Sorry, not sorry.

I’m sorry if I disappointed you

I’m sorry if I am not “not like other girls”,

I’m sorry if my moustache and peach fuzz made you uncomfortable or if you had to see hair grow wild and free on my limbs, while you grew up thinking women were shiny hairless porcelain dolls.

I’m sorry I laughed at your face when you said you stood for “gender equality” through “humanism”, just not feminism.

I’m sorry I didn’t solve world hunger, climate crisis and the reign of ISIS before I demanded equal pay for equal work.

I’m sorry if I complained about having to prove my worth over and over in the hope that one day the assumptions about how a gender fares in a job will come to an end.

I’m sorry that I don’t make the disclaimer “I’m not a feminist” before I tell you what I really feel about your casual sexism.

I’m sorry that I “couldn’t take a joke” you made about a woman “riding” up the ranks

I’m sorry if I don’t add “not all men”, as I call out constitutionally provisioned rape in domestic space

I’m sorry if my make up is too much, while all that really itches you is that I couldn’t pull off the “no makeup - makeup” look

I’m sorry that I spend an hour dolling up in the morning for myself and not you, I apologise profusely for how much that hurts your ego

I’m sorry I had an opinion about something you said or did on social media. Now I have a swarm of sexually frustrated men leaving rape threats for me and my family in my inbox.

I’m sorry if my ripped jeans worry you about the future of this country. Of course, it is only reasonable that women stay indoors, pallus over their heads, far away from mobile phones, condom ads, western culture, and chowmein, lest they be “defiled and dishonoured” by a man who couldn’t keep it in his pants, a poor man you keep making excuses for.

But what I am really sorry is that in a fight where we could have been allies, you keep choosing to be an obstacle, or a bystander at best.

Conservation Conundrum: Exploring solutions to human wildlife conflict

The recent death of an elephant after consuming firecracker laden fruit meant for wild boars raised much clamour in the Indian as well as international media. But a mere google search can show you that incidents such as these are more the norm and less an exception in our country. But it is an extremely privileged and unempathetic standpoint to view from if one is only blaming the perpetrators who are local farmers defending their crops from vermin.  A sustainable solution to addressing an issue like this would require a more fundamental approach, rather than attributing blame to a few scapegoats.

Thanks to strong conservation legislation implemented in the last three decades, the once declining populations of many animals have been seeing an optimistic uptick. But as human and animal populations continue to rise and the resources they compete for remain limited, it turns into a fatal fight for survival. It is estimated that one human life is lost to animal attack every day. There is also widespread crop and livestock depredation totalling to millions of rupees of loss to farmers every year. Farmer tolerance to depredation is often a function of factors such as economic status of the farmer, vulnerability, extend and nature of the damage, success of the growing season and religious beliefs. Bound by law on the one hand and poverty on the other, both farmers and animals continue being a part of an unjust system that cascades the rising mutual antagonism among local communities and wildlife.  

Though understanding the context of this survival struggle would require delving deep into the causes, this article will be limited to the exploration of viable mitigation strategies to solve the growing crisis.

Lessons from the Maasai:

The Maasai warriors. Source:Maasai Mara Bookings

If, up until very recently, boys of the Maasai tribe in Northern Tanzania attained warrior status by single-handedly killing a lion, the new metric for manliness has evolved into protecting the same wildlife from harm. In return, the Maasai are paid conservation dividends by the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, from the income generated via Campi ya Kanzi, a luxury wildlife safari. They are also provided education and health facilities that embrace and celebrate the Maasai traditional knowledge base. As a pastoral community, they avoid conflicting meetings with wild animals by not interrupting natural animal movement and adopting simple tricks such as cowbells that warn wild animals of the presence of cattle herds and herders. Any animal depredated is compensated by the trust and not retaliated against. This is a textbook example of how effective human-wildlife conflict resolution can be brought about by incentivizing local community collaboration and sensitizing them about the value of wildlife to the community

Other non lethal solutions:

There are other less explored, but effective methods like intermixing your crop with variants unpalatable to the animal. Farmers in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique have been intermixing their crops with chili peppers to keep away elephants as they are averse to capsaicin.

Beehive fencing is another innovation that banks on the fact that elephants have an inherent fear of bees. The farmers also benefit from the income generated via apiculture. The practice is being successfully adopted across Africa. Closer to home, “Thaen”, is a similar project implemented by IRMA Alumni, Arnelit and Arun of PRM 39, in the Nilgiris and has met with considerable success.

Beehive fencing in Kenya. Source:Mongabay WildTech- Technology for conservation

The Sundarbans, infamous for its man-eating tigers, has been leaving human dummies rigged with battery-powered live electric wires in buffer zones to develop a fear of humans among predators. Assam government recently launched anti-depredation squads which recruited and trained local youth to scare away attacking herds back to the forest and spread awareness about peaceful coexistence.

Government intervention:

Since the conflicts are a direct consequence of human interference, mitigation should also focus on preventive strategies such as improving natural food sources by conserving non-cattle prey base and introducing palatable vegetation within the animal habitat. Revival of natural animal corridors, though expensive, are believed to be extremely useful in keeping animals that migrate large distances off human habitats. Immune contraception is an effective way to cull mounting pest populations such as wild boars and monkeys. These are cost-intensive and may need policy intervention. Another effective intervention from the government would be timely, equitable and convenient disbursal of compensation payment to pacify emotional uprisings and retaliation against the animal, as has been proved by the case of the Maasai.

62 km Eco bridge in Singapore. Source: Soapboxie

Lastly, the lack of empirical data evidence on solution feasibility discourages conservation agencies from making the required financial investments which are often hefty. There are lacunae with regard to accurate data on the animal population, movement routes, land use patterns in the village, the loss incurred in attacks etc.  Aggressive data generation aided by technology such as aerial surveys should be undertaken. Extracting and analyzing patterns from such information would aid the process of drafting preventive action plans.

Conclusion:

The historic solution of coexistence via spatial separation now ceases to be a viable option, and band-aid policies have been shown to often cause further detriment. The best way forward is to accept that there is no more room for adhocism and that there is no single panacea to this problem. We should now focus on policy changes that can enable the formulation of tailor-made, data-based, region-specific solutions, in collaboration with the local stakeholders. These should also be constantly revisited and revised to evolve, as animals tend to devise ways to circumvent obstacles as with traditional trenches and electric fences installed to keep off elephants in Nilgiris, and facemasks worn at the back of the head to mislead tigers in Sundarbans. Also, solutions such as fostering eco-tourism, which encompass incentives for local community participation seem to be the most effective. This will lead us to a trade-off point where animals and humans can coexist benefitting mutually. With a focussed, empathetic, interdisciplinary approach, this destination is not too far.

                                                                       

 -Ardhra Prakash

June 15, 2020

Article for The Rural Post

Source: The Rural Post.Org

Man Vs Wild: What should justice to the elephant mean?

An elephant died a tragic death last week. While pregnant. After having been in grave agony for more than a day. A death that you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemies. Social media has been abuzz with anger, resentment, and war cries to inflict the same on the perpetrators. My messenger is flooded by forwards of petitions demanding that the perpetrators be charged to wilful murder and put away. Now if this solved the issue, I would have happily signed the petition and gone on with my life. But sadly, it doesn't and I for one will not be able to forgive myself if I don't pen down these thoughts that have been eating away at my gut.

(Disclaimer: This write up is not me trying to trivialize the incident or defend anyone. Just trying to bring a new perspective to the table.)
Back to the discourse. Who are these perpetrators? They are supposed to be local farmers. Why does that matter? It makes a difference. Now let's go back 2016, to another incident where a group of medical college students who threw a dog from the top of the building just to watch it die. Do you see any difference between the two acts?

One was a group of privileged punks consciously murdering an unsuspecting animal just for the sheer joy of it. To watch it inch towards a slow, painful death. The other was a group of farmers, trying to protect their livelihood, their blood, and sweat of many months, from destruction, by wild boars, which was inadvertently eaten by an elephant. Now, of course, one may argue that it does not matter, whether its a boar or an elephant, that no animal should be harmed as they often do get the short end of the stick in human-wildlife conflict. I believe it is illegal to hunt down wild boars in the state, the farmers should face the charges of having broken the law as well as for the inadvertent murder of the elephant.

But the anger that has been boiling all over social media, who does that help? Not the elephants and other wild animals that will continue to fall prey to such snares. Not the wild boars exercising its right to sustain itself, blissfully unaware of the human laws of the world. Not the farmer, who probably depends on this one crop for him and his family to tide over a few months to come. We owe it to them, as a thinking population with the privilege to not worry about how to make ends meet, to impact any real change.

It was with much awe that I first heard about Beehive fencing during a B-School competition at IRMA, which was implemented by Arun and Arnelit from PRM 39, at the Nilgiris, to keep elephants away from the tribal villages without harming them. The fencing could also double up as a secondary income source to the owners, via apiculture. I was mind blown. So, it is not entirely impossible to be actionable and impactful. But it sure is harder and more painstaking than venting on social media. I am more than happy to be a part of any discussion on how we can sustainably solve this issue. Even an unsuccessful attempt to solve the issue would be more impactful than venting on social media and forgetting about it the very next day. (Side note: I am not judging anyone who vents on social media. I myself do it very often and it works wonderfully in making myself feel instantly better, though often via a false sense of impact creation)

-Ardhra Prakash

June 3rd, 2020

Book Review: Rules of Attraction by Bret East Ellis

The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bret Easton Ellis is one of the most successful and controversial contemporary authors, predominantly known for his most debated work - American Psycho (as misogynistic. An unnecessary debate, if you ask me. What do you think?). With the bone chilling character of Patrick Bateman brilliantly portrayed by Christian Bale on screen, both the book and the movie have achieved cult classic status.

His novels are known for the casual, unaffected narration of the extreme lives of his unique protagonists. Most of who are extremely rich, spoilt, racist, Caucasians embroiled in their first world frustrations, drowning away the existential crises that haunts them, in drugs, sex and alcohol, all readily available at the swipe of their shiny AmEx cards. This common thread enables him to weave a universe with recurring fictional settings and characters.
Rules of attraction is set in Camden College - where "Dressed to get fucked parties" are more the norm than attaining an education. The book opens mid sentence and ends similarly - signifying how there's no beginning or end to the stories of the protagonists. How the frustration, the emptiness, the lack of motivation to slip out of an ecstacy induced black out is a never ending loop. It is narrated by multiple narrators and Ellis remarkably uses the tool to portray how one event is uniquely interpreted by each party involved - each molding it to their own convenience. The narrators are often unreliable, with incidents that go against a desired narrative conveniently wiped out.
The book isn't a classic. It is 283 pages of sex, alcohol, drugs and dissatisfaction. But once you are done, it also makes a lot of sense. It captures the emotions of the lost generation of the USA in the 80s, as someone rightly mentioned, very similar to how Fitzgerald did in Great Gatsby. As one of his characters reflects, the seemingly silly problems of these kids that definitely warranted no importance in the larger realm of things, genuinely mattered to them, for who survival was never an issue.


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Book Review: Norwegian wood by Haruki Murakami

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Norwegian wood was my second Murakami, first being Kafka on the Shore. Where Kafka was everything a Murakami novel is known for...Surrealism, a sort of melancholic grimness, mysterious characters who don't fit in in the world outside, oodles of unaffected but respectful sex to fulfil something that is just a mere physical need, and references to some classic literature and jazz music (about which I have no clue at the least, I won't pretend).... Norwegian wood is different but at the same time carries on with the general undertone of poignancy common to his work. (When I think of Murakami, I can only imagine a short silhouette of darkness that passes you by, head down, glassy eyed, unattached from the world that is mooning over him.) Norwegian wood felt different may be because even though at every turn of page I was prepared for fish rains and talking cats, none appeared. But instead you find men and women struggling in the search for something (identity, love, self esteem et cetera) they never really find. They are all conflicted as to why love always eludes them and that is a Murakami world right there.
It is the story of Midori who loved Watanabe who loved Midori but also Naoko who took her life as she was not over the death of her boyfriend Kizuki who killed himself for reasons unapparent. In between you have Nagasawa who cannot help being indifferent to Hatsumi, who cannot leave him despite the relationship constantly making her feel inadequate and unwanted, leading to her slashing her wrists after she marries another man. You get the gist. It is insanely grim and complex. But at the same time, it is unputdownable for the way Murakami creates magic with words. He drills a hole in your heart and stab you over and over but when you reach that last page, you are already dangerously involved in his painful world that rehabilitation to the real world is a slow process that requires a few days. Murakami, you monster! 😅


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Book Review: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I first saw the perfect Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's many many years ago and remember being confused how someone could ever appear so flawless. A reviewer on goodreads voiced my thoughts for me and I quote "How could you be so much in love with a person who died long before you were born?". My Audrey Hepburn admiration peaked after I watched her in The Roman Holiday and Funny face. Yesterday I finished Truman Capote's novella based on which her most iconic movie was made and my respect for the actor in her and for the movie continues to grow.
There is no doubt at all that the movie remains my favourite. While the book was set in the 1940s, the movie was carefully adapted for the 1960s - a very sensitive era in the history of US, with the civil rights movement in full momentum. The ending has also been altered to offer the closure that was absent in the book. I am going to wrap up the comparison now with a monologue from the movie, a beautiful, needed addition to the book. "You know what's wrong with you, Miss Whoever-you-are? You're chicken, you've got no guts. You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, "Okay, life's a fact, people do fall in love, people do belong to each other, because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness." You call yourself a free spirit, a "wild thing," and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself." - Paul Varjak (George Peppard, Breakfast at Tiffany's)


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