Alternative Glossaries: Water systems in ONEs

Abstract

The diversity of the landscape in Open Ecosystems are staggering. From the soil, to grass, to the trees of the semi-arid savannah grasslands, and to the animals and the terrain itself which underlies all the diversity on top of it (and below). As urbanisation takes away from this diversity, we begin to see it from the lens of the outsider. Industrialisation brought in the need to classify land from the sole purpose of hosting machines and processes. Over the past many centuries of colonial record keeping, we have forgotten the identities of these lands and have classified them into large, selfishly utilitarian categories. This legacy continues still in the policies of the current governments, where the inclusion of certain terms and the exclusion are beneficial to the economic engine. Who are the villages, towns, peoples, cultures and many other beings, non-human included, who live here and understand the diversity of the landscape?

ONEs are understood broadly, and are mapped broadly. We need to develop a glossary that will communicate the diversity of life, conditions, and uses it holds for both humans and other ecology. This needs to be done at a much more specific and granular scale, for the effects are felt at such scales. We need to do this with a intersectional lens, not looking at just conservation but from the perspective of communities (human and ecological) as well.

Learners will develop this glossary while in conversation with pastoralists and farming community members of Aurad Taluka, Bidar. We will photograph, write, record and think about the contrast in definitions as we make the glossary.

Mapping Open Natural Ecosystems in Bidar - Kalyana Karnataka Karwaan

Course objective

In our work with agriculturists, and our lives lived close to and with pastoral communities, for some of us are from Bidar and have grown up here, the language we hear is constantly at odds with what we have to use to talk to people outside, in bangalore, with other organisations who work with conservation or in any other context. It is not that we are speaking in Dakkani, Telugu, Kannada and then we shift to English, but that many words in these communities have no equivalents in English. Be it weather patterns, terms related to land ownership or the minutae of changing ecology across the terrain.

We will learn from and with the communities who still actively use these ecosystems.

Learning Outcomes

The learners will learn to construct the glossary of water systems in Open Natural Ecosystems with a critical lens of the current status quo of industry and conservation. Such a comparative lens offers a creative base to co-imagine what alternative arrangements, practices and governance can look like.

Course Fee

The course is free of facilitation & material costs.

The costs of accommodation and food, local transport, and travel to and fro Venue has to be covered by the learners.

Costs to be Covered by Learners

Accommodation & Food: Learners must organise their own stay. We will help and facilitate it with hotels we know. Place of working will be in the Bidar Nodal Center during the day. Once the learners are short-listed, we will ask for accommodation preferences and organise as necessary. It may cost 1000 to 1500 approx per day, depending on room and sharing. This amount has to be paid by the learner directly to the Hotel on check-out. 

Local Transport: There will be costs of local transport using shared autos or AC taxis, which will be organised. The per day cost will be 500 - 1000 INR approximately per learner (this course requires travel to Aurad daily, 50 kms from Bidar). 

Travel to and fro Venue: Learners need to organise their own travel either by bus or train to Bidar. They should reach the Venue by noon on 23rd of March. Departure is post 6 pm on the 26th of March.  

Cost of any equipment or other specific materials relevant to Learner’s practice. We recommend the learners to carry any specialised equipments or materials with them to Bidar.