I was raised with an Irish Blessing that unknowingly helped to guide me through life. The prayer was displayed on the wall, of our humble kitchen. I remember it was carved into wood with delicately painted green shamrocks all around the verse. The blessing went like this:

“May the road rise up to meet you,

May the wind be ever at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

and may the rains fall softly upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

may God hold you in the palm of his hand”. (Author unknown)

My mother was 100 % Irish and she loved this blessing because the message mirrored her intent to teach her four children to appreciate the simple things of life and that God is ever present. She felt that we were lucky by the mere nature of our Irish ancestral blood. She took great pride in the strength and ingenuity of her ancestors. She taught me that I was lucky to be born Irish, although I am only 50%. I quickly learned to blame the unlucky events in my life on the other half of my heritage that came from my alcoholic father. In spite of being raised in a crazy and chaotic home I learned to value the intangible gift of feeling supported by the divine as in this Irish blessing. The image of the sun on my face, illuminating my way and the wind at my back urging me to move forward carried me through many a difficult passage. The gift of Mother Nature showering my dreams with rain so my hope and faith in myself and life could grow has sustained me. And finally, the image of God holding me like a holy child, gives me a sense of protection and care.

My mom always reminded me and my three siblings that when things got hard, that the luck of the Irish was always with us. As we struggled with poverty and alcoholism in our home, she remained ever constant in her outlook that we were lucky because there were people much worse off than us. If we forgot how lucky we were to live in a small house in the country, she would load all four kids into the car and drive to the inner city where children had no yards to play in. She also reminded us of our ancestors who survived the great potato famine in Ireland and that we came from hearty stock. She sited memories from her own childhood, being one of ten children who shared two rooms. Then she would tell us how all ten children grew up and graduated college in spite of their frugal upbringing.

On hindsight, I see now that I was programmed to feel lucky from a young age. This sense of luck had nothing to do with fame or fortune. Instead, the luck I was taught was to count my blessings and to trust God no matter what. I also learned that if I worked hard and sacrificed my short term goals for long term rewards that I would live a lucky life. So even though from time to time I would look at others and think they were luckier than me because they had more material gains, more knowledge, traveled the world or seemed more successful than myself, I would stop myself and remember that simple Irish blessing and give thanks that I was being held in the hands of God with the sun on my face and the wind on my back. May the luck of the Irish be with you too.

Much stress there is a difference between gender and sex. And there certainly is. Sex is essentially biology, the male and female manifestations or to put it more plainly, the physical parts that come with being male or female. Gender, on the other hand, are the social norms, roles and ideals tied to one’s identity, usually ascribed on which of those physical parts you own. It’s a “social construct,” something that is not founded in the actual physical make-up.

William Shakespeare’s famous “transvestite drama,” Twelfth Night effectively exemplifies gender as a social construct. After all, the play is focused on, among other things, on a young female fraternal twin named Viola who decided to cross-dress to gain a job and entry into Duke Orsino’s court. After all, a girl’s gotta eat, and since she’s been separated from her believed-to-be-dead twin brother after a nasty shipwreck, she’s got to find work.

In Shakespeare’s time, cross-dressing (with the exception of on stage, as male actors played female characters all the time) was a big no-no. Women, of course, were expected to maintain and adopt strict norms regarding femininity, appearance and behavior. To willfully put on a pair of Elizabethan breeches when you’re supposed to be wearing pounds upon pounds of layered skirts was an absolute scandal.

Naturally, Shakespeare’s play was considered to be morally corrupt in this regard, portraying women departing from their strict gender roles. Yet, feminist scholars are quick to point out that it speaks to the lack of freedoms or agency women had at the time. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, we see exactly how oppressive and damaging a patriarchal society can be for a woman’s psyche; Ophelia- who prescribed to prevalent notions of appropriate feminine behavior- found herself a pawn in the hands of the men in her life, felt trapped by her circumstances, and eventually committed suicide. Through time and literature, we have seen women who, unlike Ophelia, went against society’s expectations in order to assert their beliefs or claim a measure of the happiness they deserved and faced grave rejection, opposition and societal condemnation as a result of it. Sophocles’ Antigone, Henry Adam’s Esther and Kate Chopin’s Edna are all good examples of this.

In Shakespeare’s world, If a woman found herself to be without a living, she had to impersonate a man to survive (or get married, which also happens at the end of the play). More importantly however, the whole performance of Viola as the Justin Bieber-ish (ladies love him and “his” slightly androgynous physique) Cesario speaks to gender as a performance. After all, the actor who played Viola on stage during the time was a man, making the whole performance a man acting like a woman acting like a man. If that doesn’t bend gender, nothing will. Gender, therefore, becomes something that can be mimicked and mimicked well, especially in the case of Viola-as-Cesario, who is so skilled at acting like a man she happens to attract the attention of Olivia, the same countess the Duke is romantically pursuing.

This notion of gender as a performance is also present in another classic piece of literature nearly 400 years after Shakespeare penned Twelfth Night.

That piece of literature is Harper Lee’s famous classic, To Kill a Mockingbird. In the novel about Southern racism, morality and justice, we are guided by a tomboy Scout, who has grown up largely free from the female norms of propriety and politeness usually thrust upon typical Southern belles. She mostly has her father, the wise, just lawyer Atticus Finch, to thank for that. Scout is like Viola, in a sense, that both their behaviors defy what their sex demands their gender to be. Viola is supposed to be wearing women’s clothes and acting like a woman, as is Scout. Scout is also supposed to be polite, prim and proper-not the rough-and-tumble, pugnacious tree-climbing tween she is. She abhors femininity, in fact. It is something she chooses to object to, something she considers beneath her for most of the novel. Shakespeare’s Viola doesn’t come out so directly against gender or being a woman (it is the Elizabethan era, after all) but her choice to dress as a man suggests a rejection of the feminine norms and demands society has placed on her.

Both Viola’s and Scout’s rejection (however temporary or forced upon) of such norms clearly support this theory of gender as a performance. For both characters, it is something one can do or behave like and switch in an instant-unlike one’s sex, which nowadays can be changed but not as easily or painless. Consider Scout’s ruminations on how the town’s ladies-including her aunt-don a semblance of polite propriety and strength after the tragic death of the falsely convicted Tom. During that time, Scout mimics her Aunt Alexandra in assuming a polite decorum, offering mourning ladies food like a good hostess. She says: “After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.” Gender performance, indeed.

Tanzania’s natural endowment as a wildlife safari destination is unrivalled. Wild animals roam in vast areas as God intended on that sixth day of the creation. These areas are designated as national parks and game reserves and have a high reputation for being uncrowded and unspoilt. The magnificent collection of game sanctuaries to the north of the country, near the border with Kenya, is referred to as The Northern Circuit. This is the most popular and accessible wildlife safari route in Tanzania. I can positively say that this is one of the finest game viewing areas anywhere in the world.

The game aside, the spectacularly diverse cluster of eco-systems and habitats is a dazzling experience for many a visitor. The stars of the Northern Circuit are the Serengeti and Ngorongoro, very dear to the hearts of nature lovers. But no less sparkling and indeed complementing the two are the other members of the circuit: Arusha, Tarangire and Lake Manyara. In terms of wildlife, the abundance and diversity of the wildlife here is difficult to imagine.

On top of the heap are the highly regarded “big five”: elephant, buffalo, rhino, leopard and lion. And then a wild array of plain animals: wildebeest, zebra, eland, hartebeest, oryx, reedbuck, giraffe, Thompson gazelle, and many more of the same genre. But do not forget the merciless predators: cheetah, wild dog, jackal, hyena and vultures. The Northern Circuit is an ornithologist’s paradise too, and over 500 species of birds are on record. On safari, you will be a witness of the shocking and fascinating dance of life and death on daily play by this combination of animals.

The starting point for northern safaris is usually Arusha town. The town sits near the base of Mount Meru and is in sight of mighty Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain. From Arusha, the nearest protected area to see wildlife is Arusha National Park, just 32 km away. In this park of 137 sq km area, you will see baboon, colobus and vervet monkeys, duikers, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, hippo, leopard, hyena, zebra and a wide range of antelopes. More than 400 species of birds have been recorded, including Eurasian migrants, who visit between October and April. One of the unique attractions of the park is that walking safaris are allowed and you can get off your vehicle for a nature walk. Due to its proximity to Arusha, the park is very popular for day trips.

Wildlife aside, Arusha National Park is a treasure with a rich tapestry of habitats including grassland, montane forest, heath and alpine desert and soda and fresh water lakes. Three spectacular features stand out: the Momela Lakes, Mount Meru, and Ngurdoto Crater. Mount Meru stands at 4,575 m and is Africa’s fourth highest mountain. It is however overshadowed by nearby Kilimanjaro, which rises above it by over 1300 m. It is regrettable that the snobbish instinct of many climbers makes them to overlook Mt Meru. The mountain can be scaled in three to four days with overnight accommodation in alpine huts.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve, is located in the Great Rift Valley – that monumental fracture of the earths crust. The area is filled with volcanoes, mountains, plains, lakes and forests. Covering 8,288 sq km, its main features are the Ngorongoro Crater, the Empakai crater, the Oldonyo Lengai Mountain and the archeological site of Olduvai Gorge. Olduvai Gorge is the prehistoric site where Dr. Louis Leakey discovered the remains of Homo habilis (“Handy man”) regarded by scientists as mankind’s first step on the path of human evolution. Be sure to have a look at the remains of our worthy predecessor, whose valiant industry spurred by necessity, got him making simple stone tools.

Unlike in the national parks, the colorful Maasai people, their livestock and wildlife coexist within the conservation area. The Ngorongoro Crater is the largest caldera in the world that has its walls intact. The crater floor is a drop of 600 m and covers an area of 260 sq km with a diameter of 19 km. This magnificent natural amphitheatre is a stunning attraction in its own right and is one of the wonders of the natural world. The crater supports a year round resident population of a variety of wildlife. You will have no trouble spotting lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo and many species of plain animals- wildebeest, zebra, reedbuck, Thompson gazelle and many more. The crater floor is dotted with watering holes and holds almost 30,000 wild animals. Ngorongoro is four hours by road from Arusha or one hour by air. And from either Lake Manyara or Tarangire you will be on the road for two hours.

Lake Manyara National Park spreads between the cliff of the Great Rift Valley and Lake Manyara, a shallow soda lake. The park covers 330 sq. km, 70% of which is occupied by the lake. The varied ecosystem consists of ground water forests, acacia woodland and open grassland along the lakeshore and sustains a wealth of wildlife, including the Big Five -lion, elephant, leopard, rhino and buffalo. Other animals to be seen in the park include baboons, impala, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, ostrich and hippo.

Lake Manyara is famous for the elusive tree-climbing lions, which can occasionally be seen along the branches of the acacia trees. It is also an ornithologists’ paradise and is host to over 400 species of birds. The water birds hovering around the lake include pelicans, spoonbills, Egyptian geese and hammerkops. In addition, migratory flamingoes arrive in hundreds of thousands creating a spectacular sight over the soda lake. You will arrive at Lake Manyara after driving from Arusha for two hours or flying for just half an hour.

Tarangire National Park is a one and half hour drive from Arusha making it very popular for day trips. Tarangire is a park of giant baobab trees, rolling savannah and acacia parkland. It is famous for its dense wildlife population, which is most spectacular in the dry season between June and September. It is during this period that thousands of animals- wildebeest, zebra, eland, hartebeest, waterbuck, giraffe, impala, gerenuk, buffalo and oryx migrate from the dry Maasai steppe to the Tarangire River in search of water. The predators -lion, leopard and others- as is the custom in the savanna follow closely by. If lucky, you will spot the peculiar tree-climbing python, kudu and roan antelope, a rare experience in the northern safari circuit. Birds are also abundant here and over 550 species have been recorded.

Serengeti National Park is Africa’s most famous wildlife sanctuary and Tanzania’s largest national park. The park is located 6 hours by road from Arusha or one hour by air. It lies in a high plateau between the Ngorongoro highlands and the Kenya/Tanzania border and almost touches Lake Victoria in the west. Appropriately named “endless plains” by the Maasai people, it features short and long grass plains, acacia savanna and woodland in parts of the north and east.

Within its 15,000 sq km area, Serengeti hosts 3 million large mammals. More than 35 species of plain animals- zebra, wildebeest, eland, giraffe, and others are found here. And so for the big five: elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard and rhino. The park is the staging-zone for one the most spectacular events in the natural world- the annual migration of wildebeest. This commences around June when over 1 million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle head for the Maasai Mara in Kenya in search of pasture. Following on their heels are the predators of the savanna- lion, cheetah, wild dog, jackal, hyena and vultures.

If you can spare the money, viewing the migration afloat a balloon is an unforgettable experience. The best time to view game is from December to May when the grass is short. Avoid late June-October, when most of the animals will have evacuated with the migration and are best seen in the adjacent Maasai Mara in Kenya. The keen ornithologist will have a good time trying to sight the 500 species of birds on record.

Camping sites can be found in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and all the national parks of the northern circuit. Facilities are pretty basic and this is where budget travelers prefer to spend their safari nights. If you can afford it, overnight at the luxury safari lodges and tented camps. In this class of accommodation expect to find all the creature comforts associated with rated accommodation. You can check online some of the Tanzania hotels and lodges available for your safari.

It is generally recommended to take an escorted Tanzania safari package that includes transport, guide, park fees and accommodation. Tour guides have valuable local knowledge about the animals, where to find them and how to get where you are going. But if you know the country well and have good knowledge of animals, then self-drive car rental in Tanzania is an option.

The relatively high elevation in northern Tanzania means that it never gets too hot. Indeed the nights and early mornings can be quite chilly. You are well advised to take along a heavy sweater and a windbreaker or jacket. Expect temperatures to average from 15°C in May to August and 22°C over December to March. The weather is best between June and September, but do not bet on seeing any animals in the Serengeti. For a safari covering all the parks of northern Tanzania, September to March is a good time. But remember that some of the other parks in the region offer nearly year round game viewing opportunities. April and May can be a challenging period for doing a safari for it is when the weather is at its rainiest.

On safari, bright coloured clothing may get you in trouble with wild animals. If you are wise you will pack brown, beige and khaki clothing. Short sleeve shirts, shorts and trouser for men are adequate. For ladies, short sleeve blouses, slacks and skirts are ideal. Though the northern region is well outside the predominantly Muslim coast areas and ladies do not have to dress

too conservatively, modest attire is still a good idea. Remember to bring along a pair of sunglasses to shield you from the sometimes harsh tropical glare. Binoculars will come in very

handy for spotting animals.

Copyright © Africa Point

Origins and Biplanes:

Synonymous with Long Island, the Grumman Corporation was one of the world’s premier military aircraft manufacturers.

It traces its origins, however, to a man named Grover Loening, an aeronautical engineer who had professional ties with Orville Wright and had later worked in the Army’s aeronautical engineering office before founding his own, namesake Loening Aircraft and Engineering Corporation in 1917, located in a three-story plant on New York’s East Side.

An attractive sales prospect, the fledgling aviation company was subsequently absorbed by the Keystone Aircraft Company, whose focus was a twin-engine bomber slated for the Air Corps, and the Loening personnel were given the option of relocating to its Bristol, Pennsylvania, headquarters, or becoming unemployed.

One of them was Leroy Randle Grumman. A key engineer in Philadelphia and test pilot for Loening’s own two-seat fighter, he was originally persuaded to relinquish his Navy service for a plant manager position with the Loening company itself in 1920, but now, along with its other employees, was forced to choose between the Keystone relocation or a jobless status.

He chose the latter, and elected to tap into his talents to found his own company, the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, on January 2, 1930 instead. It would soon prove the tenets of pride, loyalty, and dedication upon which it rested.

Electing to focus on military designs, he tweaked out initial, aircraft-transitional revenue from the repair and remanufacture of the Loening amphibians with which his mostly ex-Loening staff had been familiar.

The first so-called “plant,” a rented, rectangular cinder block in Baldwin, had been inceptionally used by the Cox-Klemin airplane manufacturer, and it inauspiciously opened its doors to a spartan interior occupied by a scatter of furniture and engineering-related equipment, such as drafting tables, drill presses, and woodworking machines.

Initial activity, albeit of non-Grumman indigenous designs, served as the transitional link from the former Loening enterprise, but Grumman’s own military focus was soon established.

The Navy, operating a fleet of both landing gear- and float-equipped Vought Corsair scout and observation types, needed a hybrid design which would incorporate both modes, and Grumman devised a light-weight float into which its wheels could retract. Two, according to its contract, were built for test and evaluation purposes. Ultimately proving themselves, they were retrofitted, as Model A floats, to the Navy’s Corsairs and, in the process, created a connection between the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation and this service branch for its more than six-decade history.

Its second project, equally requested by the Navy’s Plans Division, was to replace the fixed undercarriage of its Boeing biplane fighters with a retractable one in order to decrease their drag and improve their speed. Unlike the relatively straightforward float installation, however, the aircraft’s slender fuselage needed considerable redesign, and Grumman viewed the obstacle as an opportunity-namely, to pitch its own-and first-airframe to replace it.

Despite the still-early evolutionary stage of aeronautical technology, the aircraft, designed to fill the Navy’s March 6, 1931 request for a High Performance Fighter, incorporated a significant amount of it. Featuring a 24.6-foot overall length, it employed an aluminum alloy, semi-monocoque fuselage; a Grumman-designed truss; staggered biplanes whose span stretched to 34.6 feet and produced a 310-square-foot area; a nine-cylinder, air-cooled, Wright Cyclone R-1820 radial engine; a drag-reducing cowling; an enclosed, canopy-covered, dual-person, pilot-and-gunner, tandemly-arranged cockpit; and the soon-to-become Grumman characteristic hand-cranked, vertically-retracting undercarriage, stowed in forward-fuselage wheel wells ahead of the wing leading edge.

First flying on December 29 in prototype form as the XFF-1, the 4,677-pound, carrier-based fighter was the first naval design to exceed 200 mph in level flight, and could climb at 5,000 fpm and reach a 22,100-foot service ceiling.

An order for 27 production FF-1s followed and most of them, replacing Boeing F4B-2s in 1933, were assigned to Naval Air Station (NAS) North Island in California.

A scout version, the SF-1, attracted an order for 34.

Space-constrained by his original Baldwin facility and therefore unable to fill the Navy’s fighter and scout orders, Grumman was forced to seek an alternate, and larger, plant, choosing a 200-by-100-foot concrete block eight miles to the west, in Valley Stream, in what itself had ironically been a former Naval Reserve Hangar. Internally unpartitioned, it facilitated a more streamlined production flow and offered the optimally-needed floor space, yet at the same time afforded aircraft testing because of its adjacency to Curtiss Field. The relocation occurred in November of 1931.

Still hungry for space to meet production demands and faced with the imminent expiration of its one-year lease in 1932, however, Grumman pulled up its roots for a second time and relocated 16 miles to the east again, selecting a building at the Fairchild flying field in Farmingdale. Originally used by the Fulton Truck Company, it had also been briefly occupied by Sherman Fairchild himself and the American Airplane and Engine Company.

Serving as residence for four and a half years, it witnessed production of the FF-1, the SF-1, and an amphibious version, which mated the former with the Grumman-designed Model B retractable undercarriage-provisioned floats and designated the “Duck.”

Despite the seeming impermanence of its plant locations, the Grumman Aircraft and Engineering Corporation established the connections and characteristics which would pervade its carrier-borne and amphibious aircraft history, all designed to fill Navy requirements and supported by defense contracts.

Amphibious Commercial:

Because mostly Navy and Coast Guard contracts eventually exceeded even the capacity of its Farmingdale plant, and because its optimized enlargement would have entailed significant renovation and cost, Grumman once again turned his sights to a new location-in this case, a 120-acre one in Bethpage, relinquishing its existing facility to the Seversky Aircraft Company.

After half a year of construction, which began on October 26, 1936, the rapidly expanding manufacturer opened its new hangar doors on April 8 and the Bethpage facility soon became synonymous with, if not a fortress of, Grumman, rising from the once barren field in the form of Plant 1. Comprised of two 140-foot-long by 20-foot-wide low bay sections, it also sported a single, 400-foot-long by 120-foot-wide high bay, a 100-by-100 foot hangar, and, a short time later, a grass strip.

The location change signaled, for the first time, a strategy change. Although, like the Duck, the next significant design incorporated amphibious capabilities, it deviated by transitioning from the bi- to the monoplane configuration and it was aimed at the commercial market.

Designated the G-21 Goose, the ten-largest–and first twin-engine, non-military derivative aircraft-sported a two-step floatable hull, giving it a 38.3-foot length; a high wing with a 49-foot span; and two Pratt and Whitney nine-cylinder, 450-hp Wasp Junior radials mounted on and projecting forward of the wing leading edge. It was ground-supported by a single-wheeled, hand-retractable, conventional landing gear, which was flushly stored in either fuselage side. The equally retractable tailwheel was steerable. Piloted by two, it offered comfortable internal accommodation for six to eight passengers with a galley and a lavatory.

Intended as a personal and corporate aircraft with amphibious capability to replace the Loening Air Yacht and Commuter types, the project was overtaken by Grumman upon Loening’s suggestion, since he had lacked the plant capacity to proceed with it.

First flying on May 29, 1937, the 7,500-pound airliner, with a 175-mph cruise speed and 795-mile range, was awarded its Approved Type Certificate on September 29 and, as envisioned, was operated by wealthy individuals, oil and mining companies, and corporations.

KNILM, KLM’s East Indies subsidiary, served as its first commercial operator, and it proved ideally suited to third-level carriers whose challenging route topographies, comprised of remote islands and peninsulas, depended upon its rugged, reliable construction and land, ice, and water capabilities, as lifelines to small communities. It wore the colors of Alaska Coastal and Reeve Aleutian Airlines. Antilles Air Boats, which inaugurated service in 1964, ultimately operated 18 of the type, while registrations as far afield as Australia represented its diverse transport potential.

Military operators included the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Army Air Corps, and the Navy, the latter of which amassed a 35-strong fleet by the end of `1941.

Its durability, coupled with subsequent modifications, ensured more than five decades of service with operators in a wide range of roles, including those retrofitted with skis and hydrofoils and those powered by four piston and two turboprop engines.

Between 1937 and 1945, 345 G-21s were produced.

Because Grumman believed that the type’s size and cost limited its appeal, he commenced work on a smaller version, designated “Design 44,” which was intended to complement and succeed it.

Powered by two 200-hp, six-cylinder, air-cooled Ranger 6-440C-5 engines, the resultant aircraft, soon named the G-44 Widgeon, sported a 31.1-foot overall length and 40-foot span, optimizing it for four passengers. Comparatively, it offered a 3,000-pound lower gross weight, of 4,525 pounds, and first flew on June 28, 1940.

Although it proved versatile enough for a variety of roles, including seaplane trainers for Pan American Airways, utility liners, and search and rescue aircraft for the US Coast Guard, its production total of 276, along with 41 license-built by the Societe de Constructions Aero-Navales, proved little more than its larger predecessor’s had been.

The Avenger and the Cats:

Although still only manifesting itself as distant thunder, war’s reverberations had already caused Grumman to return to its military aircraft design roots.

In order to succeed the previous biplane fighter, the F3F, and offer superior speed, it drew up plans for the XF4F-1 in March of 1936, but it would have suffered from performance disadvantages over the competing, monoplane-configured Brewster B-139, thus prompting a radical redesign to deviate from its original FF-1 lineage.

Powered by a single, 1,050-hp Pratt and Whitney R-1830-66 engine, the cantilever, all-metal, mid-wing, NACA airfoiled monoplane sported a conventional tail and retained the Grumman characteristic landing gear. It was designated the “Wildcat.”

First flying from Bethpage on September 2, 1937 as the XF4F-1 and delivered to Naval Air Station Anacostia three months later, on December 23, it quickly revealed crankshaft deficiencies and was rejected by the Navy, prompting yet further redesign. The succeeding XF4F-2, retaining the previous version’s fuselage, introduced increased-span and -area wings with square tips and the 1,200-hp two-stage, two-speed supercharger-equipped R-1830-76, which drove a Curtiss Electric propeller. However, flight tests equally revealed shortcomings, particularly those related to stability, and it subsequently incorporated wing dihedral and modifications to improve engine cooling.

As the definitive F4F-3 Wildcat, it attracted a 54-strong order from the Navy.

By the end of the decade, the mounting war clouds began to unleash their torrential conflicts, and in the US, President Roosevelt opened the country’s umbrella of arsenal protection by announcing a national defense policy, which advocated annual aircraft production of 10,000 units. Grumman, needless to say, was expected to provide a significant number of them.

The F4F would become the first link in what would eventually become a chain of five “cats,” each of which purred more loudly than the prior one.

The F4F-4, with a 28.9-foot length and 38-foot span, featured a 5,758-pound empty and 7,952-pound gross weight. Powered by the R-1830-86 powerplant, it offered feisty performance: a 1,950-fpm climb rate and a 318-mph speed at 19,400 feet, although its service ceiling extended as high as 34,000 feet. Carrier storage was facilitated by manually foldable wings.

Temporarily lifted State Department restrictions initially allowed sales of the first Wildcats to the French so that they could equip their two in-construction aircraft carriers. Because increasing war demands delayed their other Pratt and Whitney-powered airplanes, however, they were forced to revert to the Wright Cyclone, whose single-stage supercharger diluted its performance at high, thin altitudes. Yet, after France’s surrender, its intended fleet was delivered to Britain.

When the war clouds ultimately burst and rained havoc, they exerted unprecedented demand on Grumman, which, along with Vought, was thenceforth ordered to supply the Navy, with whose carrier-based design requirements it had become increasingly familiar.

War’s hunger seemed insatiable. Grumman, for instance, produced 459 Wildcats in 1941, yet, despite the reflection across the Bethpage runway of the 4,000-person Plant 2 rising from the ground since its construction had commenced in September of 1940, it could not satisfy it without a third such facility. Plant 2 itself ironically opened on December 7, 1941, the same day that the infamous Pearl Harbor attack screamed of the need for it, and Wildcat production could only be retained at the required pace by allowing Linden, New Jersey-based Eastern Aircraft, a division of General Motors, to license-build them as FM-1s and -2s.

Indeed, the eventual, 7,825-unit production consisted of 1,988 aircraft made by Grumman and 5,837 by Eastern.

Instrumental in the Pacific, both the F4F-3 and -4 were involved in the Doolittle Raid over Tokyo and other Japanese cities on April 16, 1942, as well as taking part in the first carrier battle in the Coral Sea from May 7 to 8 and the Battle of Midway. They provided aerial protection during the amphibious landing in Guadalcanal.

Aside from the ubiquitous Wildcat series, Grumman quickly designed a second, also carrier-borne aircraft intended to fulfill the Bureau of Aeronautics’ requirement for a torpedo bomber. Of the 13 proposals submitted by Brewster, Douglas, Hall, Vought, Vultee, and Grumman itself, the latter’s, as the XTBF-1, was chosen the following April.

Like the Wildcat, it was a mid- and foldable-wing monoplane, but was powered by a 1,700-hp, 14-cylinder, air-cooled Wright R-2600-8 engine driving a three-bladed Curtiss Electric propeller. Resting on a tricycle undercarriage, it featured a hydraulically actuated internal bomb bay, and was considerably larger. Its three-person crew, housed in a canopied cockpit, included the pilot, the navigator/ventral gunner, and the radio operator/dorsal gunner.

Aside from the complement of bombs and torpedoes, its armament included a.30-caliber forward and aft machine gun and a.50-caliber one in a dorsal, motor driven ball turret. Its unique, Grumman-designed, foldable wing configuration entailed skewed axis movement, the wings themselves horizontally resting against the fuselage to minimize storage requirements. It was referred to as the “sto-wing.”

Stretching 40 feet and sporting a 54.2-foot span in the extended position, the 15,905-pound TBF Avenger first disconnected itself from Bethpage soil on August 7, 1941. Its maximum speed was 271 mph at 12,000 feet.

Despite its ever expanding production facilities, Grumman was unable to satisfy the Navy’s insatiable desire for aircraft, and, as had occurred with the Wildcat, entered into a license-building arrangement with General Motors/Eastern Aircraft, in which case they bore the “TBM” designation.

Of the 9,839 Avengers produced, Grumman itself assembled 2,293 and Eastern Aircraft the remaining 7,546.

TBF and TBM Avengers took part in all Pacific battles, supporting amphibious operations from escort carriers, and engaged in anti-submarine missions in Europe.

Aside from the obvious need for plant facilities in which to produce World War II’s fighters and bombers, and the ever-multiplying personnel to do so, formal training, particularly in aerodynamics and powerplants, was needed to prepare them for their functions. An initial, in-house training program, conducted by subject-proficient instructors, was subsequently replaced by courses taught by New York University’s Guggenheim School of Aeronautics professors at Hofstra University in the midst of Long Island’s cradle of aviation, where it had all begun.

By 1941, the gears of Grumman’s plants turned virtually 24 hours per day with two, ten-hour shifts, and vitally needed space was obtained with the temporary leases of buildings in Amityville, Baldwin, Lindenhurst, Syosset, and the 150,000-square-foot former Pan American base in Port Washington, to which an additional 62,000 square feet was subsequently added. These “satellite” locations accounted for some 3,000 Grumman employees.

In Bethpage, yet a third plant, primarily intended as an incubator to the Wildcat’s successor, opened on March 16, 1942.

It was initially conceived as an improved version with a more powerful engine, increased weights, and a wider undercarriage to augment ground stability. But, in order to take full advantage of the 1,600- to 1,700-hp Wright R-2600 engine, whose 33-percent increase in power production and larger-diameter propeller would have rendered it unsuitable for an F4F derivative, Grumman designed an altogether larger and more capable fighter, which only superficially resembled its predecessor-the F6F Hellcat.

Sporting a 33.7-foot overall length and 42.10-foot span, which gave it the greatest wing area and consequently lowest wing loading of any US fighter, the F6F-3, with a 15,487-pound maximum weight, could climb at 3,500 fpm, yet its slow approach speeds facilitated carrier operations. Its landing gear retraction method, deviating from the Grumman standard, entailed a backwards swing into the wing root.

First flying on June 26, 1942, the Hellcat, in its F6F-5 version, featured a 2,000-hp Pratt and Whitney R-2800-10 two-stage radial, a three-bladed Curtiss Electric propeller, and other improvements, and attained 410-mph maximum speeds. The type, in all its versions, featured the largest wing area of any single-engine fighter, stability as a run platform, speed, maneuverability, and easy transition for newly trained naval pilots.

Because of its design integrity, reliable powerplant, extensive armament, and maneuverability, it was responsible for 55 percent of all enemy aircraft destruction within a two-year period, accounting for 5,156 victories as opposed to 270 Hellcat losses, or a 19.1-to-1 kill-to-loss ratio.

Its principle Pacific opponent was the Japanese A6M2 Zero, whose zinc-based aluminum alloy, all-metal construction counteracted the otherwise minuscule power of its engine, giving the single-seat, low-wing, land- and carrier-based fighter particularly sprightly performance, although its thin wing skins severely eroded its structural integrity and rendered it heavily dependent upon maintenance and repair.

During the three-and-a-half-year period from June of 1942 to November of 1945, 12,275 F6Fhellcats of all versions were produced.

With the introduction of the new, 11,000-ton Independence and 27,000-ton Essex class aircraft carriers in 1943, Grumman/Eastern Aircraft and Douglas were mostly responsible for fleeting them, causing Grumman itself to reach its wartime pinnacles of 25,527 employees and 2,329,100 square feet of floor space in Bethpage. Indeed, of the 34,664 aircraft produced at this time, 18,768 emerged from Grumman’s plants, 15,466 from General Motors/Eastern Aircraft’s, and 330 from Columbia Aircraft’s.

Coupling the F6F Hellcat with the TBF/TBM Avenger was an early strategy to attain night-fighting capability in the Pacific. However, it demonstrated the need for a single design which could incorporate both search and attack elements, resulting in the next-and only dual-engine-one in the Cat series, the F7F Tigercat.

At 45 feet, 4 ½ inches in length, this single-seat, 51.6-foot spanned, mid- and foldable wing aircraft was powered by two, 2,100-hp R-2800-22W water-injected engines driving three-bladed propellers and was noted for its elongated, AN/APS-6 radar-installed nose. Heavily armed, it featured four.50-caliber guns and four 20-mm cannons, and had the capability of carrying two 2,000-pound bombs or a combination of torpedoes and rockets, yet had a 4,360-fpm maximum climb rate. Its all-up weight was 22,560 pounds.

Although the single design was initially intended to fill both the Army’s and the Navy’s requirements, with the principle differences between the two being the turbo-supercharged engines of the former and the mechanically charged ones of the latter, the Army ultimately withdrew its interest, despite having ordered two prototypes, leaving Grumman to exclusively optimize it for the Navy. Yet, its higher-than-standard approach speeds and the need for increased-capacity arresting gear and specialized barrier installations rendered it less than ideal and made it difficult to incorporate in existing naval operations, although it was cleared for them. As a result, it was relegated to mostly land-based missions during which its excellent performance and significant armament strengths could be more properly exploited.

As World War II wound down, so, too, did its production, ending at 364 airframes.

Partially to remain competitive-and perhaps repetitive-and also to restore its reputation, Grumman reverted to its next, and last, Cat model in the series, whose size was intended to approximate that of the one which had launched it all-the F4F Wildcat-but whose performance was intended to eclipse even that of the F6F Hellcat.

With a 27.6-foot overall length and 35.6-foot span, the aircraft, designated the F8F Bearcat, was powered by a single, 2,100-hp R-2800-34W engine driving a four-bladed propeller and first flew on August 31, 1944. Able to climb at 4,570-fpm, it could attain a maximum, 434-mph speed at 19,800 feet.

Although it exhibited outstanding performance, the raging war clouds had alas moved out, resulting in the cancellation of its originally massive order and restricting production to 1,265. It never saw World War II combat.

Nevertheless, the contribution of those Grumman fighters and torpedo bombers, which did, cannot be underestimated. According to government air combat records concerning Navy and Marine performance in the Pacific during this time, 1,295 Japanese airplanes had been shot down by Wildcats, 5,155 by Hellcats, and 98 by Avengers, and its wartime production achievements merited receipt of the Presidential Medal of Merit in 1948 and the Daniel Guggenheim medal for “outstanding achievement in successfully advancing aircraft design for naval and peacetime use.”

World War II, which had been the catalyst of 2,650,000 square feet of factory floor space and a single-plant production record of 664 aircraft in March of 1945, was over. But new conflicts would soon erupt. And Grumman would once again make its contribution to their resolutions-this time with a new powerplant type.

Early Jet Fighters:

Once fueled by war and fed by defense contracts, Grumman realized that its tanks had run dry by the end of 1945, forcing it to lay off three-fourths of its 20,500-strong work force, putter along with short-term Tiger- and Bearcat production, and altogether terminate that of the Hellcat. Robbed of its military raison d’être, it contemplated alternative strategies so that it could, as a company, continue to survive, and initially returned to the amphibious roots it had first planted with the Goose and later cultivated with the Widgeon.

But, although the succeeding, twin-engine, high-wing, boat-hulled Mallard was more advanced and offered a 12-passenger capacity to commuter and feeder airlines, it mostly fell victim, like all flying boats, to post-war airport construction whose runway proliferation obviated the need for aquatic-surface operations in all but island and remote route systems, yielding a paltry production run of 59.

Amphibious capability, however, was still integral to certain aerial missions-particularly those conducted for the purpose of search-and-rescue-and Grumman next offered the twin-engine, high-wing Albatross, its hitherto largest design, accommodating 14 passengers or 16 liter patients. First flying in 1947, it was ordered by the now independent Air Force, the Coast Guard, the Navy, and several countries.

But these efforts could hardly sustain the type of mass production to which it had become accustomed during the war, and it would once again need to contemplate a military design with fighter capabilities if it wished to return to this mode.

Since the Wright Brothers had first conquered heavier-than-air flight in 1903, aviation had embarked on a path paved by ever-advancing technology. By the mid-1950s, the pace of that development seemed to reflect the speed that that development afforded, the increasing thrust capabilities of evolving powerplants outdating what a short time ago had seemed “state-of-the-art” and changing the profile of the Navy’s carrier-borne fleets. While they had once featured gross weights of 15,000 pounds, these had now sustained three-fold increases, thus able to serve as weapon-carrying platforms.

Although the F8F Bearcat represented the pinnacle of piston fighter development, it equally detracted from the conceptualization and design of a pure-jet counterpart, handing the market to McDonnell. Grumman, therefore, had little choice but to explore this realm.

The Korean War marked the technological transition from the piston to the pure-jet engine, and its own entry powered by it, the F9F Panther, served as its expression of that leap.

Sporting a 5,000 thrust-pound Rolls Royce Nene turbojet, the aircraft, with a 37.5-foot length, featured wing root air intakes; a mid, straight wing, whose span was only half an inch more than its length; unjettisonable, 120-US gallon tip tanks; a cross-of-loraine tail; and a tricycle undercarriage. Climbing at 6,000 fpm, it had a 525-mph maximum speed and 44,600-foot service ceiling. Its gross weight was 19,494 pounds.

First divorcing itself from the runway in Bethpage on November 21, 1947, the jet fighter entered production as the F9F-2, and was followed by the 4,600 thrust-pound Allison J33-A-8-powered F9F-3 two years later.

The lighter, more maneuverable, and swept-wing MiG-15, which served as its Korean War opponent, restricted the Panther’s initial role to that of a carrier-borne attack aircraft, but it did become the Navy’s first jet fighter to fly in combat, spending much of its service life as a bomber. Removed from operational fighter squadrons in 1956, the early F9Fs enjoyed a 1,385-unit production run.

The MiG performance nevertheless alerted Grumman of the need for a higher-speed version, which could only be attained with a swept wing.

On March 2, 1951, the Bureau of Aeronautics awarded the Bethpage manufacturer a contract to design an aircraft with the prerequisite geometry, and it elected to use the existing F9F-5 Panther as its platform, mating its fuselage and flight surfaces with a 35-degree swept wing and also a swept tail. Slow, carrier-dictated approach and landing speeds were maintained with the installation of larger-chord leading edge slats and trailing edge flaps.

A two-foot forward fuselage stretch, intended to eliminate the tip tanks, yet retain range, was coupled with a hydraulically-actuated flying tail, while power was provided by a single, 7,000 thrust-pound Pratt and Whitney J48-P-6, water-injected turbojet.

First flying as the F9F-6 Cougar on September 20, the aircraft was able to verify its impressive performance parameters: a 6,750-fpm climb rate, a 654-mph maximum speed, and a 44,600-foot service ceiling.

The F9F-7 was powered by a 6,350 thrust-pound Allison J33-A-16 engine.

The type became Grumman’s first swept wing, carrier-borne Navy aircraft. Like the straight-wing Panther, the Cougar was also flown by the Blue Angels.

But, also like the F8F Bearcat-which appeared too late for World War II combat-it missed its intended Korean War target. Nevertheless, it became the numerically most prevalent, carrier-based fighter during the 1950s, demonstrating its performance capabilities in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific, and had a production run of 1,988 between 1951 and 1960.

Obsolescence in this era of ever accelerating advancement soon proved the type’s ultimate enemy, forcing removal from its front-line positions. Indeed, as technology accelerated, so, too, did the designs which incorporated it-in this case, to true supersonic proportions.

The pure-jet engine and swept wings had served as the threshold to this flight realm; a new design, with an area rule fuselage, would serve to transcend it.

Tracing its origins to the F9F Cougar, it emerged with mid-mounted, 35-degree, downward-folding wings whose thin panels were milled from heavy aluminum; an area rule fuselage, whose narrowing width at the wings’ attachment line reduced transonic drag; and a conventional tail. Flight controls were hydraulically actuated. Powered by a 7,400 thrust-pound Wright J65-W-8 engine, the single-seat fighter, with a 23,459-pound maximum take off weight, could climb at 6,300 fpm and attain 754-mph supersonic speeds, facilitated by 10,500 pounds of afterburner engine thrust.

Although the Bureau of Aeronautics ordered three prototypes on April 27, 1953, the aircraft to be known as the F11F Tiger and initially powered by a non-afterburner-equipped J65-W-7 turbojet, crashed due to engine flame out during its flight test, prompting its program relocation to Edwards AFB. Stability and control deficiencies subsequently necessitated a longer nose and a narrower-chord rudder.

Despite Grumman’s gallant first supersonic attempt, the F11F was powered by a marginally reliable engine and exhibited inferior performance in comparison to that of the competing Vought F8U-1 Crusader’s. Consequently, it had a meager production run of 201.

Because of the pure-jet Panther’s, Cougar’s, and Tiger’s necessarily higher rotation and touchdown speeds, Grumman extended its runway to 6,550 feet to cater to them. But the land-locked plant complex, increasingly encroached upon by suburban sprawl, soon proved inadequate, and once again spurred the search for larger facilities.

“Let us protect and plant the trees

Go awaken the villages

And drive away the axemen.”

– Ghanshyam Sailani

The forests of India are the unique resources for the survival of the rural people of India which were exploited greatly for commerce and industry. The Chipko Movement of India taken birth in Himalayan foothills gained great significance throughout the world’s environmentalist circles for its successful efforts against deforestation. Chipko, which means literally “to embrace” has spread to many other parts of India and has drawn worldwide attention for its resourceful efforts to fight against deforestation and thereby protecting ecology and society. Women played a unique role in making success of the Chipko Movement because they being the dependents on the fuel, wood and fodder for survival found it difficult to procure them for over the last several decades.

In an Indian Civil Society, the workday of the women starts early in the morning. Particulary in the hilly areas, they should fetch water, grind wheat for bread, fulfil the needs of the husband and children, and finally sets out to forest for fuelwood, grass and leaf fodder for animals, etc. Bearing bundles on the head for hours they come home before noon and prepare mid-day meal. Durning the dry season, when upto 80% of the livestock feed is supplied by the forests, their afternoons are also taken up to search for the leaf fodder. This is the need of the forests for the women and her family’s survival.

The forests in the Himalayas play the same role today – two harvests in a year, i.e, rice and millets in the monsoon season and wheat in winter, observing a heavy toll on nutrients in the soil. To make for the shortage of the nutrients it is necessary to collect organic matter in the form of leaf fodder and leaf litter over extensive areas of the forest which may be as large as thirty times the size of a typical cultivated field. If the distance between the village and the forest becomes too far, or if there are no more trees, then it is impossible for the women to bring enough organic matter to keep the nutrient supply in balance. To compensate this shortage, it becomes necessary to burn dried dung in place of fuelwood which further results into fertiliser deficit resulting into poorer harvests and even lower yields of buffalo milk. Further towards compensation of this food shortages, women are many a times forced to sell their gold jewellery and other costly important items which are originally intended to keep as a dowry for their daughters.

In the 19th century, British colonial administrators in India took control of vast areas of forestland and subsequently exploited them through Imperial Forest Service where a reasonable portion of this land was originally been managed communally in accordance with the local rules and regulations. With the advent of British Raj (Colonial Rule) conflicts broke out between rural population and the Forest Service because the village systems of resource use broke down and forest degradation accelerated rapidly. The Chipko Movement, founded in 1973 was the outcome of this conflict, started with an objective to conserve forest in the Himalayas.

Deforestation on the hills is at peak during British rule being they did it greatly to fulfil their commercial ends because of which the hill stations rapidly became black holes as wood is needed to fire limestone and large quantities of timber for the construction of government offices, official residences and for infrastructures to make their rule convenient, effective and commercial, which were architecturally of very high standard and costly to both economy and ecology. In 1844 an English contractor named Wilson obtained a concession from the Feudal Lord of Tehri-Garhwal permitting him to harvest Himalayan cedars which grew at altitudes above 1,800m and had to be rafted for months down the Ganges to reach the plains. Wilson’s contract permitted him to fell as many trees as per his requirement for a fee of 400 rupees per year for twenty years which resulted into disappearance of the magnificent cedars within a span of a decade.

The arrogance or exploitation of power was apparent at a Forest Service Conference in 1875 where it openly declared that the “victor” is entitled to enjoy the “rights of conquest” which gives a clear admission of the rationale behind the setting aside of reserved forests in accordance with the provisions contained in the Forest Act of 1878. Reserved Forests which ordinarily covered the half of the total area of the village had been foreseen wherever timber was produced profitably or where the forest had a protective function. It became the property of the colonial government immediately after the available rights like right to obtain leaf fodder or to graze goats had been rescinded and after informing the local population through a public notice.

In 1920 Mohandas Gandhi, who lead India to Independence in 1947, began his first nation-wide campaign of civil disobedience to protest unjust laws. Gandhiji characterized the newly established forest reserves as a symbol of oppression. However, in the following year, the local population as a regular practice just before commencement of monsoons set fire to forests of Chir, a newly established reserved forests by the British Government owing to the World War I, so that the coming rains would generate the growth of hardy fodder in soil fertilized by ashes. But this year the fire broke out wildly consuming hundreds of thousands of pines known as Chir which resulted into the regional protest by people in the Himalayan Foothills forcing the British Government to abandon the newly established reserved forests.

>From 1920 onwards the population growth increased steadily, particularly in the lowlands. Timber was transported from the hills to the lowlands where it was a great demand for energy and construction. Very often it was auctioned even before it is felled. The forest officials closed their eyes towards this slipshod (Slipshod means without any authorisation and recklessly) felling and the inclination of the contractors to fell the timber even where it has not been marked. Infact they even exercised strict police powers in dealing with the local people like destroying sickles which women used to cut branches and meted out with severe punishment even for petty offences. Further, successful contractors appointed the workforce for a low wage from outside places in place of the resident population. This phenomenon resulted into very costly for the ecology, economy and residents especially.

The significance of forests on environment and society is first recognized primarily by the women in India when the deforestation was taking place in the Himalayan Mountains of India where the forests are logged excessively. The Chipko Movement was a revolutionary step adopted to save Himalayan ecology and society from deforestation. Women, the badly effected class due to deforestation, were simply the strongest, dedicated and the active participants in this movement. Infact, besides environmental movement it was a women’s movement where a women played a vital role within the Chipko Movement against the State for more promising logging and forestry policies so that both the Himalayan environment and society are protected.

Devoid of good forests in England, the British realized the commercial value of Indian Forests and attempted to hold rigid control over them. Accordingly, the Governor General, Lord Dalhousie issued a memorandum on forest conservation called the charter of Indian Forests through which he suggested that the teak, timber, etc be as State Property and its trade be strictly regulated. This paved the beginning for a systematic forest policy of 1855.

During 1856, the Forest Department was established and the first Forest Act was legislated under the guidance of Dietrich Brandis, a German Botanist, the first Inspector General of Forests. He made a record of trees in India and classified them. In 1865, the first Act for the regulation of forests was passed. It gave the power to the government to declare all lands covered with trees and or brushwood as government forest and to make rules to manage them. This Act is applicable only to all the forests which are under the government control which made no provision for the rights of the users.

The Act of 1865 was replaced by a more comprehensive Indian Forest Act of 1878 which divided forests into protected forests, reserved forests and village forests. Several restrictions were imposed upon the people’s rights over the forest land and produce in the protected and reserved forests. Further, the Act empowered the local government to impose duty on timber produced in British India or brought from any other place whereby encouraging them to earn revenue from forests. Infact, this Act radically changed the common property into State property. It then resulted into protests which fuelled a wide ranging debate on the reform of forest policy, to make it more democratic and accountable and into argument that State-citizen relations in the realm of forestry have gone through four overlapping stages: conflict, conversation, negotiation, and abrogation.

The government declared its forest policy by a resolution on 19th October, 1894 which stressed on State control over forests and the need to exploit forests for augmenting state revenue. This resulted into the enactment of Indian Forest Act of 1927 replacing the earlier Act of 1878 which includes all the major provisions of the earlier Act, extending it to include those relating to the duty of timber, which is still in force together with several amendments made by State Governments with the enactment of the Government of India Act, 1935, giving a clear emphasis on the revenue yielding aspect of forests.

Historically, the Indian Himalayan region which was under the control of foreigners, especially Britishers and Germans, since 1855, used to produce lumber for railroads. Further, the then government nationalized one-fifth of the total forest area and enacted legislation in this regard. To make things still worse, the Indian Forests Act of 1878 restricted the peasant access to those forest areas not deemed commercially economical and sanctions were levied on those who violated such restrictions. As a step forward, the Forest department passed an order to excavate the complete forest land area, mainly by cutting down the ash trees, to utilise the same for commercial purposes. This approach developed the revolutionary attitude among the Himalayan residents, mainly one person called Shri Chandi Prasad Bhatt, leader of Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh, who had been converted to the idea of Sarvodaya by Sunderlal Bahuguna some years earlier suggested to hug the trees when the fellers came to cut down of trees. Particulary women and their children hugged the trees to prevent them from felling thereby giving birth to Chipko Movement in 1973.

The Chipko Movement – a green venture started by Shri Sunderlal Bahuguna, Leader of Sarvodaya Movement, in the first half of 1973 in the area of Uttarkhand in Uttarpradesh comprising of eight Himalayan districts which is rich in natural resources exploited by the outsiders paving way to deforestation. Infact, the state managed Forest Department used the most of the forests for timber showing no attention towards the employment and welfare of the local people and towards serious ecological damage arising out of such deforestation. This seriously had a negative impact on economic and social conditions in the Himalayan region. The most affected are the local people, mainly the women. In this movement especially the women hugged the trees by interposing their bodies between the trees and the contractor’s axes.

The advent of independence and the dawn of the princely states unfortunately accelerated the deforestation in the Himalayan region. The formulation of new guiding principles towards economic growth and development made the government to extract natural resources on an unreasonable scale which even exceeded to that of the colonial era which badly effected the conditions for forest ecosystems and destabilized the hill communities. Further, end of the border war between China and India in 1962 resulted in the construction of roads by logging many trees in the forests though initially accepted by the local people for the employment, these infrastructure projects are created but had a considerable adverse impact on the hill society that remains in effect even today. These negative impacts on the Himalayan ecology and society resulted in further growth and success of the Chipko Movement against deforestation.

Inspired from Chipko Movement, many popular movements developed with an objective to protect and manage natural resources for the benefit of the rural population in many parts in India. In Bihar and Gujarat, these movements arose to revolt against conversion of natural forests to teak plantations, a move which deprived the indigenous forest-dwelling Adivasi people of their only resource base. Further, in Karnataka, the Appiko Movement arose when the forest service did nothing to stop the activities of the contractors who were felling 35 trees per hectare instead of the stipulated 2 per hectare.

After independence, the Constitution of India adopted a number of provisions from the Government of India Act of 1935 and retained forest as a state subject in the 7th schedule. The National Forest Policy Resolution adopted by the government in 1952 stressed that the forest policy shall be on national needs but not on commerce, industry and revenue. For the first time, the resolution highlighted on the ecological and social aspects of forest management. But this remained as a pious declaration without any execution.

The Ministry of Forest was initially a part of the Ministry of Agriculture which the National Commission on Agriculture treated it as such. The National Commission supported the commercialization of forests giving no importance to the survival of adivasi and other forest dwelling communities because it is on the strong belief that they have not contributed much towards the maintenance or development of forests and so they don’t have the right to expect that somebody else provide them with the forest produce with free of charge. Further, the commission recommended that the revised National Forest Policy be formulated basing on the important needs of the country, the forest lands be bifurcated into protection forests, production forests and social forests giving high priority to production forests and least to social forests, with the object that the forest management be that each hectare of forest land shall be in a position to yield a net income of many more times than is being obtained at present. For this purpose it further recommended to the revision of all India Forest Acts.

In 1985, the Forest Department was shifted from the Ministry of Agriculture to the Ministry of Environment and Forests thereby changing the emphasis from revenue to environmental concerns. In December, 1988, the Parliament passed a new forest policy resolution called the National Forest Policy, 1988 rejecting the recommendations of the National Commission and emphasizing on the welfare of the adivasis and other forest dwelling communities. As per this policy, the survival of adivasis and other forest dwelling communities revolves within and near the forests which is to be fully protected. But in spite of this resolution which was a pro-tribal policy, the old Act of 1927 with all the subsequent amendments remained unchanged.

In 1994, the Ministry of Environment and Forests prepared a draft of the new bill called the Conservation of Forests and Natural Eco-Systems Bill, 1994 to replace the Indian Forests Act, 1927 which generated a lot of debate on it. Infact, a number of voluntary organizations presented an alternate draft and submitted it to the Ministry of Environment and Forest. The bill was not presented to the Parliament and the old Forest Act, 1927 with all its subsequent amendments is still in operation.

Some salient features of the draft bill prepared by Voluntary Organizations are as follows:

1. Preamble has been expanded to include the objectives of meeting the basic needs of the people, especially fuel-wood, fodder and small timber for rural and tribal people and maintaining the intrinsic relationship between forests and the tribal and other poor people living in and around forests by protecting their customary rights and concessions on forests as laid down in the National Forest Policy Resolutions 1998.
2. Definition of Gramsabha, Resident, Community and monoculture have been added.
3. In place of Forest Settlement Officer, Forest Settlement Board has been suggested with its composition and thereafter Forest Settlement Board has replaced the Forest Settlement Officer.
4. References to practice of Shifting Cultivation in Chapter 11 on Reserved Forests, Chapter -III on Protected Forest and Chapter V on the Conservation of Forest and Lands, not being the Property of Government has been deleted and a separate Chapter 4A on Shifting Cultivation has been added.
5. Rules for the publication of notice to constitute a Reserved Forest or a protected Forest have been explained in detail.
6. The Provisions of penalize the entire community by taking away its right to pasturage or to forest produce in case of willfully caused fire etc. have been deleted.
7. Procedure of formation of Village Forests, and in particular constitution of Village Forests committees has been elaborated in detail and their powers expanded.
8. The powers of management have been given to the State Forest Committee instead of the Forest Officer.
9. The constitution of Urban Tree Authority has been changed and the formation of Urban Forest Committees has been suggested.
10. The constitution of Central Forest Policy and Law Monitoring Committee has been amended. A new committee called State Forest Policy and Law Monitoring Committee (in brief Central Forest committee) has been suggested and the powers Forest Officers have been made subject the control of State Forest Committee.
11. New Committees called District Forest Committee have been suggested at the District level and the major decisions relating to the forest in the District have been made subject to their sanction.
12. It has been specifically mentioned that the Act will be extended to the States in the North East India and the scheduled areas only after necessary amendments have been made.

All these and other amendments have been suggested to encourage the preservation and development of the forest more participatory and effective and to achieve the main objective of Forest Policy Resolution 1988 of creating a massive people’s movement with the involvement of women, for achieving these objectives and to minimize pressure on existing forest.

Source : forestlegislation.pdf

Environmental deterioration and the fall of the great forests increased the natural disasters. Commercial contractors from the plains carried out on large scale the extraction of natural resources like timber, limestone, magnesium, and potassium by unreasonable means like blasting mountainsides, clear cut forests, excavated quarries, etc. and consumed the resources for their own corporate needs. This resulted in massive disruptions of the fragile Himalayan ecology, flooding and landslides claimed more victims and caused extensive damage. This massive destruction of Himalayan ecology, flooding and landslides claimed more victims and caused extensive damage like in 1970 the Alaknanda river flooded destroying many homes and killing hundreds, in 1978 the yamuna river floods had their origins in the erosin and in 1977 the landslides in Pithoragarh district resulted in falling rocks killing 44 people and ruined 150 acres of land. These unbearable conditions and loss of life resulted in revolution among Himalayan residents, particularly women, who holded Chipko Movement as a weapon in their hands to protect and safeguard the Himalayan Ecology from further deterioration.

The areas of conflict between the forest departments and tribals and other forest dwelling communities living within and near forests are many. Some of the important ones’ are discussed here. Encroachments on forest lands where a number of lands under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department are in actual possession of the people whose occupancy was being regularized from time to time in different states. But in some areas the orders of regularization are not properly implemented by the forest departments because they were reluctant to part with the forest lands under their jurisdiction. Infact, though there is no bar to the extent of issue of regularization orders till the promulgation of the Forest (Conservation) Ordinance passed in 1980 which made impossible to issue any orders in the future. Attempts to evict tribal households from forests and the removal of encroachments resulted into severe and violent clashes between the people, police and forest officials. Further, the projects, pertaining to construction of dams, defence, industrial complexes in both public and private sectors for habitation and cultivation, also resulted into the eviction of tribal households from forests lands. Being the rehabilitation plans for the evicted tribal people are poorly implemented they refused to vacate the forest lands due to lack of other source of livelihood inspite of severe oppression from and the law which is on the side of the officials.

Infact, the earlier accomplishments through adopting the strategy of ‘Chipko’ encouraged the villagers to demand for consultative and democratic management of shared resources, greater accountability and environmental sensitive development. Through this approach, villagers also learned the value of their own forests and the need to protect and preserve them. Thus, the scope of the movement widened dealing with different issues that came to existence towards environment and society. Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal (DGSM) is one such voluntary organization led by Shri Chandi Prasad Bhatt which combine local participation with developmental activities. It was an organization worked against logging of forests and the state decision to allocate forest resources to a sporting good factory at the expense of the local enterprise. It is an active participant in the development programs such as social forestry and in the Chipko Movement which has become replica for grass-roots environmental actions. These movements infact have shaken the Apex Court resulting in the amendment of the law of land to prevent, protect and safeguard the environment from hazardous environmental degradation.

In the words of Shri Chandi Prasad Bhatt, the movement strives for ‘Judicious use of the trees’ and not the ‘Saving trees’. People in the plains are alone eligible for the products of our forests. Their struggle for survival gave them the management of their forests. He was a strong believer that the people be well off in their existence if the forests are managed by those who dwell in them.

The Chipko Movement played a vital role for growing environmental activism which had an impact on moulding Village Cultures towards environment protection. This is illustrated by the tree planting ceremony of the Maiti. As per this ceremony when a Maiti girl gets married, the other girls get saplings from the nursery to plant near the bride’s house. Further, the bride gives a sapling to the groom to plant it while the Brahmin chants the sacred verses. The Maiti tree has a special meaning to the bride and her family. This new tradition which expanded to 500 villages, blended with the culture without any large investment where the women of Uttarkhand played a key role in making this cultural movement a great success to preserve diversity and to protect the natural heritage of the Himalayas.

Chipko was quite successful in influencing government policy at both centre and state level. After multiple bans had been ordered on green felling in various regional forests, in 1980’s this movement targeted a great victory when Smt. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, ordered a complete fifteen year ban on cutting down of trees above 1000 meters in the Himalayan forests which was further extended to the forests of Western Ghats and Vindhyas. This created a pressure for a Natural Resources Policy to meet the people’s and ecological requirements. The movement took its foot steps to Himachal Pradesh in the North, Karnataka in the South, Rajasthan in the West, Bihar in the East and to the Vindhyas in Central India.

The active participants in this movement were primarily village women who fought for their livelihood and communities. Men were also involved too where some of them rouse as great leaders of this movement like Shri Sunderlal Bahuguna, Shri Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Shri Dhoom Singh Negi, Shri Ghanasyam Raturi and Shri Indu Tikeker. Shri Sunderlal Bahuguna, a Gandhian activist and philosopher, is a prominent man whose appeal to Smt. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, resulted in the green felling ban and whose trans Himalayan footmarch upto 5000 kilometres in 1982-83 helped in spreading the Chipko Movement. He is the person who coined the Chipko Slogan “Ecology is permanent economy”, Shri Chand Prasad Bhatt, one of the earliest Chipko activists, who nurtured locally based industries for conservation and sustainable use of forest wealth for local benefit, Shri Dhoom Singh Negi alongwith Bachni Devi and many village women first protected the trees from logging by hugging them and coined the slogan -‘what do the forests bear? Soil, water and pure air.’, Shri Ghanasyam Raturi, the Chipko poet, whose songs echo throughtout the Himalaya of Uttar Pradesh and Shri Indu Tikekar, a doctor of philosophy, whose spiritual discourses throughout India on the ancient Sanskrit scriptures and on comparative religion have stressed the unity and oneness of life and placed the Chipko Movement in this context. The prominent women leaders were Ms.Gauri Devi and Ms.Ganga Devi who formed vigilance parties to act as a watchdog on the axemen to protect the Reni forest from deforestation. Infact, the women of this movement were very strong willed, very creative and extremely empowered to protect the forests from deforestation even at the cost of their husbands and their lives. The women participation in the Chipko Movement not only protected the ecology and environment but also developed the world’s consciousness on environmental aspects.

Infact, the Chipko Movement inspired Ms.Vandana Shiva for the development of a new theory called as ‘Ecofeminism’ which specifically explains the link between the women and the ecology. It inspired for development of literatures and discussions on ‘Women and Ecology’ which were in great demand in the market. To be more clear, Vandana Shiva’s Ecofeminist Movement brought imperialism inscribed in the colonial practices, into the center of the Environmentalist debate.

Gaining moral support from the Chipko Movement, another environmentalist movement called Narmada Bachao Andolan led by Medha Patkar gathered popularity globally. It is the Narmada campaign which is to protect Narmada river against the construction of various dams on it in the state of Gujarat. However, it’s main objective is to protect the rights of the people whose villages and livelihood will be submerged in the process of construction of dams on the Narmada river. The people strongly believe the proposal to construct such dams is unjust, iniquitous and the cost-benefit analysis is grossly inflated in favor of building the dams on Narmada River. Further they also believe that they are many other suitable alternative(s) to provide water and energy to the residents of the Narmada Valley, Gujarat and other regions which are expected to be socially just and, economically and environmentally sustainable.

In India, the collective movements connected with indigenous rights predate the Global Non-Governmental Organizations. Environmental activism in India is in the forefront of organizing movements for alternative ways of life because it became vital for the Britishers to make progress. It has been critical of the colonial imperative of progress, manifested in the commercialization of natural resources and the use of seemingly retrogressive modes of organization of land and collection of revenues that broke the backbone of the peasantry.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which are strong supporters of Chipko Movements are increasing their influence on global and national forest policy. The functions of the NGOs are from promotion of wilderness protection and land purchase, through campaigning on issues such as old-growth forest logging and pesticides use, to the development of the coherent vision of forest stewardship. They are linked to the environmental existence being many ecosystems are undergoing an apparently inexorable degradation that Post-World War II worsened this situation and further the centralized governments rarely have the long term proposals to cater the needs of the local people. Forest NGOs are actively participating in the role of ‘environmental conscience’ helping in identification and publicizing threats to both the ecology and society. It’s work received appreciation from both the Government and by those people who had a negative approach towards the work of NGOs in the past. Concerted action of the NGOs on the particular issue is capable to drag towards global attention. The growth of the modern environmental movements, following Stockholm Conference in 1973 observed many NGOs involving in high spirits against logging in natural forests, large scale dam construction, the use of pesticides and intensive forest management.

During 1990 NGOs nature of activity has been changed in different aspects like recognition has been increased that temperate and boreal forests are facing the serious environmental problems though the concentration is on the quality of the forests as the area under the trees. Further the participation is also more in restricting the logging for roads and occupation for offices. The entry of Greenpeace into the international forest debate through a series of high profile operations in British Columbia, Kare has drawn global attention to issues that were previously of only local concern and has increased direct action. More recently, some international networks are formed to work as liaison bodies between different NGOs, large and small, including Taiga Rescue Network in Boreal region and the Native Forests Network throughout the temperate countries. Infact, The 1992 Earth Summit and the subsequent spate of forest initiatives like Intergovernmental panel of Forests, World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development regional criteria and indicator initiatives all provided fora for NGOs to engage with governments and intergovernmental bodies.

The movement of Chipko Movement was carried on and became successful mainly through Public Interest Litigations. It resorted to demonstrations, pickets and letter-writing campaigns to draw public attention for the objective it was striving for and on the state of affairs it felt unjust and felt the need to reform for the benefit both in terms of environment and society. Tehri Bandh Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti campaigned against environmental degradation and loss of habitat for nearly 10 million people. Sastra Sahitya Parishad in the Kerala State was instrumental in the final giving up of a proposed hydo-electric project which would have drowned a rare rain forests known as Silent Valley.

Infact, Human rights is the basis for much of the work in which the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) or Social Action Litigation groups are involved in. Thus, Public Interest Litigation groups are litigated around rights where much of the research was done around rights and the law reform is based on the superior recognition of rights. Infact, the alternative tribunals tried to adjudicate on principles of rights. PIL was proved to be successful being it became a boom to the civil society for active participation in questioning public decision making, including decisions on political structure and democratic space. It became a weapon in the hands of the civilians to challenge and bring a change in the major public policy decisions and campaign for social, economic and political reform.

Chipko movement has an active reforestation programs stressing on ecological dependency of the local people upon the forests and the need to sustain the forest environment. During 1970s, the government of Uttarpradesh started reciprocating to the growing popular pressure, which was the result of the various fasts undertaken by Shri Sunderlal Bahuguna. Timber felling was temporarily prohibited in certain areas, the contractor system was suspended and organized felling was delegated to a newly formed government forestry corporation. Further, in 1975, the DGSS began a reforestation campaign. Foresters offered members of the sangh guidance on how to establish a nursery. Close collaboration rapidly became the order of the day and the Sangh became successful in bridging the considerable gap which still existed between the population and the forest service. The afforestation projects it regularly organizes achieved a high rate of successful growth, in contrast to government projects. Today, the Voluntary Afforestation Program conducting by DGSM is the largest one in India.

One of the significant approach of Chipko Movement is against the state policy of social forestry. During February, 1988 in the district of Chamba, thousands of eucalyptus saplings were digged up in a forest department nursery as a protest for the failure of the forest department to plant suitable trees for fuel and fodder, as the eucalyptus tree is not an ecologically sensible tree being it does not protect the soil or the villages from landslides. This is an accomplishment of the women of the Chipko Movement which are in great number and which maintained to continue till today.

In one of the earliest re-evaluations of India’s forest policy, the Government of India initiated a massive, nationwide Social Forestry Program (SFO) in 1976 in an attempt to reconcile industrial forestry and the basic, forest-related needs of the rural communities. The State recognized 175 million acres wastelands, deforested or overgrazed private and communal lands to be made available for this program. The Program comprises of creation of strip plantations along roadsides and embankments, community based woodlots, using communal lands for mixed species planting and farm forestry or agroforestry related planting on private farm land. The various State Forest Departments are authorized to execute and supervise such various individual social forestry programs duly guided by a particular afforestation objective. Infact, social forestry was a path to introduce a community-extension orientation into State Forest Departments that adopted this program because States own their respective forest lands exercising considerable jurisdiction in terms of forest management approach though the nature of execution and supervision varied considerably from State to State. The State Forest Departments, in its attempt to involve local communities in such social forestry programs, worked with the local government units (LGUs) or more particularly with the gram panchayats because it is necessary for the possible coordination of local needs with the state forest management.

The year 1970 is the beginning for the national government and various states towards experimenting with community-oriented approaches from which the Joint Forest Management evolved as a policy-based program to establish management partnerships among local forest dependent communities and the State for the sustainable management and joint benefit sharing of public forest lands. Realising the importance of Joint Forestry in response to a growing enlightenment among the public for effective protection of forests in the country, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, decided to adopt the policy of Joint Forest Management through establishment of Joint Forest Management Monitoring Cell. Further, on 1st June, 1999 the secretary of Ministry of Environment and Forests issued a circular to all the States and Union Territories Forest Secretaries stressing the need of participation of village communities and voluntary agencies towards reforestation of degraded forest lands and also laid guidelines to provide usufructuary benefit to the village communities towards such participation in the afforestation programmes. In this context, Usufructuary benefit means that the beneficiaries or NGO’s shall be given usufructs like grasses, lops and tops branches, minor forest produce and a portion of proceeds from the sale of trees on maturing basing on the terms and conditions as decided by the State/UT Governments.

These developments were successful experiments and a departure from the commercial objectives of the old policy. With this inspiration, thousands of forest protection committees existed in different states and the joint ventures continue to exist. However, the success of these committees or ventures mainly depended on the attitude and behavior of forest officials at all levels.

In September, 2001 Villagers who participated in Chipko Movement of the seventies from Advani Village in Tehri district protested against the felling of trees and stalled work on the power transmission lines from Tehri Dam. This is because the Power Grid Corp., decided to cut out two corridors, each of 95 meters wide, for the construction of the high tension lines for which thousands of pine and sal trees from a forest more than a 100 years old be logged.

Each confrontation of Chipko Movement was non-violent and successful. This resulted in gradual development from a protective movement to prevent the Commerical clear-cutting to the broad movement for ecological and human rights of the hill people and for adherence to a conservation ethnic. Infact, its expansion developed two sections within Chipko – one towards protection of existing forests from deforestation and the other for promoting afforestation and development of sustainable village production systems based on forests and agroforestry. The latter section is led by Shri Chand Prasad Bhatt, one of the original organizers which has joined subsequently in the Ministry of Environment and others to organize “eco-development” camps for massive tree-planting campaigns, which achieved 85-90% survival rates.

CHIPKO MOVEMENT DEMANDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS :

1. All tree felling in the sensitive watersheds must be banned and there should be large scale plantation. The trees must not be cut for construction purposes unless it is ascertained that this does not affect the eco-system adversely. In such areas, the forest conservation system ought to aim at protecting the forest land and the water resources, as well as in balancing the climatic features.
2. The contract system should be immediately stopped and rural organizations and labor co-operatives should be established to replace them. The local hill people must be actively involved and consulted in any work related with the forests. Such organization and individuals should be provided with relevant training and guidelines.
3. The daily needs of the forest dwellers in the region should be duly evaluated and they should accordingly be given reasonable rights over the forest resources, Forests must be surveyed properly in order to know their exact condition as well as to evaluate the rights of the natives.
4. Rural industrial ventures, based on the forest resources of the region should be executed by involving the local available work force. Towards this assistance must be provided to enable them to obtain the sufficient raw material, finance and technical know how.
5. The denuded hills must be regreened through afforestation drive on a war footing. Again, the local must be involved and encouraged to take up forest-farming (agro-forestry). Efforts should be made to foster love and affection among the local people towards the trees and plants.
6. A detailed geological, ecological and botanical survey of the hills should be carried out before any heavy construction or execution of forest department working plan.
7. These demands are not hollow; they have achieved results like the following:
   1. Commercial forest felling is completely banned not only in the Alaknanda basin from where the Chipko movement was started but in the whole Central Himalaya. This ban is continue till today.
   2. A recent satellite remote sensing study conducted by the Space Applications Center, Ahmedabad show that the forest cover which was lost due to commercial felling between 1959-1969 has nearly been regained in the sensitive catchment of the Upper Alaknanda river. This could have been achieved due to the motivation and participation of the local people.
   3. In February 1980, the Uttar Pradesh forest department sent directives to revise its working plans with a view to harmonizes them with the notion of the “sensitivity” of these areas. Though their definition of sensitivity is at variance with ours, but atleast they have started realizing this vary crucial fact concerning the Himalaya.
   4. In 1975, the Alaknanda Soil Conservation Division of the U.P. forest department came into existence in Chamoli in order to undertake the Himalayan task of rejuvenating the barren slopes. The next five years witnessed functioning the Civil Soyam Forest Division in the entire Central Himalaya. In order to intensify such steps in Chamoli, the Upper Ganga catchment has been established with the objective of evolving planning for the security and safety of the small rivers and rivulets against soil erosion and landslides as also in afforestation drive.

Source :nvsecase.htm

The main indication of empowerment as a result of Chipko has been the increasing and the effect of village level women’s organizations called Mahiula Mangal Dals (MMDs). Irrespective of the intentions of the Chipko workers, the women who participated in the Chipko meetings, protests and other programs became aware of their strengths and began demanding a share in the decision making process at the community level. All this resulted into emergence of several forest management initiatives in India where some are initiated at the State level while some are at Panchayat level. By 1998, around 10,000 of these types of initiatives are in existence covering about two million hectares of degraded forest land. Chhaya Kunwar of the Himalayan Action Research Center of the village of Bacchair which constitutes all-women forest members, though it is not legalized to manage their natural resources being the center is at village level institutions, sets a suitable example for the successful forest management. Further, at the Conference on Women in Beijing, one of the five commitments made by the Indian Government recognized the contribution of grassroots women’s groups in natural resource management and ensured women’s participation in the conservation of the environment and control of environmental degradation, which is still to be executed. Likewise, women’s organizations in the process of enriching their immediate environment are a step forward to influence the International Environmental Movement to increase the environmental awareness at the world-wide.

A historical chapter opened in the last quarter of the century on June 01, 1972, when a U.N. Conference was held in ‘Stockholm’ on human environment and subsequently followed by more and more summits for the nature conservation to posterity. The historical ‘Earth Summit’ on environment and development in ‘Rio de Janerio’ Brazil from 3rd to 14th June, 1992 which was a biggest stride having broad based ramification in the environment from further deterioration. All associated nations of the globe assembled under one roof to bring under deliberation the most challenging threat to which ‘Mother Earth’ is confronted with. This being the call of the hour to protect and faithfully defend the natural resources whatsoever left to the posterity and to add to it more forest campaign for tree culture and afforestation if human life at all has to survive on this only bio-cushioning planet ‘The Mother Earth’.

However, the world’s forests continue to deteriorate despite international efforts because the deforestation rates in tropical countries are increasing, sustained management is rare, matured forests are being replaced by even-aged simplified stands and international standards are of limited use. However, some of the most important promising avenues are being stimulated, nurtured and implemented by non-government institutions including private business interests.

Nevertheless, normally in such peoples’ program there are always some setbacks mainly from vested interest groups within the village and outside. Such setbacks may be dealt with though it is difficult to solve by open debate on the merit of any new program. For example, when decisions are made about a direct action, DGSM takes people into confidence along with their consent as to how one should proceed with. It is a collective approach and becomes feasible due to the informal structure of the Chipko Movement. Though the initiators are the collective workforces of DGSM, however, finally the decision is finalized in open assembly during the village level meeting and off late in the Eco-development camps.

The demonstrations, state level achievements and the popularity gained through Chipko Movements, resulted some change in the social consciousness among the people. In a broader perspective, India is already in the stage of change in consciousness among the people in the opposite direction, towards the neoliberal (i.e, traditional liberal concerns for social justice with an emphasis on economic growth) model of development where Chipko activists caused people to stop and reconsider their directions in some areas like agroforestry (i.e., use of land in which harvestable trees or shrubs are grown among or around crops or on pastureland as a means of preserving or enhancing the productivity of the land). Thus, these movements are exhibiting how the resource-intensive demands of development based on short-term criteria of exploitation have built-in ecological destruction and economic deprivation.

While addressing the Chipko Movement, the following are to be taken for understanding:

1. Is Chipko a movement rooted in economic conflicts over mountain forests or guided by ideas of deep ecology?

Documented evidences from the movement sources do not indicate any influences of the brand of thinking known as ‘deep ecology’. Dependable historical account of this widely written about movement is, surprisingly, scanty. Among the early writers on the history of the movement, Bandyopadhyay (1992) as well as Guha (1989) have not indicated any link with ‘deep ecology’.

2. Is Chipko a social movement based on gender collaboration or a ‘feminist movement’ based on gender conflicts?

In the early literature on the Chipko Movement no serious questions were raised about the movement being based on gender conflict. There was no lack of recognition of then fact the issue of forests in the Garhwal and Kumaon Himalaya touches the women much more intensely than the men. It was not a question of planned organization of the women for the movement, rather it happened spontaneously and the men were out of the village so the women had to come forward and protect the trees. The presence of large number of women in the forest action at Reni, and the large scale participation of the village women have led to some analysts claiming Chipko to be a ‘women’s movement’. However, inspite of that, Shiva (1992) identified Chipko as a ‘women movement’ though no activist woman from the movement has made any such claim.

3. Has anyone in the Chipko movement actually hugged trees at the risk of her/his life and not for waiting photographers?

All the photographs of ‘Chipko Actions’ represent enactments. When the only reported incidence of embracing trees to protect them from felling occurred in Salet forests in the Garhwal Himalaya, and human life was at risk, there was no photographer around in the remote mountain forests.

Source : bandj99a.htm

The initial start of the Chipko Movement was with the conflicts over mountain forests between the economic interests of the mountain communities and the ecology of the plains. This fundamental basis gradually resulted from contract system of felling being stopped to the establishment of public sector Forest Department Corporation. The fellings were then onwards undertaken with the help of local village cooperatives.

Chipko though not in original form still continues in the form of the traditional custom of tree hugging besides taking part in more project oriented work including large-scale educational work with local governments. Women are still the active participants of the Chipko Movement because they are the ones’ who are mostly involved in agriculture and connect deforestation with environmental and society problems. Infact, they are the first to identify the environmental problems with deforestation and fought against commercial logging and development. They are the tough fighters in the protection of forests. As a women’s movement, Chipko Movement is still continuing to fight for proper forestry policies.

Environmental Harm, i.e.,harm to forests, wild life, etc, effects not only the private individual but the society as a whole. A conflict pertaining to environment goes beyond the individual and acquires the dominion of public law. There exists five legal remedies for individual citizens of India towards environmental harm such as constitutional remedies, civil litigation, criminal prosecution, citizen suit under environmental statutes and judicial review of administration.

Constitutional Remedies : The subject of forests was included in the State List in the seventh schedule of the Constitution. But during the emergency, the subject was transferred from the state list to the concurrent list through the 42nd amendment to the Constitution. After the transfer of forests from State list to Concurrent list, the Government of India promulgated the Forest (Conservation) Ordinance on 25th October, 1980 prohibiting the State Governments from allowing the use of forest lands for any other purpose without the approval of the Central Government. Such ordinance was later on passed as The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 duly amended in 1988 in which the state governments were prohibited to allocate in the form of lease or otherwise any forest lands or any portion thereof, to any private person or authority not owned, managed or controlled by government without the previous sanction of the Central Government.

India is the only country with constitutional provisions for environmental protection. These are incorporated vide Article 48A and Article 51(A)(g) in the Constitution of India by the Constitution (forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976. Article 48A is a directive principle of the State which states that the “State shall endeavor to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country”. Article 51(A)(g) is a fundamental duty of a citizen where the citizen of India has a duty to “protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life and to have compassion for living creatures”. Infact, as per the Article 21 of the Constitution of India, right to clean the environment is a part of the right to life as examined by the Supreme Court in the Subhash Kumar vs. State of Bihar case. Accordingly, Right to life is a fundamental right under Article 21 which includes right to enjoyment of pollution free water and air for full enjoyment of life”. It further ruled that “if anything endangers or impairs that quality of life, in derogation of laws, a citizen has a right to have recourse to Article 32 of the Constitution for removing the pollution of water or air which may be detrimental to the quality of life. The courts rely on these articles for adjudicating many cases pertaining to environmental matters.

The 73rd amendment to the Constitution of India and the recommendations of the Bhuria Committee appointed by the Government and the Panchayat Raj (extension to the scheduled areas) Act of 1996, several states have made provisions for panchayat raj institutions in the scheduled areas giving them wide powers of control over the natural resources including land and forest produce though some states tried to curtail the rights of these panchayats like Maharashra Act omitted the apta, tendu leaf and bamboo from the list of minor forest produce.

Civil Remedies: Civil Remedies for environmental harm in the common law system are based on the principles of the Law of Torts. Civil remedies available are similar to the citizens of United Kingdom, United States of America and India. The different kinds of torts connected to environmental pollution are negligence, trespass, nuisance and the rule in Rylands vs. Fletcher case. The civil remedies may be either in the form of damages, injunctions or declarations.

Criminal Remedies: The deliberate acts of pollution are crimes as per Common Law. In ancient days only the pollution of rivers, streams, ponds and wells are visualized under the Criminal system. However, when specific statutes were enacted for the regulation of environmental deterioration, certain activities were alone said to be the criminal offences. The criminal remedies in India are, in addition to the state machinery for prosecution, an individual can institute proceedings against an offender who violates the penal provisions. But prosecutions for certain offences can be instituted only as per certain Statutes like in the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 the court can take the cognizance of the offences on a complaint by the Pollution Control Boards or its Authorized Officers.

Remedies under Environmental Statutes: In India almost all major environmental laws have citizen suit provisions for instituting criminal prosecution for the offences specified therein. The citizen suit is a recent innovation in the legislative field which enable a private citizen to initiate proceedings for violation of legal provisions and for compelling the authorities to enforce the statutory provisions properly.

Judicial Remedies for Administrative Action: Regulation of the environment is accomplished through the administrative agencies established by law where such agencies deeds and misdeeds are to be controlled. Judicial Remedies in the United Kingdom, United States of America and in India are aimed at judicial control of administrative actions. The courts intervene in the administrative actions of the executive if such actions are ultra vires, unreasonable, malafide, inconsistent with the rules of natural justice and suffering from procedural irregularities. The judicial control of administrative decisions becomes necessary to protect the citizens from usurpation or unbridled exercise of power. Judicial control is achieved through the mechanism of issuing writs such as certiorari, mandamus, prohibition and quo warranto as specified under Article 32 of the Constitution of India.

Class actions and representative actions are the special procedures which enables the class having the same interest to sue or to be sued. In the case of environmental harms, being the effected class have the same identical interests and since their grievances are common, class action or representative action is the most suitable form of litigation for redressing their grievances. In the Bhopal tragedy case, the Government of India filed a class action suit on behalf of all the victims as per the provisions of Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act, 1985 by which the government assumed parens patriae jurisdiction.

Admittedly and beyond any shadow of doubt, the forests of India rich in the past which lost most of its richness due to inefficient and mismanagement. With the advent of Independence and being well versed with the importance of forests on ecology and society due to various environmental protection movements like Chipko Movement ‘The Indian National Forests Policy’ was formulated which highlighted that minimum of 33.3% of the total land should come under forests. Even prior to this policy, many Forest Acts, Policies, Amendments, Repealings during British rule came into existence in the years 1878, 1890, 1891, 1901, 1991, 1914, 1918 and 1920. However, the Indian National Policies so formulated from time to time after independence laid down a unique formation having uniform enactments like The Environment Protection Act, 1956, The Forest Conservation Act, 1980, The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, etc, at all levels except at few stages where the people formulated their own Forest Acts and laws made thereunder, or related Acts thereto. The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 was enacted being nearly 4.5% of the total land in the country is covered under protected areas which is classified into national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and protected areas. The Act administers these areas placing several restrictions on the residents of villages in these areas and attempts are made to relocate these villages outside the areas which are met with strong opposition from the residents and by facing violent conflicts in many areas. Further, the government placed severe restrictions on the hunting of animals included in the list of wildlife species, as also a number of economic activities, due to pressure from the World Bank and the environmental protection fund agencies, which resulted into shelving of development projects in these areas. Currently, the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 undergone several amendments and became The Wildlife Protection Act, 2002. The Environment inclusive of forests, its wildlife, biosphere, eco-system, air, water and soil, through legislations and enactments has been fortified and made more stringent. Yet it is not upto its expected mark being there is brutal application of forests under the influential shadows like mushrooming of forest mafias, hunters, poachers, green fellers, etc.

The Environment been heartlessly disturbed from “Mountainous Himalayas” down below Gangetic Valley and Southern-tip (North-South), and Assam to Rajasthan (East-West) being the fresh and green mountainous regions are under rapid deforestation replacing them towards commercialization or money making. Also, the air pollution coupled with noise and river pollution are the man-made hazards which in one way or the other also became the growing peril to the environment. This scenario is ‘World-Wide’ with no exceptions. Though in present scenario, every country is enlightened with the importance of forests on environment and society and been put in constant pressure to formulate and implement various afforestation schemes on the fast track, yet the result is yet to be seen being the ecological imbalance is still a burning issue in the society.

“Environmental Protection’ is the call of hour not only in India but world-wide being each and every nation should rise from nap and give utmost importance and efforts to the possible afforestation and to prevent complete deforestation so that the impact of unforeseen serious negative climatic changes on the survival of living creatures can utmost be avoided.

The Conservation and regeneration of forests is primarily a social problem rather than a biological problem. In India as elsewhere, Visheswar Dutt Saklani’s afforestation project, in which oak trees were planted at suitable sites, was impressive evidence of this. The great work performed by Chipko activists was to call attention and to expose the long-running conflicts between local population and foresters. Today, the Chipko Movement no longer exists in its original, influential form but increasingly appears to be assuming an almost mythical status, perhaps destined to take its place among the many myths found in Himalayan culture. Yet it will undoubtedly remain as a symbol of non-violent action in the forest. As such, it has already had a further incarnation in the Amazonian region of Brazil.

However, the history of forest legislation in India and the difficulties faced by the tribal and other forest dwelling communities due to these legislations stresses the need for immediate and effective remedy to overcome such difficulties. It may be noted that the Environmentalism in India emerged from the failed promises of the nation state.

Jacob could not become all that God wanted him to be until his name and character were changed. You remember his encounter with in the midnight with that angel at the bank of Jabbok River. After that wrestling match with God, his name was change from Jacob (supplanter) to Israel (Prince of God, he will rule as God). Yes, you will begin to rule after now! Until you are changed, until you are transformed physically and spiritually, then the totality, the beauty and the fullness of God will not be manifested in your life. Can we just read this great account, “But during the night Jacob got up and sent his two wives, two concubines, and eleven sons across the Jabbok River. After they were on the other side, he sent over all his possessions. This left Jacob all alone in the camp and a man came and wrestled with him until dawn. When the man saw that he couldn’t win the match, he struck Jacob’s hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket. Then the man said, ‘let me go, for it is dawn.’ But Jacob panted, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ ‘What is your name?’ The man asked, he replied, ‘Jacob.’ ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob,’ the man told him. ‘It is now Israel, because you have struggled with both God and man and have won… ‘ Genesis 32:22-31. Praise God!

This guy needed a tough all night wrestling match, a strong divine push with his last strength to achieve this total, complete, once-in-a-lifetime transformation and the end result proved that the effort is worth it. After the struggle, Jacob won, the Sun rose for him and his worst fear (which was meeting his terribly enraged elder brother) was gone. In fact, his fear was instantly turned into victory and joy because Esau though approaching fiercely with his four hundred strong men was immediately melted and he rushed to embrace and kiss his brother who fraudulently took away his blessings and birth right. In fact, the record said that both of them broke down in tears. Maybe what you also need today is to wrestle with God in prayer until you see that transformation in your life. Though Jacob had acquired some measure of achievement, yet he needed this particular experience to be able to enter his rest, destiny and also perfect that God’s program for his life. Through him the nation of Israel would be birthed and established, but not with his current dubious name and attitude. His name and nature must first be change from a fraudster to a prince. From the fearful to a wrestler. From an opportunist to a doer of God’s will. And from a manipulator to a prayer warrior. Like me he learnt midnight prayer by force. The word of God said that he wrestled with the man throughout the night and won! I also love the way Hosea puts it. He said that Jacob struggled with his brother in the womb and as a man he also fought with angel and God and won. Wow!

Yes, you may also need this transformation now to become what God wants you to be. Yes, you may be looking okay physically, but on the inside, privately, you know that all is not well with you. You need touch on your character, attitudes, inadequacies, hindrances and shortcomings. There are impediments that need to be uprooted from your life, so that you can become what God wants you to be. It may even be sickness or a stubborn problem. You can’t believe, for some, it is their anger, their stubbornness, their talkativeness, unfaithfulness or their laziness that has stopped them from climbing up or having a sustained relationship, marriage, job, career or spiritual growth. This must change today in the name of Jesus! That Jacob must be changed to Israel! You cannot attain completeness until it is done. Jacob could not. And you must wrestle like him until God does it. Another man called Jabez in the scriptures understood this and became blessed more than everybody around him. His circumstance of birth and name affected him negatively, but he refused to accept that and prayed until God changed it. You know this place, “Now Jabez was more honourable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, ‘Because I bore him in pain.’ And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’ So God granted him what he requested.” 1 Chronicles 4:9-10. Did you read that?

When his prayers were answered and the total transformation took place, he was change from pain, poor man and the fearful into an honourable, wealthy, secured and blessed man. Look at it again. It is there. He asked God to bless him, to enlarge him, to be with him, to protect him and to change his name which was pain. In fact, he was not just answering pain; he was causing, representing, showing, smelling, dishing and distributing it. And you know that you cannot be in that level of pain with also being in shame. My God! And the Almighty granted his requests and change all of that. It was a complete transformation, an answered prayer from a man who was totally wrecked and frustrated from birth. He can do same for you today. But you must first desire the change. You must also call on him. You must be ready to pray and wrestle with him until you see that change, that total transformation you desire manifest in your life and over your situation. Lord, please change my name! Share this message with others.

Gabriel is the author of the books / audiobooks: Power of Midnight Prayer, Receive Your Healing, Breaking Generational Curses: Claiming Your Freedom, Never Again!, I Shall Not Die, Move Forward, Power of Sacrifice, Prepare for that battle and many others https://www.amazon.com/s?I=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AGabriel+Agbo&s=relevancerank&text=Gabriel+Agbo&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1

Getting rid of fatty thighs can be hard and daunting; this is because of the stubbornness of inner fat thigh. But nothing is impossible if you are up to the challenge. The best way to eliminate the fat deposit in your thighs can be achieved by adding muscle mass to your legs, and my favorite method of doing so is hill running training.

Why hill running?

Uphill running is one of the most powerful types of exercises ever. If you run hills regularly, you will develop massive muscle leg tissues in a record timing; this will give your body the toned and sexy look you always wanted. Stronger muscles will not only grant you a better look, muscles tend to burn fat more than fat does, thus speeding up the fat burning process.

Uphill running can be very intense and taxing on the body, therefore you will be burning more calories in less time. Running only on flat surfaces can not offer the same results.

How to do it?

This type of running is not recommended for beginners, thus in if you are new into running, you should not do any hill running; otherwise you won’t be able to keep up and may even get injured in the process. As a result, a beginner runner should start running on flat surface and build the intensity up gradually.

When you feel that you are up to the challenge, then you can attack the hills. Find an uphill about 50 to 300 meters in distance and no more than 6% gradient. Start at the bottom of the hill slowly and increase the intensity as you approach the top; down hill running is the time for recovery and preparing for the next repetition.

Remember that hill running is very intense, thus you should not jump in on the hill face on without a proper warm-up. Run slowly for at least 10 minutes then start your hill training workout gradually; otherwise you will run out of gas very soon and tire quickly.

Hill running form

This type of training requires good running mechanics, developing the proper hill running form will allow you to get the most of your training session without having to sacrifice time and effort. Here are some useful tips:

– Lean slightly forward into the hill while keeping your body straight and aligned from head to toe.

– You running stride should be quick and short, this makes climbing the hill easier and cultivates speed and steadiness when running on flat surface.

– Use your arms in a straight back and forward action. Make sure that legs are working in accordance with the arms and upper body; this enhances balance and decreases the chance of injury.

1940s

Several years before the war, an aquaplane race was run on an annual basis from the isthmus at Avalon to Hermosa Beach, California. It was a race and a test of endurance for both man and boat and usually less than 20% of the field ever managed to finish. The remainder dropped out due to boat problems or because the aqua planer couldn’t hold on any longer. The last race prior to the war, on June 20 1941, was won by Bob Brown, towed by Don Berry, in a time of 1 hr 51 min.

In 1947, the Long Beach Boat and Ski Club was formed and almost immediately took over sponsorship of the race, renaming it the “Grand National Water Ski Race”. In 1949 the contest became a round trip run, starting at Hermosa Beach pier, the skiers raced to the isthmus, circled a turn-boat and returned non-stop to the pier. A skier was disqualified if at any time they touched the boat or anyone in the boat. Ed Stanley of Orange was the winner of this first round trip race with a time of I hr 41 min.

Of course, this event is well known these days as Catalina, and just for the record, Chuck Steams first won the event at the age of 16 and he went on to win it a staggering eleven times over the next few decades.

1950s

Now it was time for the Aussies to establish a piece of history in ski racing and in the 1950’s, the Bridge-to-Bridge Water Ski Race was launched. The 68-mile course on the NSW Hawkesbury River is now one of the most prestigious races in the world.

1960s

In 1966, Britain made a move to get involved in the sport of water ski racing and a meeting took place at the Mandeville Hotel in London, where 30 clubs were represented and a Racing sub-committee of the BWSF was formed. The legendary Chuck Steams of California happened to be in London at the time and he provided a copy of the Californian racing rulebook, which formed the foundation for British racing rules.

Alan Taylor recalls; “we knew that racing had taken place in Belgium three or four years earlier, on the Scheldt at a place called Rupelmonde. The following year, a few people from Whitstable Club went to Belgium and had a look at this race and we invited a Belgian team to compete in the first official cross-channel race”.

On May, 29 1967, the Whitstable and Varne Club water ski clubs organised the first cross-channel water ski race and no less than 56 teams, including one from Belgium, took part in the 42 mile run from Greatstone, Kent, to a trawler marker-boat, anchored three miles off Cap Griz Nez and back.

Boats were allowed to take up to three or four people to ski in relays. The skis were ordinary standard slalom skis for speeds of around 30 mph, as well as pairs, and the ski line had to be between 75 ft and 100 ft in length. Teams were also allowed to relay with more than one skier per team.

News soon leaked that skier 47 registered, as Mr. A.A.Johnson was non other than the Earl of Snowdon, patron of the BWSF, attempting to keep his identity from the Press. The result was dramatic news coverage of the event.

More than 20 of the 56 entrants failed to finish the race due to a gale, which whipped up 6 ft high waves. The winners were members of the Chasewater Power Boat Club, and they completed the course in 3 hr 15 min. The Snowdon team came in fourth at 4 hr 10 min and another skier in the race was a 14-year-old Bill Rixon. Taking 3rd place overall, this was just the beginning for someone who was to become one of the legends in British water ski racing.

In 1968 the BWSF Racing Committee organised the first British Championship series, run at Chasewater, Greatsone, Hunstanton, Hartlepool, Penarth and the River Medway. John Boardman of the Varne club became the first series champion.

In 1969, the British Championship series was increased to eight races and was won by Brendan Bowles of Penarth club. It was in this year that European Water Ski Racing Championships were established and races were held in Holland, Belgium and Britain. Bill Rixon became the first European Water Ski Racing Champion.

1970s

Rixon began making his mark on European racing in the 70s with no less than six overall European Championship gold medals amongst the numerous British too. Bill said, “it’s possible there are even another two European titles not accounted for”. In 1974/5 he spent a lot of time in Italy skiing for Mostes, and he paid a few disapproved visits to South Africa and also hit the racing scene in California.

Other names such as David Hutchinson, Guy Gooding, David Martin, Robin Mainwaring, Cliff Featherstone, Alan Hargreaves, Tony Cox, Gary Brooks and Colin Harris were scattered throughout the 70s when British F1 ski racing was as strong as ever.

Two other names were brothers Steven and Andy Coe. Steven won the British Championships in 1978 and 1979 and Andy followed suit in 1980 with Tom Lumley observing for all those three title wins. Britain’s top women included Liz Hobbs, Sue de Donker and Kim Gooding.

Liz had started skiing when she was 9, and by 15, she was had skied in her first race on the Medway in 1975. The following year, she went on to win every race she entered & won the first of seven British titles. In the same year, she broke the women’s British and European speed records behind a Cigarette powerboat called, “I like it too”.

During the 70’s, a few British skiers, including the Coes, had visited Australia and discovered a new way of skiing called, ‘wrapping’. Terry Bennett of Sydney was the name behind wrapping and he discovered the technique purely by accident, when trying to easy the strain on his back, after suffering an accident. So along with Fred Williams race skis, and a wealth of Aussie experience, these British skiers introduced us to the way we all now ski – wrapped.

Along with Ray Berriman and Alan Taylor, others such as Arthur Dawe, Peter Felix, Ted Rawlings, Wally Neale and John Hoiles were early organizers of British racing. John Hoiles actually went on to be European and World President of the IWSF, and contributed a great deal to the sport.

A turning point in world water ski racing came on September 9, 1979, when the first world racing championships sponsored by Sperry Univac were held, with races at Whitstable, Allhallows and Welsh Harp. Britain’s Ray Berriman chaired the organising committee.

The event was the first to bring together official top teams from around the world, and although Australia’s Wayne Ritchie and Bronwyn Wing snapped up the golds, Britain’s Kim Gooding took 2nd in the women’s, Bill Rixon 2nd in the men’s and Steven Coe 3rd. The British team clearly established Britain as a force to be reckoned with on the world water ski racing stage.

1980s

As Rixon neared the end of his unprecedented racing career, it was time for some new names to climb onto the stage and enjoy the limelight. Liz Hobbs and Steve Moore were the two big names in the early 80’s and both went onto become world champions and to be awarded the MBE. In fact Liz won the title of world champion in 1981 and 1984, and she won the European championship title at least four times.

But life in the 80s wasn’t so sweet for Liz, despite her incredible success, because at Penarth in 1984, she fell and broke her neck. She also broke her sternum in three places, six ribs, one of which punctured a lung. On top of that, Liz’s heart stopped.

Amazingly, Liz was back on a ski the following year and back on her winning streak in 1986. Later in the 80s she was nominated for the sports personality of the year award and she won the sports writers of the year award. After climbing onto the public stage with the help of a publicist a few years earlier, Liz went on to host her own TV series with Yorkshire Television called “Hobbs Choice”, and since then, has become one of the most publicly known waterskiers in the world.

Steve Moore began racing in 1980. He was the guy that fell, but got up, then fell again but always got up. Eventually he stopped falling and was an incredible machine on the water. By 1983 he had attempted a speed record at Windermere behind Alf Bullen’s F1 catamaran, but fell at 115mph.

Moore won no less than five European titles, five British titles and the 1988 world championships in Sydney, Australia. He also won the World Cup in 1986. This consisted of the Catalina, Giro del Lario and Botany Bay Classic in Australia. He won all three and in the same year, and became the first British skier to win Catalina outright.

Snapping at Moore’s heels in the late 80s was a young lad from London who skied in his first race in 1977. His name was Darren Kirkland and at the tender age of 18, Kirkland first represented Britain at the world championships in Spain, in 1985 and is about to enter his 8th world championship event in 2001.

With the Coes, Rixon, Cliff Featherstone, Paul Llewellyn, Gary Brooks, Tony Cox and others fighting for victory throughout the decade, the 80s played host to some incredible races across Britain. Nicky Carpenter and Lisa Coupland were also successful names in the 80s.

1990s

As the prosperous 80s faded away, the economic decline saw numbers in racing drop. In Europe, Australia and the USA, a similar pattern occurred, but this didn’t prevent the sport from becoming even more competitive in terms of the commitment given to win some of the limelight.

Kirkland went on to win his fair share of it and has virtually dominated British racing since the 90s. Showing the persistence he’s renowned for, Kirkland had racked up ten overall British titles, five European titles and became a well-respected skier throughout the world. On top of that, Kirkland won Catalina in 1994, the gruelling Diamond race in Belgium, an enviable six times and Italy’s Giro del Lario, twice.

But the jewel in the crown has eluded him for the last 16 years. The world title has been so near and yet so far, from the man who came so close to winning it on more than one occasion. In 1995, Italy’s Stefano Gregorio took the honours in Belgium, just as Kirkland thought he had the title wrapped up. In 1997 he took 3rd in Australia and in 1999 he took 2nd in Spain. This year he will try once again, to win the one achievement he wants so much.

In January 1997, Kirkland was awarded the BWSF General Lascelles Trophy in recognition of his tremendous achievements in the sport of water skiing. And at the 1999 world championships, gold medallist Stephen Robertson of Australia paid public tribute to Kirkland after receiving his crown.

The early 90s saw Rachel Casson put on an outstanding performance at the 1991 world championships in Darwin, Australia. So close to wining one of the rounds, Rachel fell at over 100mph and suffered horrendous injuries. Determined to succeed on the world stage, Rachel became Britain’s top women’s skier, but was dogged by the Darwin injury over the years. Gilly Clements was also a strong contender in the 80s and 90s, representing Britain on numerous occasions.

2000s

Over the years Britain has been very strong in Europe, winning countless titles in all categories, including the much-coveted team trophy at least four times. Fabulous performances by many but notably in the women’s category by Liz Hobbs, Nicky Carpenter, Lisa Coupland, Rachel Casson, Gilli Clements. More recently Kim Lumley has engraved her name on the British championship trophy three times already. Paula Newland, originally from Penarth club, has also been up there and secured a 6th in the 1999 world championships in Spain.

Darren Kirkland still dominates the men’s category in Britain but the likes Karl Brooks and Danny Evans are slowly closing in on the 34 year old. How long will he retain his spot at the top of British racing? – only time will tell.

On the official side of things, Britain’s Ray Berriman, who was instrumental in the very first world championships in Britain back in 1979, is Chief Judge at the 2001 world championships in Las Vegas this year.

It’s been impossible to mention all those who have played a part in Britain’s history of water ski racing here. There are so many names unmentioned. But this article has hopefully given you a high level view of water ski racing and it’s past.

All in all, Britain continues to play a major role in the world ski racing. It will undoubtedly continue to do so over the coming years.

Written in 2001 by Robbie Llewellyn

With thanks to: Aubrey Sheena, Alan Taylor, Darren Kirkland, Steve Moore (MBE), Mike Waterman, Martin Brooks, Tom Lumley, Liz Hobbs (MBE) and the Guinness Book of Waterskiing.

India has obtained a special place in the world map as far as imparting managerial education and nurturing industry-ready professionals are concerned. MBA which is the contraction for Master in Business Administration is the most sought-after course in India as well as abroad. This 2-year course is generally pursued after graduation. Luckily, students in this country have access to some of the top MBA programs in the world. These programs are offered by renowned institutes like IIMs, XLRI, FMS-Delhi, MDI, etc.

The need for world-class managers is always felt by various industries like IT, automobile, hospitality, insurance, FMCG and many more. To fulfill this growing need for efficient managers, many management institutes are coming up in various parts of the country. However, Indian Institute of Management or IIMs are the top MBA colleges in India with excellent track record since their inception.

The youth in India is frequently opting for MBA after completing their graduation as the course offers plenty of growth opportunities for them. It certainly assists them in climbing up the corporate ladder quickly. As effective management is turning out to be an integral part of any business, the demand for MBA professionals is increasing day by day.

The scope of MBA is very wide-ranging in comparison to any other courses. A management graduate always has the opportunity to work in any sector of his preference. The pay packages are always attractive and include allowances and other emoluments to increase the standard of living. Graduates passing out from top MBA colleges in India have occupied high positions in many corporate houses. Besides building careers in the corporate sector, one can become an entrepreneur, or work in co-operatives and NGOs as the options are simply unlimited.

Various MBA and post-graduate diploma in management or PGDM courses are designed in such a manner that they instill multi-dimensional and multi-tasking capabilities in the graduates, thereby making them least affected by recession of economy or changes in business environment. For instance, a MBA professional with finance specialization does not inevitably feel the heat when the finance sector experiences stagnation. He can always maintain his career growth by getting into the marketing of the financial services (e.g. marketing of insurance products).

The top MBA or PGDM institutes in India offer specialization in subjects like finance, human resources, marketing, operation, banking and insurance, international business, and IT and systems. Specialization in niche fields such as hospitality management, event management and fashion technology are also available.

There are total 8 IIMs in cities like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore, Shillong, and Ranchi. The admission into its top Post Graduate Program in Management (PGP) programs is conducted through Common Admission Test (CAT). The list of employers includes HSBC, Larsen & Toubro, Proctor & Gamble, Tata, ICICI bank and Deutsche Bank.

Founded in 1949, Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur is well-known for its two-year post graduate diploma in business administration and two-year post graduate diploma in personnel management and industrial relations. It selects candidates for its programs through the all-India entrance exam known as XAT.

The salary of MBA graduates is dependent upon the reputation and credibility of their business schools. Students from IIMs are always known for getting the best salary packages all over the country. Business schools like XLRI-Jamshedpur, FMS-Delhi and S P Jain-Mumbai are also not far behind. As per the placement records of 2010, there is an average 25 percent increase in average domestic salaries across top MBA colleges in India. For example, IIM-Calcutta has recorded an average salary of Rs. 15 lakh for the year 2010. Many other business schools have also similar encouraging news related to salary. Numerous global blue chip companies like Mckinsey & Co, The Boston Consulting Group, Bain and Company, etc. have hired graduates form these institutes.

Sri Lanka, well-known for its sublime natural beauty, got plenty to gift people whose hearts are frozen by the undying passion for unearthing the gems that demand adventurous temperament. Getting out of your rut to quench the thirst for trekking gives a refreshing experience for travellers from all over. The zone of this great mountain is an ideal place to communicate with the winds, clouds, sky, sun, and greenery at your own pace.

The Great Western Mountain, being the 6th highest mountain in Sri Lanka, is stationed in Nuwara Eliya District. The district itself is a central hub of tourist attraction. It encompasses all that is expected of a heavenly destination.

A mix of dry and sunny season during the months between December and April might be the ideal time to plan the tour. Even then, you can’t always predict the exact condition for a smooth and safe hike across the forest path.

Topographically, this mountain is rooted closer to the Great Western Railway Station which is between Thalawakela and Nanu Oya. You can view the skeleton of the misty mount straight down from the station. Length-wise the mountain is 1km and the climbing can be kick started from either ends. The best mode of travel to this location can be enjoyed by train from Colombo. Vertical and short-degree climbs are the most challenging part of the journey. Do never forget to carry all the necessary travel props with you. Useful gears like hiking sticks, knives and ropes are the main things that must accompany you. Never ever attempt it solo because you are inclined to encounter risky twists and turns along the way A tea state, that goes by the same name — Great Western State, isn’t any farther from this mountain. Adams Peak and Seven Virgins mountain range, two other significant must-see locations in Sri Lanka, can be viewed clearly from the rugged terrain of this state. Hiking in a place with no visible trails becomes daunting as you ascend to reach the summit dreaming for a night camping.

You’ll come about a water source somewhere closer to the summit, so that’s where you got to replenish yourselves before preparing for a sleepover on the apex of the mountain. Double backing for everything you forget can be a nightmare at times. One more important thing to keep in mind is always say NO to polythene and plastic items that you intend to leave behind. Remember it’s our duty to safeguard the natural blessings. Bring back everything you take you with but your footmarks for the nature loves to sing the songs of you.

We highly recommend hiring a local guide who is very well familiar with the ins and outs of the slippery slopes and hidden trails that would otherwise deviate you from reaching the top on time. It’s advisable to prevent the journey if the weather is rainy, for the terrain becomes unsupportive. This haven is a home to many wild animals such as leopards, wild boars, monkeys, deer’s etc. You are the luckiest if any pass by under your camera for you to take away as a souvenir. The trek honestly is an exhausting one, therefore having a second thought before packing up becomes vital. Moreover, this kind of risky travel isn’t the right option for little kids. Keep them at bay!

On reaching the summit, you’ll find the gale hitting you with its strong wings, so having a quality rainfly becomes a must to save yourselves from the harsh weather. Unexpected downpour is the central theme of this exotic region. Dawn and dusk would feed you with spellbinding beauty of the highland surrounding. Laying your eyes on the thick mesmerizing distant scenery would give you one of a kind experience.

Plenty of surprises would come forth to sate your passion for photography. The hiking maybe tad hard but it’s all worth the memories you could record back to share with your beloved ones. The picturesque setting of the upcountry with many such similar viewpoints can be witnessed from the jagged surface of the mountaintop. Make the most out of the daylight and stay vigilant at night. Solitary moments on the ridges would settle the chaos running about your monotonous mind.

Once done with everything you planned doing above, journeying down is definitely harder than climbing the mount. Pay attention to the trails that keep losing its traces due to frequent changes in the climate. One wrong footing would land you in a perilous fate of unwanted consequences.

All in all, the hike to Great Western Mountain is a treat to the soul that you are guaranteed to cherish forever. This spot is not obviously a place that would go out of the bucket list of any adventurous foreign tourists who visit this precious island to kill the curiosity. What you see from above engages with the emotional part of you as it will keep tugging at the strings of your heart forcing you to listen to the echoes of the mountainous murmurings for more decades.