For the Lucknow School

Environment: of Silent Valley IT is amusing to find Rauf Ali resenting my use of the expression "politically motivated" whilst giving proof of it by accusing officials of the Forest Department and SEB of Kerala of motivated incendiarism on the basis of hearsay when he says: "If true, this raises the very disturbing question about a possible conspiracy to damage the forest to such an extent that no one could claim any longer that pristine forest existed in the area,,." (EPW, November 8-15). Not stopping at that, he pays a generous compliment to a neighbouring government for its enlighted vision because it consulted the environmentalists before taking up a hydel project on the Manimuthar, Ho does not say why this enlightenment did not extend to the location of a chromate and chemicals factory near Ranipet or the proposed location of a paper mill near Neyveli or at least the use of its city pavements as urinals and the banks of the Cooum that flows through the heart of Madras as a public lavatory.