Jaideep Gokhale

this. that. and. the other. and views expressed here are my own

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

@ndcnn Oh dear. RIP 😣

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

Why Indian Cities Are Becoming Unlivable | Faye D'Souza https://t.co/VuhrAELLHo via @YouTube

This development agenda must be curbed. Government has to be held accountable!

@sushmadate this is a great video

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

@vineet_mausam Dr Vineet, hi. Please enlighten us:
1) is the “India is going through a record heatwave” narrative fake news?
2) if true, to what extent can it be attributed to the El Niño effect?

Thanks 🙏

[Darab Farooqui @darab_farooqui]

Look at this map.

Nagpur 45°. Ahmedabad 44°. Prayagraj 43°. Delhi 42°. The entire country is a single dark red mass. This is not a heatwave. This is a country that was told its forests were fine.

And this is April. Not May. Not June. The hottest months have not even arrived yet.

The past few days have been hell. So I did what I always do when something bothers me. I went looking for answers.

What I found was a policy con job that has been running for over two decades.

But before I explain what happened, let's clear some definitions.

A garden is not a forest. An orchard is not a forest. A plantation is not a forest.

A forest is a living system. Soil, water, fungi, insects, birds, mammals, decades of accumulated complexity, specific to its land and climate. It cannot be designed. It cannot be harvested. It regulates water, cools land, shelters hundreds of species. It takes decades to become what it is.

You can plant a forest. But it will take decades to become one.

In 2001, India's forests were disappearing. The Indian state, led by the Vajpayee government, faced a choice. Protect what remained, or change what the numbers said.

It chose the numbers.

The Forest Survey of India quietly changed the definition of what a forest means. Any land with 10% tree canopy cover and more than one hectare in area was now a forest. Your mango orchard. A coconut plantation in Tamil Nadu. A tea garden in Assam. Lodhi Garden in Delhi.

All forests, on paper.

The FSI will tell you that 10% canopy cover follows international norms. The FAO also uses 10% as its threshold. But the FAO's definition comes with a crucial exclusion that India's FSI quietly dropped. 

The FAO explicitly states that fruit tree plantations, oil palm plantations, olive orchards, and agroforestry systems are not forests. The World Bank says the same. India adopted the number but discarded the exclusion. 

It took the cover of international legitimacy while gutting the standard that gave it meaning.

The government will also tell you this was never hidden. That it was publicly stated in every report, disclosed in Parliament. That is technically true. But a disclosure buried in a technical government document is not transparency. It is the appearance of transparency. 

I did not know any of this until I went looking. Neither do most Indians whose forests, whose land, whose air this directly concerns. The con is not in what was hidden from experts. It is in what was never explained to the people it was done to.

This is not a technicality. This is the con.

It was a trick as old as power itself. If you cannot fix the problem, fix the measurement.

For ten years after 2001, Congress governed India. Two terms, two environment ministers, including Jairam Ramesh, one of the more serious ones. They saw the numbers. They knew what the numbers meant.

They did nothing.

Because the lie was convenient. India looked good in international climate negotiations. The fiction of a greening India served everyone in power, so everyone in power kept it. Congress did not create this lie. It simply chose, year after year, to live inside it.

The BJP is different.

When they returned to power in 2014, they came with something Congress never had. An absolute majority, and no coalition compulsions. They did not merely inherit the lie. They built on it. And in 2023, they legislated it.

The Forest Conservation Amendment Act of 2023 removed legal protection from "deemed forests." Forests that existed outside the official definition but were ecologically real. 

Forests that Adivasi communities had lived in and depended on for generations. Forests that cooled land, held water, sheltered species. They were not on the right list. Since the amendment, forest destruction on Adivasi land has accelerated. 

The people who knew these forests best, who had protected them longest, now watch them being cleared. Legally.

CONT++

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

@talk2anuradha Full support 💪🏻

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

@aparanjape @vineet_tropmet Agree 100% with you @aparanjape. @vineet_tropmet your yeoman service is invaluable and should be fully appreciated and encouraged to continue!

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

This 👇 needs our full support, for people’s rights, the environment & climate. First, inform yourself & then be the difference ie share this with “3 idiots” (any three friends/relatives who can also support & share forward) An appeal to @narendramodi @AmitShah @rashtrapatibhvn

[Sonam Wangchuk @Wangchuk66]

I salute another mainstream media channel that has shown spine and covered the Ladakh issue.
I hope this will shake the conscience of the others too.
#SaveLadakh #SaveHimalayas #SaveGlaciers #6thSchedule
Click here to watch the full video: https://t.co/t4lGVxswLu

[Sonam Wangchuk @Wangchuk66]

BEGINNING OF DAY 12 OF #CLIMATEFAST
300 people sleeping outdoors under clear skies. Temperature: - 10 °C
Today is big day... thousands of people wl join for a 1 day #ClimateFast here & in different Indian cities.
Do please join such events by 'Friends Of Ladakh Friends of Nature' in your city today.

To join & to learn about place and time in your city click this link: https://t.co/einfck9pPS

And please join a twitter storm tonight between 7 to 8 pm. You can post pics n videos of today's activities.
Please use #SaveLadakh .
Please tag @narendramodi @AmitShah @rashtrapatibhvn

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

@mohitoz @deepigoyal Totally agree. @deepigoyal we love Zomato but drivers ed and responsible delivery is something you’re going to have to do a much better job at. Please take it up and others will follow

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

@sushmadate Echoes 🥰

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

@Aadhaar_Care @UIDAI I just sent a private message with the screenshot

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

@UIDAI it’ll be nice if your fancy website would work for a change. Am trying to download my e Aadhaar and the page just doesn’t work 🤬🤬🤬

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

@surajgokhale @PMCPune Totally!

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

The G20 circus is back in town. Lots of new white चादर purchased to hide all the ugly, half-broken and incomplete structures and stuff. Don’t know whether to feel sorrier for the clowns in charge…or the clueless delegates. (Contd)…⁦@PMCPune⁩ https://t.co/GtprLHg613

[Jaideep Gokhale @jagolives]

Question is: do we Punekars continue to allow this deception to happen or we do something about it (with elections around the corner)??

[Dr Uday S Kulkarni @MulaMutha]

Do go through this thread.

Documents the relentless mindless attack on our hills by @PMCPune and pvt colleges with negligence by concerned authorities…over decades.

@sushmadate

[Ranjeet Rane @OldWonk]

“चौकटीत रहा, म्हणजे औकातीत राहाल...”

This seems to be the underlying message in every interaction one has with anyone wanting to see the abomination that is the #BBPP road being built.

Attempting a short thread here to — well— break out of the box! 🧵👇

[Ranjeet Rane @OldWonk]

Reading this pains at multiple points —as a policy professional, as a fellow Punekar and yes as an “activist” — a recently acquired tag.

So here is a small thread looking at how the underlying change in our social contract is clearly been missed at the cost of name calling. 🧵

[Sumita Kale @sumitakale]

Trucks without number plates, nobody knows who's dumping debris...

This is a serious governance breakdown #Pune anyone in charge?

https://t.co/W18UADFNJm