“Often what we call development for some species, can be destruction for many other species”… Me.
I know these lines will suit better (read as right) by some hard-core environmentalists or conservationists & not a civil engg plus builder like me but that doesn’t change the facts about the development, & this was the theme of my sharing. The occasion, which was actually an honor as I have been invited to deliver (share as per me) a speech in front of a group of Professors of Civil Eng of Polytechnic colleges across the State by my Professor friend Seema & her colleague Pro.Sindhu of Govt Polytechnic Pune, fondly called as GPP! When they said I can choose topic of my choice, I suggested as its ending session & most of the participants must be already overdosed with technical stuff(engineering topics) for five days, so I will prefer to share about something which may not be part of syllabus but is future of our civil engg branch & that is coexistence! They Immediately agreed & left it to me to cover the topic the way I wish, a rare thing & an honor too! As well Engineers Day which is celebrated in the Honor of Sir Visvesvaraya happens to be on 15t Sept i.e. very close by, so I decided to make a fusion of two things: Civil Engg & Coexistence! I will be covering this sharing the way I did pointers of PPT so as to make the renders understand the concept & importance of the aspect of sharing.
1 Civil Engg & Learning Coexistence
Diploma Faculty meet 12th Sept 25
Sanjay Deshpande & team Sanjeevani with Jungle belles.
Govt Polytechnic Pune.
I deliberately mentioned Jungle Belles name also, as Civil Engg is science or say has a frame of rules & formulas but coexistence is a life style & you can't frame it on general scale but for that you will need support of some catalyst which deals with lifestyle of species which jungle belles did to the civil engineer in me!
…
2 What is a Civil Engg?
“Someone who uses his/ her technical knowledge to make lives better by creating structures!”
Term “Lives” includes every Living Species, even Plants, Forests, Earth, Rivers, Hills, Lakes, Ocean & every thing which either breathes or helps someone to breathe! Unfortunately, we have forgotten the basic definition of a civil engg as we are restricting the term “Lives” to “Human Lives” only! And this is the reason for the man- nature conflict we are witnessing (read as suffering) pf late more & more! You may have come across the term man -Animal conflict but it's a very narrow window, as humans are actually at war with nature & we the civil engineers are like an army of humans attacking nature. Though we don’t name it enemy, we don’t try to protect it while we build our structures, which in the end are like mass destruction weapons for the nature we need to understand & accept! It’s time to expand the definition of civil engg so we will think about making every living life comfortable by our structures, is my intention to have a dialogue with you.
-
3 What they Teach Us in Colleges…
Concrete, Steel, Bricks, Structures, & Formulas about building Strong yet Dead Things! And using all the formulas & materials with the help of machinery like JCB, Bulldozer, Tower Cranes & such we build structures which we name , Buildings, Bridges, Dams, Canals, Jetty, Airport, Railways, Highways, Tunnels, Drainage & Water Treatment Plants, the list is unending! But unfortunately (again) these all are dead things & they don’t teach us all above dead things for the comfort of humans. No civil engg syllabus teaches us about biodiversity & our responsibility towards it & that’s the reason for so many other species getting extinct in just the last hundred years of our development. And all these species were sharing their home i.e. earth with us for thousands of years before that, this we are forgetting or ignoring, is my reason for sharing.
-
4 Growth Vs Development
Growth is a natural phenomenon, development is shaping that phenomenon in a Healthy way, that is Sustainability!
One we understand the true job of a civil engineer, then comes understanding growth via development. We all are forms of some life & every life has a basic instinct of survival. So, even an orphan human child thrown on the streets abandoned by his parents somehow learns to survive & grow in size but that growth is just part of ageing & not through development. Same way, if your biceps get hit by an accident & becomes swollen, will you call it growth, no, it's swelling, right? Same is with development as only when it’s done in the right way accommodating everybody associated with the earth & getting their share of space happens then its growth via development. Again, only a civil engineer can make this happen as we are the one who are the first line of development army & we dig, we build so we only can define right development & follow it!
-
5 Destruction not Development!
What are we doing under the name of Development?
If you ask this question to yourself as an engineer & look around then you will realize the outcome of this development is, Floods, Deforestation, Man-Animal Conflicts, Road -Kills, Species getting Extinct, Pollution & Natural Disasters! And if you think this is some Right-Wing Fanatic Environmentalist saying these words then sorry, I am a civil engineer & I have been constructing projects for the last 35 years & yet I am saying this! Though this doesn’t mean we (read as me) will stop building homes & go to Himalayas for Tapsya as my Prayashcitt (punishment for sins I have done) but what path I have done is, try to balance as much I can & that’s where civil engineering only going to help me as well the world, is my point of sharing! As we say sparrows has been moved away from the cities & there are no butterflies, & if this is the story of these two simplest species with minimum demands just don’t think about monkeys & Bharadwaj like species which were common sight around just two decades back
-
6 What is Solution?
… Coexistence !
Well, this is not rocket science & as I said this is not a problem which can be solved by some formulas of structures or concrete technique, well, some parts yet but the solution to make right development in understanding coexistence! The way we humans need homes, roads, water, food, education , all such things (except luxury) every other living species also needs & we have to create that space in our structures. Give space to every life form as per its need & that’s the solution. We are not owners of Earth; we are Co-owners of it along with millions of other species. We have 'Civil Enggs’ for our comforts, what about other species, ask this question to ourselves & that's the first step on the path of coexistence!
--
7 Plan your Project keeping in mind all the stakeholders of Planet Earth
No Cut-Paste Solution for Coexistence!
First of all, as we are speaking about coexistence then there are no fix sets of rules or formulas or AutoCAD drawings available to achieve it, understand it clearly. You can’t copy something done in a neighboring town or city in your project site , so definitely not looking towards western world or AI (present trend) for solutions! But look around & study what the world is doing as reference scale/ For e.g., Autobahn through Black Forest Germany Frogs Case. In our country right from house sparrows to honeybees so-many species need attention & the solution will change as per their needs & not we defining that aspect of their life! . For e.g. in Tadoba villagers around the forests were needed to go in open for nature’s call & as it's usually at early morning or late eve, man animal conflicts were maximum during those timings. So the government built public toilets within all villages but if these toilets don’t have proper water supply or sewage treatment backup then this solution will only remain for show & conflicts will keep on happening. This is just one small example to make you understand the approach towards coexistence right in planning & in execution till end!
--
8 Understand Coexistence first as then only we can share!
How Can We Do It?
Make Nature as part of your Studies. Develop Philosophy of Coexistence in working right from planning you build only what you plan in your mind & on paper before you start execution. And there have been wonderful examples in recent NH 44 highway connecting Nagpur Jabalpur is uplifted over the forest part around Pench to save the wild animals corridors & on Samruddhi Highway also there are Animal Crossing passages above the highway! Agreed no solution will stop hundred percent conflicts of wildlife & humans but it will definitely minimize it, that’s the key!
Films, Field trips, Interaction with Experts, Conservationists. Learn & Share.
-
9 Teach your students to become a Right Human Being, not just a Civil Engineering Degree Holder!
And this is where the role of a civil engineering teacher becomes most vital as today what you will be teaching to your students will only get executed in the respective fields. So, make your students know their duty towards planet earth as a civil engg & tell them you have shown them a path, now they only have to build it & extend it because coexistence is not some finish line of a race but its way to living & failing to achieve it, we the civil engineers only will be held responsible by our future generations, choice I hours, adios with this note!
You can watch the presentation on youtube link along & plz share to make others aware, not just the civil engineers!
https://youtu.be/56xNo4wLUIg?
-
Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...
https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345
Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying!
https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html
https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html
Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345
For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below
www.punecorporation.org
Think Green, Think Life
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave ur name, email id along with ur comment. It will help me to reply ur comment as well improve the blog as per ur suggestions if any... :)
Sanjay