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RETURN OF THE
CHEETAH
SEVENTY YEARS AFTER IT WAS HUNTED TO EXTINCTION IN
INDIA, THE BIG CAT IS BEING REINTRODUCED. WILL THE
WORLD’S FIRST INTERCONTINENTAL TRANSLOCATION OF
A CARNIVORE IN THE WILD WORK?
FROM THE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ndia has had a chequered history with its wildlife, but a
I bold experiment is kicking off this week that seeks to fill a
deeply-felt void. Seventy-five years ago, when India entered
its independent era, it had tragically coincided with intima- biological specialisation. Southern Africa’s vast savannahs are
tions of one of its majestic big cats—the cheetah—being
poised on the brink of extinction. Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap
Singh Deo of the princely state of Koriya, in modern-day Chhat-
tisgarh, was photographed the same way a lot of his peers liked
to be—gun in hand, and with three dead cheetahs at his feet.
Problem was, those were the last cheetahs of India to be seen.
This was part of a global story of enforced species depletion:
from an estimated 100,000 at the dawn of the last century, the
last count in 2016 put overall cheetah numbers at 7,100. The bulk
of them were in southern Africa, a small band survived in Iran.
India was out of the story. By 1952, we formally declared the
cheetah to be extinct—the first animal species to be consigned to
T he idea has been in gestation since the 1970s, when the
history in our post-Independence era. Modern scientists surmise
that the Indian subspecies, Acinonyx jubatus venaticus, perhaps numbers. The only possible recourse was to go to the very zone
survived in fragmentary form in the wild
perhaps for another decade, but never with the
robustness of population that would enable a
comeback. For nearly a century of millennia be-
fore that, the cheetah had ranged far and wide
across the Indian landmass—from Tirunelveli
in Tamil Nadu to the vast northern plains—in
the hundreds of thousands.
The cheetah’s original foe was the homo sa-
MAGAZINE KING
piens. Rampant hunting till the days of the last
maharajas and their British colonial masters
was just one source of danger. Traditionally, the
danger came from a sport that was all the rage
for centuries—cheetah coursing, or hunting
with tamed cheetahs. The pharaohs of Egypt,
kings and popes in Europe, Genghis Khan… May 23, 2005
they all liked to have a few pet cheetahs around.
Akbar liked more than a few—over his lifetime, he had 9,000 in
his stable. His favourite cheetah, named Samand Malik, had a
bejewelled coat and was carried by liveried soldiers. The British
treated cheetahs as vermin that needed to be exterminated to
preserve the bigger and seemingly more majestic game—the tiger
and lions. Cheetahs were bounty-hunted with rewards ranging
from Rs 6 to Rs 18 for adults—then a princely sum of money.
We are now seeking to undo the damage caused over the cen-
turies with a unique project: the first intercontinental transloca-
tion of a carnivore in the wild. Imported cheetahs, to be precise.
But where to rewild them? The spot chosen for this, after years of
scanning suitable habitats, is the Kuno National Park, in north-
western Madhya Pradesh—an area that had once formed the
favourite hunting grounds of the Scindias from nearby Gwalior.
If all goes right, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will personally
release the cheetahs into a carefully-designed semi-wild enclo-
sure on September 17, his birthday. After a month, they will be
set free in the 750 sq. km forest-savannah mosaic of Kuno.
The magnificent beasts are coming from Namibia—eight in
the first lot. As Union environment minister Bhupendra Yadav
says, the idea is to take it up as a pilot project and build up to
25 cheetahs, scaling up to a stable population base that can
eventually feed other suitable habitats. The latter is a key point:
cheetah, the fastest terrestrial animal on earth that possess an
acceleration rivalling most sports cars and can hit an astound-
ing 120 kmph, needs open savannah for its unique sprint-based
perfect for it. The Indian wild, by contrast, mostly has jungle and
scrubland. Kuno is the closest approximation we have found. It
had originally been preparing to accept lions from Gir—an idea
in a limbo at present—but the very preparations created a special
ecological niche. Some 24 villages had been relocated to make
the reserve free of humans, and their former farmlands have now
grown into lush grasslands, which intersperse forests made up of
hardy local trees like khair and tendu.
Indira Gandhi regime approached the Shah of Iran, but
regime change on both sides put paid to the idea. Iran, the only
remaining outpost of the Asiatic cheetah, also had very slender
where the cheetah still ranges free and among
the putative sites where the modern A. jubatus
first emerged: fossils dating from 3.9 million
years ago found in southern Africa have joined
the corpus of evidence over which evolutionary
biologists have been long debating.
So we are getting eight from the finest stock.
But will they survive? There are many hurdles
to cross. Their older foes remain—those already
present in nature. A species evolved from the
puma lineage and therefore only a cousin of
the more familiar panthera family—the lion,
tiger and leopard—cheetahs are also the most
vulnerable among the big cats. Its biological
specialisation—a streamlined torso lighter than
that of the average human, non-retractable claws
that work like a sprinter’s spikes but render it
unable to climb trees like leopards—itself makes it a fragile, if
magnificent cat. And then, there’s the question of the prey base.
Will it be adequate? What about competition from leopards and
wandering tigers? Will they endure against all the odds?
Senior Associate Editor Rahul Noronha, our man in Bhopal,
dips into his passion for wildlife to describe the drama, explain
the nuances,and sum up the big dispute raging among conserva-
tionists. Valmik Thapar is the prime dissenter: he deems the
African cheetah to be an exotic species that will not make a good
life of the Kuno habitat, and he would rather that India spend its
precious conservation resources on saving what we have. M.K.
Ranjitsinh, a legend in India’s wildlife conservation, and others
beg to differ. Post-Independence, two major conservation pro-
jects—to save the Indian tiger and lion—have met with success.
But this we did by boosting existing numbers. Never before in the
world has such an intercontinental project been attempted as the
return of the cheetah to India. Ecologists and animal lovers the
world over will be keenly watching how it progresses.
(Aroon Purie)
SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 3
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CHEETAHS ARE BACK

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QUARTERLY

A GUIDE FOR YOUR

49
BANDEEP SINGH

NEXT HOLIDAY

SHORT CUTS

I N T E RV I E W 51 WATCHING AUTUMN
LEAVES FALL

22
Head to Srinagar to catch a rare sight of Chinar trees in
autumn, or to Shillong to enjoy pink cherry blossoms
‘WE’RE RELIABLE PARTNERS
WHO PROMOTE PEACE’
Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa talks to French
foreign minister Catherine Colonna about bilateral ties,
security cooperation, combating terrorism, and more

ECONOM Y

40 THE PAIN
POINTS
The economy’s recovery

ANI
shows the rich getting

MAGAZINE KING
richer, the poor poorer. Is
ANI

the turnaround K-shaped? T EM PL E TOU R ISM

DEFENCE 54 THE PILGRIM’S

PROGRESS

46
In India, travel often becomes a pilgrimage. Here are 10
temples you must visit in the last quarter of 2022
A CASE FOR
LIGHTER TANKS A RU N AC H A L JA ISA LMER
The high-altitude standoff with China impressed on the
army the need for lighter tanks. A new project to design

62 69
and build armoured vehicles is awaiting a go-ahead ROLLING DESERT
THROUGH DELIGHTS
THE HILLS
E D U C AT I O N The 2,400-km Ditch the camel for a
Trans-Arunachal drive jeep if you really want

103
PURUSHOTTAM DIWAKAR

KOTA is a sheer delight to explore Jaisalmer

FACTORY,
SEASON 2 W I L D L I F E PA R K S

72
While online edtech firms
are moving to brick-and-
mortar classes, traditional WHERE THERE’S
players are going online A WILD
The theatre of the natural world plays
out like nowhere else at these 10 places
L AW & O R D E R
R ANTH AMBORE PA R T I N G S H O T

106 HIGH ON CRIME,

LOW ON CONVICTIONS
The latest national crime survey reveals
85
MORE
THAN JUST
TIGERS 86
WITH
TRAVEL AS
HER GUIDE
a worrying increase in a range of criminal offences, Beyond tiger sightings, Actress Raveena Tandon
and a decline in punishment there’s a host of things knows how to make the
to do at the national park most of any itinerary
 UPFRONT
TAMIL NADU:
SOUTHERN
STIRRINGS PG 11
WEST BENGAL:
THE TEESTA
TUSSLE PG 14
MAGAZINE KING
WELCOME TO PATNA
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar with
his Telangana counterpart
K. Chandrashekar Rao
THE QUEST FOR UNITY
S
eptember, it seems, has put a
spring in the steps of India’s
Opposition leaders. Another
determined bid is on to forge
an Opposition alliance that can take
on the Narendra Modi-led BJP in the
2024 general election. The trigger this
time has been Nitish Kumar’s exit from
the BJP-led National Democratic Alli-
ance (NDA) in August, and the Janata
Dal (United) forming a government
with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)
and the Congress in Bihar.
8 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
T H E OPPOSI T ION
By Kaushik Deka
On September 1, Telangana chief
minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)
visited Bihar and met Nitish and his
deputy CM, the RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav,
and called for a “BJP-mukt Bharat”.
Four days later, Nitish met Rahul
Gandhi in Delhi, ahead of the Congress
leader leaving for his 150-day ‘Bharat
Jodo’ yatra across the country. On Sep-
tember 8, West Bengal chief minister
Mamata Banerjee was heard telling
partymen that a united Opposition
front would be up and running before
A ROUBLE-RUPEE
STALEMATE
PG 12
PUNJAB: AKALI
DAL’S FIGHT FOR
SURVIVAL PG 15
ANI
the 2024 Lok Sabha election. “The op-
position parties will join hands...it will
be all of us on one side, the BJP on the
other. The BJP’s arrogance of 300 seats
will be their nemesis,” she declared.
Meanwhile, as its Bharat Jodo
yatra—aiming to build up the pub-
lic mood against the ruling BJP’s
allegedly divisive ways—began from
Kanyakumari, the party insisted that
it was not Congress’s journey alone, all
Opposition forces were welcome to join
in. Indeed, in Tamil Nadu, chief minis-
UPFRONT

ter and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

chief M.K. Stalin was among those
who flagged off the yatra.
While the renewed talk of a grand
alliance has enthused some of the COME TOGETHER
Opposition parties, the electoral Rahul Gandhi on Day 6
equations on the ground remain the of his ‘Bharat Jodo’ yatra
in Thiruvananthapuram

ANI
same. There have already been several
claimants to the leadership position,
with Mamata, KCR and Nitish fash- THE BJP CITADELS THE GAME
ioning themselves as prime minister
material. However, before they get to
OPPOSITION In the past two Lok Sabha
electionls, the BJP’s stunning
OF 100
who will lead the alliance, the ‘united’ REALM majority came from its
absolute domination in Uttar
If the Congress can’t
reverse its fortune in
front will have to get the arithmetic The BJP accounts for these six states, all
Pradesh in the north and
right if it wants to take the battle to the only 31 per cent seats talk of an Opposition
Karnataka in the south. The
BJP camp. It will finally boil down to In these states, leaving challenge in 2024 will
two states together account
little scope for the remain just that
marking of dominant territories and for 108 seats and BJP walked
Opposition to make
evolving a seat-sharing formula based away with 87 in 2019
further gains
on positions of strength. This is an area Himachal Pradesh,
where the Opposition parties will have Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand,
Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan,
to do the maximum homework. West Bengal, Odisha, TOTAL LS SEATS 80 SP Gujarat, MP and
Telangana, Andhra
5 Chhattisgarh
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,

T
here are nine states—Bihar, BSP
Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra, Kerala
BJP 10
Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Cong.
TOTAL LS SEATS 266 62 TOTAL LS SEATS 100

MAGAZINE KING
Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharash-
tra—where regional or non-Congress
forces have dominated the electoral
landscape. These states account for 266
BJP

89
Non-NDA
parties
169
Karnataka

TOTAL LS SEATS 28
1
BJP

97*
Congress

Lok Sabha seats—the BJP won just 84
(or 31 per cent) of them in 2019. Even
if the Opposition forces come together
in these states, they are unlikely to gain
much more from here. The BJP anyway
has only a marginal presence in some of
them, and drew a blank in Kerala and
Tamil Nadu.
In fact, the challenge for the
non-BJP parties will be to arrest the
saffron party’s growth in these states.
The states where non-BJP parties can
expect to gain from 2019 are Bihar,
Maharashtra and West Bengal. In Bi-
har and Maharashtra, the BJP has lost
two allies since then—JD(U) and a sec-
tion of the Shiv Sena, respectively. In
Bengal, the BJP failed to keep up the
momentum in the 2021 assembly polls
and has seen plenty attrition since.
Back in Telangana, KCR, who is
facing a determined charge on his for-
tress from the BJP, is growing national
ambitions even as he talks of a “federal
front of regional parties” to take on the
saffron cohort. He wants to morph his
BJP
25
Seat positions after 2019 LS election
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) into
a ‘Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi’, a string
of sub-regional parties in other states
like Gujarat and Karnataka where Telu-
gus have a significant presence.
While on paper, the Opposition par-
ties have an edge in these nine states,
For the opposition
parties, evolving
a seat-sharing
formula based on
positions of strength
will be critical in ’24
3
JD(S)
1
Cong.
1
*Includes one seat won by ally RLP in Rajasthan
success in 2024 will depend on how the
top players in Bihar and Maharashtra—
the JD(U), RJD, Congress, Sena and Na-
tionalist Congress Party—flesh out their
roles. Mamata, Nitish and Jharkhand CM
Hemant Soren of the Jharkhand Mukti
Morcha may dream of a post-poll alliance
but have no common ground to forge
one before the polls. In fact, their post-
poll strength will be determined by the
support—in terms of seat sharing—they
receive from the Congress and RJD in
their respective states.
In Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 LS
seats—the highest among states—the
opposition forces have failed to challenge
the BJP in the past two general elections.
Alliances in the past, be it the Sama-

10 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
jwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan TA M I L N A D U
Samaj Party (BSP) or the SP and
Congress, have failed to deliver.
The cornerstone of the BJP’s grand
success in the previous two Lok
SOUTHERN
Sabha polls was the sweep in
India’s most politically significant
state. Opposition unity will have
no meaning if they can’t stop the
STIRRINGS
By Amarnath K. Menon
BJP’s march in UP.
Similarly, in Karnataka, the
only state in the south where
the BJP has been able to form a
government, the 2019 Lok Sabha
election was a one-sided affair,
with the party cornering 25 of the
28 seats. The state is heading for
assembly polls next year. While
the current BJP state government
is beset with anti-incumbency,
the Congress, depleted by internal
feuds and mass defections, is yet to
set its house in order.
Even bigger challenges lie in
another 100 seats in six states—

MAGAZINE KING
Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand,
Rajasthan, Gujarat, MP and
Chhattisgarh. The Congress and
BJP are in direct contest here.
FEDERAL FEUD
Tamil Nadu CM
M.K. Stalin with
The BJP won 97 seats in 2019,
Governor R.N. Ravi
leaving only three for its rival. If
PTI

the Congress cannot reverse its

fortunes here in 2024, even talk

of a post-poll coalition will lose
meaning. With the emergence of
the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in
states like Gujarat, the contest will
be triangular, with both Congress
and AAP eyeing the non-BJP vote.
With AAP and Congress engaged
in a bitter war of words in Delhi,
Punjab and Gujarat, chances of
their coming together too are slim.
These are the creases the op-
position parties must iron out on
the ground—and not just during
photo-ops—if they are serious
about putting up a united front
against the BJP in 2024. The stren-
gth of a post-poll coalition will be
determined by their ability to get
the pre-poll electoral arithmetic
right. This has been the Achilles
heel of opposition parties in the
past. Do they have it in them? ■
A
fresh round in the fight
for federalism is unfolding
in Tamil Nadu, with the
control over its universi-
ties emerging as the apple of discord.
On August 30—in a first—the ruling
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)
government called the vice-chancel-
lors of all 22 state-run universities for
a conference in Chennai. Governor
R.N. Ravi—who also serves as the ex
officio chancellor of these universi-
ties—was conveniently left out of the
list of invitees.
Chief minister M.K. Stalin, speak-
ing at the conference, asserted that the
universities “must abide by the policy
decisions of the state government”,
and the V-Cs “should act accordingly”.
Just about five months back, on April
25, the state legislature had adopted
two bills that sought to empower
the government to appoint the V-Cs,
thereby curtailing the governor’s pow-
ers. At present, the governor makes
the selection from a panel of three
names that are recommended by an
expert committee.
The governor, as expected, is still
to clear the bills, and in the meantime
is actively conducting meetings with
the V-Cs to push for the National
Education Policy (NEP) 2020, yet
another sore point between the Stalin
government and the Centre. The CM
clearly looked sore when he recalled
the two bills while speaking at the
conference. “It [the appointment of
V-Cs] is to do with the rights of the
state government… elected by the
people,” he said, while claiming the
bills were based on the recommenda-
tions of the Punchhi Commission on
Centre-State Relations (2007-10).

SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 11

UPFRONT
Such tensions between the state
governments and the Centre-appointed
governors are not new to India, espe-
cially in Opposition-ruled states. Even
the appointment of V-Cs has remained
a bone of contention in various states,
including in neighbouring Kerala,
where a similar legislation to curtail the
chancellor’s powers is in the works.
Sources in the Tamil Nadu gov-
ernment claim that the V-Cs have
been promised all possible help in
running their universities, as long as
they adhere to the DMK dispensa-
tion’s decisions. The higher education
I N D I A- RU S S I A T R A D E
A RUPEE-ROUBLE
STALEMATE
By M.G. Arun
MAGAZINE KING
T
wo months after the
Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) authorised Indian
banks to open vostro
accounts in a foreign partner
bank (in this case, Russian)
where payments for imports
could be made in rupees, the
latter remain hesitant to do so,
worried as they are about widen-
ing western sanctions. A vostro
account is one a bank holds on
behalf of another bank in a differ-
ent country. With banks reluctant,
and an exchange rate yet to be
fixed for a rupee-rouble trade, the
stalemate could dampen trade
ties between the countries, cau-
tion experts.
In March, when the US and
other western nations imp-
osed sanctions on Russia after
its invasion of Ukraine, sev-
eral Russian banks were cut
off from the SWIFT (Society for
Worldwide Interbank Financial
Telecommunication) payments
system. The idea was to stop
Russia from operating worldwide,
and effectively block its exports
and imports. However, India con-
tinued to trade with Russia, and
even imported more crude oil

department has asked them to con- THE DMK GOVT’S
sult the state government before
implementing circulars issued by the
PUSH FOR A SAY IN
University Grants Commission and V-C SELECTION IS
the All India Council for Technical THE LATEST SALVO
Education (both central bodies) or IN ITS FIGHT FOR
complying with instructions coming
out of the Raj Bhavan.
FEDERALISM
The V-Cs, reportedly, have also
been told to take the state government
into confidence before implementing before the legislative assembly adopted
any decision relating to NEP 2020. the V-C Bills, the DMK government
The DMK has been opposing this had appointed an expert commit-
central policy since its very inception. tee, headed by a retired Madras High
In fact, in April this year, just days Court judge, to formulate a distinct
from them as it got big discounts
at a time when oil prices had hit
$130 a barrel on war concerns. It
was then that the idea of a rupee-
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
rouble trade between the two
countries was mooted.
In 2021-22, India’s exports to
Russia stood at $3.25 billion (Rs
26,000 crore) while imports were
at $9.87 billion (Rs 78,960 crore),
leading to a deficit of $6.62 billion
(Rs 52,960 crore). This is set to
widen further this financial year.
India’s crude oil imports from
Russia rose over seven times to
$3.2 billion (around Rs 25,600
crore) in the April-May 2022 peri- compared to the Indian rates to counter pres-
od, compared to the same period crude import basket sure from G7 nations to
a year ago, per commerce min- price of $110 a barrel. cap the price of Russian
istry data. In July, crude imports This discount narrowed oil. Russia recently cut
from Russia stood at 917,000 bar- to $14 a barrel in June, off its supply of cheap
rels a day, around 19 per cent of and $6 a barrel in August. natural gas to Europe,
India’s total crude imports in that Media reports say India’s which means it has to sell
month, compared to just 2 per biggest oil supplier, Iraq, its products elsewhere,
cent before the start of the war. has undercut Russia making it imperative to
As imports from Russia rose, since late June, offering negotiate alternative
supplies from West Asia, the a range of crude that, on payment mechanisms
US and West Africa went down an average, cost $9 less with other countries. In
(imports from these regions fell per barrel compared to 2021, the European Union
by nearly 20 per cent in May-July Russian crude. Media imported around 155 bil-
over the January-March period). reports say Moscow lion cubic metres of natu-
Russian crude was offered at is willing to provide oil ral gas from Russia.
a discount of $16 per barrel to India at even lower Experts say India
State Education Policy (SEP) for Tamil
Nadu, ‘keeping in mind the interests
of the education/future of the youth of
the state’.
Besides the NEP, the DMK is also
opposed to the centralised National
Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET)
for admissions to medical colleges.
“We are not opposing them (NEP and
NEET) out of fear. Our position is that
education must decide one’s status and
not vice versa. It is a huge injustice to
claim one can study (medicine) only if
he or she qualifies (an exam),” Stalin
reasoned at the conference.
The sequence of events clearly
suggests that this fight for getting a
say in the appointment of V-Cs at its
core conceals the DMK government’s
desire to shape the state’s higher edu-
cation policies, which it wants rooted
in ‘social justice, federalism, pluralism
and equality’. In fact, ‘autonomy to the
state, federalism at the Centre’ has been
a decades-old slogan of the DMK, and
the party has also been demanding that
education be brought back from the
Concurrent List to the State List.
However, this government-gover-
nor tussle has the V-Cs in a fix, as they
can’t simply ignore the state’s top exec-
utive, who as the chancellor, derives his
powers from the university statutes.
Any friction will clearly hamper their
functioning, with university syndi-
cates—which also have the governor’s
nominees—likely to turn into battle-
grounds. “The logical way to resolve
this issue is to respect the federal rights
and let the elected government make
decisions best suited to the state,” says
Aazhi Senthilnathan, a Chennai-based
federal and language rights activist.
Governor Ravi is unlikely to give in to
such a demand. ■

year, Russia was the 19th largest

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE import destination for India. In the
corresponding period this year,
it is the sixth largest,” Dhar adds.
Apart from crude oil, Russia’s
$
9.87 bn $
3.25 bn $
6.62 bn exports to India include defence
equipment, mineral oils, agri
(Rs 78,960 cr.) (Rs 26,000 cr.) (Rs 52,960 cr.) products, coal, pearls, fertilisers

2021-22MAGAZINE KING
India’s imports
from Russia in
India’s exports to
Russia in
2021-22
Trade deficit
with Russia in
2021-22
and nuclear reactors.
In 2012, India had designated
Kolkata-based UCO Bank as the
payment bank for Iranian oil after
that country was hit by sanc-
$
3.2 bn (Rs 25,600 cr.)
tions. This time too, the choice
India’s crude oil imports from could be UCO Bank, since it does
Russia in April-May 2022, compared to just $210 mn in March not have too much forex expo-
sure, says Dhar. Experts say
that with the rupees that Russian
KEY IMPORTS KEY EXPORTS firms get, they can import goods
Crude oil, defence Electrical machin- from India or invest in Indian gov-
ernment securities. “The rupees
equipment, min- ery and equipment, given cannot be converted into
eral oils, agriculture pharmaceutical rouble since no exchange rate
products, coal, pearls, fertil- products, nuclear reactor parts has been fixed between the
isers and nuclear reactors and organic chemicals two countries,” says Madan
Sabnavis, chief economist of the
Bank of Baroda. “Once you fix
the exchange rate, the money
INDIA VACILLATED idea of a rupee-rouble trade quickly. But we dilly-dallied, goes into the government’s cof-
ON AN EXCHANGE was mooted, the rouble and now there’s a problem.” fers and the government can
was crashing for a couple of Indeed, despite the sanc- give rupees to those people
RATE FOR THE
months. At that point, it could tions, Russia has not only who want to buy goods from
ROUBLE-RUPEE have been easier for India to found new partners, it is India.” As for repercussions
TRADE. WITH THE fix the exchange rate, for we motoring on quite well. Not from the US, “the government
ROUBLE FIRMING would have been negotiating only has the rouble stabilised, and the RBI have been trying to
UP, A DEAL WILL with a partner with a collaps- it has also strengthened quite give assurances that nothing
NOT BE EASY NOW ing currency,” says Biswajit a bit. The currency, which will happen”, he adds. Creating
Dhar, professor at the Centre had weakened to 138.7 to a a robust financial mechanism
for Economic Studies and dollar on March 9, days after for the rupee-rouble trade is of
Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru Russia’s Ukraine invasion, utmost importance in further-
has already delayed fixing an University. “The Indian gov- has since strengthened to ing India’s trade interests with
exchange rate for the rouble- ernment had the political will 61.5 to a dollar by September Russia. But it may not be so
rupee trade, which could to do business with Russia 11. This is not surprising, easy. Indian banks will need a lot
diminish its negotiating pros- from day one. So, maybe we since exports from Russia of guidance from the RBI and the
pects with Russia. “When the should have sealed the deal are rising. “In April-June last Centre in this regard. „
 
 W EST BENGA L
THE TEESTA TUSSLE
MAGAZINE KING
By Romita Datta
T
he vexed issue of sharing the
waters of the Teesta river
between India and Ban-
gladesh has always been a
hot topic during polls for over a decade,
especially in the eastern neighbour.
Despite that, it has defied resolution.
Now, possibly the most contentious
issue between the two nations has
again assumed significance in a trifecta
of polls: Bangladesh prime minister
Sheikh Hasina has a general election to
face in 2023 and her Indian counterpart
Narendra Modi has the Lok Sabha polls
to contend with in 2024. Between them
stands the high-octane figure of West
Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, who is
gearing up for the 2023 panchayat elec-
tions, besides the general election.
At the end of her four-day trip
to India from September 5 to 8, the
Bangladesh PM took home seven MoUs
on areas like railways, energy, science
and technology, media and sharing of
waters of the less contentious Kushiyara
river flowing through Assam and
1 4 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
Bangladesh, which would benefit lower
Assam and Sylhet (in Bangladesh).
country, the matter of sharing its water
is tied to political compulsion. A Teesta
However, not a word flowed on the water-sharing arrangement was made
Teesta agreement. Even while tip-toeing in 1983 but never implemented. A
on the Teesta issue during formal dec- plan was hammered out in 2011, when
larations, in an interview to a private then UPA PM, Manmohan Singh, and
channel, Hasina made no bones about Hasina agreed to a 40:40 sharing of the
how India must ‘show generosity’. waters. But since water is a state subject,
The Teesta originates in the Tso Mamata’s assent was essential, and she
Lhamo lake in north Sikkim and has stood firm in opposing it ever since.
flows through Sikkim (172 km) and The BJP’s Bengal unit, too, is in a fix, for
West Bengal (118 km), before enter- the party’s electoral success in Bengal is
ing Bangladesh. Besides the plains hinged on its growing footprint in north
of Sikkim, it is vital to several north Bengal where, in 2019, the party secured
Bengal districts. Equally vitally, mil- seven out of eight LS seats. In 2021,
lions of people depend on the 124 even in the midst of a Mamata storm,
km stretch of the river in north it won 30 out of 54 assembly seats. A
Bangladesh, before it meets the Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP
Brahmaputra (Jamuna). In either says, “Bangladesh has been insisting on
A RIVER WE ALL NEED
Ô The Teesta flows Ô Being a lower Ô A 40:40 Teesta
through Sikkim, N. riparian state, water-sharing deal
Bengal and Ban- Bangladesh bears was finalised in 2011,
gladesh; millions of the brunt of the dry but never signed
lives depend on it. Its season. It demands due to opposition
flow in winter falls an equitable sharing from W. Bengal CM
drastically of the Teesta waters Mamata Banerjee
 CASTING THEIR NET
Fishermen on the
Teesta in north Bengal
AFP
KEEPING HASINA
MAGAZINE KING
WAITING ON
TEESTA CAN BE
PROBLEMATIC.
SHE HAS A CHINA
CARD TO PLAY IN IT
this for long. But India was con-
spicuously silent this time.” His
implication? The TMC is not the
only one to be blamed for the
impasse over the agreement.
Mamata is against commit-
ting any percentage of sharing
Teesta water due to the precarious
nature of its flow, as river expert
Dr Kalyan Rudra has shown
in his assessment. According
to Rudra, Teesta on its down-
stream barely maintains even a
minimum flow of 10 to 20 per
cent in the dry months between
November and April. Four dams
on upstream Teesta and two
more on Rangit, its tributary,
UPFRONT
all in Sikkim, are responsible. The
Teesta barrage, set up in the ’90s
at Gajoldoba in Jalpaiguri district,
to increase the irrigability of nine
lakh hectares in Bengal, yielded
negative results. Another barrage
built at Duani in Bangladesh for
expanding agriculture also hasn’t
worked due to paucity of water dur-
ing the lean season. Experts like
Rudra and Soumitra Ghosh esti-
mated that agricultural activities
over 1.6 million hectares (900,000
ha in Bengal and 700,000 ha in
Bangladesh) would require1,600
cumecs (cubic meters per second)
of water. At present, 100 cumecs of
water is all the Teesta carries down-
stream in the dry spell. It can feed
48,000-50,000 ha.
When Modi came to power in
2014, he was committed to signing
the Teesta agreement to strengthen
ties with Bangladesh. But Mamata’s
staunch opposition to it means that
nothing concrete has materialised.
Though Hasina had been
consistently flagging the delay
in sharing Teesta water in all her
exchanges with Modi, there has
been no encouraging response.
Again, loss of political leverage in
north Bengal is the issue, where the
TMC faces charges of neglect by the
BJP, thus feeding the demand for
separate states or Union territories.
But keeping Hasina waiting end-
lessly can be problematic, since she
has done her bit—acting against
anti-India insurgents and cooper-
ating on counter-terrorism.
Bangladesh also has an ace up
its sleeve: China. Since 2016, the
country has been seriously thinking
of seeking support from China on
Teesta water management, a move
that can be of strategic concern for
India. Hasina’s political opponents
play up her closeness to India, not
hesitating to point at the unre-
solved Teesta issue as a failure. “The
water is emerging from the Indian
side and India should show large-
heartedness,” was Hasina’s stern
parting shot in New Delhi. „
PU NJA B
FIGHT FOR
SURVIVAL
By Anilesh S. Mahajan
T
he country’s oldest regional
party—Shiromani Akali Dal
(SAD)—is battling for survival,
and so is its ‘first family’. Ever since
the Punjab assembly election results
were declared in March this year, the
102-year-old party is witnessing inter-
nal rumblings of discontent against the
leadership of the Badals.
From 56 seats in 2012, the SAD has
been reduced to just three seats in the
117-member state legislative assem-
bly. The Aam Aadmi Party wave that
swept Punjab (it won 92 seats) also
flooded the bastions of both the SAD
president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, and
his father and former five-time chief
minister, Parkash Singh Badal. Besides
the Badals, Sukhbir’s two brothers-in-
law—Adesh Partap Singh Kairon and
Bikram Singh Majithia—also lost their
seats, while the party could muster just
over 18 per cent of the votes polled—its
worst showing since 1966. After the
Sangrur Lok Sabha byelection in June,
which saw a splinter Akali group chief,
Simranjit Singh Mann, emerge victori-
ous and the SAD candidate relegated to
the fifth position, the Badals find them-
selves cornered completely.
In mid-August, Sukhbir dissolved
all the party units and offices, except
his own. Many in siders say he smelled a
coup. Now, in a last-ditch effort to revive
the party’s fortunes ahead of the 2024
general election and quell the simmer-
ing rebellion, the SAD chief has decided
to go for a major organisational revamp.
On September 2, he announced sweep-
ing reforms within the party, though
stopping short of a complete overhaul,
as he virtually retained the top post for
at least the next 10 years.
SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 1 5
UPFRONT
The key focus of the rejig—which is
largely based on the recommendations
of a 12-member panel that analysed
the party’s drubbing in the assembly
polls—will be on developing the next
generation of leaders, claims Sukhbir.
The party president, once the changes
get formalised, will be eligible to hold
office for only two consecutive terms of
five years each before taking a manda-
tory break of one term.
MAGAZINE KING
Other measures announced to
infuse fresh blood into the party include
reserving 50 per cent seats in elections
for those below the age of 50 years.
Sukhbir is also looking for new faces
to fill leadership positions at the dis-
trict and lower organisational levels.
However, a district unit chief will have
to give up the post if they want to enter
the poll fray. Separately, the party is
revamping its two students’ outfits:
the Student Organisation of India
(SOI) and the All India Sikh Student
Federation (AISSF).
Another key element of Sukhbir’s
13-point reform plan is the ‘one family,
one ticket’ principle for elections. With
both Sukhbir and his wife, Harsimrat
Kaur Badal, holding seats in the Lok
Sabha, it will be put to a real test only
in the 2024 general election. However,
the party president has left the door
16 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
open for relaxations, if any, as the final
decision is to be taken by a new par-
liamentary board, which too has been
announced as a part of the overhaul.
November 30 has been set as the dead-
line for the reorganisation, in time for
the local body polls that are expected to
take place by this year-end.
It was in 1995 when Parkash Singh
Badal became the SAD president that
he gave a new lease of life to the party
ROAD TO RECOVERY
Sukhbir Singh Badal
has unveiled a 13-point
reform plan for the SAD
BANDEEP SINGH
SAD CHIEF SUKHBIR
BADAL’S SWEEPING
REFORMS AIM TO
KEEP THE CENTURY-
OLD PARTY, AND
HIMSELF, AFLOAT
by bringing together various splinter
groups. In 2008, Sukhbir took over
the party’s reins at the age of 45. The
Badals’ political hegemony, which was
backed by their financial clout, was
further strengthened as they extended
their influence over the Shiromani
Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee—
an elected body tasked with the upkeep
of Sikh shrines—and successfully over-
came anti-incumbency in 2012. By
2017, though, a lot had changed. The
Congress won 77 seats and returned
to power after 10 years, while the AAP
emerged as the main Opposition with
20 seats. The SAD was relegated to the
third position with just 15 seats.
A major reason for this rout was
the erosion of the party’s core pan-
thic (religious) vote bank, owing to a
series of sacrilege incidents in 2015
and subsequent police firing on those
protesting against it. Inquiries are
still on. With Sukhbir, who was the
deputy chief minister holding the key
home portfolio at the time, appearing
before a special investigation team of
the Punjab Police earlier this month,
sloughing off the blame and regaining
the confidence of panthic voters—who
mainly comprise religious Sikhs resid-
ing in rural belts of Punjab—won’t be
easy. However, Sukhbir’s reform plan
includes measures to placate them:
henceforth, all Sikh office-bearers in
the party would be ‘sabat soorat’ (hav-
ing unshorn hair).
In fact, the SAD chief had already
made a bid to return to the panthic
agenda after parting ways with its old
ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over
the now-repealed agricultural laws
in late 2020. But the efforts came to
nought in the 2022 assembly election.
Meanwhile, the BJP, with its aggres-
sive expansion plan in Punjab, has also
thrown down a challenge to Sukhbir,
who is struggling to keep his flock
together amid a demoralised party
cadre and a rebellious section of leader-
ship. The BJP, which has made it clear
that it won’t realign with the Badals-
led SAD, has been in open talks with
several such Akali Dal leaders, who are
willing to shift their loyalties.
Sukhbir hopes that with a new
structure in place, he can instil fresh
vigour in the party and regain undis-
puted control over it. However, several
SAD leaders, who spoke to INDIA TODAY
on the condition of anonymity, say more
drastic measures are needed for the sake
of the party’s survival. “Sukhbir may
have to make bigger sacrifices,” says
one of them. But, if not Sukhbir at the
helm, then who? None can suggest an
alternative, as yet. „
 SHADY GLORY
Jailed don Anant
Singh who had an
AK-47 in his home
GETTY IMAGES
MAGAZINE KING
BULLET BAZAAR
I
n an otherwise depressed econ-
omy, you could call it a booming
industry. On July 22, Jharkhand
Police arrested Maoist leader
Adesh ‘Mangra’ Ganjhu from the
Serum forest in Latehar district. He
was a big catch, but the arsenal he led
the cops to was an even bigger surprise:
7,000 rounds of live cartridges, eight
walkie-talkies, disassembled parts
of sophisticated weapons, includ-
ing AK-47 rifles. The real shocker, as
superintendent of police (SP) Anjani
Anjan describes it, was the seizure of
30 high-explosive (HE) hand grenades
used only by the armed forces.
A month earlier, on June 23, the
Gaya police had arrested another Mao-
18 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
GUN-R ISE
By Amitabh Srivastava
ist, Ashok Singh Bhokta, and seized
two AK-series guns and nearly 800 live
rounds from him. In ordinary circum-
stances, the seizures would have raised
a discomfiting question: where are the
Maoists sourcing sophisticated weap-
ons from? Except, they only seem to be
dipping into a common resource pool.
Proof came, strikingly enough,
during the July 18 presidential election.
There happened to be one vote that
could not be cast: that of Anant Singh,
a five-time MLA from Mokama, Bihar.
The RJD lawmaker had just been
disqualified three days before, on July
15, following conviction in an Arms Act
case. An AK-47 rifle, cartridges and two
grenades had been recovered from his
home in Ladma village near Patna in
August 2019. Singh has got a 10-year
jail term—incidentally, the bahubali’s
first conviction, although he has over
two dozen cases of extortion, attempt
to murder and criminal conspiracy
registered against him.
A lawmaker has no business owning
prohibited arms. But in Bihar’s political
circles, it elicits no great moral horror.
“We’ve seen many political murders
done with AK-series rifles. Sometimes
you keep those too for safety,” says a
leader, naturally preferring anonymity.
In Bihar, depending on your contacts,
a ‘local’ AK-47 is available for anything
from Rs 1-3 lakh. Indeed, across India,
be it the Maoists of Jharkhand, the
 UPFRONT
Top states in arms hauls
ILLEGAL
Haryana Uttar
FIREARM 2,577 Pradesh Crimes Records Bureau. In fact, the
number of illegal firearms cases went
SEIZURES Rajasthan
37,616 up from 38,855 in 2018 to 44,394 in
2020. The states that lag behind in all
5,453 Bihar other indices top the charts here: UP
Unlicensed Arms Cases 3,742 alone accounted for over half the cases
(26,305), followed by MP (3,246), Bihar
45,114 44,394 (3,166) and Rajasthan (2,458). Some
2019 2020 162 illegal gun factories have been ex-
posed in the past five years. With raids
and increased surveillance, many gun-
making units from Munger have shifted
Madhya to Jharkhand (which explains the busts
there, says a senior police officer)—be-
Pradesh Maharashtra
38,855 sides West Bengal and UP. Clearly,
2018 11,388 2,646 demand is universally on the rise.

T
he growth in this grey market is
not just about numbers: it comes

74,581 261,032 with a concomitant internal

variegation, an expansion in the range
of goods available. The cost of illegal
Total firearms seizures in Pending cases from
2020, of which only 1,412 firearms depends on the model and
previous years quality. A country-made pistol (katta)
were licensed weapons
Source: NCRB 2020 figures is the cheapest at Rs 5,000-7,000 while

MAGAZINE KING
gangs of Punjab, UP’s mafiosi or Tamil
Nadu poachers, there seems to exist
a parallel bazaar where sophisticated
firearms are sloshing around. The
striking fact about the May 29 murder
of Punjab singer Sidhu Moosewala was
the gun: a Russia-make AN-94 assault
rifle, rare even in Russia and used only
by its elite forces. But that’s an extreme
case. Pilferage from domestic sources
is more common: the Maoists, for one,
were found to be procuring their booty
from paramilitary armouries. A May 11
NIA chargesheet had already traced the
supply lines to an officer, Kartik Behera,
skimming off the BSF. And where you
can’t get the real thing, there’s always
the trusted Indian DIY version.
THE ILLEGAL FACTORIES
On July 10, when an illegal firearms fac-
tory was busted and semi-finished arms
seized in Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri
district, the police discovered Bihar-
based gang members operating from
there. Earlier, in April, a similar illegal
gun factory was busted in Jharkhand’s
Dumka district. Those arrested once
again revealed their links to Bihar. In
November 2021, a much bigger illegal
arms manufacturing unit was busted in
Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district. Apart
from the famous Munger gunsmiths in
Bihar, a community around Khargone
in MP is also well known for manufac-
turing high-quality illegal guns. The po-
lice busted six illegal arms factories in
Khargone in April after violence during
Ramnavami celebrations.
The statistics bring out a disturbing
trend. Some 74,581 firearms were seized
in 2020—almost 99 per cent (73,169)
unlicensed, according to the National
IN BIHAR,
DEPENDING ON
YOUR CONTACTS,
A DESI SPINOFF
OF AN AK-47 CAN
BE PROCURED
FOR ANYTHING
FROM `1-3 LAKH
a knockoff of an AK-47 or a carbine
can cost a few lakhs. Over the years,
the booming demand has resulted in
manufacturers improving on the rusty
designs peddled earlier. Police officers
in Patna say the ‘desi katta’ is no longer
a valid term. Earlier, the katta, a single-
shot weapon with a basic barrel and a
trigger mechanism, was famously tem-
peramental—becoming unsalvageable
after a few rounds of firing. But now,
gunsmiths use sophisticated machines
in illegal factories to create much better
firearms. Automatics with magazines
are the ‘high-demand’ weapons.
As for ammunition, at least a part of
it is blamed on rogue elements at central
ordnance factories, who smuggle out
large consignments regularly. In 2021,
after another bust, Purshottam Lal
Rajak, an ex-armourer of the Central
Ordnance Depot (COD), Jabalpur, MP,
was identified as the kingpin of a gun-
running racket. Some 22 AK-47s were
recovered from him. How many had
already made their way, via arms smug-
glers, to Maoists and garden-variety
criminals? Your guess would be as good
as that of the police. Clearly, we’ve only
seen the tip of the barrel. „

SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 19

 UPFRONT
GL ASSHOUSE

TENUOUS TRUCE
I
t was a picture-perfect occasion, Kerala’s warring Congress leaders—
PCC chief K. Sudhakaran, leader of the opposition V.D. Satheeshan
and MPs Shashi Tharoor and K. Muraleedharan among others—lining
up at the border in Parassala to receive the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo
Yatra as it entered the state on September 11. But the truce lasted just hours.
GHAR WAPSI?
Sudhakaran and Tharoor waited in vain for Rahul to arrive to inaugurate a
Congress freedom fighter’s memorial at NIMS Medicity. The Gandhi scion F irst, they took Odisha
away from Daggubati
Purandeswari, the third
couldn’t make it due to security reasons and both leaders
were livid with the yatra organisers for their “insensitivity”. daughter of the late N.T. Rama
Muraleedharan, meanwhile, boycotted a function for Rahul Rao, founder of Telugu Desam
at Nemom, after he was denied entry to the dais. Whether Party (TDP). On September 9,
they relieved the 63-year-old
the Congress yatra unites India or not, it has clearly failed to
of her responsibilities as party
unite partymen in Kerala.
in-charge in Chhattisgarh too.
Sources say the party’s hopes
for her didn’t pan out either
in Andhra Pradesh or her
assigned states. Rumour now
has it that she may be mending
ties with TDP and ex-CM N.
Chandrababu Naidu who has
been trying to reunite the first
family in a bid to keep alive
NTR’s legacy.

Sympathy or
MAGAZINE KING
E
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
Sarcasm?
ver since he stormed out
of the NDA in August,
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar
seems ever ready to take on
the BJP central leadership. He
still seems to have a soft corner
Total Recall THE CYCLING SPY for the party’s leaders in Bihar
though. Nitish has in the past
I t’s the 114th birth anniversary of Dravida Munn-
etra Kazhagam (DMK) leader C.N. Annad-
urai, the first CM of Tamil Nadu, and rival All India
A health-conscious
Congress
MLA is the talk
questioned why Sushil Modi
was denied responsibility
at the Centre, and now he’s
Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has of the town taken up the cause of another
announced a week-long celebration. The AIADMK in Guwahati. of his ex-deputy CMs, Tara
was named after the Dravidian movement icon Every evening, Kishore Prasad. The BJP
by party founder, the late M.G. Ramachandran, the legislator has overlooked Prasad while
when he broke away in 1972. The ‘Anna’ initiative takes a round picking ex-assembly speaker
is current party chief E.K. Palaniswami’s bid of the quarters Vijay Sinha as leader of the
to infuse some Dravidian pride among the cadre. where ministers Opposition. Divide and rule, or
Atheist Annadurai, though, would have loathed and MLAs stay on his bicycle. is the CM’s heart still beating
the fact that EPS made the gesture right after While he claims it is to keep his for his former deputies?
visiting Tirumala temple on September 9. weight in check, many say he
is a spy of Assam CM Himanta
Biswa Sarma, keeping an eye
on who was visiting whom.
When confronted about his
frequent visits to the BJP CM’s
home, the Muslim MLA, an ally
RANJAN RAHI

of Sarma during his Congress

days, told his party it was for
“constituency-related issues”.

Kaushik Deka with Jeemon Jacob,

ANI

Amitabh Srivastava and Amarnath K. Menon

 I N T E RV I E W CAT H E R I N E C O LO N N A

WE WILL GIVE AN
ADDITIONAL DIMENSION
TO OUR STRATEGIC
PARTNERSHIP
The strategic partnership between India and France, which will complete 25 years next
year, has not just deepened but also considerably expanded India-France relations since
it was announced in 1998. Regarded as one of India’s most reliable partners, ties with
France, particularly in defence, have gained as much salience as New Delhi’s relations with
Moscow. That was evident when CATHERINE COLONNA, France’s new foreign minister,
made her maiden visit to India on September 13-15 after she was appointed in May 2022.
In an exclusive interview to Group Editorial Director RAJ CHENGAPPA, Colonna spoke

MAGAZINE KING
candidly on a range of key issues, from bilateral ones that included enhancing defence
cooperation, to global concerns, such as how to join forces to ensure peace in the Indo-
Pacific region, how to resolve the Russia-Ukraine war, combating terror in all forms and the
role India can play when it becomes president of the G20 later this year. Excerpts

Photographs by BANDEEP SINGH

Q.
You’ve had a very long day. You’ve had a meet-
ing with the prime minister, our external af-
fairs minister as well as the national security
advisor. What would you say is your one big
takeaway from these meetings?
A. We had a long day; that’s correct. But I would say that we
had a fruitful day, which is more important. I was honoured to
be received by Prime Minister Modi and I had long and useful
conversations with [EAM S.] Jaishankar and the national
security advisor. We aim to give an additional dimension to
our strategic partnership. We’ve had a long-lasting, fruitful
partnership. We are reliable partners, and we forged it in 1998.
Q. I am told you were with President [Jacques] Chirac when
the entire strategic partnership happened.
A. Exactly. I am fortunate enough to have been there, in ’98. I
was the spokesperson for the late president when we launched
this partnership. And I am fortunate enough today to see how
much progress we have made, 25 years later. What a fantastic
adventure! And we are building our partnership day-to-day:
for ourselves, for common strategic autonomy, and also for
the region. We are really two powers [that] dedicate most
of their efforts in the region to promote peace, stability and
development, and we are proud of that.
Q. I am going to come to that, but before that, a bilateral ques-
tion, about India-France defence relations, which have been
very strong. In recent years, India is building self-reliance.
How can France help India do that, particularly in the areas
of, say, fighter jet engines that India is looking for?
A. I think we already have a good record in security, gener-
ally speaking, and in technology transfers. Yes, we did a lot
in aviation, and Rafales—we delivered every single one of the
36. We are cooperating in submarines. And I did mention

22 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
MAGAZINE KING
 I N T E RV I E W CAT H E R I N E C O LO N N A

the possibility that we would both use our competencies in

technology and scientific skills. So we can go one step fur-
ther, and maybe we might have new developments in future,
including in aviation.

Q. So France is open to a lot of joint developments with India,

and cooperate in any matter that is useful to us?
A. Absolutely. I think our record vis-à-vis India has been most
open in terms of cooperation, including in sensitive issues,
and in terms of technology transfers. So we can build on that.

Q. India and France have both been victims of terror. Both

PM Modi and the President of France have announced that
we will cooperate on terror and counterterrorism. What can
India and France do to help things along?
A. We can do a lot. Because we understand the suffering of
people of our countries who have been attacked by terrorism.
We do share information, including intelligence. And on the
international scene, we promote the new addition of ‘No
Money for Terror’. The first conference was held in Paris, at
the OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and De-
velopment]. I was the ambassador to the OECD then. And we
are building on this to take new steps and embark with other

MAGAZINE KING
countries on that fight against terror. Counter-intelligence is
sometimes necessary, but sharing of information about the
money used to fund terror, where it comes from and where it
goes, is a very useful tool. So we will work together on that.
Q. There have been media reports that France and India are
jointly co-sponsoring resolutions of the UN Security Council
to designate global terrorists, particularly those who have
attacked our countries. How advanced is that move and do
you see that happening a lot more?
A. It will take some time to consult and make progress. But I
think that any nation or any group can be subjected to a ter-
rorist attack. So it is not something just for India or France or,
say, Europe or the western world. It is a concern every single
nation should share. So we do have to promote that and to
build a few bridges, wherever they are necessary.
Q. So it is not just ‘no money for terror’ but also ‘no tolerance
for terrorists’, and you will ensure that these people are glob-
ally designated as terrorists, wherever necessary.
A. And no place for hate speeches. Next week, at the UN
General Assembly in New York, President Macron will be
there, and he will be with the prime minister of New Zealand
to launch, or renew, the Christchurch Appeal, that is, fight-
ing terror and hate speeches online. This is another powerful
instrument. So there will be a new momentum given next
week for counterterrorism and fighting hate speech online.
Q. The other area discussed during your visit here is the Indo-
Pacific and the threats the region faces, particularly from a
India and France share
intelligence on terrorism.
Exchanging information about
money used to fund terror is
important. We will work on it
belligerent China. What measures can India and France take
to ensure greater peace and security in the region?
A. I have to remind everyone that we, the French, are a resid dent
people in the Indo-Pacific, West Indo-Pacific and in the Indian
Ocean. We are a Pacific nation. We do a lot already. The strate-
gic partnership that we have forged for 25 years has security and
defence dimensions as well as industrial cooperation, but it also
has an operational pillar to it. We do joint patrols in the Indian
Ocean, for example. Today, we discussed these issues and we
believe that there is room for deeper cooperation between India
and France vis-a-vis some countries that might be subject to ac-
tion from other countries, and I would not name only China. We
are keen to keep doing what we have done and promote peace
and stability in the region. This applies to the Indian Ocean, and
to some African states. But there is also potential to do it in the
Pacific area by, for example, identifying development projects
that can be useful to smaller states, and by acting together. Not
competing, but combining our forces.

2 4 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
Q. There has been a trilateral meeting Environment can
of sorts between India, France and Aus-
tralia. Do you see this emerging—maybe be a focus area for
you could have an acronym for it—as a India at the G-20.
new grouping?
A. I leave it to you to find a proper word
Climate change is a
for it. But you are right, the trilateral will reality and will have
take place at the ministerial level in New a socio-political
York at the margins of the UN General
Assembly and the change of government impact. The issue is
in Australia puts France and Australia on key to our future
a much better cooperation track and we’re
building trust. We have had difficulties
that prevented us from acting jointly in
the Pacific as we could. Such action has
to be multidimensional—with India, Japan or, say, with Korea.
We aim to be more active and to act together.
Q. And would that include defence, or trade? What are the
areas, because you’ve had the Quad, the AUKUS… where
would this particular grouping stand?
A. I would focus on the cooperation we already have on the
seas, which can be extended within the framework of a stra-
MAGAZINE KING
tegic dialogue with high-level meetings taking place at the
end of November. There will be a maritime dialogue aiming
at exploring what we can do further together.
Q. The other area of concern is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Both President Macron and Prime Minister Modi have had
dialogues with President Putin. Is there anything that you
think these two countries could do together to persuade Putin
to work out a diplomatic resolution to this?
A. We do hope that we can not only convey the right messages
but also convince the president of Russia to change his behav- v G-20 president, we will be there at its side to help.
iour. If I go back to the basics, it’s a difficult situation. Russia
decided to use aggression towards an independent and sover-
eign country. So, we cannot put the two countries on an equal
footing. Now, we know the differences in our relations vis-a-vis
Russia and we do respect that. But there is something that Presi-
dent Macron and PM Modi do, and that is very necessary—talk
to every party and, namely, the Russian president and convince
him that there must be a political solution to the conflict down
the road. There must be a change of attitude in the Russian
behaviour vis-a-vis Ukraine, and the opening of a true, sincere
and honest dialogue to settle their differences. In the meantime,
let me be very honest, we choose to support Ukraine because we
need to balance the situation they’re in, so they can reach a point
where a dialogue would be on a better footing for them. And we
must not forget what is at stake here. It’s not only the future of
Ukraine or the suffering of the Ukrainian people, but an attack
on the basic values India and France share and an attack on the
core principle of the UN charter. And if we let it go there, it’ll be
difficult for everyone in the world. Because everyone is watching,
including some countries you named. So,
what is at stake here is equilibrium in the
world—a rules-based order based on law,
democracy and mutual respect.
Q. India has had good relations with
Russia. There has been criticism from
some quarters over India continuing
to trade with Russia. How does France
view this situation?
A. We know the history of India’s ties
with Russia and we do respect India’s
decision to keep some relations going.
France has decided with the EU coun-
tries to progressively stop its depen-
dency on Russian energy. We did it with coal—it was over in
August—it will soon be done for fuel, where it will be reduced
by 90 per cent by the end of the year. Every single day, we are
reducing the amount of our dependency, which also reduces
Russia’s ability to fund its war efforts. Finally, we will have to
do this for gas too, some of us [EU states] are really dependent
on Russia for this—not so much France, by the way. We have
found new suppliers and down the road we will have to tell
them you chose the wrong path and we have to act as we do and
you have to stop this war and come back to peace and dialogue.
Q. India is taking over as the president of the G-20 later this
year. What should be our prime focus areas?
A. If I were to pick just one among the many issues, I’d say
the environment. Climate change is a reality, it will affect the
poorest of the world most and drive up inequalities. This will
have social and political consequences. The issue is key to our
future. Whatever India might be willing to do to fight this as
Q. You have also talked about PM Modi’s ‘lifestyle for environ-
ment’ mission.
A. Yes, it was a brilliant idea that came up last year at the
Glasgow COP26 summit. France is interested in the initiative
and, hopefully, PM Modi will now be able to promote it at the
G-20, and even share it with the rest of the world. It is needed.
Q. For Indian students wanting to study in France, there are
still issues of visas, mobility, migration.... Is there a plan to
speed up processes, is there good news for students?
A. On the visa front, there is a huge backlog; due to the pande-
mic, we could not move at the same pace. We are doing our
best to catch up. On the students’ side, our arms are wide
open and they are all welcome. France is not only a country
of culture, but also a place to study science and technology,
political science…. Our goal is to have 20,000 Indian students
coming over in three years’ time, by 2025. But we really have
to speed up on this. „
SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 2 5
MAGAZINE KING
MAGAZINE KING
 MAGAZINE KING

AP
 COVER STORY CHEETAH

RETURN OF
THE CHEETAH
HUNTED TO EXTINCTION IN INDIA BY 1952, THE BIG CAT
IS NOW BEING REINTRODUCED IN THE COUNTRY. WILL
THE WORLD’S FIRST INTERCONTINENTAL TRANS-
LOCATION OF A CARNIVORE IN THE WILD WORK?
By RAHUL NORONHA

MAGAZINE KING

RELOCATION ANXIETY? Two of

the cheetahs headed for India in a
quarantineenclosure at a
INDIA TODAY reserve
27
near Bella Bella, South Africa
 A
COVER STORY CHEETAH

An early winter morning somewhere near the very

heart of India, the sunlight getting so scattered in
the mist as to become a luminous haze that seems
to make time stop. The twitter of birds is soft, me-

MAGAZINE KING
lodic, mostly collegial. Somewhere in the tall, straw- MUJEEB FARUQUI

coloured grass, set high on a compact, pale buff face,

a pair of topaz eyes burn with an inner glow. Held up
by two dark teardrop-like streaks running down the
face, as if by a pair of tongs, and powered by a bionic
set of optic nerves, they are scanning a landscape
that could well have been set anywhere from 72,000
years ago to early last century. On the far horizon,
somewhere within its 210-degree vision, it spots ac-
tion. Perhaps a chital doe, five kilometres away. Even
at that distance, its laser-sharp eyes can pick out a
magical pictorial symmetry—the spots that cover the
deer’s body, just like its own. And then begins what
could be about the most thrilling of motion pictures
in the history of life. The crouch going into a canter
that softly eats up the miles in between, and then…
at last…the full throttle, the unbelievable torque as it
twists and turns, the scapula flowing back and forth
on the few occasions that the four limbs touch the
ground—for this magnificent beast is almost fully
in the air as it devours the last bit of savannah left
between itself and prey at 120 kmph. A scene that
can be enacted by only one land animal: the cheetah.
It’s also a scene not from India’s distant past but one that will
play out—given a bit of cat luck—in the winter of 2022. Venue: the
Kuno National Park, in northwestern Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur
district, where the former farmlands of relocated villages have
regenerated into lush grasslands, interspersing scrub and decidu-
ous forest, and abutting analogous areas in Rajasthan, like the
ANI

30 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
 TRAVEL
ITINERARY
A look at what the animals’
journey from Namibia to
India will entail

Jaipur

Palpur
Windhoek, M A D H YA
NAMIBIA PRADESH

MAGAZINE KING Ô The eight cheetahs will fly from

Windhoek in Namibia to Jaipur in
a chartered Boeing 747 cargo flight
on Sept. 16 and reach Jaipur on Sept.
17. From Jaipur, they will be flown in
helicopters to Palpur, located within
the Kuno National Park

Ô Five helipads have been built

at Palpur for the purpose

Ô The distance between

Windhoek and Jaipur is 8,367 km.
The travel time is 10 hours

Ô Palpur is 280-odd km from Jaipur,

that’s 40-42 minutes for a chopper

Ô The cheetahs will be

travelling in crates measuring
114 cm x 118 cm x 84 cm each

INTO THE WILD (Top) The entry gate to Kuno National Park already features its soon-to-arrive star
attractions, but not without a nod to its other planned import, lions from Gir; a team of global experts examines
an India-bound cheetah in Windhoek, as high commissioner Prashant Agarwal looks on
 COVER STORY / CHEETAH

CAT STATS
THE LOWDOWN ON THE CHEETAH, THE FASTEST LAND ANIMAL, WHICH
WILL SOON ROAM IN INDIA AFTER ITS EXTINCTION 70 YEARS AGO
Graphic by
y NILAN
NJAN DA
AS

SPINE: The animal’s LUNG: An oversize HEART: The

AFRICAN CHEETAH strongly muscled and lung and a large cheetah’s
hyper-flexible spine heart take in and heart beat
Conservation status: Vulnerable
helps it maximise distribute can go up to
Family: Felidae stride length enormous oxygen 250 BPM in
Speed: Maximum 120 kmph to fuel top speed just a few
Numbers in the world: 7,100 seconds
estimated African Cheetahs and
less than 50 Asiatic
Cheetahs in Iran
Average life span: Up to 14 years
(in the wild); up to 20 years
(in captivity)

TAIL:
MAGAZINE KING
Stretches
Body weight
out and acts
21 to 72 kg
as a counter-
balance for
sharp turns

2.5 FT
TAIL IS TWO-THIRDS
OF ITS BODY LENGTH

1947 The last cheetah 1952 The cheetah 1972 India consid- 2008 A pro- 2009 In preliminary
hunt is reported from the is declared extinct ers introducing Asiatic posal is submit- site evaluations, Kuno
Koriya princely state in in India, the first Cheetahs from Iran. ted to the Union Palpur and Nauradehi
modern-day Chhattisgarh. such event in free The Shah of Iran, who government in MP and Shahgarh
Three cheetahs were shot India. Still the only had agreed to the plan, to bring in the in Rajasthan are
by the then ruler Ramanuj large mammal to go is deposed and the cheetah from identified as potential
Pratap Singh Deo extinct post 1947 project falls through Africa introduction sites
 THE STRIDE A full stride can cover 25 feet of ground

THE FASTEST FEET FIRST SPEED MACHINE 0-60 MPH

HEAD: The typical
big cat skull is here
retooled to make
space for a huge 3.1
cluster of optic SECONDS
nerves—aiding 5-km 120 KMPH 72 KMPH (FERR ARI)
vision—hence a CHEETAH GREYHOUND
smaller, weaker jaw
3.0
SECONDS
(CHEETAH)

64 KMPH 45 KMPH
R ACE HORSE USAIN BOLT

Grouping: Cheetahs live as

‘coalitions’ of males, females
with cubs or individually
Gestation period: Three
months
Litter: They give birth to three or
four cubs that attain independ-
ence in around 18-20 months

MAGAZINE KING
LEGS: Longer and leaner
2.5 FT
HEIGHT
FOOD: Gazelles, impalas, other small-
than those of other cats.
to medium-sized ungulates and
The legs also contain
calves of larger ungulate species are
spring-like ligaments
the primary diet, apart from hares,
small mammals and birds

PAWS: Narrow, with a hard

underside fitted with ridges that
act like tyre treads. Claws are 2022 India and
HABITAT
blunt, slightly curved, mostly Namibia sign
Cheetahs are
non-retractable and act like an MoU to bring
found in a
running spikes. All specialised in the cheetah;
range of habi-
to increase sprint traction the first lot of 8
tats—from
animals to arrive
shrublands, at Kuno Palpur
3.5 FT-4.5 FT grasslands
BODY and savan-
2021 Feasibility
nahs to tem-
studies are
perate and hot
carried out
deserts again in MP and
Rajasthan for
the animal’s
introduction
2009 Experts from across the 2012 The Supreme 2013 The 2017 The National
world meet in Gajner, Rajasthan, Court (SC), hearing a SC quashes Tiger Conservation
to discuss the introduction of the plea on the proposed the cheetah Authority seeks a 2020 The
African cheetah in India, at the translocation of Asiatic introduction clarification from the SC finally clears
invitation of Union minister for Lions from Gir, Gujarat, plan, terming SC, while arguing the the cheetah
environment and forests Jairam to Kuno Palpur in MP, it arbitrary 2013 order did not introduction
Ramesh. A task force is set up stays the project and illegal impose a blanket ban project

Source: From various websites

 COVER STORY CHEETAH

famous tiger reserve, Ranthambore. The

reappearance of the cheetah in India—
via the translocation of eight individuals
from Namibia—is by itself a remarkable
fact. For, while the name ‘cheetah’ is itself
of Hindustani origin—deriving from the
Sanskrit chitraka or ‘painted’—the last
time the cheetah hunted in these parts
was 75 years ago. Rather, they were the
hunted. In 1947, the last three of India’s
native cheetahs were sighted—in an as-
pect of defeat (see And Then There Were
None...). Photographed with their long,
sleek bodies lying slumped and lifeless
at the feet of the gun-toting Maharaja
Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Koriya,
in present-day Chhattisgarh. In 1952,
the cheetah became the first animal to
be declared extinct in independent In-
dia—even if it likely survived as a few
scattered, forlorn coalitions into the ’60s.
That’s the situation sought to be reversed
now, with what will be the world’s first

MAGAZINE KING
intercontinental translocation of a big
carnivore in the wild, unless you count
the Gwalior maharaja’s attempt to source
lion cubs from Africa in 1920 only so as
NISHANT KAPOOR

to hunt them in the forests of Gwalior.
On September 17, a month after India
marked 75 years of freedom, a handful
of cheetahs will tiptoe into a controlled
forest enclosure to breathe the free air of
a country that hosted them for millen-
nia and gave them their name—and also
tortured them to extinction. A project at
once ambitious and modest, carefully
designed yet risk-prone, the cheetah
steps will be monitored with avid inter-
est by wildlife experts not just in India
but also around the world.
A SPOTTED HISTORY
For, this ‘small big cat’ from the puma lin-
eage, Acinonyx jubatus, had likely been
as endemic to India as its cousin felids
from the panthera family—the tigers and
leopards. In fact, recent genetic studies,
including on the remains of a 19th centu-
ry cheetah from MP, propose a split with
the African variety much deeper on the
species time-scale—about 72,000 years
ago—than thought before. For millennia,
therefore, the cheetah had roamed our
lands in the hundreds of thousands. Just
like they had in other continents. From
southern Africa, where the earliest fossils
of A. jubatus, dating from about 3.9 mya,
have been found. To ancient Egypt and
Sumer, where evidence for tamed chee-
tahs crop up in visual and scriptural lore.
To continental Europe, where they are
depicted on the Chauvet cave paintings
from circa 30,000 BC. In Europe and the
Americas, they did not survive the mass
megafaunal extinction at the end of the
Pleistocene, a kind of big mammal holo-
caust that occurred as the curtains fell on
CHEETAHS ROAMED
INDIA’S GRASSLANDS
IN VAST NUMBERS
FOR MILLENNIA TILL
THE HUMAN HAND
PUSHED THEM TO
EXTINCTION
the last Ice Age, and also wiped out the
sabre-toothed tiger and the woolly mam-
moths. The cheetah survived in Africa,
West Asia/ Egypt, and India. Even if the
human hand, to which is ascribed a large
part of the blame for that mass extinction
event, did not pause its actions.
Cheetah hunting was itself a thing—
and unrelenting. But the historical ep-
och also came to be replete with che-
etah coursing—hunting game with
tamed cheetahs playing the same role as
hounds. The cheetah had a special trait
of vulnerability here: it is largely non-
aggressive towards humans, and could
be tamed after about a year, but unlike
the hounds, couldn’t breed in captiv-
ity. All the cheetahs that filled the royal
courts and annals of diplomacy—becom-
ing symbols of prestige from the Holy
Roman Empire to the Mughal court—
were caught wild. From the pharaohs to
Genghis Khan (who liked to ride with
one on his saddle) to the 16th century
Pope Leo X, who liked exotic animals as
gifts, all partook of this. As did count-

3 4 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2

KUNO WAS CHOSEN FOR ITS FOREST-GRASSLAND
MOSAIC AND ARID/ SEMI-ARID CLIMATE. ITS PREY
BASE IS ADEQUATE, THOUGH THERE’S COMPETITION
FROM LEOPARDS. IT HAD BEEN PRIMED FOR GIR’S
MAGAZINE KING
less kingly types from Europe to India.
Akbar had something like a cheetah fe-
tish, and kept some 9,000 of them over
his lifetime—1,000 being his peak stable
strength. Samand Malik, his favourite
cheetah, was decked out in a bejewelled
coat, carried by liveried soldiers and fea-
tured on miniatures. But only one bred
in captivity out of those thousands, Ak-
bar’s son Jahangir notes. All this caused a
huge strain on the population in the wild.
THE DISAPPEARING...
At a much humbler ledge on the social
pecking order, Dinesh Adivasi, a Saha-
riya tribal who lives in a 15 x 15 feet sand-
stone walled hut in Resham Colony, on
the banks of the Kuno river in Sheopur
district and works as a casual labourer,
awaits the region’s date with history in
September 2022. His perspective offers
a unique intersection between the tales of
kings and ordinary folk: his forefathers
probably participated as attendants in
the hunting escapades of the Gwalior
maharajas. Perhaps the last of two mil-
LIONS, BY RELOCATING VILLAGES
lennia of vicarious hunting.
The animal’s numbers had declined
enough by the dawn of the colonial era
for cheetah coursing to have ebbed as a
sport—even if surviving into the early
20th century, as a 1939 video and signs
of the first translocations from Africa to
feed India’s scant base attest to. Those
events were from another era—in the
service of the hunting ethos, not guided
by the ecological sciences. Witness the
Gwalior maharaja’s tryst with African
lions. The ruler of Junagadh apparently
did not allow him to hunt in his territo-
ries, according to conservationist Divy-
abhanusinh’s 2005 book, The Story of
Asia’s Lions. A 1959 book by Col. Kesri
Singh, the ‘shikar officer’ of Gwalior State
and later of Jaipur—The Tiger of Rajast-
han—also records how Maharaja Madho
Rao Scindia sourced 12 lion cubs from
Africa in 1920, bred and released them
around Kuno. The animals later turned
cattle-lifters and man-eaters and were
ordered to be killed. One of them was
shot in Panna and another in Jhansi.
A RIVER RUNS
THROUGH IT
(left) A view of the Palpur
fort next to the Kuno river;
the cheetah enclosure at
the Kuno National Park
MUJEEB FARUQUI
The British, whose own taste for
mass-scale hunting tilted towards big
game, treated cheetahs like vermin, to
be exterminated so as to create a larger
niche for their prize trophies: tigers and
lions. Cheetahs were bounty-hunted,
with rewards ranging from Rs 6 to Rs
18 for adults. Says Mahesh Rangarajan,
professor of history and environmental
studies at Ashoka University: “Records
from the British period suggest cheetahs
were hunted for bounty as they were seen
picking on sheep and goat. They were
hunted for sport and were trapped too.
Besides, the cheetah habitat was under
pressure and shrinking from deforesta-
tion, clearing for agriculture. Most im-
portantly, there was a sharp drop in its
prey base, which led to a population col-
lapse. This is true but for all of Asia where
the cheetah was earlier found.” Hunting
records, says Rangarajan, show cheetah
populations were reported from as far
down south as Tirunelveli to Palamu in
Jharkhand before going extinct.
Seventy-five years after the final bul-
SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 3 5
 TOURISM PUSH

A WHOLE NEW
ECONOMY
S
heopur district, and
in particular Kara-
hal block where
Kuno National Park
is located, is one of the most
economically and socially
backward areas—not just of
Madhya Pradesh, but also of
the country. Around a quar-
ter of its population belongs
to the Sahariya commu-
nity, which is classified as
a ‘particularly vulnerable
tribal group’. Agriculture is
the mainstay of the district’s
economy; manufacturing
and tertiary sectors have a
negligible contribution.
“There are no industries
in the region and land hold-
there is a sudden rush for
land. Tribals own most of
the tracts in the area, and
law restricts the transfer of
ownership to non-tribals.
Thus, prices being quoted
for a few tracts that are free
from such encumbrances
have gone up by three to
four times. Among those
interested are hoteliers in
Rajasthan’s Ranthambore,
located merely 120 kilome-
tres from Kuno, who feel the
two reserves could develop
into a booming tourism
circuit in future. “Not a day
passes when someone from
Rajasthan doesn’t come to
Sesaipura looking for land.
Tourism Board is already
organising visits for the
interested groups. “A new
big cat specie arouses a lot of
interest. If the introduction
of cheetahs proves suc-
cessful, it will be a matter of
just a few years before Kuno
becomes a major tourist
destination,” says Manav
Khanduja of Pugdundee
Safaris that has also shown
interest in setting up a prop-
erty near the national park.
Jinesh Jain, 52, who has
set up a 16-room resort, says:
“While challenges remain
in running the property, the
buzz around the cheetah
will add to the business.” His

MAGAZINE KING
ings are extremely frag-
mented. Those who migrate
for work get only menial jobs
as they don’t possess any
skills,” says Hazrat Yadav,
50, of Sesaipura, the village
nearest to the national park.
The arrival of cheetahs could
change that, at least as far
as the hospitality sector is
concerned, he believes.
And a change is visible:
People are quoting Rs 15 lakh
per bigha for their tracts,
up from Rs 4 lakh,” says
Dharmendra Vishwakarma,
a small farmer in the village.
To make up for the lack of
private non-tribal land, the
government has identified
two parcels of 14 hectares
each and one of 6 hectares
for allotment on long lease
around Sesaipura. The MP
property employs 28 people,
most of whom are from the
Sahariya community, en-
gaged in housekeeping.
To ensure the locals get
ample job opportunities,
CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan,
in his recent visit to Palpur,
announced the setting up of
a skill development centre
in Sheopur for “training the
youth for tourism”.

lets rang out in Koriya, Dinesh perhaps
remains unaware of the precise details,
but he knows his social ecology too will
be touched. From native royalty out to
Charlemagne to Indira Gandhi, people
of power always had a yen for association
with beautiful predators. In fact, the idea
of translocating cheetahs from Africa was
born in the 1970s, with Indira Gandhi.
And now, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi joins that prestige list and takes
that story forward. He will be on hand
on September 17, his birthday, person-
ally releasing three of the new African
imports into a boma—an African word
for a specially designed enclosure—at
TO RELIEVE THEIR Jakhoda, not far from Dinesh’s home.
ANXIETY DURING After a month of acclimatisation, the ra-
dio-collared cheetahs will be moved to
TRANSLOCATION, a bigger enclosure before being released
THE CHEETAHS WILL into the wild in another couple of months.
BE KEPT IN A BOMA Despite sceptics, animal-lovers all around
hope the sight of the cheetah’s unmistak-
FOR A MONTH able pelage—tawny, dappled coats slung
BEFORE RELEASE along an average four feet lengthwise, and
only two and a half feet in height, leaping
into breathtakingly graceful strides—
will again become a common event in

3 6 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
 Photos: MUJEEB FARUQUI
MAGAZINE KING
SPRUCING UP
(Top) A resort coming up near Kuno
National Park; a road leading to the
wildlife reserve undergoing repairs
India. Ecologists all over hope this will
mark a turning point in the story of one of
most cherished animals, which declined
from an estimated global population of
100,000 at the turn of the previous cen-
tury to 7,100 individuals in 2016-17.
The story has already begun around
Kuno. A buzz is in the air. Dinesh has
been watching convoys of white official
cars, driven at faster-than-usual speeds,
perhaps betraying some inner commu-
nion with the animal they are hoping
to introduce, criss-crossing the bridge
on the Kuno for a few days. Captured in
Namibia over a month ago, they fly from
Windhoek to Jaipur on September 16 in
a chartered cargo flight. The final leg for
the imported guests, the next day, will be
a 40-minute chopper ride to Palpur, an
old village site within Kuno where five
helipads have been built. Animals suffer
during translocation across large dis-
tances—they undergo stress, lose weight
and get disoriented. That also reduces
their fitness for the wild. The month
in the boma, where carefully arranged
prime cuts of small game have been in-
troduced, without competition, should
restore some of their spirit. After that
looms the free ranging across the great
750 sq. km expanse of Kuno.
So, what are the cons? What risk is
entailed here in this grand experiment
with nature? What are its ultimate ben-
efits, going beyond the symbolic? These
are only some of the big questions that
dog everyone invested in the project.
S
ome of the devil lies in the
detail. For the project to
succeed even at the elemen-
tary level, the cheetahs have
to survive—and thrive. That
would then lead on to Phase II and III.
“Twelve more cheetahs are to come from
South Africa. The total number of chee-
tahs arriving in India will be more than
25. The project will pan out over the next
five years,” Bhupendra Yadav, the Union
minister for environment, forests and
climate change, said while reviewing
preparations at Palpur on September 11.
But very many variables attend on the
survival of this slender founder popula-
tion itself. One is the presence of a sus-
tainable prey base. Cheetahs, because of
their slender build, typically go for small
game—it would be a dietary shift from
the impalas back in Namibia to the chital
(spotted deer) and chinkara, but one they
can conceivably manage. Traditionally,
back in the coursing days, they had to
be trained for bigger game—cheetahs
would avoid even black bucks in the wild
otherwise, for the hunter could end up
becoming the aggrieved party. Going
for a full-blown nilgai would be a bit of a
stretch. With the bigger deer, antelopes
COVER STORY CHEETAH
and wild boars—part of the buffet that
Kuno offers—only calves and mid-sized
specimens could therefore become part
of breakfast menu, but this is hardly a
risk-free venture.
Second, there is the small matter
of competition. Resident leopards in
Kuno—about 65 in all, or nine per 100
sq. km—and tigers, often known to range
in from Ranthambore, just 80-odd miles
away, are not likely to be too amused at
the new guests at the banquet table. And
cheetahs are among the most vulnerable
to violence within the big cat pantheon.
Predators of different species within a
stable ecological niche operate what is
known as a guild, tolerating each other, if
not exactly cooperating, as long as there’s
plenty food to go around. The moment
the balance shifts, intra-guild competi-
tion develops. That’s why the action plan
envisages radio-collaring Kuno’s leop-
ards too, so as to monitor interaction. A
lone male leopard—a shorter gentleman,
but heavier and fiercer—can chase away
cheetahs or, on a bad day, even make a
meal of them. Not to speak of striped hy-
enas, the nasty nether-creatures of myth,
which Kuno has no dearth of. Litters of
cheetah cubs typically have a 90 per cent
mortality rate.
To succeed against these odds, one
primarily needs fitness in the founder
population—individually robust, and
capable of breeding at a healthy replace-
ment rate. A few questions were raised
on that front too. Three of the original
individuals selected for shipment turned
out to be captive-bred—it was only af-
ter Indian authorities refused to accept
them that they were replaced with free-
ranging ones. But definitions have been
a bit fluid. The word now is that three of
the cheetahs were born wild, but spent
some time in enclosures. The gender ra-
tio also stayed a bit grey during the run-
up to C-Day. Initially, the first group was
said to have four females and four males,
which went against conventional trans-
location wisdom. Always for such experi-
ments, more females are kept in a group.
Top sources told INDIA TODAY that the
confusion owed to a scarcity of females
in the source population. Also, one of the
SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 3 7
 COVER STORY CHEETAH
IN COLD BLOOD

original females gave birth after being AND THEN THERE

captured and had to be replaced; another
died. But the final tally is a healthy one:
three males, five females.
How this cheetah octet evolves its
WERE NONE...
A
few months blinded and scared by cheetahs were almost
social patterns will be crucial. Cheetahs
after India’s the lights. identical—all males—
typically live in three formations—lone Independence, As per an account and were believed to be
females with cubs, groups of sibling Ramanuj Pratap Singh of the hunt, sent by the from the same litter. It
males known as ‘coalitions’, and the rare Deo, the ruler of Koriya ruler’s secretary to a wasn’t known whether
lone ranger. Although female cheetahs (a princely state that popular taxidermist, the animals were born
are promiscuous, the last thing anyone was under the Eastern Van Ingen, “The first in Koriya or had mi-
would want is two expensive imports States Agency and is bullet killed one and the grated from elsewhere.
facing off in mortal combat in the wild. now part of modern- second, the remaining In his 1923 book,
There’s a lot riding on this project. An day Chhattisgarh), saw two. The second bul- Wild Animals in Central
three cheetahs while let, after having gone India, conservationist
outlay of Rs 91.65 crore, for one. So ev-
driving at night. They through one, struck the Dunbar Brander stated
eryone is hoping all the fragile socialising
were all sitting huddled other, which was be- that the cheetah had al-
between prey, cousins from the fiercer together, perhaps hind it, and killed it.” The most disappeared from
felid families, sundry other rivals and in-
tra-cheetah groups works out reasonably
well. The next phase would then involve
trying to build up a stable source popula-
tion at Kuno that would eventually feed careful management, it could restore prey base. Three, it offers a forest-grass-
other reserves such as Mukundra, Sher- neglected habitats, conserve biodiver- land mosaic as part of the Khathiar Gir
garh and Bhainsrorgarh in Rajasthan sity and harness its ability to sequester dry deciduous ecoregion, with major tree

MAGAZINE KING
and Madhav National Park and Gandhi
Sagar Sanctuary in MP.
carbon to the maximum potential. And
promoting ecotourism on the side will
do no harm to community livelihoods
species like the salai, kardhai, khair and
tendu speckled with savannah. Four,
climate. Cheetahs thrive best in tem-

T
he other question relates to
the larger ecological one.
Does this have value beyond
being a majestic showpiece
item, almost akin to a latter-
day version of the zoo, updated with en-
vironmentally correct sounds? (Zoos,
incidentally, are an unacknowledged
artefact of wildlife destruction, having
decimated cheetahs throughout the
previous century.) Project Tiger is an ex-
ample to go by. Famously, because of be-
ing at the apex of the food chain, the ro-
bustness of tiger populations also meant
the preservation of entire ecosystems of
unquantifiable preciousness. Minister
Yadav proffers a similar argument here.
“Project Cheetah aims to bring back the
only large mammal to go extinct in in-
dependent India. The project is not just
about the charismatic cheetah itself, but
more about its role in being able to re-
store the balance within ecosystems it
inhabited. While the tiger has served as
the flagship species for forest systems, the
cheetah will fill this void for open forests,
grasslands and savannahs,” he says. With
for local folk like Dinesh—the Sahariyas,
for instance, listed as “expert woodsmen”
with a variety of forest-related skills, are
also dirt-poor, with high malnutrition
levels and only a few able to rely on farm-
ing in an irrigation-scarce area.
WHY KUNO?
In 2009, when work on cheetah reintro-
duction began in right earnest, the Kuno
Palpur Sanctuary (as it was called then)
had already qualified as a viable habi-
tat for translocating Asiatic lions from
Gir. Once the cheetah plan began tak-
ing shape, the Dehradun-based Wild-
life Institute of India (WII) conducted
a feasibility study at Kuno and Naura-
dehi in MP and Shahgarh in Rajasthan
and found them appropriate. When the
project was revived in January 2020, the
WII conducted a reassessment at 10 sites
across India, and found Kuno most suit-
able. The factors that went in its favour?
One, the initial groundwork for the com-
ing of the lions, such as the relocation of
24 villages, which made the reserve free
of human habitation. Two, an adequate
perature zones of 23-40°C, and Kuno fit
the bill, especially for its arid/ semi-arid
properties—higher baseline humidity
can affect the success of a project such as
this. First notified as a sanctuary in 1981
with 344 sq. km, Kuno was upgraded to
a national park in 2018 with the addition
of 413 sq. km. Unsurprisingly, these were
the most sought-after hunting preserves
of the Scindia rulers of Gwalior—back in
the day when tigers abounded, as also
exceptionally large heads of chital.
The sceptics are not convinced—and
their arguments revolve precisely around
the suitability of prey base and habitat.
Wildlife conservationist Valmik Thapar,
whose book Exotic Aliens famously de-
scribes lions and cheetahs as historically
non-native to the subcontinent, derives
the reasons for his vociferous veto right
there. The large open grasslands vital for
the cheetah are simply non-existent in
India, he says—at best, they can inhabit
fenced areas, possibly being fed by hand
or baiting in his opinion. “After seeing
400 different cheetahs in Africa, and
studying every nuance of the animal, I

3 8 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
 The journal castigated
the ruler, challenging
his claims of being a
sportsman—like most
Indian princes of that
era—and also for being
ignorant of the status
of the cheetah in India.
“...So wanton as to
destroy such a rare
the Central Provinces. count of this slaughter and harmless animal
In January 1948, when he [the ruler]
that their first impulse
Ingen requested the was to consign it to the has the phenomenal
Bombay Natural His- wastepaper basket. Its good fortune to run
tory Society (BNHS) publication here is in- into not one but three
to publish a record of tended in the nature of together—probably
this hunt. It was left to an impeachment rather the last remnants of a
the editors to call out than any desire on their dying race,” wrote the
the act—and they did. part to condone or extol editors. The lament was
“The editors were so the deed,” they stated justified as the cheetah
nauseated by the ac- in the published record. wasn’t seen again.
what explains their depiction on rock art
WITH A CENTRAL thousands of years ago?” Indeed, sites
BUDGET OF RS 91.65 like Khairabad and Khairvai record the
CRORE AND RS 50
MAGAZINE KING
CRORE AS CSR FUNDS
FROM IOC, THERE’S A
LOT RIDING ON THE
beast—if not with the same majesty as
San rock art from South Africa, in full
flight, with its unmistakable rudder-like
tail held up for balance. “Also, Akbar had
thousands of cheetahs in his inventory.
PROJECT’S SUCCESS They must have run a very successful
conservation programme,” he adds, the
rhetoric flowing high. “And cheetahs are
known to survive in forests too. The last
can say I have not seen any habitat in cheetah to be shot was in fact in a Sal
India that has the prey to support free- forest, not a grassland,” adds Ranjitsinh,
ranging cheetah. What’s being brought whom the Supreme Court had in 2020
is an exotic species,” Thapar tells INDIA appointed head of the expert committee
TODAY. That too, one extremely fragile, to oversee the cheetah’s translocation.
even on home turf. “Even in the eastern
K
Serengeti, which has 1-1.5 million prey uno has about 30 chital per
animals for the cheetah, the mortality sq. km, a density that rivals
rate of cheetah cubs is 90 per cent,” he ar- many well-managed tiger
gues. Kuno, with villages and feral dogs reserves, and this is when
all around it, would be hostile territory. it doesn’t have a single ti-
He would rather that the precious funds ger. The overall prey base would “suffice
being spent here be utilised to conserve for around 20 cheetahs. Once the areas
species like the tiger, lion and elephant around Kuno recover, we can possibly
that currently face grave risks. support up to 40,” says Dr Y.V. Jhala,
On the other side of the debate are dean, WII. “And Kuno has no feral dogs
conservationists like M.K. Rajnitsinh, a or villages in its 750 sq. km. We plan to
former IAS officer and director, wildlife, have a managed meta population. Our
Government of India, who argue that viability assessment suggests a very
cheetahs are no way alien to India. “If high probability of success, and factors
Humayun brought the cheetah to India, in all the doubts raised,” he adds. The
project has been designed in accordance
with guidelines set by the IUCN (Internati-
onal Union for Conservation of Nature)
Reintroduction Group, and accounts for a
probable mortality as high as 50 per cent.
If survival is the question, Project
Cheetah itself had to face up to that chal-
lenge. This stage has come 50 years after
the idea was first mooted, in the teeth of
opposition from a section of wild-lifers—
and after crossing a curious legal tangle.
The latest chapter in the translocation sto-
ry, which began in 2009 under the UPA’s
environment minister Jairam Ramesh, ran
into hostile turf almost right away. In 2013,
persuaded by the naysayers, the Supreme
Court halted it. In 2017, the National Tiger
Conservation Authority sought a clarifica-
tion, and it was only in January 2020 that
the then Chief Justice of India, Justice Sha-
rad Bobde, gave the go-ahead. “The bench
exercised a great deal of caution,” Justice
Bobde tells INDIA TODAY. “The court agreed
to it on an experimental basis, after looking
into the pros and cons. I felt the cheetah
will do well in the parts where it is being
introduced, as they aren’t alien there.”
And thus India embarked on its atte-
mpt to rescript natural history. Surround-
ing it may be a forest of sounds, some fa-
vourable, others hostile. But those invested
in it go beyond local tribal populations who
see new avenues of employment, or hoteli-
ers who spy some new prey in the form
of interested amateurs. The story relates
to the entirety of life systems, ultimately.
India has had a patchy history—wanton
hunting, deforestation and habitat loss
to mining and infrastructure continue to
this day, but there are also success stories.
Project Tiger, especially, has bounced back
from the lows of the early 2000s, with wild
populations more than doubling to 2,967
by 2019. Kuno itself has other dilemmas
to solve. Its lion relocation plan is still not
extinct—a recently painted mural at Tik-
toli, an entry point to the reserve, depicts a
lion too. But, for now, the story is all about
the only big cat in the world that does not
roar. It’s also the only cat with non-retract-
able claws—they dig into the ground to
function as a sprinter’s spikes, as the very
scene that thrilled ancient artists across
continents unfolds once again. „
SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 39
 SPECIAL REPORT | ECONOMY

THE PAIN POI

ANY TAKERS?
Unsold two-
wheelers at
an automobile
showroom in
New Delhi

MAGAZINE KING
NTS
The Covid-19 pandemic only aggravated inequality in
India, with the rich getting richer and those at the
bottom of the pyramid languishing even further. Has
India made a K-shaped recovery? If so, how can we
make growth more equitable?

By Shwweta Punj

others have lagged considerably. For instance,

cars in the compact SUV segment, priced over

T
Rs 10 lakh and above, have seen booming sales,
as have vehicles in the more premium category.

MAGAZINE KING But sales of two-wheelers, a measure of demand

THE GROWTH NUMBERS FOR THE INDIAN
economy in the April-June quarter of the cur-
rent fiscal were not expected to throw up any
surprises. Given that the comparable period in
the previous year had seen a big lull in econo-
mic activity due to the second wave of the
Covid-19 pandemic, growth in Q1FY23 was
expected to be 15 per cent or more; the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) had predicted 16.2 per
cent. So, when the numbers came in at 13.5 per
cent, and economists continued to flag high
net imports, persistent inflation, sluggish ru-
ral demand and lower government spending, it
did not bode well for India’s yearly growth. The
fear is, it could well be under the much-touted
7 per cent. “That is a very low rate of growth
for a country like India,” says former finance
secretary Subhash Chandra Garg. Economists
say it will not be enough to generate jobs, India
needs to grow at 8-10 per cent.
Worse, whatever little post-pandemic re-
KUSHAGRA WADHWA
among low-income groups, have slowed. As
incomes decline, more consumers are prefer-
ring lower-end consumer durables and smaller
packages of FMCG products. Micro, small and
medium enterprises (MSMEs) are still strug-
gling with poor demand and capital crunch,
with firms operating at half their capacity.
Meanwhile, private investment is yet to return
to pre-pandemic levels.
These developments have fuelled a sharp
debate on the shape of India’s recovery after
the pandemic. While former chief economic
advisor Arvind Subramanian has called it a
‘V’-shaped one—signalling a sharp recovery
WHILE INDIA INC. IS
EXPANDING, DEFYING
RISING INTEREST
RATES & INFLATION,
SMALL BUSINESSES
ARE STRUGGLING
FOR SURVIVAL

covery that has been achieved is unequal—while

some sectors of the economy have done well,

SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 41

 SPECIAL REPORT | ECONOMY
NO JOY RIDE
Two wheeler sales, a bellwether for the rural economy,
fell in FY22. Passenger vehicles saw an 11% Y-o-Y rise in
on all fronts—others believe it is a ‘K’-shaped one. sales in July, but it was paradoxical, with high sales for
Among them is Garg, who believes the recovery is higher-priced cars but low numbers for cheaper ones
K-shaped in terms of household incomes. “The rich
TWO-WHEELERS (Figures: ’000 units sold)
are getting richer, while the poor are seeing their
incomes drop,” he says. Avoiding a definitive state-

21,180
PASSENGER

20,200
ment, D.K. Srivastava, chief policy advisor, EY In- VEHICLES
dia, ventures: “Could be a K-shaped recovery, but

17,590

17,416
we need more evidence.” A Mumbai-based econo-
mist with a global bank is convinced it’s a K-shaped

15,121
recovery, even if the government is unwilling to

13,466
acknowledge it because it wants to port ray that
inequality hasn’t worsened. “Since we don’t have
inequality data in India, everyone is looking at proxy

3,048
3,289

3,069
3,377
2,774
2,711
indicators,” he adds.
But what exactly is a K-shaped recovery? It takes
place when different sections of the economy experie- FY17 FY22 FY17 FY22
nce different rates of recovery after a downturn. The
parts that recover faster are represented by the upper Commercial vehicle sales saw 26% rise in FY22, backed by government's
arm of the ‘K’; those that lag behind represent the infra push and reopening of educational institutes and offices
lower arm. “Typically,” says Garg, “asset prices and
COMMERCIAL THREE-
corporate incomes rise in a K-shaped recovery, while VEHICLES WHEELERS
consumption among the lower 50 per cent reduces.”

T MAGAZINE KING
o be sure, India’s recovery looks much
better than in many other parts of the
world that are staring at a recession. The
1,007

country recently became the world’s fifth-

636
569
857

637
701

219
261
512
714

718

717

largest economy, surpassing the UK, though Garg

cautions: “There is no comparison from a growth FY17 FY22
FY17 FY22
perspective. They (the UK) are a $50,000 per capita Source: SIAM
income economy. We are at $2,000 per capita. We
should look at these developments with sobriety.”
India Inc. is also expanding—Gautam Adani, SMALL
chairman of the Adani Group, is now the world’s
third-richest man and will invest Rs 5.6 lakh crore
IS NO
in green energy and infrastructure. Rival Mukesh LONGER
Ambani’s Reliance Industries has announced a mega BEAUTIFUL
rollout of the 5G network with an investment of Rs 2 Among passenger vehicles, cars costing more than Rs
lakh crore by the end of October and an additional Rs 10 lakh have done better in terms of growth than the
6 lakh crore investment in green energy. entry-level and affordable car segment
That big corporates are doing well was also borne
MARKET SHARE GROWTH (Y-o-Y%)
out by numbers in the June quarter, defying rising in-
40
terest rates and inflationary pressures. Their bounce- >10 lakh
back from the pandemic complete, many of them 30
have restored salaries to pre-pandemic levels or even <=10 lakh
20
given raises. India Inc. employees, per a survey of 500
large, medium and small companies across 13 major 10
industry sectors by recruitment agency Michael Page 0
India, got an average salary hike of about 9 per cent
-10
this year, against 7 per cent in 2019.
India’s GST tax collections have also been rob- -20
FY17 Source: Crisil Research FY22
ust, rising 28 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1.49 lakh
crore in July, the second highest since the new tax
regime was introduced in July 2017, on the back of

42 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
 JOB WOES
With the industrial, services
and manufacturing sectors yet
to recover, urban unemploy- plus members, says that the incentives
ment is rising. Recovery in rural announced by the government have
India is driven by agriculture not yielded the desired results. “Many
“Inflation is the of the MSMEs are not even aware of
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE (%) the various schemes lau nched,” he
biggest stress point.
10 says. He is referring to the Emergen-
It adversely affects cy Credit Line Guarantee Scheme
9 the lower strata of (ECLGS) the government announced
8 people. The rich don't to provide collateral-free automatic
7 get as affected” loans for businesses, a self-reliant
fund for equity funding in MSMEs
6 SUBHASH CHANDRA GARG that have the potential and viability
India Former finance secretary
5 to grow and become larger units. The
Urban Rural scheme has been extended till March
4
Sept. 1, 2021 Aug. 1, 2022 2023. A recent CMIE (Centre for
Source: CMIE Monitoring Indian Economy) study
noted that ECLGS was effective in
arresting major financial stress in the
operations of the sector. MSME sec-
retary B.B. Swain, too, had recently
noted that Rs 1,600 crore had been
“The high-end TV invested in 88 MSMEs so far. But it is
segment is growing. a drop in the ocean, given that India
People are buying had 7.9 million registered MSMEs as

MAGAZINE KING more than one TV, but

demand for smaller
TVs is sluggish”
of March 2022.
Barring a select few, a majority of
small business owners are struggling
for survival. Prashant Patel, who runs
MGNREGA TO DEVITA SARAF a family-owned business in Gujarat,

THE RESCUE
Chairman & CEO, Vu Televisions has relied mostly on exports to keep
things running. “Demand is lower
than last year,” he says ruefully. “While
There has been a steady
prices of raw materials have come
increase in the number of
people in rural areas seeking down, margin pressures are the same.
jobs under the scheme, buoyant consumption. Bookings at Last month, orders were the lowest
the decline in July largely airports and hotels are full, thanks to in the history of the company.” Patel
attributed to the monsoon a revival of the travel and hospitality could manage to keep his plants afloat
HOUSEHOLDS sector. The festive season that kicked by taking a loan of Rs 10 crore under
DEMANDING WORK off with Ganesh Chaturthi in Septem- ECLGS. His plants are currently run-
UNDER MGNREGA ber promises to drive consumption ning at 25 per cent capacity.
(2022-23 provisional;
further as millions spend on homes,
in millions)
cars, consumer durables or food and AN UNEVEN ROAD
31.67
30.74

recreation. Auto sales reflect a mixed picture too.

While these may be sufficient In August, according to data from
23.26

20.43

cause for cheer, there is also the other SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile
side of the picture. And it’s not pretty. Manufacturers), passenger vehicles—
19

including cars, vans and utility ve-

AUGUST

MISERY OF THE MSME S hicles—saw sales of 281,210 units, a

APRIL

JUNE

After two years of the pandemic and rise of 21 per cent over the previous
JULY
MAY

the att endant shutdowns, MSMEs year. Two-wheelers, however, saw a

Source: Ministry of rural
development
Graphics by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
are still grappling with low demand growth of just 16.63 per cent, despite
and access to funding. D.S. Rawat, the low base, selling 1.56 million
chairman of the MSME Export Pro- units. A Crisil analysis confirmed the
motion Council that boasts 50,000- trend, showing that cars priced above

SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 4 3
 SPECIAL REPORT | ECONOMY
Rs 10 lakh or in the premium segment
sold five times faster in the past fiscal
than lower-priced cars. The market
for entry-level passenger cars, two-
wheelers and three wheelers is yet to
recover. Low demand courtesy falling
incomes is one factor; a third hike in
the repo rate and the continuing infla-
tion have contributed to the stress. ‘In
India,’ Crisil notes, ‘first-time users or
those upgrading from used cars typi-
cally buy the lower-priced cars. With
the pandemic significantly impacting
the income sentiment of entry-level car
buyers, purchases and upgrades have
been getting postponed.’ Hence the lop-
sided recovery in the auto sector.
S
ome categories of consum-
er durables are displaying
a similar tendency. Devita
Saraf, chairman and CEO
of Vu Televisions, tells INDIA TODAY that
the demand for high-end TVs—with a
MAGAZINE KING
price tag of Rs 50,000 and above and
size 55 inches and above—has grown
fourfold since before the pandemic.
“This segment is growing,” says Saraf.
“Suddenly, people who had the capacity
to buy one TV are buying multiple TVs.
But the demand for smaller TVs—32
inch and 24 inch—is sluggish.” Accord-
ing to point-of-sale retail data by GfK
Market Intelligence, ‘The television
market witnessed a volume decline of 1.2
per cent in January-April 2022 versus
January-April 2021. During the same
period, the smart TV segment grew
10 per cent in terms of volumes.’ TV is
among the products with the deepest
penetration in electronics, with a reach
of 65 per cent. BNP Paribas India pegs
the TV market to be Rs 25,000 crore.
Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retail-
ers’ Association of India, echoes a some-
what similar sentiment. “Most items,”
he says, “have witnessed inflation. Re-
tailers are indicating that higher-priced
items are selling well, but lower-priced
items are not seeing as much growth.
This clearly shows that while the up-
per middle and elite class are shopping,
lower income group customers are not
shopping much.”
4 4 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
THE MISSING JOBS
Demand for work under the Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) went up
significantly. If around 23.26 million
households demanded work under the
scheme in April, 30.74 million house-
holds did so in May and 31.67 million
in June. If demand dropped in July to
20.43 million, it was due to the mon-
soon affecting sites where MGNREGA
work is provided, but was still higher
than the comparable periods before the
pandemic. Until August 3, about Rs
40,000 crore of the Rs 73,000 crore
budgeted for the scheme, or nearly 55
per cent, had been spent in the first four
months of the fiscal. Economic policy
experts point out that the scheme has
not recorded such demand since its in-
ception in 2006 and is reflective of rural
distress, inflation and unemployment.
MGNREGA workers have been also
demanding higher wages; the national
capital witnessed a three-day protest
starting August 4 in which workers
from more than 15 states took part.
They demanded that the wage be in-
creased to Rs 600 a day—from Rs 210 a
day currently—as the seventh pay com-
mission had recommended. Compared
to wage growth in listed compa nies,
which has been in double digits, rural
wage growth has hovered at 5-6 per
cent. This is lower than inflation levels,
which have remained above 6 per cent
“MGNREGA should
be extended to all,
or a corresponding
scheme
implemented in
urban India”
D.K. SRIVASTAVA
Chief policy advisor, EY india
DEBAJYOTI CHAKRABORTY
for eight months now.
India’s unemployment rate shot up
to 8.3 per cent in August—the highest
in the past year. CMIE data did reflect
some recovery in July over the month be-
fore—from 13 million jobs lost in June,
the number came down to 6.3 million in
July. But as a CMIE analysis observed,
‘All the recovery is in agriculture.’
Indeed, the industrial and services
sectors saw a fall for two months. The
industrial sector lost 200,000 jobs
in July, after losing 4.3 million jobs
in June. The services sector lost 2.8
million jobs in July, after having lost
800,000 in June. Construction jobs
saw an uptick, but they are considered
low-quality. Manufacturing is yet to
rec over from the loss of employment
dur ing the pandemic. Employment
has been hovering around 30-34 mil-
lion, compared to 40 million before
the pandemic. ‘This is a significant fall
in employment by the manufacturing
sec tor,’ according to CMIE. ‘The fall
in manufacturing employment in the
past two months is concentrated in
large organised industries like chemi-
cals and metals.’
High net imp or ts and weaker
gover nment consumpt ion ex pe-
nditure, meanwhile, have kept overall
growth soft in the first quarter, says
Crisil. India’s imports grew faster than
its exports, widening the current ac-
count deficit. Imports, with a 27.8 per

ZOOMING DEMAND
Villagers engaged in
MGNREGA work in
Tikri village, Varanasi,
Uttar Pradesh
cent share in the GDP, went up from
Rs 11.6 lakh crore in Q1FY22 to Rs 18
lakh crore in Q1FY23. Government
consumption spend rose only to Rs 7.3
lakh crore in Q1FY23 compared to Rs
6.6 lakh crore in Q1FY22. The cloud
MAGAZINE KING
of global recession and frequent rate
hikes by the US Federal Reserve aren’t
helping matters either.
Until June, FMCG companies had
also been calling out the weak rural de-
mand. Post the June quarter results,
Sanjiv Mehta, MD & CEO of Hindu-
stan Unilever, had told investors, “In
the June quarter, markets have grown
in mid-single digits driven by price
growth. Volumes continued to decline.
Rural growth continues to lag growth
in urban markets. We should also keep
in mind that optically, on an year-on-
year basis, the June quarter looks better
than the March quarter, but that is on
a low base of 2021 where the country
was going through the second wave of
Covid.” The demand environment re-
mained stressed in view of the heavy
inflation, which saw consumers switch
to more affordable, smaller packs of
branded consumer goods, Dabur India
chief executive officer Mohit Malhotra
revealed as the company declared its
Q1 results.
However, in August, following good
rains in July, demand for FMCG prod-
ucts in rural India grew 6.7 per cent in
value over July, according to analysts
“In the June quarter,
markets have grown...
driven by price growth.
Volumes continued to
decline. Rural growth
still lags growth in
urban markets”
SANJIV MEHTA
MD & CEO, Hindustan Unilever
studying firms’ earnings. The finance
ministry is also sensing a rev ival of de-
mand, especially in Tier 2 and 3 cities.
Demat accounts (needed to trade in the
stock markets) topped the 100 million
mark for the first time in August, from
40.9 million in March 2020 before the
pandemic. And a lot of the additions
have come from small-town India, ac-
cording to the finance ministry. The on-
set of the festive season is also expected
to bring cheer and make consumption
more broad-based.
THE ANTIDOTE
Any optimism, though, has to be tem-
pered with a healthy dose of caution.
Diagnosing the shape of the recovery
correctly will be the first step to deter-
mine the nature of interventions.
“Inflation,” says Garg, “is the big-
gest stress point. It adversely affects the
lower strata of people. The rich don’t get
as affected.” India’s retail inflation rose
to 7 per cent in August, breaching the
RBI’s tolerance limit of 6 per cent for
the eighth consecutive month. To rein in
the inflation, the RBI has been steadily
hiking interest rates.
However, for Union finance min-
ister Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s in-
flationary pressure is not a “red-letter
priority”; job creation and equitable
wealth creation are. To reduce the fis-
cal burden on the government and the
states, and free up capital for invest-
ments that could trigger growth and
jobs, a debate is brewing on whether the
free foodgrain scheme that was started
during the pandemic ought to contin-
ue. At the same time, economists find
moves such as hiking export duties on
rice and wheat as counter-productive
as they may further impact farmers’
incomes. They recommend that the
Centre and the states implement other
measures to boost economic activity,
such as rationalising food, health and
education subsidies.
Low demand is also affecting pri-
vate investment, which remains sub-
dued. “MGNREGA should be extended
to the population as a whole, or a cor-
responding scheme implemented in
urban India,” says Srivastava.
MSME associations, meanwhile,
are seeking more support to access
credit. A fur ther streamlining of pa-
perwork could reduce compliance costs
for small businesses. In an effort to in-
crease tax revenues, filing and reporting
requirements for business have seen
a massive increase, which is contrary
to the stated objective of ease of doing
business. The Inspector Raj is still ram-
pant, and while big businesses can hire
an army of compliance experts, such a
recourse hurts the competitiveness of
small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Rationalising petrol prices is an-
other option before the government,
as the excise on petrol remains high.
A boost to sectors such as renewables
can also reduce the country’s energy
dependency. The US, for instance, has
come up with a slew of incentives for
semi-conductors; Congress passed the
CHIPS Act in July 2022 to strengthen
domestic semiconductor manufactur-
ing. India, too, has a semi-conductor
policy, but analysts say it could be fur-
ther incentivised.
The double-digit growth number
for the quarter cannot disguise the
fact that the Indian economy is still
not out of the woods. The next phase
of policies should strive to correct the
inequalities that the pandemic aggra-
vated. Only then will India’s growth
become more meaningful. ■
SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 4 5
 DEFENCE
BATTLE TANKS
LIGHT ON
THEIR
TRACKS
THE HIGH-ALTITUDE STAND-OFF WITH CHINA
HAS FORCED THE INDIAN ARMY TO
RECOGNISE THE NEED FOR LIGHT TANKS. A
NEW PROJECT TO DESIGN AND BUILD
ARMOURED VEHICLES FOR THE HIMALAYAN
FRONTIER IS WAITING FOR THE GO-AHEAD
MAGAZINE KING
By Pradip R. Sagar
A
After the last round of the corps com-
mander-level meeting recently, the
Indian Army and the People’s Libera-
tion Army (PLA) of China have agreed
to pull back (or disengage) from the
Gogra-Hot Springs area, one of the
flashpoints in eastern Ladakh. But real
peace on the icy heights of the Himala-
yas will remain elusive until both sides
agree to de-inducting forces amassed
close to the border to the pre-April
2020 position. The 28-month-long
military standoff has posed multiple
challenges for both sides. For Indian
forces, the experience has been a wake-
4 6 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
up call on the need for some critical
weaponry. At the top of the list are light
tanks, something entirely missing from
India’s inventory, since Indian armour
is meant to operate on the plains. The
Chinese, for their part, have deployed
light tanks designed for high-altitude
operations on their side of the Line
of Actual Control (LAC). The PLA’s
Type 15 ‘Black Panther’ light tank, also
known as ZTQ-15, is a Chinese third-
generation light tank that made its
appearance in Ladakh.
Now, in an effort named Proj-
ect Zorawar, the Indian Army will
remedy this glaring absence, pushing
for the development of indigenous
light tanks for faster deployment and
easy manoeuvrability in high-altitude
areas, and pressing the Union ministry
of defence for faster approval. India,
in fact, has one of the largest stables
of armoured hardware in the world,
with 4,300 tanks and 8,700 armoured
vehicles. However, the army admits
that its heavier tanks, like the Russian-
origin T-72, weighing 45 tonnes, and
the T-90, which weighs around 46 ton-
nes—both of which have been pressed
into service in Ladakh—are not meant
for high-altitude deployment. India’s
main battle tank Arjun is heavier still
and can’t be deployed on the China
border because the 68-tonne monster
is designed to counter the threat from
Pakistan on the deserts or plains.
In the past, the Indian army has
made effective use of light tanks in La-
dakh—Stuart Mark 6 light tanks were
decisive in the battle of Zojila in 1948
and the French-built AMX light tanks
played a dramatic role in restricting
China’s advance in the western sector
in 1962. In later years, however, the
focus shifted entirely to heavy tanks
as tensions on the Himalayan frontier
with China receded for several decades.
Major General Birender Dhanoa
(retired), an armoured corps officer,
says that with increasing clashes with
 HEAVY
DEPLOYMENT
An Indian T90 Bhishma
tank near the LAC in the
Chumar-Demchok area
of Eastern Ladakh

MAGAZINE KING

ANI
DESIRED
CAPABILITIES INDIAN ARMY’S PAST INVENTORY
OF THE LIGHT OF LIGHT TANKS the PLA across the LAC, the Indian
TANK
M3 STUART AMX-13 army realised a light tank would best
COMBAT meet the need to counter the growing
WEIGHT Chinese threat and have an effective
< 25 TONS fighting platform of its own. But the
current world inventory for light tanks
POWER TO PT-76 is very limited. Worse, the available op-
WEIGHT RATIO tions are not optimal for high altitudes.
>25HP/TON Dhanoa points out that from the
1960s till the mid-1980s, India did
MOBILITY
have light tanks such as the AMX-13
AMPHIBIOUS and PT-76 in its arsenal. But an ageing
(FOR MARSHY
light tank fleet, a fixation with the
TERRAIN)
TANK FLEET OF THE INDIAN ARMY threat from the West and a desire to
ARMAMENT modernise as well as reduce/ do away
T 90M (BHISHMA) T-72 (AJEYA)
MAIN GUN < with holdings of old equipment saw
Main Battle the Indian armour in the late 1980s
105MM AND
Tank (MBT) and 1990s focus on only a few medium
MISSILE
FIRING tanks such as the Vijayanta, T-55
and T-72. The army favoured main
battle tanks (MBTs) while focusing
on the plains of Punjab and deserts of
Rajasthan as the theatres of decision
DRDO ARJUN
(LION)
in future wars. In the mid-1980s, the
Defence Research and Development
Main Battle
Tank (MBT)
SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 47
 DEFENCE
BATTLE TANKS
Organisation (DRDO) did experiment,
replacing the turret of the Soviet-desi-
gned BMP infantry combat vehicle
(ICV) with a 105mm gun but, with the
army indifferent to it, the project was
eventually terminated in 1994. The
DRDO designed another light tank
based on the same licence-built ICV
chassis, by mounting it with a French
GIAT TS-90 turret and a 105mm
gun. Firing and stability trials were
conducted, but once again, the army’s
disinterest saw the project being
shelved. An aluminium alloy light tank
was also designed by the DRDO but
met the same fate as the army doctrine
was focused on heavier tanks. The light
tank programme of the Indian Army
was finally shelved in 2009.
Military analysts point out that it
wasn’t just the Indian army that was
myopic in its vision for light tanks. The
world over, light tanks were largely
ignored for several decades. It was
MAGAZINE KING
only later that the wars in Chechnya,
the Gulf and Syria proved that MBTs
required the support of lighter tanks.
Light tank programmes were thus
hastily revived. In some cases, they
went back to the drawing board; in
others, existing platforms were revived
or modified to meet the need. In the
US too, the Mobile Protected Fire-
power (MPF) programme recently
placed an order for nearly a hundred
new GDLS Griffin II light tanks.
n India, the wheel came full
I circle, according to military
observers, when the PLA first
deployed its Type 15 light tank,
weighing 35 tonnes, on the
border with Ladakh and Arunachal
Pradesh in 2018, shifting the balance
of power in China’s favour in such
tactical high altitude battlefields.
“China was secretly developing it, and
the world only came to know about it
in 2018,” says a defence scientist. An
export variant of this tank called VT5
has been sold to Bangladesh.
“Voices within the armour comm-
unity who were vocal for a light tank
and who had been kept in the backgro-
48 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
und now came to the fore,” as Maj.
Gen. Dhanoa puts it. To address the
army’s dire need at the earliest, a twin
approach consisting of purchasing
light tanks from a reliable strategic
partner (read Russia) and fast-track-
ing domestic procurement is being
pursued. If the domestic light tank
programme gets inordinately delayed,
the army may acquire the newly devel-
oped Sprut SD Russian tank under the
emergency procurement route.
But the army’s requirement along
the 3,400km-long LAC, the de facto
border with China, will amount to
some 350 light amphibious tanks.
Since the government has listed light
tanks under the negative list for imp-
THE UKRAINE WAR HAS EXPOSED THE
VULNERABILITIES OF CONVENTIONAL
TANKS. THE PROPOSED 25-TONNE TANKS
WILL NEED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE,
INTEGRATION WITH TACTICAL DRONES AND
AN ANTI-TANK ACTIVE PROTECTION SYSTEM
ort, the defence ministry was left with
no option but to rely on Indian ind-
ustry. The government has finalised
the making of the light tank under the
Make-I or the “government-funded”
project category.
The urgency of the matter is shown
by the fact that army headquarters
has finalised its general staff quality
requirements (specifications) and is
now awaiting the acceptance of neces-
sity (AoN)—the first step that will set
the project rolling—from the defence
ministry. The target development veh-
icle should be a special purpose tank
weighing less than 22/23 tonnes with
a low profile, and high gun angles for
the mountainous terrain and a capac-
ity to operate in low temperature, low
oxygen conditions. Given the vulner-
abilities of conventional tanks that
have been so conspicuously exposed
in the war in Ukraine, the prospective
25-tonne tanks will need to be armed
with Artificial Intelligence (AI), and
an active protection system as a guard
against anti-tank guided missiles.
They will also have to be integrated
with tactical surveillance drones to
provide situational awareness, as well
as with loitering munitions (missiles
that stay airborne for some time, iden-
tify a target, and then strike it).
The army headquarters initiated
the project in April 2021 by issuing a
Request for Information (RfI). Since
then, scientists of DRDO’s Combat
Vehicles Research & Development Est-
ablishment in Avadi (a town close to
Chennai), along with Larsen & Toubro
(L&T) have set to work in earnest on
the design. “The project is working fine
and we expect to complete the design
by early next year. Development is hap-
pening as per the army’s requirements.
Once approved, production will take
place at L&T’s Hazira plant in Surat,”
says a defence official, who did not
elaborate more on the project, citing its
“classified” nature.
The army’s renewed attention
towards light tanks has brought hope
among other private players such as
Tata, Mahindra and Bharat Forge, as
they are keen to be part of the project.
However, the entry of more play-
ers could also delay the programme.
Some believe that after signing of the
contract (after prototype development
and field trials) with a private firm in
the next three years, the first light tank
will not be rolled out before 2030. Will
the high-altitude borders be quiet in
the intervening years? „
 Tra vel Plus
SEPTEMBER 2022

QUARTERLY
AUTUMN SPECIAL

Call of
the Wild
10
SURPRISING
WILDLIFE GETAWAYS
BEST JUNGLE LODGES

MAGAZINE KING

THE GREAT
A Tusker Dusts Itself INDIAN
at Kabini Forest TEMPLE TOUR
Reserve, Karnataka

SHUTTERSTOCK
 Tra ve l Plus September 2022 Shortcut s
QUARTERLY

for autumn), places like Shalimar and Naseem

Bagh are all carpeted with brown leaves that
crunch and crackle under one’s feet.

I
f Srinagar is all about the brown, Shillong
is all about the pink. Cherry trees that
were planted in the city in the mid-1970s
are now one of its prime attractions. While
social media is often awash with pictures of

Watching couples and tourists posing against the blazing

pink trees, authorities attempt a more formal

Autumn celebration with the annual Shillong Cherry

SHUTTERSTOCK

Blossom Festival. Though the main festival

will take place from November 24-26, prelimi-
Leaves Fall nary events kick off on October 15.

S
ince summer gives way to win-
ter in our cities almost without
warning, not many Indians,
sadly, are familiar with the joys of
and November. Beyond the kahwa
and shikaras, Srinagar offers you the
rare sight of chinar trees shedding
autumnal leaves. The chinar was

autumn. If, however, you wanted
those seasons of extreme hot and
cold to have a hyphen, simply head
to Kashmir between late September
SHUTTERSTOCK
introduced to Kashmir by the Mu-
ghals, and it is, in many ways, the cy-
nosure of Srinagar’s iconic gardens.
During ‘Harud’ (the Kashmiri name

MAGAZINEKeeping
FROM COVER TO COVER
KING it Simple
New travel literature to pack along with your bags
Last year, the town of Vythiri in Kerala’s Way-
anad district became India’s first fully vacci-
nated tourism destination. Known for its forests,
spice plantations, and tribal communities, the
town again made news this July when Mahindra
Group chairman Anand Mahindra posted a
video about it with the caption, “Kudos to Kerala
Tourism for this concept. The pristine architec-
tural design of the village is stunning. Show-
BETWEEN HEAVEN THREE CENTURIES OF TOURISTS:
cases how ‘simplicity’ can be stunning.” He was
AND EARTH: TRAVEL WRITING BY How the British
Writings on the MUSLIM WOMEN Went Abroad to referring to the ‘En Uru’ tribal heritage hamlet
Indian Hills by Siobhan Find Themselves project, which offers authentic tribal food and
by Ruskin Bond Lambert-Hurley, Daniel by Lucy Lethbridge the chance to shop in a tribal market.
and Bulbul Sharma Majchrowicz, and Sunil Bloomsbury
(editors) Sharma (editors) `799; 362 pages
Speaking Tiger Indiana University Press
`699; 432 pages `6,154; 534 pages

Ruskin Bond lives This travel writing Not all Britons

in Mussoorie, while collection by Muslim travelled abroad to
Bulbul Sharma women from past colonise countries.
spends some of centuries is a treat to In this thorough
her time in Shaya, read. It also shows exploration of
a Himachali village. us that one does British tourism, Lucy
Together, they bring not need wealth Lethbridge shows
to this anthology their or the entitlement how travel can both
honed knowledge of masculinity to destroy and preserve
about India’s hills. explore the world. traditional cultures.

SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 51

Tra ve l Plus September 2022 Shortcut s
QUARTERLY

Travelling for a Tune

UPCOMING MUSIC FESTIVALS
YOU SHOULD ADD TO YOUR ITINERARIES

JODHPUR RIFF,
RAJASTHAN
Being held from October
6-10, Jodhpur RIFF will,
as usual, spoil audiences

KAVI BHANSALI
for choice—more than 250
musicians are expected
to perform this year—but
it is, finally, the setting of
this festival that proves
breathtaking. It is often always a treat to see and hear folk music
being performed at the Mehrangarh Fort, especially on nights the
moon is bright and full. This year, the air in Jodhpur will not just be
ringing with Manganiyar, Malwi and Khasi sounds, but also with
fusions of Hebrew and Arabic music.

MAHINDRA KABIRA FESTIVAL,

VARANASI, UTTAR PRADESH
You could, of course, visit Banaras at
any time of year and find yourself feeling

MAGAZINE KING
staggered. But it’s in November that the
weather seems kinder and the city’s
cultural calendar appears fuller. Held
on the ghats of Banaras and scheduled
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to take place from November 18-20, the

Mahindra Kabira Festival pays tribute to
the mystic poet Kabir through music and
art. This year’s stellar line-up includes
performances by Fouzia Dastango,
sarod maestro Pandit Vikash Maharaj

Starry, and The Raghu Dixit Project.

Starry Nights ZIRO MUSIC FESTIVAL, ARUNACHAL PRADESH

After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the Ziro Music Festival will again
Earlier this month, Jitendra Singh gave take place from September 29 to October 2 this year. The line-up
India’s stargazers reason to rejoice. includes veterans like Baba Sehgal and Rabbi Shergill, pop and rock
The science and technology minister acts such as Easy Wanderlings and Motherjane. But if, for some
announced that India will be getting reason, the music doesn’t lift your spirits, the Ziro Valley has enough
its first Dark Sky Reserve at Hanle in lush paddy fields, gurgling rivers and views of the Himalayan range
Ladakh. Located in the Changthang that are sure to do the trick. The valley is also home to the Apatani
Wildlife Sanctuary, the new optical, tribe, the ever-welcoming hosts of this festival.
infra-red, and gamma-ray telescopes
that will soon be added here will be in
league with the world’s highest. Chosen
for its clear starry nights and spotless
nocturnal environment, Hanle is ideally
suited for watching stars—its desert
surroundings keep it free of human
disturbance and pollution. Locals hope
new visitors will not disturb their peace.
SHIV AHUJA

52 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2

Rampur Raza
Library, a.k.a.
‘kitabkhana’
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EAT, READ, LOVE
In Rampur, everything from the Raza Library to the
shop selling jalebis has aged gracefully
By AMIT DIXIT
MAGAZINE KING
I
f you watch a certain vintage of
Bollywood film, chances are you
would have heard of the Ram-
puri chaaku. Perhaps, you’ve crossed
paths with a Rampuri kabab at a
culinary pop-up, or you might even be
a cynophile given to slavering over the
Rampur greyhound.
That said, it is likelier you’re still
waiting to discover the delights of this
former princely state, lying 200 km
east of Delhi, just beyond Moradabad.
The state of Rampur was formed in
1774 by Nawab Faizullah Khan, a Ro-
hilla Pathan, under British protection.
The Nawab wanted to name the city
he was founding Faizabad, after him-
self. However, since there were many
other places known by that name, he
had to content himself with Musta-
fabad. Sadly, for the Nawab, it’s really
the name Rampur that has stuck.
The first Nawab left an impressive
architectural legacy behind. He built
the Rampur Fort and the sprawling
Imambara within it, as well as a grand
mosque, the Jama Masjid. He was also
a great patron of scholarship, and be-
Getaway
RAMPUR
gan collecting manuscripts in Arabic,
Persian, Turkish and Urdu. These now
make up the bulk of the collection at
the Rampur Raza Library. Managed
by the government, the ‘kitabkhana’
as it is called, lies inside the fort and
houses an impressive repository of
Indo-Islamic cultural heritage, with
more than 12,000 rare manuscripts
and a fine collection of Mughal min-
iatures. Inside the library complex lies
the 1905-built Durbar Hall, or Hamid
Manzil, which also houses a museum.
Rampur has a few other sights—
Gandhi Samadhi, Mumtaz Park and
Ambedkar Park among them. While
the legendary cuisine of the Nawabs
of Rampur, cooked in clay pots, may
be a rarity these days—the taar gosht
korma (mutton slow-cooked in a
rich marrow gravy) is said to be the
signature dish of the royal kitchen
of Rampur, while unusual desserts
like subz meetha and adrak ka halwa
inspire more adulation than raised
eyebrows—you can still have jalebi
from a 150-year-old shop or a metre-
long seekh kabab in Rampur. ■
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BADRINATH TEMPLE,
BADRINATH, UTTARAKHAND
Though the “Jai Badri Vishala (Victory to
the Great and Wide Badri)!” chant echoes
often in Badrinath, the pilgrims’ fervour
reflects, apart from
religiosity, a sense WHAT ELSE TO DO
of achievement, too. Badrinath is a stone’s
The shrine is nestled throw from Mana,
on a ledge between one of the closest
two mountains. At Indian villages to the
an altitude of 10,200 Indo-Tibet border.
The picturesque
feet, perched on a

MAGAZINE KING rocky slope over the

Alaknanda River,
it isn’t the easiest
temple to visit.
Vasudhara Falls
and Satopanth Lake
are also only short
treks away.

Besides jeeps and

buses, many now also opt for helicopters.
The area is often inundated with snow and
is sometimes accessible for only six months
(May-November). To see the 3.3-ft black
stone Badrinarayan idol—Vishnu here is seen
meditating, not reclining—go in October to
avoid crowds and inclement weather.

THE PILGRIM’S
PROGRESS
In India, travel often becomes a pilgrimage. As places of
worship are added to itineraries, they become the
destinations believers most cherish. Here are 10
temples you must visit in this last quarter of 2022
By SHREEVATSA NEVATIA
SHUTTERSTOCK

54 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
 Temple Tourism

LINGARAJ TEMPLE,
BHUBANESWAR, ODISHA
Tasked with destruction and preservation,
respectively, Shiva and Vishnu often inhabit very
different worlds. But several Hindu texts hint at
a bonhomie between them.
WHAT ELSE TO DO
A manifestation of that can
There are other
be found at Bhubaneshwar’s
temples in
Lingaraj Temple. Here, Bhubaneswar that
the lingam is worshipped demand a visit—

CHANDRADEEP KUMAR
as Hari-Hara (while Hari Parasurameswar
means Vishnu, Hara is one and Mukteswar,
of Shiva’s earliest names). for instance—but
Though constructed dur- the Udaygiri and
ing the 11th century, the Khandagiri caves can
temple’s building is believed boast of yet more
to have started in the sixth antiquity.
BANKEY BIHARI TEMPLE, century itself.
VRINDAVAN, UTTAR PRADESH
In order to relish India’s sacred geography, one must
perhaps try and find joy in folklore before looking for
logic. The story of Tansen’s guru, Swami Haridas, is a
case in point. Surrounded by devotees in Vrindavan,
the poet-musician was once sing-
WHAT ELSE TO DO

home to several MAGAZINE KING

While Vrindavan is

beautiful temples—
ing a couplet in praise of Radha and
Krishna. Impressed by his fervour,
the couple is said to have appeared in
front of him and granted him a boon.
the Krishna Balram Haridas said he wanted to see them
Mandir, the Goswami as one. The divine bodies merged to
temples—Mathura create the black idol of Bankey Bihari.
and its sumptuous Rituals at this temple are both odd
street food is only a
and endearing. The brilliant eyes of
half-hour drive away.
Bankey Bihari, it is believed, can leave
his devotees unconscious, so the cur-
tain before him is open and shut intermittently. You
ALAMY

won’t hear temple bells in the morning as priests think

it rude to wake up their boyish god with a start.

CHINTAMANI TEMPLE, Kapila and peace is again restored in WHAT ELSE TO DO

THEUR, MAHARASHTRA
If Hindu mythology is anything to
go by, Shiva’s largesse often lands the
world in a spot of trouble. When, for
instance, the god grants Gana king-
ship of the three worlds, the warrior-
king becomes so drunk on power
that he steals from the sage Kapila
his wish-granting jewel, Chintamani.
Only after a violent intervention by
Ganesha is the jewel returned to
the world. So impressed was Ganesha Only 25 km from
by Kapila’s devotion that it is believed Pune, a visit to the
he stayed on with him in Theur. Chintamani Temple
Even though the site at which the also leaves one with
Chintamani Temple was built has been a chance to visit
considered holy for centuries, it was the several other travel
Peshwa rulers of the 18th century who attractions—the
renovated the shrine, making it one of Aga Khan Palace,
the largest Ashtavinayaka temples. The Raja Dinkar Kelkar
eyes of Ganesha’s sindur-smeared idol Museum, etc.
have been studded with jewels.
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SUN TEMPLE,
MODHERA, GUJARAT

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After Chalukya ruler
Bhima I’s troops with-
stood an attack by
Mahmud of Ghazni dur-
ing 1024-1025, their king
is said to have commis- BAIJNATH TEMPLE,
sioned this temple. It has
BAIJNATH, HIMACHAL PRADESH

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been plundered over the
years—the golden idol of The faithful often turn to dei-
the Sun God is no longer ties for consolation in times of
found in the garbha disease and illness. Himachal
griha—but the intricate Pradesh’s Baijnath Temple was
erotic and mythologi- shaped like a stepwell, is WHAT ELSE TO DO built to shore up the health of
cal carvings make the meant to signify the union The Rani Ki Vav stepwell Shiva’s devotees. Here ‘the God
place unmissable. While of fire and water. Among in nearby Patan is of Destruction’ is worshipped
the Sabha Mandap here sun temples, Konark and architecturally brilliant as ‘Vaidyanath’, the Lord of
stands on 52 pillars, sig- Kashmir’s Martand grab all and a Unesco heritage Physicians. Devotees believe even
nifying the 52 weeks in headlines, but it’s at Modhera site since 2014. the water here can cure their
a year, the Surya Kunda, that one truly sees the light. anguish. While some believe the
lingam here is one of the original
12 jyotirlingas, the claim is often
contested. The temple was built
SUBRAMANIYA SWAMY TEMPLE,
by two merchants, Ahuka and
TIRUCHENDUR, TAMIL NADU

MAGAZINE KING Also known as ‘Skanda’, Murugan,

Shiva’s son, is said to have used his
mighty spear to defeat the neth-
Manyuka, in 1204, and every-
thing from its doorways and
walls to its sanctum and porch
has been carved to depict Shiva’s
erworld’s forces at Tiruchendur. beneficence and his significance
Believed to be one of Murugan’s six in Hindu mythology.
abodes, Tiruchendur sits by the Bay
of Bengal, and the Subramaniya WHAT ELSE TO DO
WHAT ELSE TO DO
Swamy Temple itself has been built Just 28 km from Baijnath is Billing,
The Subramaniya Swamy Kovil Beach is ideal
by its shores. Its 157-ft gopuram is a paragliding and aerosports site
for some rest and relaxation, but if you want
arresting. After bathing in the ocean, that is considered one of the best
to add some sightseeing to your
pilgrims often cleanse themselves in in the world. Palampur and its tea
trip, do visit the Panchalankurichi
the Naazhi Kinaru, a sacred well at gardens are also only 16 km away.
Fort and Valli’s Cave.
the south of the temple complex.

WHAT ELSE TO DO MAHAMAYA TEMPLE,

Ruins of the RATANPUR, CHHATTISGARH
ancient 11th-
century Kadeideol With lush hills around
Shiva temple can and close to 150 ponds,
be found on a the Ratanpur town (a 25
nearby hill, while km drive from Bilaspur)
the Achanakmar is conspicuously verdant.
Wildlife Sanctuary, However, the bulk of visi-
declared a Tiger tors often come here not
Reserve in 2009, for nature, but hoping for
is a 10-km drive a glimpse of Mahamaya
away. Devi, a manifestation of
the Durga as Mahishasur
Mardini, the Slayer of Ma-
hishasur. The nine days
of Navratri see several
pilgrims make a beeline
for the temple’s sanctum
and mandapa, usually
on empty stomachs. King
Ratnadeva is said to have
laid the foundation of this
shrine in the 12th century
after goddess Kali pur-
portedly appeared to him
in a divine vision.
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OMKARESHWAR TEMPLE,
KHANDWA, MADHYA PRADESH
When Brahma and Shiva once began to debate who amongst
them was supreme, Shiva, it is said, settled the dispute by making
himself manifest as a jyotirlinga (pillar of light) that had no be-
ginning and no end. At all the 12 sites
that he had penetrated, temples were WHAT ELSE TO DO
built to remind devotees of his eternal Situated in the
and primordial form. Located in Satpura Range, 69
Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district, km from Khandwa,
Omkareshwar is one such shrine. the Asirgarh Fort is
Believed to have been built in a perfect example
1063 by the king Udayaditya, Omk- of how several
areshwar is said to have been given architectural styles—
a facelift in 1195 when Raja Bharat Persian, Turkish,
Singh Chauhan saw that a palace was et al—can blend to
constructed next door. The 60 brown become truly Indian.
stone pillars in the temple are all 14-ft
high, each elaborately carved. Many
smaller shrines in the five-storeyed complex—dedicated to Gauri,
Annapurna, etc.—offer great views of the Narmada.
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MAGAZINE KING
KODANDARAMA TEMPLE,
VONTIMITTA, ANDHRA PRADESH
Even though this grand temple was built during the
16th century reign of the Cholas, the credit for its con-
struction goes to thieves, not kings. Legend has it that
two burglars, Vontudu and Mittudu, were suddenly so
overcome by their devotion for Lord Rama that they
decided to build a temple for
WHAT ELSE TO DO him. Seeing the grandeur and
Located 25 km from magnificence of the deity’s
the temple, the city form, they are said to have
of Kadapa is home to turned into stone
several churches—St themselves.
Mary’s Cathedral, The Vijayanagara
in particular, stands
architectural style is re-
out—and the much-
flected in the temple’s three
revered Ameen Peer
gopurams, the 32 pillars of
or ‘Pedda’ Dargah.
its mandapam and also its
garbha griha (sanctum sanc-
torum). The figures of Rama, Sita and Lakshman
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you see here have all been carved from a single piece
of rock. Unlike other Rama temples, one doesn’t find
Hanuman bent at the feet of his Lord. The monkey-
god has been given his own shrine.

5 8 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
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ARUNACHAL
ROLLING
THROUGH
THE HILLS
Generous hosts, scrumptious food, a rich heritage
and dreamy hilltops—a 12-day drive through
Arunachal Pradesh lays out all that makes the
simple, free-hearted northeastern state one of
the most delightful travel destinations in India

By MITALI SARAN

MAGAZINE KING

62 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
 Road Trip
ARUNACHAL PRADESH

A
A bit of westernmost Arunachal Pradesh pokes
out between Tibet and Bhutan, like a small nose.
Near its tip is Zemithang village, in the Pan-
gchen Valley. Think of a wide meadow beside
the restless, hazel Nyamjang Chu river. We have
driven about 90 km from Tawang over moun-
tain roads—stopping for tea at the beautiful
Sangetsar Lake with its prayer flags and golden

MAGAZINE KING ducks, and negotiating a 66 hairpin-bend de-

scent—to this meadow. The village has laid out
a lunch banquet, including the best pork I have
ever had. I hope they fed the same dish to the
Dalai Lama in 1958, when he stopped here to
rest during his escape into lifelong exile.
The sun is sharp at 8,000 ft, but the air is
fresh, the beverages are cool, and the food is
insanely good. Apple-cheeked children peek
at us from behind the knees of the village dig-
nitaries. A snooze on the grass would be nice,
or an excursion to the allegedly aphrodisiac
lake Chamling Tso, on the Chinese border. But
our ‘Trans-Arunachal Drive 2022’ convoy is
expected back in Tawang at dot o’clock, to be
flagged in by the dot o’clock-loving chief minis-
ter. The ceremony will mark the end of an epic
2,400 km road trip that began in the furthest
east of the state, two weeks ago, and which
ends here in the furthest west.
The convoy is incomplete. As many as 30
burly Mahindra 4x4s wait, stamping and
snorting at the foot of the mountain. “How the
f*** does someone lose their keys over lunch!”
snaps the radio. Only a fool would, in Deepest
Remotesville. It takes 10 minutes of panicked
scrabbling for me to finally find them. I catch
up with the convoy at the 13th-century Gorsam
A mesmerising
sunrise over Chorten nearby, its ancient painted eyes giving
Tawang

GETT Y IMAGES SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 6 3

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QUARTERLY

me the ancient painted side eye.

The 100 ft-tall Chorten, about the same
height as a modern 10-storey building,
is quiet and unexpected, sitting like lost
luggage in the middle of the woods. But
it draws thousands of visitors during the
yearly Gorzam Kora festival. It is said that
Monpa monk Lama Pradhar carved in
a radish a model of the Boudha Stupa in
Kathmandu, and replicated the stupa in
Zemithang to banish bad luck.
The Monpas, culturally and ethni-
cally close to Tibet, are one of Arunachal
Pradesh’s 26 main tribes; there are over 100
sub-tribes. The people of this state—the
northernmost and easternmost of India’s
northeastern states—are tucked into fold
upon fold of densely-forested mountains
and great river valleys, ranging from tropical
plains to heights that will freeze one’s face
off. No wonder the tribes are so diverse,
each with its own attire, dialect, dance, and

MAGAZINE KING
REYOM ETE’S FAMILY
COOKS US A FULL DINNER
FROM SCRATCH—CHICKEN,
GREEN LEAFY VEGETABLES,
MOUNTAINS OF RICE,
BEER AND MORE APONG.
ARUNACHALIS SEEM TO
FIND THE SIGHT OF AN EMPTY GETTY IMAGES

GLASS IN A GUEST’S HAND With world-class high-

INTOLERABLE ways and blacktop, the
roads in Arunachal can
put many of Delhi’s
to shame

opinions about other tribes. But they all open

their hearts to visitors.
Rewind nine days and 1,370 km to West
Siang district, the middle of the state (I’ve
joined the convoy four days in, missing
Rima and Miao villages. However, I was
also on the first Trans-Arunachal Drive in
2021, and so, I have seen other places in the
east, including Dong, where the rising sun
first strikes Indian territory).
The people of Kambu village take us
into their thatched homes, only recently
connected to the world via a steel footbridge
over the Siyom river. Imagine twilight on

6 4 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2

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Mechuka Guests are rich green hills and black soil, as we
is slowly warmly hike a kilometre up from the bridge.
becoming a welcomed by
popular travel locals all over Men and women in their Galo finery
destination in the state regale us with a welcome dance, then
Arunachal
an energetic cultural programme at the
community centre at the top of the hill,
as we endlessly refill our bamboo stalk
cups with apong, the local wine. We
stagger back down to the houses with
our respective hosts, assisted by our
cellphone flashlights and headlamps.
AN EVENING WITH REYOM ETE
The heart of Reyom Ete’s house is the
large, busy kitchen-cum-living-cum-
dining room. Meat dries on great iron
meshes hanging above two open fires.
The family cooks us a full dinner from
scratch—a chicken, green leafy vegeta-
bles, mountains of rice, beer and more
apong. Arunachalis seem to find the
sight of an empty glass in a guest’s hand
intolerable. An old gentleman totters
in and settles by the fire, keeping up a
Road Trip
ARUNACHAL PRADESH
Photographs by ARUNACHAL TOURISM
lively monologue. “He’s our neighbour,”
explains Reyom. Does he come over of-
ten? “Every day,” says Reyom, his smile
briefly tighter. I listen to the affaires de
coeur of his teenage son and laugh and
drink with the ladies till late. Many
Arunachalis speak Hindi or English,
or both, which allows communication
not just with outsiders but also between
tribes who share no common dialect.
In the morning, with a copper dawn
shining off rice fields and gilding the
hills, we get a full fresh-cooked break-
fast of vegetables, rice and tea. Reyom
gifts us each a ‘hurgen’, a ceremonial
metal bell used in weddings, made by
the much-respected local blacksmith.
I look back from the bridge, wishing
we could stay longer. Much of the road
quality in Arunachal Pradesh puts
Delhi to shame, with world-class high-
ways and blacktop that makes driving
an absolute joy—especially in the west-
ern part of the state. The road from
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Kambu to Mechuka, in the east, is one of

the rougher bits. Mechuka was once so cut
off that getting there meant a helicopter
ride or a week’s walk. Any road—even a
bad one—is a win. We climb mist-laced
mountains bursting with bloom, breeze
and birdsong and arrive in Mechuka for
lunch, at dinnertime. Everyone has waited
five hours in the rain. But instead of be-
ing irked, they welcome us with chhang,
At the Bomjir Camp
dance, and a hot dinner. in Dambuk

MECHUKA’S MEADOWS
Morning shows us a spotless town at 6,000
ft on the banks of the Yargyap Chu river
(the Siyom), cradled in a bowl of hills. The
name ‘Mechuka’, or ‘Menchuka’, means
something like ‘medicinal’ melt-water. We
are a few dozen kilometres from the Indo-
Chinese border again, and there’s no phone
connectivity (though BSNL has a bar or
two)—and that’s okay, because your phone
is best used to take photos.
Wild horses graze in Mechuka’s mead-

MAGAZINE KING
ows, the wind gusts around prayer flags;
low, swollen clouds currently hide the
snowcaps. Our generous homestay host,
Gebu, from the Memba tribe, is driving us
around, and time is short. I must choose
between the 400-year-old Samten Yongcha
monastery, important enough for the Dalai
Lama to visit, or the region’s longest zip-
line. It’s a no-brainer: I’ve never zip-lined.
It’s 800-m long, right across the river, with
a bird’s eye view of the valley. Wheeee!
Mechuka is a strategic area. We are
invited to dinner with the 13 Grenadiers.
The army doesn’t flinch from courtesy and
ceremony, even if rain is bucketing into the
rum. We meet men and women who serve
far from home with fortitude and smiles; I
chat with an officer from Jharkhand who
has a degree in Spanish. Somehow, this
incongruity feels right.
There’s a lot to see and do around
Mechuka, including religious things—
monasteries, a gurdwara built near a cave
where Guru Nanak (or Guru Rimpoche
Padmasambhava, depending on who you
ask) apparently meditated, and a natural
rock face that looks like Hanuman if you
squint. Many houses fly the flag of the
widespread Donyi Polo religion (literally The 2,400-km route for the Trans-Arunachal
‘Sun Moon’). The burgeoning Rashtriya Drive covers 16 districts

66 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
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Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Arunachal
Pradesh predictably feels that indigenous,
animist Donyi Polo is just another strand
of Hinduism, and the state government is
pushing Hindu religious tourism. I worry
about cow belt politics muscling in on this
state’s gender-equal, bovine-eating identi-
ty, and hope that tourism can be balanced
with all that makes Arunachal beautiful.
Overnight rain in Pasighat falls on
my cottage at Oken Tayeng’s wonderful
The 80-ft statue of Jetsun
Dolma, or Tara Devi, at
Lumla (45 km from Tawang)
overlooking Tibet
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Aborcountry River Camp resort on the
banks of Siang river, whose wild beauty
I saw on a rafting expedition four years
ago. The morning is clear, and the road to
Pakke-Kesang is a joy. Last year’s halt at
Pakke-Kesang was magical—a circle of
tents under popping stars, in a large green
surrounded by hills—but at the new Four
Sisters Resort right on the road, run by a
Nyishi man in traditional hornbill head-
gear, I do appreciate an actual bathroom.
It should be seven hours to Dirang
village, but a landslide has deposited a
tree across the road. We have a misty,
drizzly coffee break while the bulldozers
work, and we’re off again. Arunachal is
generally gorgeous, but around Rupa
68 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
and Shergaon it’s especially gorgeous,
with yellows and reds and lacy streams
whipped about by rain and breeze. The
Sherdukpen people of the region claim
both Tibetan and Assamese heritage,
and cultivate fruit.
A PARTY IN DIRANG
Dirang is a party—literally a party, at
the home of trip boss Lhakpa Tsering.
First, a cultural welcome—a short taste
ARUNACHAL IS
BRILLIANT. ITS PEOPLE
ARE KIND. IT’S SAFE
FOR SOLO TRAVELLERS,
INCLUDING WOMEN.
ENJOY IT—DON’T
DESPOIL IT, OR ABUSE
ITS HOSPITALITY, OR
TRY TO TURN IT INTO
SOMETHING YOU’RE
USED TO
of an all-night Ramayana story,
performed by masked, whirl-
ing dancers—and thereafter, it’s
all karaoke and dance, because
Arunachalis love a good piss-up
with music. I have two face-
numbing sips of the house ara
offered by Lhakpa’s wife, and
discreetly abandon the tumbler.
But she sees my empty hands and
gives me another. I go in search
of something gentler, like neat
whisky, or rocket fuel.
I unexpectedly survive this
event, and live to drive the foggy
road up, up to the 13,700-ft Sela
Pass; we burst into the sun and
find ourselves looking down on
a duvet of clouds, like a bunch
of slightly hungover angels. Last
year, the pass was snowy, the Sela
Lake frozen; now it’s all bright
wildflowers and clear water, but
the wind still means business.
We descend into Tawang district
and stop at the spectacular Jang
Falls, a.k.a. Nuranang Falls—a
big, bouncy, crashing thing with
rainbows dancing in its mists.
The light is fading in Tawang
town when we put our bags
down in the guesthouse of the
400-year-old Gaden Namgyal
Lhatse monastery, or simply
‘Tawang monastery’. Don’t miss
that or the 1962 War Memorial
commemorating those who died
fighting the Chinese. Last year, I
saw the battlefield at Walong, on
the other end of the state, where
so many others died in 1962. It’s
ironic that Arunachalis, often tar-
gets of xenophobic comments by
fellow Indians, are a particularly
patriotic lot.
Between my two trans-
Arunachal Drives, I can tell you
that Arunachal is brilliant. Its
people are interesting and kind.
It’s a world biodiversity heritage
site. It’s safe for solo travellers,
including women. Go and enjoy
it—don’t despoil it, or abuse its
hospitality, or try to turn it into
something you’re used to. „

DESERT DELIGHTS
Don’t believe the postcards. If you really want to
explore Jaisalmer, ditch the camel for a jeep
By AMIT DIXIT
H
ome to the second-oldest fort
in Rajasthan, Jaisalmer was
founded in 1156 by Rawal
MAGAZINE KING
Jaisal. It once stood at the crossroads
of important trade routes, including
the Silk Road. In 2013, this ‘living
fort’ was declared a UNESCO World
Heritage Site, grouped under the ‘Hill
Forts of Rajasthan’. About 40 km from
the golden fort lie the shimmering
sand dunes of Sam, at the edge of the
Thar Desert. This is a different sort
of crossroads—where excitement and
adventure intersect.
There’s no better way to explore the
desert than on a 4X4 jeep safari. It is
thrilling and more efficient than being
on a camel’s back. Apart from a healthy
SHUTTERSTOCK
(Top) An aerial view of the Jaisalmer Fort;
(bottom) a desert jeep safari vehicle
Getaway
JAISALMER
GETTY IMAGES
dose of off-roading and dune bashing,
the safari also takes you to villages lying
deep in the barren grandeur of the Thar,
where you can interact with locals,
observe life and even have a rustic meal
rustled up for you.
On longer jeep safaris, a spin around
the Desert National Park is added on.
Spanning an area of over 3,100 square
kilometres, this is one of India’s largest
national parks (you’re not covering it all,
but a jeep safari does allow you to cover
large swathes). Home to the endangered
Great Indian Bustard, you might also
sight chinkara and desert foxes, besides
an array of birds like partridges, eagles,
falcons, kestrels and, in winter, demoi-
selle cranes and houbara bustards.
If you choose to spend the night un-
der a sparkling desert sky, accompanied
by Rajasthani folk dance performances
and unabashedly Rajasthani food, you
are sure to have the makings of a magi-
cal trip. Both sunset and sunrise safaris
are on offer, and you can repeat it all at
Khuri sand dunes.
Another not-to-be-missed pit stop
on your jeep safari is the Gadisar Lake.
Built by the aforementioned Rawal
Jaisal, it was rebuilt by Gadsi Singh
in 1367. The artificial lake, just 1.5 km
outside the fort, is lined with exquisite
cenotaphs and Hindu shrines. „
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 Tra ve l Plus September 2022
QUARTERLY

ALAMY

Keoladeo Ghana, Rajasthan, is home to

a rich fauna, including 380 avian species

Keoladeo Ghana National

Park, Rajasthan
Just a couple hundred kilometres

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from Delhi is a birding bastion that
has attracted passionate twitch-
ers from over the world. Keoladeo
Ghana, notified as a national park in
1982 and inscribed as Unesco World
Heritage Site three years later, is home
to close to 380 resident and migratory
avian species, including its illustrious
resident sarus crane, which can grow
up to six feet high (until the 1990s,
Siberian cranes were regular visitors
here), painted storks, nightjars, and
grey-billed tufted ducks. It is com-
monly accepted that birdwatching
demands patience on an uncondi-
tional basis sometimes, but that’s
hardly true here, with even rick-
shaw pullers operating within
the park precincts proving to be
decent guides.
WATCH OUT FOR
Large groups of painted
storks perched upon trees, They span just a percent and a half of India’s landmass,
entirely indifferent to or but national parks are home to its most invaluable ecosys-
fearful of human presence
tems. In winters, when winged visitors arrive from across
the globe, the theatre of the natural world plays out like
VISIT nowhere else. Here are the 10 best places to witness it
Sept. onwards, espe-
cially if you’re a sucker
for birds of prey
By PRANAY CHANDER

72 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
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 Wildlife Parks

A tiger spotted at
Bandhavgarh National
Park, Madhya Pradesh

Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh

Formerly the hunting grounds of the royals of Rewa, Band-
havgarh is a major part of the reason for Madhya Pradesh’s
‘Tiger State’ status (41 cubs were reported to have been born
during the pandemic alone). It recently featured as India’s only
other national park apart from Jim Corbett National Park on
WATCH OUT FOR the TripAdvisor Traveler’s Choice Award list for national parks.
The mariticide- Bandhavgarh’s forested hills and sprawling grasslands are
committing home to around 30 species of mammals, including leopards,
giant wood spider,
sloth bears, wild dogs and the gaur, which was reintroduced
whose majestic
cobwebs are often here in 2011, and over 250 avifauna. History buffs should also
found glistening visit the Bandhavgarh Fort, which is said to be two millennia
with morning dew old, and the sandstone caves in the northern part of the park
that bear Brahmi inscriptions, dating from the 1st century BC.
VISIT
October onwards,
when the hot, dry Mollem National Park, Goa
summer and the
The tiny coastal state’s size undersells its faunal diversity and
unpredictable
monsoon have evergreen flora, both of which are represented in Mollem
National Park, a biodiversity hotspot and prime birding zone.

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passed
Mollem plays host to bird species such as emerald doves, king-
fishers, grey junglefowl and the ruby-throated yellow bulbul
ALAMY
(the state bird of Goa), besides a great diversity of reptiles. The
frothy Dudhsagar Falls is inarguably the most popular tourist
attraction, but Mollem, which gained national park status in
1978, has other equally stunning offerings. A case in point is
Devil's Canyon, a composite of fascinating rock formations un-
Singalila National Park, West Bengal der which the Dudhsagar river finds passage in the monsoons.
In recent years, Singalila—known for its rhododen- There are nature hikes to be undertaken, and it’s worth trying
drons and vintage Land Rovers (Landys) still in the five-kilometre trail to the 600-year-old Mahadeva temple.
service—has attracted increasing scores of seri-
WATCH OUT FOR VISIT
ous birders, especially thanks to its vibrant avian
The rich variety of butterflies found in in Nov. and Dec.,
denizens, which includes blood pheasants, satyr the park, including the blue mormon, the migratory
tragopans, yellow-throated martens, and other, Malabar tree nymph and Tamil yeoman bird season
more common old-world groups like babblers and
sunbirds. If there is, however, such a thing as a flag-
ship species in any wildlife zone, for Singalila, it’s
the red panda. Expeditions to sight the endangered
elusive raccoon-like bear, will resume this season.
The historic Manebhanjan-Sandakphu/Phalut
trekking route passes through the park’s premises.

WATCH OUT FOR VISIT

A view of four of the world’s Oct. onwards,
five highest peaks (Mt Everest, during the wild-
Khangchendzonga, Makalu and flower blooming
Lhotse) from Phalut, accessible season in the
ALAMY

via a trek from Sandakphu lower forests

A view of Mollem National Park landscape, Goa

SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 7 3
 Tra ve l Plus September 2022
QUARTERLY
ALAMY
Gujarat MAGAZINE KING
Marine National Park,
India is home to six marine national parks
dedicated to conservation and raising aware-
ness about aquatic life. In Gujarat, an hour
and a half west of Jamnagar, along the Gulf
of Kutch, India’s oldest such nature reserve
stretches over an archipelago of over 40 is-
lands. The habitat, an extensive mangrove sys-
tem, supports over 50 coral species, 70 sponge
species, intriguing algae and more than 400
bird species such as painted stork and black-
necked ibis. The 163 sq. km park is accessible
from Jamnagar via boat, and at Narara Reef,
visitors can explore the seabed on foot and
come face to face with the colourful marine
life that thrives here, including octopuses, sea
cucumbers, wolf crabs and the like. Requisite
permits and guides are available at the Narara
Forest Office.
Nagarhole National Park, Karnataka
One of India’s oldest national parks, Nagarhole
has grown in popularity of late, thanks to ac-
tive media coverage of its leopard population,
especially Saya, its famous ‘black panther’ (a
colloquialism for a melanistic leopard that is often
sighted in the area). But it isn’t just these graceful
felines that prowl its dhindal and teak forests—el-
ephants, sambar, and gaurs enjoy a healthy popu-
lation density. Guides and jeeps can be booked at
the park entrance, along with a minibus safari,
which the forest department conducts twice daily.
Nagarhole and Kabini are used interchange-
ably these days, but the latter actually refers to a
reserve forest towards the south of the national
park, and lies in the catchment area of the river
Kabini. The best way to explore the Kabini back-
waters is via a boat safari, but jeeps might be a
better choice during the colder months.
WATCH OUT FOR VISIT
Packs of dholes—tena- October onwards,
cious and ferocious wild when the tempera-
dogs that are capable ture is just right and
of punching above their sightings are easier
weight in the forest to be had
WATCH
OUT FOR
The puffer fish, an
intriguing marine
Namdapha National Park,
Arunachal Pradesh
One of India’s largest national parks, Namdapha is
specimen whose
a near-impermeable zone of remoteness straddling
defence mecha-
nism against any
several habitats across elevations, in Arunachal’s
kind of threat is to easternmost district, Changlang. This highly
inflate itself biodiverse nature reserve is the stomping ground of
a number of large mammals, including elephants,
leopards (common, snow and clouded), and tigers.
VISIT While sighting these illustrious residents might
November on- not be always possible (particularly tigers, which
wards, when reside in the core area), Namdapha is an excellent
temperatures
choice to get as close as possible to nature. After all,
are on their
way down in
these forests boast several rare species of butterflies
the region (including red caliph and koh-i-noor), close to 500
avian species such as snowy-throated babblers,
golden-crested mynas, and pallid harriers, and
some really rare orchid variants, which also make it
a botanical haven. The forest department operates
five designated campsites and a forest rest house,
but bookings must be made well in advance.
WATCH OUT FOR VISIT
The hoolock gibbon, India’s only Late
ape that is found only in Namda- October
pha and Assam’s Hollongapar onwards
Gibbon Sanctuary
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 Tra ve l Plus September 2022
QUARTERLY

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Simlipal National Park,
Odisha
Celebrated in the works of the Odia poet
Radhanath Ray, and having inspired
multiple legends thanks to its raw
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beauty and floral bounty, Simlipal was

WATCH OUT FOR
The park’s engag-
ing Interpretation
Centre, near
the Rajamallay
checkpost, where
the history of the
Eravikulam National Park, Kerala
Often found scurrying down hill slopes, the nim-
ble Nilgiri tahr enjoys a decent population density
in the grasslands of the Eravikulam National
Park. While this endangered mountain goat is the
primary reason many wildlife enthusiasts find
themselves returning to this stretch of the south-
named after the red silk cotton (simul)
tree that grows here in abundance.
Today, the majority of Odisha’s tigers
(28 according to the NTCA) reside in
the sal forests of Simlipal, along with
elephants, sambar, barking deer, flying
squirrels, civets and over 20 amphibian
species. Regarded as one of the prime
tiger habitats in the country, Simlipal is
also home to pseudo-melanistic tigers
(also dubbed ‘black tigers’) that are
sighted on camera traps from time to

MAGAZINE KING
region and its
fauna is exhibited
on panel displays
VISIT
In Sept.-Oct., well
before the park is
closed for calving
season from Jan.
through March
ern Western Ghats, Eravikulam is also home to time. Located in Mayurbhanj district,
civets, giant squirrels, and a healthy number of the park is crisscrossed by a dense
avian species. Situated in Idukki, the national network of rivers, and the waterfalls
park is also famous for the wildflowers growing Joranda and Barehipani make for great
on its hillsides. The region witnesses the bloom- excursions. Visitors have to make the
ing of the endemic neelakurinji flowers once every necessary bookings in advance.
12 years, with the next sighting expected in 2030.
Activities for day visitors include hikes to the Lak- WATCH OUT FOR VISIT
kam Waterfall and a minibus tour to a local tea The rare hill mynah, November
estate (both conducted by the forest department). known locally as Sara onwards

Great Himalayan National Park, WATCH OUT FOR

The many nature trails
Himachal Pradesh across the scenic
A World Heritage Site, GHNP is situated at the mountain villages of
confluence of four different ecological zones. This Sainj and Tirthan, and
the hour-long hike
hotspot of western Himalayan biodiversity, en-
to scenic Seruvalsar
compassing the Sainj, Parvati, Tirthan and Jiwa lake
Nal valleys and sustaining over a thousand species
of flora (many of them medicinal), over 30 mam-
mals and more than 200 bird species, is still quite VISIT
unexplored thanks to its challenging terrain. During the October-
Those making the schlep are rewarded hand- November period
somely with sightings of monals, tahr, serows and to sight the snow
SHUTTERSTOCK

leopard and the tahr

the like on its many treks and trails. Homestays
and undertake
and PWD rest houses are available mostly all over lower-altitude treks
the area, and guides must be booked for trekking
(via the national park website).

76 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
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Tra ve l Plus September 2022 Wildlife Stays
QUARTERLY

FOREST
Jamoon, Uttarakhand
Set at the edge of Corbett Na-
tional Park, on the banks of
Ramganga, with its own wa-

ABODES
terhole and machan, Jamoon
offers an intimate experience
of the Terai belt in Uttara-
khand. Five tents are available
currently, but no electricity
or internet. Activities offered
include walking safaris by the Coracle rides or foot safaris by day, nocturnal trails by
river, stargazing, hide and night, and creature comforts in between—here are the
camera-trap photography, best wildlife lodges all over India for the coming season
and pugmark-casting.
Thejamoon.com By PRANAY CHANDER

Wayanad Wild, Kerala

Wayanad—northern Ker-
ala’s verdant, rainforested
paradise—has always been
synonymous with cascading
spice plantations and mist-
swaddled Ghats. Ensconced

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within the Nilgiri Biosphere
Reserve, Wayanad Wild seeks
to widen the narrative under
the helm of naturalist David
Raju. The property is spread
over 12 acres of forest that’s
home to a rich variety of avi-
fauna, and has 20 cosy rooms
perched over treetops. Night
expeditions to experience the
forest’s nocturnal life, birding
and photography tours and
day treks, which the lodge also
organises for children, are Svasara Jungle Lodge, Snow Leopard Lodge, Ladakh
among the offerings. Maharashtra India’s northernmost Union Territory
cghearth.com/wayanad-wild
Situated close to Tadoba Tiger can get unimaginably cold in the winter
Reserve’s Kolara Gate, this charming months, but that’s a meagre price to pay
property enjoys a peaceful setting. for a rendezvous with the snow leopard.
The reserve’s dry deciduous forest is Uley’s Snow Leopard Lodge, which
punctuated by patches of grassland started out as a homestay intended to
and populated by more than 70 aid conservation of the elusive big cat,
tigers. The 10-acre property, a ‘safari- is operational from November to April,
chic’ boutique lodge, offers 12 suites and located in an area frequented by
each with its private sitout. Most ibexes, Tibetan wolves and birds such
visitors come for Tadoba’s celeb- as Himalayan vultures and golden
rity tigress Maya, but forest walks, eagles. The property has 11 rooms, a
exploring the area on bicycles and lounge area and an annexe, all of them
visiting a local craft centre are just as centrally heated.
captivating. svasararesorts.com snowleopardlodge.com

82 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
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Tra ve l Plus September 2022
QUARTERLY
Bijapur Lodge, Rajasthan
Away from the madding crowds that throng Pali’s lava-cooled out-
crops for a glimpse of the friendly leopards of Jawai, sits the recently
launched Bijapur Lodge. A sophisticated wildlife lodge designed to
blend in with the arid landscape of the region, it offers six suites with
lots of breathing room and a designated long desk to lay out your pho-
MAGAZINE KING
tography setup. In Jawai, not sighting a leopard is extremely unlikely,
so the Bijapur Lodge team packs in immersive tours into Rabari
settlements, forest picnics, and excursions to the stunning Jawai dam
and little-known local gems to boot. bijapurlodge.com
Reni Pani Jungle Lodge, Madhya Pradesh
The forests of Satpura Tiger Reserve provide shelter to a rich variety
of wildlife and flora, including the reni berry, which lends its name
to Reni Pani Jungle Lodge. The stylish and yet earthy wildlife resort
offers three types of cottages and luxury tents, with the latter having
close access to a waterhole. Also, inquire about horse safaris that the
lodge conducts in the buffer zone of the reserve.
jehannuma.com/reni-pani-jungle-lodge-satpura-resort
Chambal Safari Lodge, Uttar Pradesh
An hour and a half’s drive from Agra is Jarar
near the Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary, where
harmless-looking gharials crawl on top of tiny
islands to sunbathe in the Chambal river. Visi-
tors looking to take boat safaris to spot these
reptiles may hole up at Chambal Safari Lodge,
a rustic property with 13 cottages, each with
their own sit-out space. chambalsafari.com
Evolve Back Kuruba Safari Lodge,
Karnataka
Kabini has amassed quite a bit of following
among millennial wildlife enthusiasts of late,
and this luxurious resort provides a comfort-
able sanctuary for those looking to spend a
long weekend and enjoy the sights and sounds
of nature. It has three accommodation classes
where ethnic motifs marry a modern decor
sensibility. evolveback.com/kabini
Samode Safari Lodge, Madhya Pradesh
Despite attracting honeymooners and luxury
resort seekers in droves every year, this adults-
only property in Bandhavgarh National Park
remains at its heart a safari lodge. The 12
villas, designed in a vernacular architectural
style, follow a uniform plan with differing
decor schemes. Safaris take place twice every
day. samode.com/safarilodge
Diphlu River Lodge, Assam
As the iconic Kamrup Komplex’s modern
avatar, Diphlu River Lodge has consistently
ranked among India’s top wildlife stays. Here,
you will stay in bamboo-and-thatch cottages
raised on stilts, and go on jeep safaris into
Kaziranga National Park and dolphin boat
safaris on the Brahmaputra.
diphluriverlodge.com

The valley outside the
walls of Ranthambore Fort
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MORE THAN
JUST TIGERS
Tiger sightings aren’t Ranthambore’s only reward.
The national park now offers many more perks
By AMIT DIXIT
MAGAZINE KING
I
t’s not often that a national park
boasts a Unesco World Heritage
fort within its precincts, but
Ranthambore has that honour. It is
believed that the Ranthambore Fort
was constructed over a thousand years
ago by the Chahamanas for their capi-
tal. They called it ‘Ranastambhapura’.
Today, hundreds of visitors pass the
fort daily on their safari jeeps, eager
for a sighting of the elusive tiger. If
they’re lucky, they might even see one
on the ramparts of the fort.
The town of Sawai Madhopur
is the gateway to Ranthambore,
the most popular national park in
Rajasthan. Spanning an area of 1,334
square km and bounded by the Banas
and Chambal rivers on the north and
south, respectively, Ranthambore is
noted for its large population of tigers.
Machli, one of the most famous tigers
in the world, lived in Ranthambore
National Park until she died in 2016.
Tigers are typically not easy to
sight, being solitary creatures who
command large territories. But Ran-
thambore has an advantage. Being
Getaway
RANTHAMBORE
home to dry, deciduous forests and
open grassy meadows, tigers are easier
to spot here. Several watering holes
across the park attract a wide variety
of fauna, and patient visitors are usu-
ally rewarded with sightings. Padam
Talao is the largest of the lakes in the
park. One of India’s largest banyan
trees is close to the lake.
However, there’s much more to
Ranthambore than a tiger sight-
ing. The park is home to leopards,
elephants, antelopes, deer, wolves,
wild boars, Indian bison, crocodiles
and a variety of other fauna. As one of
India’s premier wildlife destinations
with a healthy reputation for tiger
sightings, Ranthambore is home to
resorts of every stripe, not to men-
tion high-end artisanal boutiques
purveying everything from designer
garments to jewellery, carpets and
local crafts. Some of India’s most
luxurious tented accommodation
sits at the park’s edge. With gourmet
meals and spas at hand, even if you
don’t see a tiger, you’ll leave growling
with satisfaction. „
Tra ve l Plus September 2022
QUARTERLY Part ing Shot

different vibes. Some places are photographer. Beyond the

With known for the cuisine, some for

their historic culture and some for
beautiful scenic sights. I make sure
thrill of it, is there something
else about the experience that
you find satisfying?

Travel as that when I plan a trip, it becomes a

wholesome thing for the kids.

Q. How important a role does

Of course, the whole experience
of discovering something new and
unexpected is truly satisfying. As
a wildlife photographer, you may

Her Guide food play when you’re firming

Whether it’s an outdoor
shoot or a family trip, actress
Raveena Tandon knows how
to squeeze maximum delight
from the itinerary she is given
up your itinerary?
One way in which we can experience
culture is by interacting with its
food. Food, as part of culture, is as
important as anything else—people,
language, art, religion.
Q. You are an avid wildlife
sometimes stumble upon something
that captivates you for long and
that cannot be described in words.
The more thirsty you are for such
kinds of experiences, the more
often they might happen. You need
to go ahead, break boundaries and
explore to the hilt.
—with Shreevatsa Nevatia

Q. What is travel for you—

recreation or nourishment?
It’s strictly for rejuvenation, for me-
time. I love exploring new places and,
thankfully, my job gives me ample
opportunity to travel. Holidays also

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mean stepping out of my workwear and
being myself. It’s a refreshing change.

Q. You do travel a lot for work.

Is shooting outdoors one of the
better perks of your job?
It all depends on the script. I do travel
a lot for work. If a situation requires
it, I am happy to travel. You get to see
the real side of many places, feel and
capture some exciting moments. It
can be very interesting when I sense
a strong connection with places and
people. My job demands the best of me
and it also offers me some unforgettable
moments.

Q. You once said that travel

can be an education. Of all the
destinations that you and your
family have visited in India, which
one has afforded the greatest
learning?
Travelling is to gather experience,
and wisdom comes from experience.
We have read about the majesty of the
Himalayas, the vastness of the ocean
and the beauty of the Taj Mahal, but
we get to know much more about them
when we see them with our own eyes.
Travelling helps the traveller know that
this wonderful Earth is full of natural
beauty. A lot of places, however, have
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EDUCATION | COACHING
KOTA
MAGAZINE KING
FACTORY,
SEASON 2
WHILE ONLINE ED-TECH COMPANIES
EYE THE BRICK-AND-MORTAR WORLD
OF COACHING CENTRES IN THE CITY,
TRADITIONAL INSTITUTES ARE
EXTENDING THEIR DIGITAL ARMS TO
REMAIN ON TOP OF THE GAME
By Rohit Parihar in Kota
Ankit Lahoty,
owner of Motion
Education,
conducting an
online class
Photographs by PURUSHOTTAM DIWAKAR
I
T’S A BUSY TIME IN RAJAST-
HAN’S Kota city, known as a hub of
coaching centres for students aspir-
ing to join India’s top engineering
and medical institutes. After two
years of the Covid-19 pandemic,
coaching classes are abrim with
students, and competition is heat-
ing up with the entry of new players, who are
pioneers in online coaching and are now ventur-
ing into the offfline space.
During lunch breaks or towards the end
of evening sessions, large numbers of students
wearing the uniforms of one coaching centre
or the other crowd the streets, especially along
a stretch of the Kota-Jhalawar highway, where
some half a dozen institutes are located within
walking distance of each other. The hostels,
nearly all of them privately run, are full, and
many more students have taken up paying guest
accommodation or stay in rented rooms. The
unusually high number of students in July and
August is because new batches are coming in
even as old batches are yet to leave due to post-
poned examinations during the pandemic.
Soon, graduates and post-graduates will also
be seen at coaching centres in Kota and the state’s
capital, Jaipur, as some institutes are looking
beyond engineering and medical entrance tests.
SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 103
 EDUCATION | COACHING

Resonance Eduventures has already

diversified to offer coaching for the
Central Universities Entrance Test
(CUET) and for streams like chartered
accountancy, while ALLEN Career
Institute launched its first coaching
centre for the civil services examina-
tion in Jaipur on September 6.

I
n a parallel development, well-
known names from the offline
coaching space are adopting on-
line modes, which often requires
them to modify their business model.
As a result, students have more choices
and sometimes get major discounts in
fees, though there is hardly any differ-
ence in the quality or methodology of
teaching among the available options.
The coaching centres aim to grab as
big a share of the pie as possible.
And it is a huge pie by all accounts,
with at least a million students com-
peting for admission to IITs, NITs,
some other countries and working
on various online models that best
suit students in different countries.
Sources indicate that ALLEN will
have 36 per cent share and intends to
invest Rs 300 crore in its digital arm
to begin with, while Bodhi Tree can
spend Rs 4,500 crore over the years.
Maheshwari refuses to confirm the
size of the investment and details of
the deal with Bodhi Tree, but says the
to running offline classes on its own.
It has gone for aggressive expansion,
setting up new centres and picking up
some of the best faculty around, in-
cluding ALLEN’s Ashish Arora, a well-
known name in this industry. Some
rivals accused Unacademy of poach-
ing faculty mid-term, but gradually
accepted it as part of the competition.
The Unacademy spokesperson refused
to divulge how much they intend to

MAGAZINE KING
AIIMS and other major engineering
and medical institutes. An aspirant
spends Rs 1 lakh a year on an average
as coaching fees, and an equal amount,
if not more, on boarding, lodging and
transport. It’s thus a market worth
Rs 20,000 crore, of which around
one-fifth is based in Kota and another
one-fifth in centres elsewhere run by
institutes headquartered in Kota.
Among the big names venturing
into the online space is ALLEN Career
Institute, which had a turnover of Rs
1,700 crore in 2019. Naveen Mahesh-
wari, one of the four brothers who
own ALLEN, says they had to rush to
change it from a partnership firm to a
private limited company this June so
as to go ahead with a deal with Bodhi
Tree Systems, an educational technol-
ogy company, to set up its digital arm.
ALLEN retains control of its offline
teaching, with 42 study centres, 130
classrooms, 140,000 students across
India and 10,000 faculty members.
The deal with Bodhi Tree will help
it meet its aim of taking the number
of students to half a million across
the globe, extending its coaching
programmes to examinations in
entire exercise will include acquisitions
of smaller coaching centres, making
major inroads into places like Delhi-
NCR, where they intend to open 11
offline centres in a year, and involving
OF THE RS 20,000 CRORE BUSINESS THAT
IT IS, ALMOST A FIFTH IS IN KOTA AND
ANOTHER FIFTH IN OTHER CENTRES RUN
BY INSTITUTES HEADQUARTERED IN KOTA
reputed foreign universities.
ALLEN has adopted a model differ-
ent from BYJU’S acquisition of Aakash
Educational Services Limited (AESL)
last year. AESL, which primarily ran of-
fline classes, doesn’t seem to have been
impacted much in terms of attracting
more students than before the acquisi-
tion. Aakash-BYJU’S did not respond
to INDIA TODAY’s queries despite assur-
ing to do so over the past month.
In contrast, Unacademy has
gone for a reverse ALLEN model as
it expands from online specialisation
spend on offline centres and how much
they are spending on online currently.
To attract more students, some
new coaching institutes in Kota have
reduced the fees drastically. Among
them is Physicswallah, which moved
from YouTube lessons to an online
coaching app during the pandemic,
and then entered the offline market
this year. While many of its online
subscribers opt for offline classes at
other coaching centres, it offers offline
courses at lower fee.
Another institute that has similarly
ventured from the online space into of-
fline allows students who have paid the
fees at some other coaching centre to
join its classes by paying just Rs 5,000.
“I joined the new centre for Rs 5,000

104 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2


MAGAZINE KING
while continuing to attend classes at
ALLEN,” says Rashmi Sinha, a higher
secondary student from Bihar who is
staying in Kota and has enrolled at a
top centre for offline coaching even as
she takes online classes from another
centre. She believes the entry of online
companies in offline coaching won’t
change the situation all that much in
the long term. “Landing a computer
science seat in an IIT for which mil-
lions are competing for a few hundred
general seats is anyway like a lottery.
Sometimes, I feel that even without
these coaching centres, the result
would be the same for most students,”
she says. Coaching centres, however,
cite numerous examples of how their
courses have helped the poor and those
who have had Hindi as the medium
of instruction in school to get through
IITs and AIIMS.
In June, Unacademy launched two
learning centres in Kota and proposes
to have more in Jaipur, Ahmedabad,
Chandigarh, Patna, Pune, Bengaluru,
Delhi and Lucknow within this year.
The target is to have a first batch of
15,000 offline students and take the
number up to 100,000 in a year across
the country. Currently, it claims to
have 1,800 students at its just-opened
centre in Kota, with 44 educators add-
ing to 92 million learners on its online
platform and 800,000 subscribers.
Alakh Pandey of Physicswallah
picked Pankaj Sijairya of Pankaj Sir
Chemistry fame to set up a centre in
Kota. Within weeks, the centre had
8,500 students and plans were in place
to open a second one. They are also
starting two centres in Delhi and one
each in Patna, Kolkata and Kanpur.
“As 80 per cent of the students in Kota
come from UP and Bihar, we want to
go as close to them as possible,” says
(clockwise
from far left)
students
of ALLEN
Coaching;
Pankaj Sijairya,
director of
Physicswallah
Centre; the
Unacademy
centre in Kota
Pandey. Physicswallah began with
free YouTube tutorials in 2016 before
switching to user-friendly apps in
2020 with packages for Rs 4,000. It
had a million users online and yet felt
the need to shift to offline coaching.
R
esonance CMD R.K.
Verma continues to be a
believer in offline teaching.
Son of a stone-quarry
labourer from Kota, Verma gradu-
ated from IIT Madras in 1994 and
began his teaching career with Bansal
classes, a pioneer of coaching in Kota,
before setting up his own centre for
students from less privileged back-
grounds. There are 55,000 students
at his centres in Kota and an equal
number at 80 other centres in India.
“We did online coaching effectively
during Covid. It’s a matter of time
before we know what kind of digital
coaching works best and whether to
involve some specialised online com-
panies,” says Verma, who believes of-
fline coaching is best for students who
are “impulsive and need a teacher and
a classroom to keep them focused”.
His focus right now is to match his
company’s pre-Covid best turnover of
Rs 400 crore.
Whatever be the reasons motivat-
ing online educational technology
companies to enter the world of brick-
and-mortar classrooms, they will face
tough competition from established
coaching centres. If this leads to more
options for students to choose from,
and better quality at lower prices, there
should be no cause for complaint. ■
SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 105
 THE NATION | LAW & ORDER
HIGH ON CRIME,
LOW ON
CONVICTIONS
The latest national crime survey reveals
a worrying increase in a range of criminal
offences even as punishment falters
By KAUSHIK DEKA
Illustrations by NILANJAN DAS
T MAGAZINE KING
The annual statistical account
of the National Crime Records
Bureau, released for the year
2021, is a grim reminder of sev-
eral socioeconomic developments
moving in the wrong direction
in India. This was the first year,
when India, along with the rest
of the world, began to limp back
to normalcy after two years of
the Covid-19 pandemic and the
lockdowns in its wake
unleashed unprecedented
hardship on mankind.
Despite the massive econom-
ic distress the lethal virus caused,
thankfully, there was a marginal
decrease in crime rates—crimes
recorded per 100,000 popula-
tion—from 2020. But compared
to 2017, the jump is significant—
from 389 to 446 in 2021. The
rate of chargesheeting by police
106 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
and convictions by court
continue to remain abysmally
low, once again highlighting the
need for urgent police and judicial
reforms. When it comes to crimes
against women, including sexual
offences, the conviction rate is
even lower than the average of all
crimes. This is despite a tougher
law that came after the gruesome
gang rape of a 23-year-old girl on a
moving bus in the national capital
of Delhi in 2012.
With the spread of the digital
ecosystem, the number of cyber-
crimes has expectedly doubled in
the past five years, though convic-
tions are still under 50 per cent. But
the most stunning number from
the report is the gap between the
registration of cases against police
personnel and their convictions. In
2021, cases were registered against
1,163 police personnel, up from 549
in 2017, but only 15 were convicted,
down from 128 in 2017. The men
and women in khaki must ensure
a reversal of these two sets of num-
bers for faster and more effective
combat of crime. ■
 NOT ENOUGH
OF A DROP

487.8
Despite a marginal fall
over the previous year,
2021 saw the second-

445.9
highest crime rate in
the past five years

2020
CRIME RATE*

388.6

2021
385.5
383.5
*Crimes
recorded per

2017

2019
2018
100,000
population

Five states with the

highest crime rate in 2021
1 DELHI
1,479.9
(34.3%)
2 KERALA 1
5
1,477.2

MAGAZINE KING (97.4%)

3
1,044.2
(98.3%)
GUJARAT 3

4 TAMIL NADU Crimes

recorded
989.5 per 100,000
(78.8%) population
5 HARYANA 4 Charge-
697.3 2 sheeting
(68.4%) rate in ()

Five states with the highest

conviction rate in 2021
IPC CASES SLL CASES

1 MIZORAM 1
KERALA &
96.7% PUDUCHERRY
2 DELHI 99.3%
86.6% 2 RAJASTHAN
3 KERALA 94.7%
86.5% 3 MIZORAM
4 ANDHRA 94%
PRADESH 4 NAGALAND
84.7% 93.8%
5 TAMIL NADU 5 TAMIL NADU
73.3% 93.5%
IPC: Indian Penal Code; SLL: Special and Local Laws
Graphics by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 107

 THE NATION | LAW & ORDER
WOMEN
TO PRESS BEAR THE
BRUNT
CHARGESHEETING RATE

CHARGES 93% 92% 93% 94% 96%

OR NOT
SLL crimes
The year 2021 recorded the highest
rate of crime against women in the
71% 76% 72%
The rate of chargesheeting 68 %
67 % past five years, led mostly by
by the police has been IPC crimes domestic violence cases. The
much lower in crimes under conviction rate has remained
abysmally low under 30 per cent

2020
the Indian Penal Code than

2019
2018

2021
2017

in Special and Local Laws

80% 77% 76% 79% 77%

CHARGE- STATES
SHEETING RATE WITH WORST Chargesheeting rate
(IPC+SLL) CHARGE-
SHEETING
25% 23% 24% 30 27%
%
RATE IN 2021
STATES
WITH 5
BEST 2 Conviction rate
CHARGE- 4
SHEETING 3
RATE IN 1
Rate of crime against women*
2021 1

64.5
62.4
58.8
3 57.9

56.5
1 GUJARAT 1 MANIPUR
98.3%
2 KERALA
97.4%
3 CHHATTISGARH
MAGAZINE KING 5
20.4%
2 DELHI
34.3%
3 MEGHALAYA
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

99.5% 38.9%
4 PUDUCHERRY
4 4 ASSAM
93.8% 2 39.4% Most
5 ANDHRA 5 ARUNACHAL unsafe 4
2
PRADESH
93.5%
PRADESH
53.6%
states 1

for
women 3
5
Five states that
reported the highest
rate of crime against
women in 2021

RATE OF CRIME CHARGE- CONVICTION

AGAINST WOMEN* SHEETING RATE RATE
1 ASSAM
168.3 53% 4%
2 DELHI
71% 38%
147.6
3 ODISHA
80% 8%
137.8
4 HARYANA 57% 18%
119.7
5 TELANGANA 88% 11%
111.2

108 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2

 9,285 CASES
OF STALKING IN 2021, WITH
FOUR STATES—MAHARASHTRA,
TELANGANA, ANDHRA PRADESH
AND MADHYA PRADESH—
ACCOUNTING FOR
60 PER CENT OF THESE CASES

Are we any
better after
Nirbhaya?
While there has been no drop in
the frequency of rape cases since
the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape
incident, what’s worrisome is the
drop in the conviction rate—now
under 30 per cent

Accused known to victim

93% 94% 94 96 97
% % %

87% 85% 82% 82% 80%

Chargesheeting rate

MAGAZINE KING 32% 27% 28% 39 29%

%

Conviction rate

Rate of rape
5.2
5.2

4.9

4.8
4.3
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

The rape States where public Digitally

capitals
of India
Five states that had the
highest rate of incidents of
rape in 2021, way above
the national average of 4.8
transport is most dangerous
unsafe for women for women
Five states that documented the Five states where the cyber-
highest number of incidents of crimes reported against
harassment against women women account for 62 per cent
in public transport of 10,730 such crimes in 2021

1 RAJASTHAN 16.4 1 MADHYA PRADESH 92 1 KARNATAKA 2243

2 DELHI 2 MAHARASHTRA
12.9 2 KARNATAKA 52 1,697
3 HARYANA 3 UTTAR
12.3 3 MAHARASHTRA 50 PRADESH 958
4 ARUNACHAL
PRADESH 11.1 4 UTTAR PRADESH 48 4 TELANGANA 883
5 ASSAM 10 5 KERALA 40 5 ASSAM 856
Crime rate: Crimes recorded per 100,000 population
SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 109
 THE NATION | LAW & ORDER
YOUNGSTERS
ON THE WRONG
NOT A MINOR SIDE OF LAW
MATTER In the past five years, nearly
40,000 juveniles have been
arrested every year
Barring a decline in 2020, which saw Covid-induced
lockdowns, crimes against children are steadily increasing
40,420
Chargesheeting rate 2017
38,685
68 %
66 %
66 %
66 % Five states
64 % 2019
37,444
with the 2021
highest rate of 38,256
2018
45%
crimes against
36% 37% 35% 34% children NO. OF JUVENILES 35,352
Conviction rate ARRESTED 2020

1 DELHI 128.5
Rate of crime against children 2 SIKKIM
72.4 Crime capitals
3 MADHYA
33.6

for juvenile
33.2
28.9

66.7
31.8

28.9

PRADESH
4 HARYANA 62.5 delinquents
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 5 CHHATTISGARH 61.6 These five states account for
Crime rate: Crimes recorded per 100,000 population nearly 60 per cent of the juveniles
booked for crime in 2021

A LOST MAGAZINE KING N0. OF JUVENILES BOOKED

151

145

CHILDHOOD
140

1 MADHYA 6,397
130

PRADESH
5,615
2017

More than 800 children were

119
2018

2 MAHARASHTRA
raped and killed in India
2021

3 RAJASTHAN
3,547
between 2017 and 2021
2019

4 DELHI 3,317
2020

NO. OF CASES
5 TAMIL NADU 2,696

Children gone Five states with

5

missing the highest

2021 had the highest
number of
number of children who missing children
went missing in the past
five years, after a drop
in 2020, the year that
1 MADHYA
had the longest Covid 11,607
lockdown PRADESH
2 WEST BENGAL 9,996

3 TAMIL NADU 6,399

73,138

77,535
63,349

59,262
67,134

4 DELHI 5,772

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 5 RAJASTHAN 4,936

110 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2

 CASTE OPPRESSION
Though NCRB data shows a marginal increase in crimes
against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the past
two years, the conviction rate has remained even lower
than the average conviction rate in IPC cases

Crimes Five states with

against SCs the highest crime
rate against SCs
Chargesheeting rate RATE OF CRIME CHARGE- CONVICTION
AGAINST SCs SHEETING RATE RATE
83% 81% 79% 81% 80%
1 MADHYA 99.5% 28%
PRADESH
42% 36% 63.6
35 29%
%
32 %
2 RAJASTHAN 50% 42%
Conviction rate 61.6
3 BIHAR 82% 31%
35.3
Crime rate against SCs 4 TAMIL NADU 76% 18%
32.6
22.8

25.3
21.5

21.3

25
5 ODISHA 91% 0.7%
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
32.4

MAGAZINE
SWINDLERS’
KING Crimes
against STs
Five states with
the highest crime
rate against STs
PARADISE Chargesheeting rate RATE OF CRIME CHARGE-
AGAINST STs SHEETING RATE
CONVICTION
RATE
There has been a more than 85% 83% 82% 83% 81% 1 KERALA 82% 29%
16 per cent increase in economic 27.4
offences in the past five years, but
both chargesheeting and conviction 28% 24% 26% 29% 28% 2 RAJASTHAN 47% 45%
23
rates have remained abysmally low
Conviction rate 3 MADHYA 99.8% 34%
PRADESH
Chargesheeting rate 17
Crime rate against STs 4 TELANGANA 76% 5.2%
56% 56% 55% 54% 16
52 %
8.4

78% 5.6%
7.9

7.9

5 ANDHRA
6.8

6.3

Conviction 34 % PRADESH
rate 29% 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
13
25% 24% 23.5% Crime rate: Crimes recorded per 100,000 population

No. of economic offences RAJASTHAN FEATURES AMONG THE TOP

TWO STATES WHEN IT COMES TO CRIMES
174,013
165,782
156,268
148,972

145,754

AGAINST SCs/ STs. IT ALSO HAS THE

LOWEST CONVICTION RATE AMONG TOP
FIVE IN CASES AGAINST SCs/ STs
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 111

 THE NATION | LAW & ORDER
OFFENCES AGAINST
THE STATE
THE RISE IN Sedition UAPA*
CYBERCRIMES Of the 363 cases
registered in the last five
Nearly 5,000 cases have
been registered from 2017
The number of cybercrimes has more
than doubled in the last five years. years, chargesheets have to 2021 but chargesheets
The conviction rate has also gone up been filed only in 86 cases have been filed only in
proportionately. Chargesheeting rate just 828 cases
has dropped below that of 2017 after
27 228
a spike in 2020
Charge- Charge-
sheeted 175 sheeted
68% 20 14 14 131
11 168
126
Convicted**
47% 43%
Convicted*
34 34 33 27 27
1 2 1 2
37% 39% 0
48%
42 %
No. of cases No. of
cases
36 %
34 %

1,226
1,182

796
901

814
93

76
73
70

Chargesheeting rate
23%
51

Conviction rate
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
*Conviction includes cases from *Unlawful Activities (Prevention)
previous years Act, 1967; **Conviction includes

MAGAZINE KING
cases from previous years
Number of
Five states
29
cybercrimes
with highest
SEDITION number of cases
52,430
50,035
27,248

44,546
21,796

CASES under UAPA

FROM ANDHRA
PRADESH, 1 J&K 289
HIGHEST IN THE
2 MANIPUR
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 COUNTRY. ONLY 157
STATE TO 3 ASSAM
REGISTER 95
4 JHARKHAND
DOUBLE-DIGIT 86
COUNT 5 UTTAR
The hubs of PRADESH 83
cybercrimes
These five states NO. OF CASES Perpetrators in khaki
account for AGAINST POLICE While the number of police personnel
PERSONNEL
71 per cent of all facing charges has doubled,
cybercrimes in India convictions have seen a massive drop

NUMBER OF CYBERCRIMES
6,164

ARRESTED CONVICTED
5,479

1 TELANGANA 10,303
4,720
4,068

1,356
1,188

1,163
580

2 UTTAR
8,829
549
2,005

PRADESH
8,136
128

3 KARNATAKA
41

18
15
12

4 MAHARASHTRA 5,562
2020

2020

2020
2019

2019

2019
2018

2018

2018
2021

2021

2021
2017

2017

2017

5 ASSAM 4,846

112 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2

 WHEN SOUNDS Q&A WITH
ARE MUSIC CHETAN BHAGAT
PG 118 PG 120

MAGAZINE KING

` 31e
crora’s first
astr
Brahm ctions for
lle
day co e biggest
h
Hindi, t g for a
o pe n in ce
w o od film sin
Bolly demic
the pan
CINEMA

HAS BOLLYWOOD GOT ITS

GROOVE BACK?
THE SUCCESS OF BRAHMASTRA IS A SOURCE OF BOTH
RELIEF AND OPTIMISM FOR CINEMAS
LEISURE
N SEPTEMBER 9, BRAHMASTRA:
O
PART ONE—SHIVA earned itself a
place in history. With first-day col-
lections of Rs 31 crore for Hindi, it
recorded the biggest opening for a
Bollywood film since the pandemic.
Seeing that it wasn’t a holiday release,
the feat seemed all the more impres-
sive. Made on an estimated budget of Rs 410 crore, the Ayan
Mukerji-directed fantasy action film had by day four grossed
Rs 118.5 crore for Hindi, with another Rs 15.50 crore coming
in from the southern states, thanks to director S.S. Rajamouli
leading its publicity campaign there.
Brahmastra is now on course to dislodge Dangal as the
highest-earning Hindi film in the South. Seen objectively, it’s
a great showing for a film, which for two weeks was subjected
to a boycott campaign. Worse still, it also opened to mixed
reviews. Though most critics praised the movie’s visual effects,
they were left underwhelmed by its storyline. The numbers
suggest that impervious audiences were happily wowed by
the action spectacle, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt,
Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan in a cameo. Even
though it remains to be seen if the film’s producers will recover
their huge costs, they do have worldwide collections to look
MAGAZINE KING
forward to, as also the sale of satellite and streaming rights.
The success of Brahmastra provides a much-needed fillip
The Hit
Club
Ô BHOOL
BHULAIYAA 2
Release: May 20
Earnings: `181
crores
Ô THE KASHMIR FILES
Release: March 18
Earnings: `246 crore
to the Hindi film industry after what’s been a dismal quarter.
Two star-driven titles—Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha
and Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan—were both colos-
sal failures. Their poor box-office showing instantly led to a
series of primetime news debates and social media discourse
on how Bollywood is struggling, especially when compared
to southern film industries which had made inroads into the
Hindi belt with a couple of their films. Rajender Singh Jyala,
chief programming officer at Inox Leisure Limited, thought
this was all noise. “Social media trolls just show one side of the
coin. Even their [the South’s] success ratio is more or less the
same as ours,” says Jyala, citing the recent strike by Tollywood
producers over high costs of production and low returns.
For all the talk of Bollywood being “done and dusted”,
PVR properties saw a footfall of 25 million between April 1
and June 30, their highest for any quarter. Jyala points out
that for Inox, too, these months added up to being their best-
ever quarter, in terms of footfall and box-office revenue. Some
of the success came courtesy RRR and KGF: Chapter 2, yes,
but also because of The Kashmir Files and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2.
Instead of Bollywood making drastic changes, the need of the
hour, feels Jyala, is for Hindi filmmakers to return to larger-
than-life storytelling, with strong heroes and lots of action.
Collections prove that Brahmastra delivers on those fronts.
Brahmastra also belies the theory that boycott calls affect
a film’s fate at the box office. It is only content that determines
Ô GANGUBAI KATHIAWADI
Release: February 25; Earnings: `126 crore
*Nationwide figures
Source: boxofficeindia.com
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Ô VIKRAM VEDHA
Sept. 30
A remake of the hit Tamil action
drama starring Vijay Sethupathi
and R. Madhavan, its Hindi ver-
sion sees Hrithik Roshan and
Saif Ali Khan in a face-off. With
the original creators, Pushkar-
Gayathri, at the helm, a faithful
recreation is expected.
Ô RAM SETU
MAGAZINE KING
Oct 24
With three flops,
Akshay Kumar has thus
far had a year to forget.
Could fourth time be a
charm? This action ad-
venture, also featuring
Nushrratt Bharuccha
and Jacqueline Fernan-
dez, sees Kumar play
an archaeologist who
sets out to discover
whether the epony-
mous “bridge” is myth
or reality.
Ô CIRKUS
Dec 23
Bet against Rohit Shetty at
your own peril. Currently
one of the most prolific and
successful Hindi filmmakers,
he returns to the comedy
genre and teams up with his
Simmba hero Ranveer Singh
for what he calls a “different
take” on Shakespeare’s The
Comedy of Errors.
success, says Gautam Dutta, CEO of
PVR Cinemas. “Consumers are say-
ing: ‘You give me good content, and
I care two hoots about what people
are saying.’ Show me one film where
the reviews and word-of-mouth is
positive and the film didn’t do well!”
says Dutta. Our single-minded ob-
session with failures seems to negate
one key fact: in pre-pandemic times,
for every 1,000+ releases a year, the
success ratio was only 20-25 per
cent. Not all films are blockbust-
Ô THANK GOD ers. Most hardly make a dent. That
Oct. 24 trend continues. There is just one
This comedy features Ajay change: As audiences can catch the
Devgn as Chitragupta, the films on OTT later, they seem more
deity who keeps a check on drawn towards films that deliver on
the actions of human beings
big screen entertainment and can
and punishes or rewards them
accordingly. Sidharth
become outings for the entire family.
Malhotra faces the Dutta thinks it’s wrong to write
ultimate test to get a off Bollywood for its misses; one
second shot at life. needs to also account for the handful
of hits the industry has delivered this
year—Gangubai Kathiwadi, The
Kashmir Files and Bhool Bhulai-
Ô AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER yaa 2. “If the Zara autumn or sum-
Dec 16 mer collection didn’t do well, do you
In the vision- sign off of the brand? Our product
ary James changes every Friday. We need to see
Cameron, the few weeks and months as aberra-
we trust. The tions and move on,” he says.
Titanic film- With the festive season around
maker returns the corner, cinemas now have their
after 12 years hopes pinned on a spate of big-ticket
with part two of the epic fantasy action series. releases. Everyone from Akshay Ku-
Cinemas are betting big on this one. They are mar (Ram Setu) to Ranveer Singh
sure it will beat collections of the first instalment
(Cirkus) will be hoping to ensure
to become the highest-grossing film of all time.
that 2022 ends on an uplifting
note for an industry that has taken
its time to show signs of recovery.
Meanwhile, as social media trends
go, boycott calls began again after
the trailer of Diwali release Thank
God hit YouTube. Trolls were seen
taking offence to the depiction of
Chitragupta, played by Ajay Devgn
(see Great Expectations) in the com-
edy. It remains to be seen if these
calls will be successful, but if Bra-
hmastra’s showing is anything to
go by, a film’s ultimate fate is in the
hands of audiences, not trolls who
are only to quick to take umbrage. ■
—Suhani Singh
SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 117
 M USIC
MAGAZINE
WHEN KING
SOUNDS ARE MUSIC
UNDAUNTED BY CHALLENGES, INDIAN MUSICIANS ARE BOLSTERING
THE FLEDGLING GENRE OF LEFT-FIELD ELECTRONICA
ate last month, guitarist/com-
LL
poser/soundsmith Kartik Pillai
dropped Service Animal, his sev-
enth release under the JAMBLU
moniker. Pillai is better known as
the guitarist for indie rock band
Peter Cat Recording Co., but he
has also been putting out jagged,
experimental soundscapes like
JAMBLU since 2013. Recorded
over six months in Kerala, where
Pillai was stranded along with his
family during the first Covid-19
lockdown, Service Animal is a
collection of woozy lo-fi ballads.
It is also the latest addition to the
small but growing oeuvre of left-
field Indian electronica.
Casual music listeners tend to
think of electronic music as pure
dance fuel. But the original aim
of electronic music was to break
118 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 6 , 2 02 2
music free from the tyranny of
“natural” tone and timbre, to see
how far you could push the limits
of sound and musicality. And
while most commercially success-
ful electronica has become boxed
in by the constraints of the club,
there have always been artistes,
scenes and sometimes entire
movements that have kept the
flame of experimentation alive.
Over the past decade, events
like The Listening Room, Dis-
quiet and Synth Farm created
spaces for experimental artistes
to perform live. Soon, a horde of
bedroom producers and part-
time tinkerers emerged: noise ex-
ponents Jessop&Co and SISTER,
instrument-inventors ISRO,
sampledelic producer Babloo
Babylon, political dungeon-dub
artiste RAVANA, among others.
More established artistes,
like techno pioneer Arjun Vagale,
have also started dabbling in left-
field, non-commercial sounds.
Vagale, who makes raw, indus-
trial-edged electronica under the
AsymetriK label, says, “Often,
one gets pigeonholed for the
With more events
creating spaces for
live performances,
a horde of bedroom
producers and part-
time tinkerers
have emerged
 SONIC EXPERIMENTERS
(clockwise from far left) Arjun Vagale
(AsymetriK): Kartik Pillai (JAMBLU);
LEISURE
and Ruhail Qaisar (SISTER)

sound they are known for. But once you

The Right Noises
A left-field Indian electronica playlist for the uninitiated
break the mould, you allow yourself the
freedom to express yourself, regardless
JINRAJ JOSHIPURA CHARANJIT SINGH
of genre. AsymetriK is my playground Space Liner 2001 (Excerpt) Raga Todi
for such experiments.”
Only a three-and-a-half-minute Taken from the composer’s
Vagale, like Pillai, has a musical extract of this 30-minute trib- long-forgotten but now iconic
day job to pay the bills. Other experi- ute to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space 1984 album Ten Ragas to A Disco
mental artistes have been able to shape Odyssey is available online. Beat, this attempt to translate
their adventures into more accessible Recorded in 1970 by a 19-year- the ragas to synthesisers would
tunes, like Lifafa’s honing of his early old NID student, it’s an attempt to end up prefiguring some of the
freewheeling soundscapes into com- imagine sound as outside of his- most recognisable sounds of
tory and musical tradition. electronic dance music.
mercially viable avant-pop. But for
artistes like Leh’s Ruhail Qaisar—who
fronts SISTER and has an album
out on Berlin’s Danse Noire label this
October—it’s difficult to find financial
sustainability. Far from dreaming of
stardom, Qaisar is just hoping to build
enough of an international audience to
play the occasional European tour and
do a day job alongside. “The industry
Teddy Boy Kill - Tonic
in India is run by this gate-keeping
network; there’s no money for experi- Teddy Boy Kill’s truly wild live sets were never properly captured on
record, but their blend of glitch, hip-hop, alternative music and synth
mental music,” says Qaisar. “But I don’t
explorations made for a wildly eclectic mix. Turn on, tune in, weird out.
want to compromise on my music.”

MAGAZINE KING
That uncompromising stance runs
through the current wave of left-field
soundsmiths. Perhaps that’s neces-
sary when you make music so abrasive
that it can empty the room in seconds
(as in the first time Jessop&Co played
Mumbai), or so gut-wrenching that
you leave with an emotional concus-
sion (Disco Puppet). It’s not that the
international experimental scene is a
route to stardom. But in India, making
experimental music can often seem
akin to screaming into the void. JAM-
BLU, for example, has released three
records since 2019, and received barely
any review or acknowledgement from
the Indian music press.
“That made me look deeper inside
and ask why I’m doing this in the first
place,” says Pillai. “Because this is not
mainstream music, and I can make
mainstream music. I’m not doing it
because I have a vision for what I like
music to be, and that’s deeply personal.
If somebody connects with it, I’m find-
ing that more and more special.” He
concludes ruefully, “I don’t know what
exactly is keeping me going. But I know
I want to keep doing it.” ■
—Bhanuj Kappal
Hemant S.K.
Techie Commits Suicide
A genial, soft-spoken elder of the noise scene,
Hemant makes computer-generated noise music
that throbs and gyrates with distorted menace.
This track is one of the highlights of his 2018
album, Divided by Zero, a grimly witty record.
Bombay Black - Uncertain JAMBLU
Gone Swimming
It’s hard to pick a single track off
the second eponymous album The title track of JAMBLU’s 2019
by electro-funk-jazz supergroup album, this track showcases the
Bombay Black, but Uncertain’s artiste’s diverse range—lo-fi tape
off-kilter IDM rhythms under eerie hiss meets glitchy synths meets
snatches of jazz piano and funk confessional R&B. It’s a master-
bass were at the cutting-edge of class in making a pop song from
2002 electronica. wildly divergent ingredients.
Disco Puppet - HAOAH
Bengaluru’s Shoumik Biswas has moved to
a more intimate, guitar-led sound on his lat-
est album, but this playful track from 2017’s
Princess This exemplifies his genre-bending
approach to composition. Redlining bass puls-
es with martial precision, and synths skitter
like knives on a kitchen sink.
The Earth Below / SISTER - Drenched
Though Ruhail Qaisar specialises in extreme noise and dark lo-fi ambient
music, he uses his noise-making abilities for The Earth Below’s cinemat-
ic, post-apocalyptic soundscape on this collaboration. It’s a great track,
buoyed by the give-and-take between two experimental artistes.
Q. Deeptalk with Chetan Bhagat,
your new Audible podcast, will see
Q A
“I WANT
you interview everyone from CEOs Given the number of books
and sportspeople to actors and
he sells, author CHETAN
experts. What made you want to
play host? BHAGAT does seem to have
I believe in lifelong learning and wanted
to learn from some of the achievers in
modern India today. Also, I wanted to
TO LISTEN understood what Indian
youngsters want from their
literature. He now hopes his
listen better. No better way to do that
than to interview people. BETTER” podcast will tell him what
they want from life

Q. For young India, your books

and audiobooks provide much
entertainment and inspiration. How
much of an impact do you feel the
nascent podcast format will have?
I think podcasts are going to be part of
the future. Already, they are popular
abroad and even in India. People
will always need entertainment and
inspiration, but the medium and format
will keep changing. I hope to be able to
contribute to this exciting space.

Q. You often use your social media

to motivate your followers. What do
you think is holding them back—fear
or laziness?
Both. I think all of us have dreams
in life and achieving them requires

MAGAZINE KING
courage and discipline, which we
lack from time to time. It is here that a
motivational speaker can add value,
by simply reminding you of the need
to stay focused, not have fear and not
give into laziness. It’s a simple advice;
implementing it is the hard part.

Q. As a popular newspaper
columnist, you weigh in on
several crucial matters, both
social and political. Does that
kind of regular engagement
ever distract from your
writing of fiction?
I try to use my columns to
improve things in India as
well, by giving solutions and
suggestions to pressing
problems. The regular columns
help me stay in touch with what
is happening in India, which I can
then incorporate in my stories.
In that sense, writing columns
helps me. However, if
I do too much of that, it will
become distracting. Hence, I
only do a short column every
two weeks or so.

-with Shreevatsa Nevatia

120 Volume 47-Number 39; For the week September 20-26, 2022, published on every Friday Total number of pages 122 (including cover pages)