Chewang Norphel, a civil engineer who builds artificial glaciers in Ladakh’s cold desert to conserve water, Chunibhai Vaidya, a 94-year-old campaigner against government acquisition of land from poor farmers for industrialisation, and Shakuntala Choudhary, a freedom fighter whose Maitri Ashram provides succour in the insurgency-prone north-east, are among the winners of this year’s Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation awards.
The awards, which are into its 33rd year, were announced on Thursday by Madhur Bajaj, trustee of the foundation and Chandrasekhar Dharmadhikari, former chief justice of Bombay high court who is the chairperson of the award’s selection committee.
The international award for promoting Gandhian values outside India was given to professor Lia Diskin who runs an NGO in Brazil that works in the fields of education, environment and health. Diskin started an annual ‘Gandhi Week’ to promote his ideas. The awards were presented to the winners by president Pratibha Patil.
Speaking to the press, Norphel said that farmers in Ladakh grew a single crop in a year due to short summers. Since the rain-shadow region received little rainfall, crops were fed by snow melt from surrounding glaciers. But climate change has reduced the quantity of water from snow melt. While Ladakhis start sowing for the annual crop in April, snow melt was available only in June when the ice in higher altitudes melted. Norphel constructed low cost dams to trap snow and create glaciers at lower altitudes during the winter. This water otherwise could not have been used in winter because all agricultural activities stop.
A leading proponent of prohibition, Chunibhai Vaidya’s motto of ‘Development without tears’ has taken him to lead the opposition to the grant of grazing land to an MNC and a mega-port project in Umargaon. He led villagers in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district in their fight to get water rights over two local rivers and constructed check dams to conserve water in 17 villages.
He said, “There have been instances in Gujarat where the government has refused to give land to landless people, saying they do not have land. On the other hand, business groups have been given thousands of acres acquired from farmers.” He is currently campaigning for a law that would give ownership of all natural resources, to local residents and not the government.
