The South Asian: The Conflicts in Cool-Eco-Action

March 19, 2011

The Conflicts in Cool-Eco-Action When a rock festival is organized in a fragile ecology - for the benefit of that ecology - are not contradictions obvious?

This note - shared via Prof Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri who is a regular contributor of articles to thesouthasian.org - raised valid concerns that should be shared and discussed. How do we engage and resolve contradictions in efforts meant to "do good"? - Editor.

Dear friends,

I am writing to you as a concerned human being, to share my extreme alarm at something I can only see as an assault on the fragile ecology of the Sunderbans. I am talking about a festival called Ujaan, that is scheduled to take place in Frazer Ganj, a semi-village semi-resort on the fringes of the Sunderbans. On the face of it, it claims to be a 'festival for the Sunderbans' - to raise awareness about this precious and fast-disappearing treasure. However, the way it is going to go about doing that is stupefying, to say the least. The festival involves twenty bands and several more solo acts, most of them non-acoustic. The website says several more are in the process of being confirmed. From what I could gather from their FB page and elsewhere, the organizers and volunteers number about 300, and the number of attendees could be around two or three thousand! So we are talking about maybe four thousand plus people descending on a little village which borders one of the world's most sensitive bio-diversity zones with LOUD amplified electic/electronic music playing late into the night. We are probably talking about hundreds of drunk/stoned spectators wreaking havoc on the beach and the rest of Frazer Ganj/ Bakkahli! All told, I cannot begin to imagine the kind of environmental disaster the festival itself will be! Not to mention the fact that at 2,000/- a pass, the festival will be completely out-of-reach of the local population of Frazer Ganj.

Now, raising awareness about the Sunderbans is a fantastic thing to do, and it's a wonderful idea to do so by organizing a rock concert. However, there is something However, there is something quite asinine about organizing that concert right on the fringes of the fragile Sunderbans! I am sure the people who are doing this want to do their bit to prevent man-made climate change. I am sure they are brave, committed people. However, this is not the way! This is not what the Sunderbans need of what Frazerganj needs.

Please circulate this, please tell your friends. If you know people who are going there, engage them in dialogue and try to dissuade them. If you know any of the organizers, please engage with them and try to make them see the madness of this.

Warmth and peace,

Name and Contact Information withheld

Posted by collective at March 19, 2011 09:01 PM

Comments

ARCHIVED ARTICLES