Leo Saldanha Profile picture
Actively engage in public interest issues & campaigns. RTs need not be my views; or probably are? Kodagu/Blore! blogger at https://t.co/UWYDoVYLy4
Aug 23, 2023 11 tweets 3 min read
(THREAD)
This article needs to be read in context. And the persisting injustice despite proclaimed transformation in governance promised during elections, becomes evident: thehindu.com/news/national/…
Image When @BJP4Karnataka led GOK filed FIRs against 70 silently protesting the Sankey Flyover in Feb 23, including @RajeevGowda, a protest to which @PriyankKharge also lent support, rightly there was widespread outrage ().hindustantimes.com/cities/bengalu…
Jul 5, 2023 7 tweets 2 min read
From the far west to the far east, you will never find environmental sensitivity as you find in hotels of Bengaluru, & many parts of South India. You can have a healthy sumptuous breakfast with absolutely no plastic involved. So, if you want to #breakfreefromplastic, follow what hotels in Bengaluru have mainstreamed. And it’s in no small part an outcome of Public Campaigns & Public Interest Litigations initiated by civil society, in which @esgindia1 has played a crucial part.
May 18, 2023 23 tweets 46 min read
When Siddaramaiah was campaigning to win, farmers affected by the most controversial Dr. Shivarama Karanth Layout #sklayout met with him and urged him to support their cause. ImageImage About 3500 acres of their fertile & highly biodiverse farmland was being acquired under colonial Land Acquisition Act 1894 for the most environmentally destructive & massive urban expansion into the Arkavathy River watershed to the north of Bangalore. See: tinyurl.com/StopSKLayoutMa…
May 18, 2023 11 tweets 19 min read
@BCNagesh_bjp has lost his reelection campaign. It's a relief. Why? Watch this documentary by @DeutscheWelle: & read this thread to appreciate implications were Nagesh back in power. @BCNagesh_bjp @DeutscheWelle As a core member of @BJP4India & @RSSorg, & more particularly as the Education Minister of Karnataka under @BSBommai as @CMofKarnataka, Nagesh piloted one of the most devastating attacks on history, culture & literature in the state.
Aug 22, 2022 16 tweets 5 min read
deccanherald.com/opinion/in-per…

Agri culture in India involved raising livestock to support farming, for milk and meat, and also to support the leather industry. It has evolved over millennia and weathered quite a variety of challenges: socio-political and environmental. 1/15 Caste was exploited. In post independent India it was eminently possible to attack caste based occupation & discrimination in farming and livestock rearing, without destroying millennia old knowledge that constituted agriculture. The opportunity was forfeited. 2/15
Aug 20, 2022 10 tweets 6 min read
bit.ly/3c29b2d
Over two decades ago, in a most unjust and technically unsound and illegal decision, @AAI_Official expanded @mlrairport . We warned of disastrous consequences. None listened. All the way to @DGCAIndia , Karnataka High Court and also Supreme Court. /1 This is what happened: bit.ly/3QVkEiO

Despite this disaster, the #airport has turned into a major international hub. And thanks to @narendramodi, it has been gifted to @gautam_adani 's Adani Group. /2
Jul 10, 2022 22 tweets 6 min read
"The deaths in Raichur — where the water purification plant was not cleaned for years — are a grim reminder that the government should clean up water supply systems under its 314 urban local bodies."

Read more at: deccanherald.com/specials/insig… When I read this today, I wonder what it is that our system of administration cannot fathom.
Sep 15, 2021 8 tweets 8 min read
An enriching not so early morning outing at Sarakki lake, south Bangalore.

Go see the lake teeming with spot billed pelicans, cormorants, purple moorhen, little grebe, painted storks, egrets, pond heron, fish, fishers and walkers! If only the walking path (not natural to the lake) was gently sloping into the water, the lake would have been teeming with more wild birds - particularly dozens of species of waders. (Shores potentially support about 70% of bird life)
Jun 15, 2021 7 tweets 2 min read
Karnataka Chief Justice Abhay Oka’s order in a PIL filed by @esgindia1 & me is a major leap forward in securing ecological, socio-economic and water security for the people of Karnataka - by devolving lake governance to local levels with public involvement and science based… …efforts. See: bit.ly/2UaMcZl
Jun 14, 2021 10 tweets 3 min read
1/ Tomorrow (15 June 2021) at 2.25 pm, the Principal Bench of the Karnataka High Court headed by Chief Justice Oka will be delivering a judgment in a process that involved recalling the order in ESG's Lake's PIL: WP 817/2008. More: bit.ly/3zzGBMz 2/ The Lakes PIL was heard for several years from when it was filed in 2008 and a final order was delivered on 11 April 2012 directing the State to ensure local communities were involved in lake rehabiliation and management, and their regulation was devolved to district level…
Aug 6, 2020 10 tweets 4 min read
1/ Is it a coincidence that exactly 120 years ago, on this very day, the 20th day of Shravan, Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem "Deeno Daan", about a temple?

A loose translation of some of the excerpts:

@narendramodi, I Dedicate this to your vanity. @narendramodi 2/ ----------------------------------------

“There is no god in that temple”, said the Saint.
The King was enraged;
“No God? Oh Saint, are you not speaking like an atheist?

On the throne studded with priceless gems, beams the golden idol,
Jul 21, 2020 23 tweets 4 min read
1/ We live in very dangerous times, when those who speak truth to power are hounded and jailed, while those who are complicit in massive crimes are rewarded and promoted, electorally and politically. 2/ (Some who are complicit in creating this situation are bumped off when they become too inconvenient to the super powerful.)

The last bastion of hope in such times is the Supreme Court of India.
Mar 10, 2020 8 tweets 7 min read
When an economist writes on the fudging of Forest survey data, it is an indication of a situation having gone from bad to worse. However, Ajit Ninan also falls into the trap of assessing ‘forests’ as land with tree growth. ⁦@moefcc⁩ ⁦1/n deccanherald.com/opinion/panora… What of #grasslands which can #sequester #carbon quite as rapidly and sustaining side ranging biodiversity? What of #coastal #sand #dunes, which apart from protecting us from the fury of cyclones, also provides an amazing diversity of niche spaces for aquatic beings,. @E_S_G 2/n