"Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors."

-Jonas Salk

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Paging Doctor Malthus

Via the remarkable Desdemona Despair site, in case you are feeling too cheerful.


Desdemona informs us:
Indian Photographer Wins the UNCCD International Photo Contest
Bonn, 7 September 2009. Chetan Soni is the first-prize winner of the International Photography Contest of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the secretariat of the Convention, which is based in Bonn, Germany, announced today. The picture depicts a young Indian girl dressed in a colorful blue and orange saree with pot in hand walking through the dry and cracked bed of Kal Bhairav Lake, where she once drew water. Now, she makes a daily journey to fetch water delivered by the National Defence’s trucks, courtesy of the state government of Madhya Pradesh, India.

3 comments:

DThompson55 said...

my god that's depressing

Michael Tobis said...

The Energy Collective carried this post. It garnered this reply from Russ Bailey:

"This is obviously a staged photo.

Couldn't find the lake on google earth unfortunately. İn the dry season and just before monsoon much of İndia looks similar. After about the middle of June İ would be surprised to see the same situation.

İ lived there for many years (in neighboring state of Gujarat). "

skanky said...

It may have been a staged photo, but MP certainly has experienced drought through 2009:

http://images.google.co.uk/search?num=20&hl=en&safe=off&q=drought+%22Madhya+Pradesh%22&start=40&sa=N

(there's some info. on page 1, but some of the more interesting links are on pages 2, 3 & 4).

This link seems to provide a general overview from last August:

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?216780

While this thread is quite useful (inc. for the links off it):

http://www.anothersubcontinent.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9538

eg:
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/three-killed-over-water-dispute-in-madhya-pradesh_100192352.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS-City-Delhi-Tanky-troopers-plug-VKs-water-loss/articleshow/4767501.cms

Right,...now I need to get some work done.