BARREN?

Recently, a researcher was surveying responses to proposed amendments to the draconian Land Acquisition Act. In the village of Keri in Goa, Ramkrishna Jhalmi was asked whether he felt it was okay for the Government to acquire barren land. His response was worthy of a bond with land that only a tribal so passionately possesses.

Ramkrishna pointed out to his head and asked, ‘if I lose all the hair on my head, does my head become barren? Should then my head be knocked off?’ He questioned the urban perception of barren land. After all as a young student, he saw his village resisting the imposition of a polluting plant on the top of hill plateau of Keri. Their struggle was triumphant at the cost of the life of Nilesh Naik, killed in police firing.

A decade later, Ramkrishna and his village struggles to save the plateau from the rapist controls of a SEZ (special Economic zone) which is just another glorified land grab for real estate. For them, the plateau was far from barren. Besides being grazing land and having spiritual significance, the plateau was the rain water receptacle that charged the various springs, wells and water bodies. An assault on the plateau would translate into irrevocable destruction of the surrounding seven villages and the splendid spice farms therein.

So often, the urban educated see things superficially, wearing glasses of greed in the garb of need. What gets ignored is the underlying reality and the ramification of actions arising about prejudices about what gets labelled as barren land. To be better at connecting with the reality where no land is really barren, let’s remember Ramkrishna’s poser: will you knock off your head if gets barren of hair?

No land is really barren, if we look deeper…

let’s BE BETTER at seeing the larger picture

- Pravin K. Sabnis