Community involvement tandoori style

(Posted by Mikkel)

Our downstairs neighbour Ashok asked yesterday if I wanted to join him and a friend to see a planting project at the beach nearby our house. Apparently a certain type of palm tree works as a really good tsunami barrier. The Indian government wants to test if this plant actually can grow in the beach sand of the Bay of Bengal.

The majority of property along the beach here to the south of the city is owned by wealthy Indians who bought it as investments the last 5-10 years as the city started growing rapidly. In between these walled empty plots there are a number of poor villages and slum dwellings. After the tsunami the real estate prices close to the beach plummeted. They have apparently risen some again, but with the latest tsunami warning a couple of weeks ago they once again took a dive.

Now these palm trees that the Indian government wants to build as a tsunami barrier happen to have a flower with a very special smell. Among the Indian snake community (male and female alike) it is supposedly on a par with the most expensive ones from Dior, Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein! Cobras in particular are supposed to be crazy about the scents of these flowers, and the palm trees even offer a lot of nicely shaded area for the snakes to linger in, while they soak up there preferred perfumes.

So as you can imagine the villagers actually living here are not too thrilled about the palm trees. The day I went was a sort of inauguration of the whole thing. The project manager was there overseeing the planting (of course done by casual workers). To win over the hearts of the locals the plan was to get people from the local community to participate in the planting. The project manager’s driver was send to a nearby school to get some “locals”. Unfortunately the kids that came back with him tempted by free pepsis and seven ups where too young – there was a fear that the project could be seen as supporting child labour! The teacher that came with the children had a different agenda. She was trying to put pressure on the project manager to lobby for a new building for their school.

Luckily another batch of “locals” was summoned. This time young engineering students. Photos were taken with the students getting their hands dirty in the sand and the community involvement part of the project was considered over! My own hopes for a few minutes of fame were unfortunately killed immediately. A white face, I was told, in the middle of everything could cause confusion about who funded this tsunami project!

kameleon in our garden