MusingsofM

Traveller, Foodie, Marketer, #Mentalhealth advocate ; believes in Humanity!! ALL VIEWS ARE PERSONAL

[MusingsofM @mithilakulkarni]

@ANI It would have really for people if they had done the inauguration yesterday so people could use it over the long weekend but they chose mktg over actually solving the problem.

[Shruti Dhore @ShrutiDhore]

To Understand
#TheGreatNicobarProject, watch Kunal Kamra's 22-minute video, "GoodBye Nicobar."

The Great Nicobar Project will destroy not just 850,000 trees, but approximately 10 million.

The government's sole aim is to benefit Adani.

[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++

[Dr.Medusa @ms_medusssa]

At some point I am going to write a paper on how words have lost their meaning. How politicians have butchered Language. How their dishonesty has robbed communication of all truth. Today as Raghav Chaddha joins the BJP, a party he once called "gundo ki party", he has not only lost any credibility he ever had, but also any goodwill any of us felt towards him. What a waste of an education, a confident voice that could have done so much for the nation, a young politician who has time to change things. What a waste.

[MusingsofM @mithilakulkarni]

@ZeptoNow a very new fraud
I ordered 8 bottle pack of coke and when i opened it without thinking that i ll be duped one-bottle of coke is literally empty and it was part of seal pack
#fraud #scam alert . Zepto has conveniently denied refund or replacement

[Tanushree Pandey @TanushreePande]

Guts! I sometimes feel sad about having to leave TV. But then I watch these losers loudly justifying the indefensible with so much conviction & suddenly I’m happy.

Jis daur mein ye log “star anchors” hain, accha hai hum us media ka part hi nahi hain. Aisi jahalat aapko mubarak

[वरुण 🇮🇳 @varungrover]

LOL. This is every Indian city - including Mumbai. Every Mumbaikar who has taken a local train EVER in their life has crossed similar mountains at Bandra Station tracks on the East Side. Been there for the last 40 years.

Learn to live with it or become rich enough to ignore it. No third option.

[Bhaumik Gowande @bhaumikgowande]

This is the state of national highway in India’s richest state.

[MusingsofM @mithilakulkarni]

@PizzaHutIN this is what i got when i ordered garlic bread with exotic vegetables
Such a sad experience of eating at pizza hut no doubt i hadnt been to one for years

[MusingsofM @mithilakulkarni]

@AmazonHelp Exactly the order isnt delivered but marked delivered and no way to reach the customer support

[MusingsofM @mithilakulkarni]

@amazonIN unable to reach customer support on your app.. no chat or call.. seems you dont want to help.. an order which was never delivered is marked delivered and no way to raise this issue?

[MusingsofM @mithilakulkarni]

@18002096006 So done with your good for nothing service! @MahindraRise @Mahindra_Auto @anandmahindra

[MusingsofM @mithilakulkarni]

@anandmahindra A world-class car brand isn’t able to diagnose issue of it’s car for 5+ days. At this rate, i doubt i’m getting my car back any time sooner
The pace @Mahindra_Auto is deply disturbin & disappointin
Missing @FordIndia more than evr- waiting for U 2b back in India

[MusingsofM @mithilakulkarni]

@18002096006 @RanveerDamor Why is this marked to me? At least look where you are responding

[MusingsofM @mithilakulkarni]

I am just wary of bosses who say “ i dont micromanage”

[Hrushikesh @Reashiee]

Yesterday PM Modi laid the foundation stone for India’s largest deep water port: the Vadhavan Port Project, but the ceremony was not held in Vadhavan, where the port is actually proposed. It was held in Palghar, around 30 km away from Vadhavan.

Why you may ask?

Stay with me 🧵

[MusingsofM @mithilakulkarni]

The worst ever conclusive action that could come out of the heart wrenching badlapur incident is asking 3-4 year old GIRLS to cover up..My 3 year old has been asked by school to wear shorts under her uniform and frocks.. is this what we are teaching our girls to grow to be!

[Rants&Roasts @Sydusm]

The Indian government didn't think it's important to check the masalas sold in the market. We don't know for how long we have been eating carcinogenic and pesticide contaminated masalas. Until some countries banned these brands.

But Abdul had to write his name on his thela and dhaba. So everyone knows about Abdul.

[MusingsofM @mithilakulkarni]

Just heard in lift “ yeah they treat us like adopted kids, tabhi hum ko nahi milta hai”..
NO! Adopted kids arent differentiated in the love they get.. they are loved as much as biological kids
Hate this analogies which have no reality but are basis the biases