According to a report in The Hindu the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) has decided to carve out nearly 100 sq. km of Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) surrounding the Bannerghatta National Park for “development.” Apparently, this is due to “political pressure.”
Earlier Conservation India had run a campaign that resulted in the drafting of a memorandum calling the powers that be in government to take action, among other issues, with regard to the “Stoppage of stone quarrying,” “Review and initiation of action on non-forestry activity in elephant habitats and corridors,” and demanding that projects get “wildlife clearance…before coming for environmental clearance.” (You may download the Memorandum submitted from the Conservation India campaign website).
According to Conservation India: “Illegal dynamiting of hillocks for stone quarrying and crushing activities are wreaking havoc in the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) of Bannerghatta National Park (BNP).”
So, what does all this mean for us? How can we make a creative difference in our living environments? An environmental crisis in one part of the world is an environmental crisis in every part of the world because we share the same world.
The good thing is that we also share the same human capacity for creativity. What would happen if we got together and helped one another take proactive steps to making this world a better place in a literal sense?
I am looking for practitioners and theorists — artists, designers, actors, scholars, curators, geographers, lawyers, historians, patrons, politicians, and journalists — to join me in banding together to help one another with artistic responses and creative solutions to issues of critical concern facing our environments.
For now, I am inviting prayer and ideas concerning how we can respond to the present ecological crisis facing BNP (Bannerghatta National Park). We have a window until December 30 to object to the recent move of the MOEF and reverse the decision to cut down 100 sq. km of the ESZ. But we need your help with developing and formulating a coherent response that will reverse this decision. Do you have experience in this sort of a thing? If you are interested in being a part of this project please comment and respond with suggestions.Thank you!
If you are an artist, this BNP-ESZ atrocity is happening right under our very noses — on our “watch” — and as responsible agents of creativity, could we please think of how we might effectively (artistically and creatively) develop artworks and materials that will draw attention to this crisis and move people to share their voice?
