Mar 2004

With doomsday predictions on how the monsoon may behave after this long and hard summer ahead of us, uppermost on people’s mind across the country is, how are we going to weather the dreadful prospect of a failed monsoon.
Even as we write this the morning’s papers report a grim statement from the Director of the Drought Monitoring Cell.

The next time you sit down for dinner, chew on this one. Every kilo of rice that you eat has cost upward of 3,000 litres of water by the time you bought it. And that is on the premise that the yield of rice per acre on a tract is about 40 quintals or four tonnes.
The figures are staggering when you look at them in absolute terms. One rice crop needs six turns of 2 million litres per acre. That is over 12 million litres per acre for each crop. And in many parts of the country farmers cultivate three crops.
There is more bad news. For sugarcane, water consumption is twice as much.

A friend walked in the other day, sat down at the table, a little harried, and loosened his tie. “How wonderful to take in a breath of fresh air,” he said looking out the window at the coconut frond that has ben raring to wend its way into my grubby, but airy little office. He added, “Sitting in my office that is fully air conditioned, makes me yearn for this clean lungful.”

It’s now a half–year since BCIL began the task of making this ancient village a window to the world, of sustainability and eco–balance. A project team member was so moved by a meeting with the villagers that he penned this doggerel...

As the pale morning sun lights the western sky
The ragged edge of the mountains, in serenity lie
You step out into the freezing air
Of a village that has a face timeless, and free of care.
Travel to Khonoma could take a day to three
From bustling Calcutta into the bleak beyond of the North East.