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Young World
Linking lifestyles
KANCHI KOHLI
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How closely do you think urban and rural areas are connected?
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Photo: Mohammed Yousuf
Expanding cities: Who pays the price?
Sometimes it is difficult to imagine how a life in the city could be intricately linked to the rural areas. It is even more difficult to fathom how the lives, actions and lifestyles of those in the city could have a direct bearing so many miles away. A little bit of thought can make the connection easier.
Sustenance
When you look at a marble or granite floor or a huge mirror, try and trace the source. Or when you see a flyover or a shopping mall, think of where the material is sourced from. The raw materials for these are mined from fragile hilly and mountain regions. Cement for buildings requires limestone, comes from the Himalayas. In Delhi, most of the marble comes from the Aravalli regions. This extremely sensitive ecosystem is an important buffer between the desert and plain areas. The denudation of the Aravallis has disturbed the ecological cycle.
What about the food we eat? We know that India is predominantly an agricultural economy. So farmers produce food we require. Is it possible that we could ask for non-chemical products, popularly known as organic? At present they are more expensive and available only in specialised places, but a simple change in the demand-supply ratio can help change things.
It is a common refrain today that cities are expanding. We have new satellite towns, apartment blocks, stadiums, entertainment centres coming up. To achieve this we need expressways and more dams to generate power. But for rural areas it has meant a complete change of land use, and not just agricultural land, but pastoral land too. Many hydroelectric projects come up in extremely fragile forest areas and that has meant felling trees. We know that these forests are important to maintain water security.
This is just a hint of how deeply lives in the city are linked to the villages. We need to realise this for a healthier life.
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