Thursday, August 13, 2020
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
Sunday, July 26, 2020
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Thursday, July 9, 2020
Saturday, July 4, 2020
India’s Human Space Flight December 2021
India recently announced its first Human Space Flight to take place in December 2021. This came immediately after the Cabinet approved the project and sanctioned $ 1.43 billion for it. While this announcement was in a way overdue as all preparations for it had been going on for quite sometime, it was still a very pleasant surprise. India will then a group of three countries who have already made such flights i.e. Russia, USA and China. While India’s Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) was set up in 1950s, it’s main mandate then was to use satellites for development purposes. However, ISRO has been exploring deep space with its Moon mission (Chandrayaan) and Mars mission(Mangalyaan) projects not only been successful but at a fraction of the cost of other countries. The Human Space Flight Mission has been named Gaganyaan and will be in three stages. The first stage will take place in December 2020 when an unmanned satellite will be launched for testing. In July 2021 another unmanned satellite will be launched for further confirmation/ testing and finally in December 2021 the Manned Mission will be launched. It has also been announced that this Human Space Flight will be for seven days duration and will carry three astronauts. Collaborative Agreements with Russian Space Agency Roscosmos and the French Space Agency CNES have already been tied up.
As a background it is pointed out that ISRO has been developing in-house most of the technologies for a manned flight and had also experimented with crew module atmospheric re- entry along with a ‘Pad Abort Test’ for sometime. As early as 2007 Dr Madhavan Nair, then Chief of ISRO was working towards a Human Space Flight Programme for which about USD 13.7 million had been allotted for pre-project activities. It was felt that this project will require about seven years. A Space Capsule Recovery Experiment was successfully done in January 2007 with 600 kg of payload using India’s PVSL launch pad and was recovered after 12 days. This was followed in 2018 by a Crew Module Re-entry experiment and Pad Abort Test in the same year.
India’s announcement of the Human Space Flight by Dr Kailasavadivoo Sivan, Chairman of ISRO, in January 2019 is therefore, not a day too early. India has already set up a Human Space Flight Centre near Bengaluru( erstwhile Bangalore) on a 140 acre site. This Centre will be the hub of all activities of the project. A team of 800 to 900 professionals will be deployed for this purposed.ISRO’s own Indian Space Science Technology Institute, which is a training Centre and produces about 100 Space Engineers a year will be the main source for recruitment.
The selection process of four Astronauts will start soon. India has been exploring deep Space for a long time but unmanned. India has already had one unmanned Moon missions: Chandrayaan 1 on 22nd October 2008 with a budget of about $56 million; Chandrayaan 2, the second Moon mission will take place in July 2019 and is expected to land on Moon in September 2019. This will consist of a Orbiter, a Lander and a Rover. On 5th November 2013 India sent out a Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) called Mangalyaan - it’s first interplanetary mission successfully.On 30th March 2019 India conducted an Anti Satellite Test which surprised the world. While it has been considered unfortunate due to some space debris getting added, India has explained that since it was done in Low Earth Orbit, most of the debris will enter earth’s atmosphere and will then disintegrate or burn out.
The Human Space Flight announcement by India falls into a pattern in which India’s Space technology is proving to be a top ranking one. With the success Human Space Flight India will be the fourth country in the world after USA, Russia and China to break into this club. Another aspect of India’s Space Programme is it’s frugalness. The first Moon mission, Chandrayaan-1 costed barely $56 million. The cost of Mars Orbiter Mission is slated to be about $74 million , about 11% of what it costed NASA for a similar mission and less than the cost of making the film ‘Gravity’. The budget amount for Human Space Flight is expected to be about $1.43 billion, a fraction of what it costs in the US and even other countries.
Dr Sanat Kaul is Chairman of International Foundation for Aviation, Aerospace and Drones. He is based in New Delhi, India and can be contacted at: iffaadindia@hotmail.com
Thursday, July 2, 2020
India needs a proper debate on the Land Act
The Ordinance issued for the amendment to Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 has raised more controversy. The debate has, unfortunately, not been looked at from a proper perspective. The issues are as follows: over the last 67 years since Independence, the nature of our economy has undergone a major demographic and sectoral change. The population has grown from around 300 million to 1.2 billion.
Unregulated policy may lead to massive migration and more slums The GDP ratio between agriculture, industry and services, has undergone a major change. At independence, the contribution of agriculture and allied activities to India’s GDP was around 60%, while those of industry and services were 20% each. Now the agriculture sector’s share has shrunk to barely 25%, and that of the service sector has gone up to over 50%.
At the same time the rural-urban ratio, which was 85%-15% around Independence, is still 70% plus rural and nearly 30% urban. This aberration calls for a major rethink on our economic policy. The erstwhile Planning Commission never had a spatial policy, and if there was one, it was to keep the rural population in rural areas as far as possible with planning for non-farm employment with doles like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. No guided policy The Planning panel never thought in terms of a guided policy of urbanisation and urban-based industrialisation till the concept of Industrial Corridors/Special Economic Zones (SEZs) came up in the last few years.
In fact, our policy sounded more like the Chinese policy, which officially bans urban migration from rural areas, in spite of massive industrialisation in urban areas, leading to migrants in urban industrial areas as second-class citizens like our slum dwellers. India saw voluntary migration into urban areas, which did not plan for its growth leading to mushrooming of urban slums by illegal encroachment of public lands with slum population reaching 50% in many metro cities. The response of the urban planners is to mitigate it by various slum improvement schemes and by the politicians to legitimise illegal settlements for votes. This dismal state of affairs has gone on for too long. What India needs is to have a policy towards urbanisation and industrialisation. There should be a target fixed for urbanisation based on the data of present uneconomic agricultural holdings, and further break-up due to the growth in rural population.
As the division of a family agricultural land leads to unviable holdings for a family to wreak a living out of it, forced migration to cities by young adults looking for jobs takes place leading to growth of slums with its known consequences. The Modi Government’s ‘Make in India’ policy of encouraging industrialisation is coming a day not too soon. Massive urbanisation is a necessity for India; not just to avoid rural unrest but also to get out of prejudices of caste and religion so entrenched in conservative rural India. ‘Make in India’ should be twined with an urbanisation policy to facilitate the process of transfer of young rural population smooth with as little pain as possible. This will also help in making agricultural holdings more viable. Side by side, the MGNREGA should be tapered off.
Archaic Act
Coming back to the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 was made in British times and it continued to 2013 with some amendments. However, land acquisition was for a public purpose, which remained largely undefined. It was under this Act that the DDA acquired village after village for a purpose as amorphous as ‘large scale acquisition of land for development of Delhi’ without going into anything specific.
As a result, the DDA became a land broker within the government and after development and conversion; it auctioned commercial and residential plots with windfall profits. Compensation was insignificant and the villagers were evicted from their land. Although the present Act allows acquisition for private companies and for PPP projects, it proposes consent of land-owners up to 80% for private companies and 70% for PPP projects.
The new ordinance has, however, done away with clauses like the consent as mentioned above, but it has not tampered rehabilitation. Land acquisition excesses are well known and governments both in the Centre and states, including public sector undertakings, already have huge tracts of land which are either not utilised or remain underutilized. Most of the unauthorised occupied land belongs to the government and public sector undertakings.
Realistic target There is an urgent need for a comprehensive urban-rural policy which should put a realistic target of urbanisation likely to take place in view of the fast fragmentation of agricultural land which making plots unviable. A pan-India study basis through satellite imageries the lands available for urbanisation is needed. It should then make a road map for future urbanisation, keeping in mind that urbanisation should not take away quality agricultural land. While the Delhi–Mumbai Industrial Corridor type concepts are excellent, minimum agricultural land should be acquired. We now have to plan for an urban population of at least 60-70%% in the next decade. This will relieve rural areas of the burden of over-population, and under-employment, uneconomic holdings and poverty. What form the urbanisation should take place needs to be debated and decided, and our industrial policy has to be based on it. If we do not do it, massive urbanisation will continue to take place. In most developed countries, the agricultural population is between 5-10%. Therefore, we are sitting on a bomb and if we do not go in for spatial planning, we will face massive rural unrest and slum growth in urban areas.
The erstwhile Planning Commission had hardly any policy in terms of spatial planning and mass migration. This was a major policy deficit on its part. The new incarnation NITI Ayog, it is hoped, will look into this important aspect, and provide for a direction for a planned and incentivised migration from rural to attractive urban destinations taking into account the minimum land acquisition and use of redeveloped waste or saline lands, which will not impact much on agriculture.
(Dr. Sanat Kaul is a former Secretary (Lands) Govt of NCT of Delhi and Prof D.B. Gupta is at National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER))
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Friday, May 29, 2020
STATE OF AVIATION WORLDWIDE
A very SAD day for a 100 years old industry of AVIATION.
- Virgin fires more than 3,000 people including 600 Pilots.
- Virgin Australia files for Bankruptcy.-Thai Airways files bankruptcy.
- Air Mauritius goes into Administration.- South African Airways Bankrupt.
- Finnair returns 12 planes and lays off 2,400 people.
- YOU grounds 22 planes and fires 4,100 people.
- Ryanair grounds 113 planes and gets rid of 900 pilots for the moment, 450 more in the coming months.
- Norwegian completely stops its long-haul activity!!! The 787s are returned to the lessors.
- SAS returns 14 planes and fires 520 pilots... The Scandinavian states are studying a plan to liquidate Norwegian and SAS to rebuild a new company from their ashes.
- Etihad cancels 18 orders for A350, grounds 10 A380 and 10 Boeing 787. Lays off 720 staff.
- Emirates grounds 38 A380s and cancels all orders for the Boeing 777x (150 aircraft, the largest order for this type). They "invite" all employees over 56 to retire - Wizzair returns 32 A320s and lays off 1,200 people, including 200 pilots, another wave of 430 layoffs planned in the coming months. Remaining employees will see their wages reduced by 30%.
- IAG (British Airways’ parent company) abandons the takeover of Air Europa (and will pay €40 million compensation for that).
- IAG (Iberia) grounds 56 planes.- IAG (British Airways) grounds 34 planes. Everyone over 58 to retire.
- Luxair reduces its fleet by 50% (and associated redundancies)
- CSA abolishes its long-haul sector and keeps only 5 medium-haul aircraft.- Eurowings goes into Bankruptcy- Brussels Airline reduces its fleet by 50% (and associated redundancies).- Lufthansa plans to ground 72 aircraft (in 2 instalments).
- Hop is studying the possibility of reducing fleet and staff by 50%.
Additional info:
- Currently, 60 new aircraft stored at Airbus with no buyers in sight (order cancellations) including 18 A350s.
- They *forecast a minimum of 8,000 grounded planes by September*. With an average of 5.8 crews per plane (medium and long haul combined), that would make *more than 90,000 unemployed pilots worldwide*
- The Air Transport Industry is on Life Support !*
- This will have a major impact on our lifestyle ...
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Gradual Resumption Of Domestic Air Travel Necessary To Prevent Massive Losses In Aviation
Aviation sector is easiest to open in a gradual manner. This is because aviation sector is the most regulated amongst its peers – Railways and Roadways.
The economic crisis created by the Coronavirus pandemic, which has killed over nearly two lakh people globally, has severely impacted the day-to-day operations of key sectors that contribute to a large part of India’s GDP. From real estate to aviation, every sector has been hit hard. Thus, coping with the pandemic and finding a sustainable solution requires concerted efforts of all and major policy support is required to prevent job losses and bankruptcy.
Indian government has announced various fiscal and monetary stimulus packages to maintain market confidence and preserve market stability. But is this sufficient? Currently, Indian economy is entering deep recession. While we don’t know the exact number of migrant labourers out of work and unable to get home, the entire transportation sector is in a lock-in. Therefore, the choice before us is either to continue with the lockdown or slowly open various sectors of the economy where potential threat to further spread of COVID-19 is likely to be minimal.
Aviation is among the worst-affected sectors. According to International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates, the coronavirus pandemic is expected to impact more than 29 lakh jobs in the Indian aviation and dependent industries. Therefore, there is an urgent need that the government takes specific steps to re-open certain sectors, including aviation. Here are a few issues in the aviation sector that need urgent attention.
• Aviation sector is easiest to open in a gradual manner. This is because aviation sector is the most regulated amongst its peers – Railways and Roadways. Right from purchase of tickets to entry into an airport, embarkation and disembarkation from aircraft to leaving the airport, the control is total. It is proposed that passenger’s entry into an airport should be subject to producing a recent negative COVID-19 test report from an authorised laboratory. The normal temperature check, of course, should also be carried out. Compared to Railways and Roadways as well as passenger cars, this is easiest to implement in Aviation. Therefore, it is proposed that domestic air travel be opened immediately between cities unless a particular city has been put completely under quarantine.
• The decision to allow international flights from certain countries should be implemented in the second stage as more than 80 countries have imposed travel bans and the history of travel of an incoming international passenger needs to be studied.
• Besides massive losses to airlines, airports are also bleeding as their revenue depends on passenger numbers which has also adversely impacted both aero and non-aero revenues. Unlike airlines which have grounded their aircraft, the airports are still in full gear as they have to maintain the Air Traffic Management as well as other essential facilities like terminals, runways and other allied services in readiness.
They are also in full compliance with government health advisories. However, at the same time, various concessionaires, airlines, and other stakeholders at the airport are invoking force majeure clause under respective concession agreements and relaxation of applicable payments including revenue share and minimum guaranteed clause. All these are affecting the cash flow of the airport operators. It is, therefore, necessary at this stage not only to open domestic aviation in a gradual and controlled manner but help the industry which was the fastest growing and at the same time contributing hugely to government revenues unlike the railways or Roadways.
• Further, there is hardly any government investment in aviation sector. While airlines and private airports raise funds, even Airport Authority of India (AAI) hardly gets any budgetary support. They get huge revenues from Air Traffic Management fees and from share of revenue airports like Delhi and Mumbai. The Government will do well to encourage one of the fastest-growing sectors by looking into their grievances like payment of licence fee to AAI, allowing increase in passenger charges and direct the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) to grant a quick alleviating package. Many other countries have already announced award of grant to Aviation Sector. Government of India will do well to rise to the occasion of ensure that this goose that gives the golden eggs is not allowed to go down under its own weight.
(A former joint secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Dr Sanat Kaul represented India in the council of International Civil Aviation Organization. He is Chairman, Internation Foundation for Aviation, Aerospace and Drones. Views expressed are personal.)
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Birdgroup Leadership Summit COVID-19 - 2020 & beyond
QUESTIONS FROM PARTICIPANTS
To: Dr Sanat Kaul :
From : Anurag Srivastava: aus@bird.in
It is requested to kindly enlighten us on future of Drones and regulations framed by Government of India.Drones can be used for various needs of society how will the regulations differing from Civil Aviation Requirement - CAR. What will be regulations for operations and maintenance of drones in and around airports/ civil/ defence enclaves. How will hardware manufacturers and software developers get together to develop products as required by civil aviation or lot many uses of drones.
To : All Panelist
From – Sarath Menon <sarath.menon@riya.travel>
As we look forward to the revival of the industry
1) What is the way forward for the tourism industry. How do you look at recovering costs in the coming months especially with this season's business on a downward spiral.
2) Are there any recourse or respite for the Travel industry especially when there are a lot of SOPs for the manufacturing and agriculture sector.
3) Can we have a relook at the sixth freedom being enjoyed by the foreign airlines. We need to restrict this so that the Indian airlines will be able to cater to such a market.
To – Mr. Lohani
From SiddharthFlamingo siddharth@flamingotravels.co.in
Can we have acrylic/glass panels to ensure adequate distance between passengers seated on an aircraft?
To – All
From – Ramesh Iyer <Ramesh.Iyer@gmrgroup.in>
• Besides, PF, can we include leave encashment, gratuity and superannuation contribution for deferment by corporates and/or contribution by government.
• Can all employees become contract employees directly with his/her employer and GST can be taken as Input Tax Credit.
• We pay GST on input materials for movable and immovable items. but cannot take input tax credit on immovable items. e.g. Passenger Terminal Building, Runways, etc. but output GST is collected and paid on all receipts.
• Wan we represent GST ITC on all items for airports sector.
• Are we incentivising those pilots, staff, etc who are providing YEOMEN Services at this crucial juncture ahead of all other citizens locally and globally, at their own life being at RISK
To- All
From – Anish Muthigi <anish@uniglobefocustravel.in>
During the call we learnt that, seats will be utilised in a way to maintain Social Distancing, basically alternate seats will be left un-utilised. However, we see that the future bookings are not in line with this view , the seat maps are clear indicators of this(e.g. SpiceJet, Air Asia etc). We are able to select adjacent seats.
In these times, any booking is a boon. We have been taking bookings for our custom, individuals, group and FIT, we have been assigning adjacent seats to families/ groups. What happens to these bookings- especially bookings of group size like 9 or 10 people?
Key Recommendations from Bird Group Leadership Initiative Webinar on “Covid – 2020 and Beyond”
Bird Group Leadership Initiative organized a webinar consisting of senior leaders from Aviation and Tourism industry on 14th April. The session was introduced by Dr Ankur Bhatia, Executive Director, Bird Group, who set the context for the discussion. He informed the attendees that this was the first in a series of planned Webinars under the Bird Group Leadership Initiaive.
The panelists included the following:-
1. Mr Ashwani Lohani (Former CMD Air India and Chairman, AP Tourism)
2. Mr Ajai Singh (CMD, Spicejet)
3. Ms Tulsi Mirchandaney (MD, Blue Dart Aviation Ltd)
4. Mr Sujit Bannerjee (Secretary General, WTTC II)
5. Dr Sanat Kaul (Chairman, International Foundation for Aviation Aerospace and Drones) –
6. Ms Jyoti Mayal (President TAAI)
Mr Rajeev Talwar, MD DLF Ltd and Former ADG Tourism moderated the session.
Mrs Radha Bhatia, Chairperson, Bird Group, summed up the discussion.
The panellists were unanimous in their assessment that aviation and tourism are amongst the hardest hit in the current crisis, and would require substantial government support to remain viable and ride out the rough patch till such time normal traffic resumes. Some key suggestions from the panellists are as under –
• Aviation, tourism and hospitality being amongst the largest employers, revival of these industries is vital to prevent large scale job losses and resulting burden on government.
• Bringing ATF under GST, reduction of excise duty on it.
• Moratorium and waiver of interest on bank loans, increase in bank limits.
• To make travelling economical and to benefit all stakeholders new method of allotment of slots / airport concessions should be worked on to remove multiple layers of cost to the traveller.
• Waiver of rentals, parking charges and similar levies by airports till revival.
• Employer portion of EPF contribution to be catered for by notional deposit by the government for next two years. This will give relief to the employers without any immediate economic impact on the government.
• Leverage, incentivize “Aas Paas Tourims” or domestic tourism till adequate confidence for international tourist arrivals is built up.
• Revise travel and hospitality protocols to cater for protection against infection and restore confidence amongst tourists.
• Utilize surplus payload of passenger aircraft due to empty seats required for social distancing by increased cargo loads in them.
• GST waivers on travel services.
• Reduction on charges for credit card / e-payment transactions.
• Industry status to Aviation, Tourism, and Hospitality sectors .
• Increase dependence on automation to reduce vulnerability due to disruptions.
• Move from profit maximisation towards sustainability.
• Inter and intra industry collaborations to return to normalcy in the shortest timeframe.
• Adequate testing protocols to enable earliest possible resumption of travel – initially domestic and subsequently international.
Friday, April 3, 2020
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
INDIA’s UNTAPPED STRATEGIC ASSETS: ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS
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| Nicobar 1975-77: Nicobarese boys in a local dugout. |
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| Nicobars 1975-77 Pig Fight 3 |
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Nicobars 1975-77 Pig Fight |
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| WRESTLING |
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FOOTBALL GAME |
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Nicobars 1975-77 Pig Fight |
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Nicobars: 1975-77 Inter-village Boat Race
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| Nicobars: 1975-77 Boat Race from a distance |
DOWNLOAD BOOK (PDF VERSION)
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| DOWNLOAD CLICK |
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
COVID-19 & Aviation: Responsibility and liability of China
While we were reeling under the depressing state of the India aviation and the recent budget announced on 1st February 2020 which gave no relief to the Aviation sector, came the tsunami of Coronavirus or COVID-19 as it is called now from Wuhan in China which has shattered the world economy and in particular the Aviation sector. In fact, aviation is the main source of spread of this virus internationally from China. While China was in denial ever since mid-November 2019 and tried to contain it down at Wuhan city with orders to hush it up and not to publish any information on it, it was not till14th January when WHO announced it but gave no clear evidence. By then the damage was done internationally by the aviation sector as Wuhan is also well connected worldwide. Globalised aviation is mainly responsible for transmission of this virus. Only by 20th January 2020 did China admit that the virus was transmitted human to human. As a result the countries world wide started putting entry barriers to their country mainly through aviation. Most countries including India have now announced a complete lockdown.
There is no doubt that aviation today is a critical catalyst to globalisation and growth. Air connectivity is becoming more and more important. In fact besides passengers, air cargo carries around 30% of the world trade in value terms. However, when in November 2019 China found a virus spreading around Wuhan city in Hubei province, they tried to hush up. Unfortunately while this was being hushed up by China, it started to spread worldwide through airline passengers as there was no medical check on them. Only by mid-January the world was aware of this deadly virus and the obvious containment measure was to curtail aviation. Therefore, a sudden Tsunami hit the aviation sector worldwide leading to a clampdown on flights all over. According to IATA, the international Airline Association, International airlines could loose around $ 200 billion in the present year. In India also Aviation sector is reeling under a meltdown as India clamp downs completely on international and domestic flights. While one can appreciate the timely steps the Indian government has taken to stop the spread of this deadly virus, ,the government has to ensure that this vital infrastructure is not allowed to collapse.
One is reminded of 9/11 incident of terrorist attack through hijacking of aircrafts in the US in 2001 and their use as a weapon of mass destruction. The entire aviation industry worldwide collapsed even then. Calling it a catastrophic event , the world’s leading insurance companies suspended their insurance cover for airlines and all governments including Indian had to help their national Airlines through financial measures. The present crisis of COVID-19 is yet another catastrophic event occurring after 19 years through the aviation sector but with no fault of theirs and it’s important for government to come to the aid of this sector because it is the government that has grounded all air travel for good reasons.
The Chicago Convention 1944, is basis for creation of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and Air Laws and is ratified by practically all the members of UN including China. Article 14 imposes on each member state the responsibility to take effective measures to prevent the spread by means of air navigation of cholera and such other communicable diseases and to that extent contracting state has the responsibility to keep in close consultation with agencies concerned with international regulation relating to sanitary measures applicable to aircraft. It has by now been well established that China had purposely kept quiet of COVID-19 virus in early stages leading to spread of this deadly virus globally. There is, therefore a clear case of default by China due to its deliberate and irresponsible behaviour causing immeasurable loss to so many persons by reasons of death and hospitalisation and its spread all over the world. It has also caused extreme losses to countries who had to take extreme preventive measure to stop the spread of virus. It has caused loss to nearly all Airlines worldwide due to stoppage of their operations by their countries. Had they informed ICAO on time this spreading would not have occurred . It is, therefore, a fit case for settlement of a dispute under Article 84/85/88. Further, under Montreal Convention 1999( which replaces the Warsaw System) the liability of the of carrier starts when an emplaning passengers crosses security or a deplaning passengers leaves security of an airport. In an unfortunate accident in Delhi’s IGI airport in 1999 when a 12 year old girl was killed due to an accident in the escalator, the Supreme Court of India in 2008 awarded a fine/ penalty on the Airports Authority of India under the Warsaw System ( as India had not ratified the Montreal 1999 Convention then). Similarly, in the present case, Wuhan Airport is liable under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention 1999 read with Article 14 of the Chicago Convention 1944 mentioned above for damage sustained by so many international passengers of various nationalities of permitting passengers board without screening of the COVID-19 and spreading it across the world due to utter negligence of the Wuhan Airport Authorities, an airport owned by the Government of China and thereby the Chinese Government . It’s a fit case for Class Action suit also on a world wide basis under Montreal Convention 1999. It may be added further that World Health Organisation (WHO)’s initial endorsement of the Chinese claim in that this virus gave no evidence of human to human transmission is now being questioned as a case of successful Chinese influencing of a multi-lateral Organisation to its national advantage as part of Chinese strategy to infiltrate multilateral organisations. While two decades back when SARS crisis took place in China it was WHO that issued the first travel advisory. Now, with growing financial clout of China and its political support and backing of the current Director General Tedros Adhanom in his election in 2017, the independent role of WHO could have been undermined! Incidentally, the Secretary General of ICAO is also Chinese.
Dr Sanat Kaul is Chairman of International Foundation for Aviation, Aerospace and Drones. He can be contacted at sanatkaul@gmail.com
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Burying Alive: Strange case of Idu Mishi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh
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| IDU MISHI TRIBE - ARUNACHAL PRADESH |
However, I have a story to tell exactly on the same subject. In india there is a national level highly competitive recruitment into various government services by the Union Public Service Commission. Once recruited one is allotted various services like the Indian Administrative Service, Foreign Service , Customs or Police etc. in 1971 I was selected into the elite Indian Administrative Service in which the young officers are trained in the Himalayan hill station of Mussoorie and then sent to one of the 700 districts of India for general administration . After my training I was sent off to North-East Frontier Agency(NEFA) (now a full state of India called Arunachal Pradesh) a very difficult region of the country which is 83,743 sq Km in area consisting of inhospitable terrain between the plains of Assam and the Indo-Tibetan border and habitated by over 50 different tribes.While there were some roads into the hills, there were many places which had no road connectivity and were supported with the help of Indian Air Force, both by aircrafts and helicopter sorties.
I was posted to a dreaded location called Anini in remote Dibang Valley. At that time the road was only upto the town of Roing in the foothills and my place of posting was in a place called Anini , which was officially 14 days walk up a treacherous mountain foot track. This Valley from foothills right up to Tibet border was inhabited by a tribe called ‘Idu Mishimi’. NEFA being a Union Territory was controlled directly by the federal government bypassing the federal structure. The 50 odd tribes described above resided in this region, each having their own peculiar dialect, dress and traditions. Unlike the tribal policy followed in many countries like the United States of partial annihilation of their tribes, the Indian Government followed a policy of enlightened integration. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister was a believer in this policy. This policy also stated that while Indian laws will apply to this region also, they should accommodate and respect its the tribal customs. As a policy it was certainly enlighten and has resulted proper integration of all these 50 odd tribes into a full State or Province of Arunachal Pradesh with independent State legislature and its own Chief Minister with a Cabinet.
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| Idu Mishim of Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh, India |
However, the conflict with tribal customary laws and Indian Penal code was striking. On my joining the NEFA Administration I had my briefing session with the Chief Secretary before proceeding for Anini. Among other things the Chief Secretary told me was a peculiar tradition of Idu Mishimis of burying people alive. In a recent case, he told me, the matter had reached the Indian Parliament when an Member of Indian Parliament had raised this question of Indu Mishimi burying their people alive. When the Parliament Question was sent to my predecessor for a suitable draft reply, he answered in a simple manner that this was an acceptable tribal custom done in cases of very old or sick persons and as tribal customs have to honoured he had not taken any action in that particular case as otherwise it will have to treated as a murder case under the Indian Penal Code. The Chief Secretary was was quite upset with the answer of my predecessor. He told me that while tribal customs are to be respected and accommodated within Indian laws, this is a case amounting to murder and cannot be treated in the same spirit.
Subsequently, I reached Anini with the help of an Indian Air Force Helicopter and started to settle down in the small hamlet. It was a beautiful Valley. The Indu Mishmi are friendly and hospitable people who meet and greet with with affection. I decided not to waste my time and went off on a foot tour of a week to a village called Mipi towards the Tibet border. It was great fun because you were not only having a great time holidaying but also getting paid for it.
However, my so called work-holiday was short lived. On return from this trip I received a message from our local tribal ‘Interpreter’ -a Government appointee, that there is going to live burial in a nearby village. Recalling my briefing from the Chief Secretary before leaving for this posting with reference to the practice, I suddenly froze in my chair. I took it as my duty and mission to stop it. So I collected a few officers present at Anini along with the government Interpreter and held a meeting. The Interpreter told us that the village is presently having a feast and the burial will take place in a few hours. As the village was luckily only about two hours walk from Anini, so we decided that we will all go together to the village along with our Doctor and explain to them that what they were doing is wrong and not acceptable to the Government.
After two hours of walk we reached the village. We found the village had a festive air. There were people moving around. On inquiry I was told that there was ‘Bara Khanna’ or feast being held in honour of the person who is to be buried alive. The had already cut a ‘Mithun’- a large Bull like animal found in that area and which was partially domesticated and was owned by individuals, even though it was not living in their house or compound. In fact it was a statement of wealth of a person and would be a major part of dowry during say a marriage. Cutting of a Mithun for a party signified the importance of the occasion. We were told that as was customary all respect has been given to the person who is being buried alive. His wife had agreed, all his relatives from nearby villages have been called and the farewell party was in full swing. We wanted to see the person who was to be buried alive. The villagers without hesitation took us to him who was lying on a stretcher well clothed.
As we approached the person the doctor in our group immediately recognised him and stated that he has examined this person himself earlier and stated that he is in a coma and not curable. He confirmed that he is a vegetable and even if he is taken to his small 10 bed hospital at Anini, he will not be able to do anything to him. He further said that since he has only 10 beds and more patients who need treatment he would rather admit a person who can be cured. He was, in this way, making it clear to me that he will not be able to keep him in his small hospital.
I then spoke to the local tribals through the interpreters as I didn’t know the Mishimi dialect, although quite a few could speak and understand Hindi/ Assamese. They all agreed that the person had some incurable disease which has made him into a vegetable. They also stated that neither their witch Doctor nor the government hospital Doctor could cure him. Therefore, they have decided collectively, as per their local custom, to give him a traditional farewell with full rights and bury him alive.
I then went to see his wife who was sitting in one corner. I asked her if she agreed to her husband being buried alive and she also confirmed in affirmative. She also said that he has been in coma for a long time and there is no hope of his recovery.
After all the discussion with the villagers who were very very cooperative it fell upon me as the Administrator of the area to take the final call. So I gathered all the villagers and told them that while we respect there local customs I have a problem with this particular custom. I further said that as a part of India we also need to respect the laws of the country. This particular act which they are about to do of burying a person alive is not permitted in the laws of India and amounts to wilful murder, punishable by law. I also mentioned that in a previous burial alive of another Idu Mishmi person inquired into by the Indian Parliament and they were not satisfied with this local custom. Since the villagers are used to local assemblies or ‘Kebangs’ they appeared satisfied with the fact that this matter has been discussed in a much bigger Kebang. So I told them, most politely, that we cannot allow such a burial of a living body. They were appreciative but helpless and stated that they have already given the person full honours by local traditions with all his relatives and friends present for the burial ceremony. Therefore, they added, as far as they are concerned they have already bid him goodbye by the local customary law and there is no dispute about it. However, as I, a functionary of the government, has not agreed to their custom of burying alive, they have com to a compromise and said that in that case we should take the camotosed body with us to Anini. I had no option in face of this offer but to accept it. However, as our doctor had already told me that his small 10 bed hospital is full and he will not be able to give him a bed, left with no choice, I was forced to arranged to carry the person on a stretcher back to Anini and arranged a shack to keep him, put someone on duty to feed him and clean him.
The poor person, without any help from his relatives died peacefully after 10 days. I sent word to his wife and the villagers that he has passed away and that they should come and collect his body. Promptly came their reply that since they have already given him full departing rights as per their custom, they are not willing to have his body back. So we landed up with a corpse who had no claimant. We then got him buried quietly but no one from his village came. Mercy killing or euthanasia was practiced by Idu Mishmi’s but our modern day laws do not allow it.
Sanat Kaul is a writer and be contacted at sanatkaul@gmail.com
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