13th February 2020, Kolkata: Cultural capital of India that has always been referred to Kolkata, has been equally vibrant for advocating issue of human rights, cultural and social learning with its distinctive identity. This place has also gone through the issues of rehabilitation of refugees – 1 million refugees before 1971 and one million after 1971 which are today referred to as EBR meaning East Bengal Refugees. Having such an ecosystem, Core Group for Tibetan Cause – India, it’s Regional Convener for Eastern Region – II, Ms Ruby Mukherjee along with Batanagar College of Engineering, Management & Science (now popularly known as Techno International Batanagar) organised A Day for Tibet upon “Tibet – its Rivers, Diversions & Impacts”.
TIB, being physically 22 km. away from the city centre it still remains one of the popular institutions for learning EMS (Engineering, Management & Science). The floor of the event was opened with the welcome address by Prof. Ankur Ganguly, Principal and presentation of souvenirs for the Speakers. Prof. Ganguly admitted that by having this event at the institute would now lead the Institute to explore higher benchmarks in the field of social justice and evolution of mankind’s unending approach towards cohesiveness and coexistence.
Ms Ruby Mukherjee outlined the significance of the event and the need of the hour for understanding the special bond between India and Tibet shared throughout the centuries which today’s youth of India should know about.
While elaborating upon the subject, Dr Mohit Roy, an environmental consultant and visiting faculty in a number of institutes including Jadavpur University, IISWBM, Kolkata, gave an extensive presentation upon rivers originating from Tibet and its current critical status. He related the crisis of Tibet and it’s rivers with his own personal agony as a refugee in Kolkata from East Bengal. He drew the importance of these rivers and its sustainability for the survival of not only Indian people but all those riparian states and nations that depend on these rivers for their survival. Simultaneously, he expressed deep concern upon the construction of hydro project dams diverting the natural flow of rivers but without any Social Impact Assessment (SIA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) – being carried out by Chinese Communist government.
Dr Devdas Roy, being a geologist by profession, also spoke about the reality of awareness of these rivers and its direct implications upon the lives of millions of people. He went further, making it clear that the cycle of eco-system shall be affected if man’s unending exploitation of mineral and natural resources doesn’t get equally compensated by a similar push for its preservation. He reminded the students of frequent droughts, floods, waterlogging and contamination of drinking water that are the direct results of selfish motives without an effective policy for the sustainability of natural resources including rivers.
Coordinator for ITCO began the presentation with geographical, cultural and religious ties that Tibet has nurtured throughout the centuries with India. He reminded the cultural folk song of Bupen Hazarika – ‘Bistirno Parore’ that reflects the cultural linkage of Assamese people towards the Brahmaputra and its fragrance in every cell of its people. He pointed out how the Brahmaputra ‘was’ vs ‘is’ today, relating to the ill-designed policies of the Chinese Government. In addition, he introduced the composition of Core Group members, who irrespective of their different ideological backgrounds are working for the preservation and promotion of Tibetan identity which requires global support in saving from its extinction.
Finally, the event concluded with Q & A from students and a vote of thanks by Dr Rabindranath Lahiri, Director, Techno International Batanagar. He expressed hope that this event being the first of its kind at the institute, they would see more of such interactions in the coming days that would enrich the wisdom and knowledge of the students as well as faculty members. More than 200 students joined the hour-long session.
-Filed by ITCO, New Delhi