Considering your land as a fixed deposit?

Government policies keep changing with change in time. There was a time when converting deserts into green fields was considered necessary. The great canals were built in Rajasthan. It is not certain that the decision taken at that time was right or not, as Rajasthan is by its inherent nature, a desert. What is to be done for humanity’s benefit on and with a desert, as a desert, should have been the more natural consideration. More wiser methods could have been searched rather than trying to convert desert soil into green acreages.

In the Andamans, more and more people should have been involved in the project as it was not an agricultural project; it was a social project, a rehabilitation project. For example people from Bihar were brought to the Andamans and forest land was required to be converted into paddy land. But, as everybody know that the soil in the forests of Andamans is thin. Besides, this there is no fresh water available. Yet cultivation of rice was attempted in the Andamans. And we all know about the result. The settlers were not happy and it can be said, the soil was not happy.

So, we should not think that government policies and programs are, always, absolutely true. They are all subject to change with the time.

In our state, as all of you know better than I do, to the north there are mountain slopes, the terai and the Dooars. They cover 25 per cent of the total state’s area and hold 18 per cent of the population. Most of the time we experience landslides in the mountain slopes due to the action of gravity and seismic activities. Gravity cannot be changed, but there is something which can be done i.e. we can modify human interference where that interference accelerates or aggravates the problem of landslides. This is not only possible but necessary.

Then, coming to the biggest part of our state — the tract, also known as the Rahr. This covers 52 per cent of the area of the state and holds 49 per cent of the population. This area has a large plateau with red lateritic soil on which cultivation is not which is very painful. We have to understand that if nature has made laterites difficult to cultivate, nature has also given us a balance. The Rahr, which includes Birbhum, has large plains where red soil is good for farming, where agriculture should not be looked upon as a “low and indestructible form of life”, but something which can be made into a very productive enterprise.

Finally, there is the Eastern Deltaic plain — 23 per cent of our total area, with 33 per cent of the population. This area is the most fertile tract. The underground water table here is a matter for consideration. Excessive use of fertilizer can change the soil’s composition. Our agriculture minister has said in his remarkable speech, that what is needed is a balance between chemical fertilizer-based agriculture process and bio-farming.

I do not want to take much of your time by saying to you any more about what you know much better than I. But I would end on this note with what the great teacher, Sri Thakur Ramakrishna Dev had said, which is relevant for all times —Taka Mati, Mati Taka. He was perceptive, farsighted.

Let us not hold land as a fixed deposit which can be encashed as capital. I am all for capital, I am all for industry, but let industry and capital not look meanly upon soil as an encashable asset to be deposited into the profit graphs of private money. Soil, as our minister said, is the mother and we cannot afford to neglect it. It does not mean we can not do any activities on soil except agriculture. But the soil, fresh water and ozone, are the gifts of Creation.