[Reader-list] Arka's appeal to stop madness in the Sunderbans

[Chintan Girish Modi]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Arka Mukhopadhyay <arka.mukhopadhyay at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 10:19 AM
Subject: Madness in the Sunderbans - Please Act NOW!
To:


Dear friends,
        I am writing to you as a concerned human being, to share my extreme
alarm at something I can only see as an assault on the fragile ecology of
the Sunderbans. I am talking about a festival called Ujaan (
www.ujaanfestival.org <http://ujaanfestival.org/>), that is scheduled to
take place in Frazer Ganj, a semi-village semi-resort on the fringes of the
Sunderbans. On the face of it, it claims to be a 'festival for the
Sunderbans' - to raise awareness about this precious and fast-disappearing
treasure. However, the way it is going to go about doing that is stupefying,
to say the least. The festival involves twenty bands and several more solo
acts, most of them non-acoustic. The website says several more are in the
process of being confirmed. From what I could gather from their Facebook
page (http://www.facebook.com/ujaanfestival) and elsewhere, the organizers
and volunteers number about 300, and the number of attendees could be around
two or three thousand! So we are talking about maybe four thousand plus
people descending on a little village which borders one of the world's most
sensitive bio-diversity zones with LOUD amplified electic/electronic music
playing late into the night. We are probably talking about hundreds of
drunk/stoned spectators wreaking havoc on the beach and the rest of Frazer
Ganj/ Bakkahli! All told, I cannot begin to imagine the kind of
environmental disaster the festival itself will be! Not to mention the fact
that at 2,000/- a pass, the festival will be completely out-of-reach of the
local population of Frazer Ganj.
Now, raising awareness about the Sunderbans is a fantastic thing to do, and
it's a wonderful idea to do so by organizing a rock concert. However, there
is something However, there is something quite asinine about organizing that
concert right on the fringes of the fragile Sunderbans! I am sure the people
who are doing this want to do their bit to prevent man-made climate change.
I am sure they are brave, committed people. However, this is not the way!
This is not what the Sunderbans need of what Frazerganj needs.
Please circulate this, please tell your friends. If you know people who are
going there, engage them in dialogue and try to dissuade them. If any of you
know how to file a PIL against this/ get a court injunction - please tell
me. I am on this ID and on 9831731422. If you know any of the organizers,
please engage with them and try to make them see the madness of this.

Warmth and peace,
Arka

-- 
*Stat rosa pristina nomine,
nomina nuda tenemus*