of bird, insect and snake photos. All his photos are taken within that half kilometre of wild grassy land, in which no one other than him can spot anything at all. Saleem is a lesson in seeing.

Today he is excited as he spotted a booted eagle amidst all those kites up there. You manage to cook lunch for all four of us, in the midst of seeing his photographs and learning a million amazing lessons about the natural world. This man is a walking Discovery channel.

We sit down and have our lunch, outside. Two more volunteers have come. None of us know each other. But now we are all of the "Saleem's friends" family. After lunch and much laughter and varied conversation, we work for some more time, repair the scary owl's cage, change the drinking water for the bats and the squirrels and the koels, and then sit down for coffee.

Outside on the cement place, leaning against the building wall. Tension and Sonja sit down with us, enjoying the warmth of the group. Tall grass in front of us, teeming with unseen life. The blue sky is brilliant blue. The white clouds are brilliant white. And for just that shot of black, a few kites glide in and out. The wind in the neem tree. Quiet and peace. Saleem brings out his guitar, and starts playing.

A simple happiness settles on you, and washes away all the grime of the week behind. You redefine the meaning of belonging, in this group of people who hardly know each other. You want to just sit here forever.