Heritage and Environment - an Indian Diary Book Abstract
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Published: April 28, 2008
This is an interestingly written scholarly book
on heritage and environment of various places of India. Shyam Chainani, a leading
environmental thinker and campaigner of India,
begins with Mumbai and takes up other areas such as New
Delhi,Pachamani, Hyderabad,
Mahabaleshwar and Panchagani. He tells the readers how eco-sensitive zoning
started and finally became a reality and narrates the grim struggle to save
vast cantonment areas from the greed of land sharks. The struggle to prevent
Nhava Shiva and Mumbai
Port from destroying the
coastal ecology and heritage caves is tense. Chainani frankly exposes the
manner in which politicians, bureaucrats and business men joined hands to pillage
the environment of places like the exquisite coastal state of Goa.
Well researched and professionally brought out the book is a veritable
encyclopaedia for environment lovers and activists as there are several useful
lists of sources and references. Lay readers’ interest is kept alive by the
author narrating the course his life has followed, especially when pitted
against government officials. He also falls back on the experiences of expert
campaigners and environment activists such as Claude Alvares and bluntly
reveals how even officers, who have powers but little wisdom or integrity,
admit that the Environment Protection Act has been reduced to a farce. Very subtly
he also reveals various undercurrents of his strategies to overcome hurdles and
further the cause of environment. The author, true to his nature, expresses
strong views on various matters. But along with, he also sincerely admits his
erroneous judgments and mistakes like in the case of CRZ Rules where he accepts
that Environment Secretary Rajamani and Environment Minister Maneka Gandhi were
right and he, wrong. In the preface itself he says, “I have committed many
mistakes and have been responsible for several blunders, some of omission
others of commission.”
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