Permaculture

Book link

• http://www.holmgren.com.au/

An imaginative text based on contemporary travel through the forests by SARAI associate fellow Debkamal Ganguly » http://www.sarai.net/fellowships/associate/debkamal-ganguly

• The link between forest/ecology destruction / urbanism and phenomenology of trains
• Leper colony, Santhal tribal woman
• Time and space continuum( numbers , age )the sense of ‘’loss’’ of self in sexual congress, reaching a new continuum
• Urban forests… urban jungle,Garbage Space and Garbage time
• A mental forest
• Can urban life and wilderness co-exist
• Is the loss of wild an indispensable cost of development,of urban wilderness?
• Soil as a unifying factor, just as the sky
• Menstrual cycles and primitive tribal woman

“Community Ecological Mapping” by Nilanjan Bhattacharya, Kolkata » http://www.sarai.net/fellowships/independent/abstracts/03-04/page-3/?searchterm=Nilanjan%20Bhattacharya

The eastward expansion of the city is causing the fast transformation of the semi rural and rural landscape into highly urban settlements in the eastern fringe of Calcutta. Kalikapur, a densely populated locality inhabited mostly by the people from poorer economic strata, a unique ecosystem with very rich mosaic of original vegetation, with groves of indigenous trees and bushes, swamps with reeds, and number of water bodies, has strangely survived the onslaught and now remains as a refuge threatened by the fast approaching urban expansion. A considerable number of Kalikapur residents have significant dependence on the local wilderness for their dietary supplements, fuel and fodder. They, and particularly their children, are quite knowledgeable about these available, 'free' resources, in the locality and also in adjacent urban settlements. The proposed research is aimed to study such unique practice of resource use, sharing, and indigenous knowledge, in a framework of urban-semi-urban ecosystem. An outline ecological mapping along with the ethnographic history of Kalikapur region is being planned. The project also plans to document the process of urban transformation.

A small group comprises of knowledgeable kids from Kalikapur, and kids from the adjacent urban locality, who have operational computer knowledge, would be formed. Kalikapur kids will work as field guides and the urban ones will take charge of the documentation (paper, photographs, computer storage) mainly. A participatory bio-resource documentation, and exchange of knowledge and skill between these two groups would be actively initiated.

• http://www.teriin.org/sector_search.php?sector=11&tp=Projects
• http://www.rahelhegnauer.ch
• http://www.thenrgroup.net/info/people/CT/Tingle.doc
• http://www.thenrgroup.net/info/people/sketch.htm
• http://khojworkshop.org/aggregator
• Plant tiles on page 3 http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/announce/news/94B/20060607.pdf

moonlight junction…. one of the most dense places on the planet… absolute and complete sense of chaos… people shouting, screaming and jostling … every third step a group of people is eating … visit to the 15th century haveli… peepal tree… religious significance… the tree vs the built form… growing forms vs static rigid forms… why can't our buildings… or built habitats grow… and cooperate with the trees they stand next to … why can't the built mass be built with materials and systems which when fed with water, electricity, time, maintainence, human occupation etc begins to respond and live… how does our body function… much like the way a plant functions i guess… there is something to discuss here…

i walk down the street to see more informal courtyards and smaller, personal touches of green… in front of the temple… the small jamun tree in the court yard… tulsi and kadi patta… gainda flowers… the lady who loves her money plants so much that her daughter in law has also had to fall in love with them and is seeing them as a source of joy, peace, fortune, health …

there is just too much fiesty talk and discourse all around… people are brain numb and driven into giving up their interests… awareness is at its bottom most level… it is like a crowd of cows being fed heavily before being butchered… chipko movement… blank noise… silence… tree and plants are mute and remain so… french animation where humans and their greed makes them pigs eventually resulting in their death… not death… death is beautiful… it is immortal since nothing changes once you reach it … you don't get old, you do not change…. through death one goes beyond the idea of death… Mrityunjay… visit to the jain temple… beautiful ambience… one thing which remains in my mind was a statement from the priest … the jain monks are like grazing cattle… they never take too much from one place or person… they take small amounts and then move onto the next spot…

today i see trees only in areas where they have been given explicit permission to exist… schools, institutions, military campus, temples and parks. They seem to have had it real tough recently … especially with so many illegal migrants in Delhi… now migrants do have a choice.. they can give a reasonable bribe to enjoy the wonderful opportunities Delhi has to offer… but our specie never got around to developing a system of monetary benefits. We need some gigantic leaps in economics i feel.

–sanjeev shankar