Tribal outreach
In the Government’s outreach to the tribal community, one wonders whether there are incentives for them to retain their cultural identity which is mostly divergent to the general customs. Those living in urban centres are usually ignorant about tribal people. It should be made mandatory to include a chapter in school books on tribal communities — at least from their own States. Tribals also have rich knowledge in curing ailments with plant extracts. This is in danger of being lost and all must be done to preserve this.
Anthony Henriques,
Mumbai
The move to observe November 15 as National Tribal Day is a spurious step with elections in mind. It will fool none.
It is so very unfortunate that even in a small State like Goa, our tribal brethren have to still endure injustices, suffering and neglect.
Aires Rodrigues,
Ribandar, Goa
Flood worries again
With more heavy rain being forecast for Chennai (Tamil Nadu, November 17), many residents are worried about the return of flooding. The fact is that floods in Chennai are largely the result of poor planning by the Chennai Corporation. The laying of roads in many parts of the city has been done — and still continues — in an unscientific way. In the normal course of things, the storm drain network should be separate from the sewerage lines. But when there are no storm drains in the first place, it is the sewerage network that bears the brunt. I read an article recently that says that a sewerage network that has been built for 960 million litres a day ends up with 5,000 million litres. The article adds that there is not a single map available that shows the entire storm drain and sewerage network for the city. There is also another important point the article mentions. Not many know that as much of this network drains into the sea, tides affect the way storm drains function. Therefore, once the rains end, work must begin in earnest to redesign the entire network in a scientific manner. Chennai is supposed to have over four sister cities across the world, which include Volgograd in Russia, and Denver and San Antonio in the United States. One of the reasons to twin with San Antonio was because of the stellar way in which the city had cleaned the river that flows through it and to exchange technology to restore Chennai’s Cooum, which can be a top class water storage system and flood carrier. The Tamil Nadu government needs to re-examine these documents and agreements for ideas.
K. Nageswara Rao,
Chennai
