Patnitop Workshop

This is the board which welcomes while going up to our Hotel.

Recently (August 9-11, 2011) I had the opportunity to take part in a national workshop which was held in Patnitop which is situated in the State of Jammu & Kashmir. This was a memorable occasion, and the beauty of the place, still lingers in my mind. The place where we were staying was always engulfed in fog, sometimes drizzling rain drops, and as we sat in the top floor of the hotel where the meeting was going on, we could see clouds passing by us. The Wikipedia gives the following information about Patnitop.


Patnitop or Patni Top, is a hill top tourist location in Udhampur district, in Jammu and Kashmir, India, on the National Highway 1A, on the way from Udhampur to Srinagar, 112 km from Jammu. Situated on a plateau in the Shiwalik belt of the Himalayas, Patnitop sits at an altitude of 2024 metres. The river Chenab flows in close proximity to this location.

Origin of the name 'Patnitop' is a distortion of the original name of Patan Da Talab meaning "Pond of the Princess". In olden times a pond existed in the meadows and the kings princess often used to have her bath there. Part of the pond still exists near the youth hostel. It may be that the British had difficulties recording an English spelling of an Indian name correctly in their revenue records. Over the years the name changed from "Patan Da Talab" to Patnitop.


The place where we stayed for the workshop.

The tall Cedar (Devadaru) trees add a mystic look to the area and the beauty of the place is beyond words. May be I will write about the place again with more images.

Smoky lives and dangerous lives!

The average rural household kitchen are something like this. Smoky stoves, blackened kitchen, blood-shot eyes of the woman of the house!. Every year, thousands of women are affected due to indoor air pollution and suffer from respiratory diseases like pneumonia, chronic respiratory disease and lung cancer with out being aware of the fact that their kitchen are killing them inch by inch.

The World Health Organization mentions that "More than half of the world’s population rely on dung, wood, crop waste or coal to meet their most basic energy needs. Cooking and heating with such solid fuels on open fires or stoves without chimneys leads to indoor air pollution. This indoor smoke contains a range of health-damaging pollutants including small soot or dust particles that are able to penetrate deep into the lungs. In poorly ventilated dwellings, indoor smoke can exceed acceptable levels for small particles in outdoor air 100-fold. Exposure is particularly high among women and children, who spend the most time near the domestic hearth. Every year, indoor air pollution is responsible for the death of 1.6 million people - that's one death every 20 seconds".




The Centre for Ecology & Rural Development (CERD) has been installing highly fuel efficient, smokeless stoves and this was one place in Sivaganga district where we installed a stove.

A little investment on a fuel efficient, smokeless chulah can save the precious lives of our women and children.

Thirupparamkundram

This was taken during my recent visit to Madurai at the Thirupparamkundram temple premises. They sell chains and other hand made jewellery and have definitely migrated to this place in search of some livelihood. Considered to be the original inhabitants of our country, today they live a pathetic life with no ownership to a piece of land, alienated from their livelihoods by rigid, stupid rules and regulations.

Schooling in tribal villages.

Along with Sivakumar and Seduraman from Tamilnadu Science Forum (Hosur), I visited this village on the 20th of December 2010 as part of a feasibility study for taking up some interventions in the tribal villages of Denkanikotta taluk in Krishnagiri district. There Seduraman took out some Tamil notice and handed over to a few children to see how much they are able to read it. One or two children with great difficulty started reading. But this girl was confident and went on reading it loudly.

This village (Siddhalingakottai) has a primary school and after 5th class, they have to walk a few kilometers to go to the nearby middle school through forest areas and through a private coffee estate. Many girl students dropout of school just for this reason. Mr.Mottappa who is from this village and who is also a leader of the Malai Vaazhum Makkal Sangam had donated the land for this tribal colony but says, he can no longer donate more land for the remaining people who dont have a house of their own.

In the village called Kalliyoor near Bettamugilalam, there is a government high school with a Head Master and another teacher. Most of the teachers who come to this school do not stay longer there. There is one bus which comes at 11.15 am by which the Head Master and the other teacher come to school. The same bus leaves the village at 2.30pm and the teachers also leave the school. So in effect the teaching is limited to 11.30 am to 2.15pm in which there is also a lunch break. Recently the college where Seduraman works have appointed one Thangaraj for Rs.4000 per month to take care of the education of these children. Thangaraj says, some days, the teachers do not turn up at all and the children wait for the bus and finding that the teachers have not come, go back to their houses.



After Thangaraj has joined, there has been considerable improvement in the results. It was Thangaraj who donated the land to build the school, but the government does not seem to be serious on the education of these children, while the government appointed teachers take their heavy salaries every month.

In a tribal village in Krishnagiri district

This Irula man belonging to Siddhalingakottai village in Denkanikottah taluk is making a mat from green bamboo which he has collected from the forests. This thatch is used for making walls. This bamboo mat gives good insulation from the extreme cold climate of the hilly areas. I could see that most of the houses had walls made of such bamboo mats.


Most of these Irulars do not have proper basic infrastructure like a PHC, a school after the primary level, roads, transport or even proper drinking water sources. They have to fetch water going down for about 100 meters from where they live.