Anthropogenic Eco-system Services

You have heard of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). In this post I introduce a new concept to you, Anthropogenic Eco-System Services (AES). But, before that I have to set the stage with a story, in all probability apocryphal, which students of Tamil Nadu state school education system (yours truly included) learned in their early to middle years in school. It is about Manu Nidhi Chozhan.

There was a tradition when Tamizh kings forced revenge on themselves to set right a wrong done to a subject of the kingdom. The Kannagi tale is one such instance. There is another one in which the king cut off his arm because it could have brought dishonor on a subject whose safety was entrusted to him. Then, there is Manu Nidhi Chozhan. Here he casts revenge upon himself and his son for the latter running his chariot over a calf. It is the grieving cow that you see ringing the bell in the courtyard of the king in the picture (Net sourced).

It is the bell in the tri-cycle cart below that caught my attention, first and foremost. I was wondering why has the cart rider come to our co-op housing society, ringing the bell so vigorously, what injustice has been done to him.

My wife told me that I got it all wrong, not a rare event. She told me that it is a recent initiative that collects overnight leftovers from the houses and uses it to feed cattle in a cattle shed. That made me sit up and notice, even as I was in the balcony of my house in the second floor of the housing society building and the cart was down below. I rushed to take pictures, with due permission from the cart rider.

The above picture is clearly demonstrates one end of the supply chain – the bell, the basket and the collector!

In a short conversation I learned that he is proud of what he was doing, and that explained the shining drums arranged in the cart. It has been only about three weeks since this started. I take his word that he himself feeds the cattle. I noticed he separated kitchen trash. I was impressed.

I mentioned this to my colleague during one of those (frequent) times I steal time away from work. He said that he also sees these carts on the grounds of his co-operative housing society premises. That is, the idea is being spread and that is good.

Now, to explaining the title of this post. What exactly is the eco-system service this initiative provides? OK, I can point out that left to decompose by itself in a land fill, not only will the mound grow bigger faster, it will also increase calls for converting methane emissions to power; with NIMBY operating, that is a non-starter. Equally importantly, cattle itself is a huge methane emitter! So, what you take in at one end, comes out at the other, to be crude about it!

To discern eco-system services in this set up, one has to walk the neighborhood streets, preferably in day time. There are no pavements for pedestrians, and that is something I had blogged on earlier and I am getting tired of it. But, when the pedestrian steps on the road, not only she is risking being run over by a car that is backing up (it happened to my wife a few years ago, and almost happened to me yesterday morning), she is also likely to step on cow dung. But, most importantly, she is bound to step on some plastic bags which then squish its contents (the kitchen trash of houses abutting the roads, left so (un)conscientiously by the residents to feed stray cattle and accumulate good deeds on the asset side of their ledger to tip the scales in favor of getting a trip to heaven) on to her, and if squeezed forcefully enough she will be bathed, a la abhiskekams in south Indian temples!

Now, with the tri-cycle cart service in housing societies that risk is much abated. This is the eco-system service that I am talking about. Obviously, the system was devised by man (there must have been a woman behind this, of course) and therefore, it is anthropogenic. The title stands justified in totality.

Here, the bell is rung by the cart rider to let people know that he is at their service, and no complaints to the crown.

Anthropogenic Eco-system Services (AES).

Raghuram Ekambaram