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Loneliness of Narmada Human

Thirty years on, it remains the only fossil of early humans found on the subcontinent
By S Kumar (https://www.downtoearth.org.in/author/s-kumar-2078)
Published: Monday 31 December 2012

House
By bringing
stepping ou

House of Ma

Loneliness of Narmada Human

  
December 5, 1982. On the banks of the 
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Narmada at Madhya Pradesh’s Hathnora village,
NEXT COVERAGE ❯
geologist Arun Sonakia stumbled upon what
turned out to be the most tantalising fossil
discovery of a human ancestor. Narmada

(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/)
Human was the discovery of the century.

Kids in our schools learn about Java Man and

Peking Man but hardly anyone knows about
Narmada Human.

The discovery not only put India on the world

fossil map, it proved the presence of early
humans in the subcontinent and filled a void in
our knowledge about human evolution, says D K Bhattacharya, former
head of anthropology department at University of Delhi.

“The discovery opened a new chapter in terms of hard evidence of

evolution in south Asia,” he says. “Unlike Africa, where stone tools were
found along with human skeletons, all over India we were finding
prehistoric stone tools, but there was no fossil evidence.”

Narmada Human, initially named Narmada Man, belongs to the category

of Homo erectus, preceding Homo sapiens sapiens, the modern human
species. Homo erectus are believed to have inhabited the planet 1.8
million to 200,000 years ago. “On the basis of associated fauna,
palaeomagnetic dating studies by the Geological Survey of India (GSI)
and morphological features compared with other fossils of known
antiquity, the Narmada fossil could be 500,000 to 600,000 years old,”
says Sonakia, now retired from GSI. The fossil could be of an individual
aged between 25 and 30 years, he adds.

Antiquity of fossils has always been controversial. Some think the

Narmada fossil may belong to the late Homo erectus category. Many
believe the fossil could be of a female. “The evidence is not even a full
skull. It is rather, a skull cap with a little bit of orbital roof,” says
Bhattacharya. The finding has been scientifically analysed. “We think it
represents a human form that had colonised India at least 400,000 years
ago,” he adds.

Homo erectus had successfully adapted to savannah grasslands, says

Bhattacharya. They had domesticated fire, did group hunting and used
stone tools. In French Riviera, at a site called Terra Amata, there is
evidence of an artificial hut with hearths—and even a footprint—believed
to be the handiwork of Homo erectus from 400,000 years ago. Surely,
one fossil can never tell the full story. So, why don’t we have more
fossils from India?

In some regions presence of fossils depends on preservation conditions

such as soil chemistry and erosion rates, says Parth Chauhan, research
associate with US-based non-profit Stone Age Institute, and with the
anthropology department at Indiana University, US. In other regions,
  
either enough systematic survey has not been done or potential hominid
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fossil material has been overlooked. In India, palaeoanthropology or
NEXT COVERAGE ❯
study of human origins is in a very neglected state, he says.

Developmental projects such as dams on the Narmada, mining and oil

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drilling activities, intensive agriculture and population pressure have
taken a toll on fossil study. “Hundreds of palaeoanthropological and
stone age sites are getting destroyed across the subcontinent,” says
Chauhan.

Bhattacharya says India still follows the archaic 18th century mode of
palaeontology. The country does not even have a national palaeontology
institute. Guidance, experience and trained expertise are also lacking,
says Chauhan. Palaeoanthropology is rarely practised in India in its pure
form through multi-disciplinary approaches as in other regions such as
Africa. Barring some exceptions, most studies in India have been non-
system atic and not comprehensive, he says.

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Organic thread
 Even as Bt cotton invaded Indian fields in the past few years, some farmer groups kept pushing for
    (https://api.whatsapp.com/send?text=Loneliness of Narmada Human https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/loneliness-of-narmada-human-39817)  
organic cotton. In 2009-10, production in India propelled world organic cotton production to an all-
time high of 241,697 tonnes. But soon, many farmers realised that organic farming takes years of NEXT COVERAGE ❯

sustained efforts to get full benefits. With no support from government, that favours Bt cotton, many
farmers are reverting to chemical farming.

(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/)
Aparna Pallavi reports from the cotton belt of Maharasthra and Madhya Pradesh, and M Suchitra from
Andhra Pradesh. Jyotika Sood writes about international non-profits that are venturing into alternative
methods of sustainable cotton production

  

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https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/organic-thread-40329)
 

NEXT COVERAGE ❯

By Jyotika Sood, (https://www.downtoearth.org.in/author/jyotika-sood-9) M Suchitra,

(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/author/m-suchitra-126) Aparna Pallavi
(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/author/aparna-pallavi-16)
Published: Thursday 28 February 2013

Organic thread

Nakka Pushpa was only 22 when her debt-ridden husband committed

suicide 18 years ago. The marginal cotton farmer in Damera village in
Andhra Pradesh’s Warangal district left her land fallow for the next 10
years. She had no money to buy seeds and farming inputs. In 2004,
Sarvodaya Youth Organisation, a Warangal-based non-profit, offered her
help provided she kept off chemicals and used non-Bt cotton seeds.
Initially, she was laughed at for using cowdung and urine, and going for
inter-cropping and pest traps. But Pushpa did not give up. Last year, she
harvested 1,800 kilograms of organic cotton from her one acre (0.4
hectare) land, besides a few hundred kilograms of lentils, maize,
vegetables, and some castor too. “Harvest would have been better had it
not been a drought year,” she says.

She is happy with the drastic cut in cost—from Rs 10,000 during

chemical cultivation to only Rs 3,600. Last year, she earned Rs 20,000,
cleared all her husband’s debts and is building a small house in place of
her hut.

Pushpa’s tiny success story is part of an encouraging big picture. In the past few
years, India has become the world leader in organic cotton production. Nearly
200,000 farmers have turned organic, although Bt cotton still accounts for nearly 95
per cent of cultivation in the country.
  
In 2002, government had
 (https://api.whatsapp.com/send?text=Loneliness of Narmada Human https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/loneliness-of-narmada-human-39817) 
Interview
allowed commercial cultivation
NEXT COVERAGE ❯
of genetically modified cotton.
The area under Bt cotton
increased steeply from a few

(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/)
thousand hectares to 9.5
million ha in 2010, increasing
consumption of chemical
(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/organic- pesticides and fertlisers as
cotton-production-and-consumption-should-
become-second-swadeshi-movement)
well. Estimates, including those
of Food and Agriculture
Organisation, say an acre of
'Organic cotton production and consumption
should become a mass movement'
non-organic cotton cultivation
(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/organic- can consume up to six litres of
cotton-production-and-consumption-should-
become-second-swadeshi-movement) pesticides and 500 kg of
Vivek and Juli Cariappa are Krishi Pandit fertilisers. This not only
awardees and dedicated organic farmers based in diminished land productivity
H D Kote taluk in Mysore. They have been
practising organic farming since 1986. In an but also led to health problems.
telephonic interview with M Suchitra, they talk
But the organic movement
about the challenges and way forward for organic
cotton
began despite the problems.
Efforts by farmers’ groups and
non-profits gave the required push. The first farmers’ group to export
organic cotton—Vidarbha Organic Farmers Association (VOFA)—was
formed in 1995. Around the same time, non-profits in Vidarbha like
Dharamitra and Chetna Vikas created indigenous knowledge banks by
documenting the practices of tribal farmers.

Farmer-driven experiments in organic cotton cultivation also started in

different regions in the early 1990s. This was expected because cost of
chemical cultivation had been rising. Slump in yield after the initial spurt
brought on by high yielding hybrids and chemical inputs made matters
worse.

In mid-1990s, pioneering farmers like Bhaskar Save and Kantilal Patel in

Gujarat and Manohar Parchure, Anandrao Subhedar and Raosaheb
Dagadkar in Vidarbha in Maharashtra created successful organic cotton
cultivation models. They were all inspired by the books of Japanese
organic farming guru Masanobu Fukuoka, but had to develop indigenous
techniques and knowledge.

In 2000, Central Institute for Cotton Research released a first-of-its-kind

report on organic cotton cultivation. Several researches followed. None
reached farmers. Public programmes like Integrated Pest Management
have existed since 1965, but government did little to pass on its benefits
to farmers.

In Andhra Pradesh, M S Chari, cotton scientist from Centre for World

Solidarity, introduced the concept of non-pesticide management among
marginal Dalit farmers of Warangal and Adilabad districts and followed
it up with the concept of sustainable agriculture in 2001.

Private companies like Maikal Bio-Re, Appachi Cotton, Pratibha Syntex

  
and Ecofarms also began contract farming with the farmers of 
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Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. Despite an overwhelming
NEXT COVERAGE ❯
majority of Bt cotton farms, the factors combined to boost India’s
organic cotton production, and eventually global production, to an all-
time high in 2009-10.

(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/)
India captures global market

From 57,731 tonnes in 2006-07, the world’s organic cotton production

soared two-and-a-half times to 145,872 tonnes the next year. By 2009-
10, it saw a stupendous fourfold jump to 241,697 tonnes. India
accounted for 68 per cent of world organic cotton production in 2008-
09. The share rose to 81 per cent in 2009-10 (see ‘India the biggest
contributor’).

Around 2006, big international retailers began to turn organic. A 2007

report by UK-based Soil Association showed that retail organic market
was valued at US $4 billion. Organic cotton accounted for a large chunk
of it. Swedish multinational H&M started blending organic cotton in its
products. In 2006-07, companies like C&A, Eileen Fisher and H&M
  
reported stronger than expected sale in their organic portfolio. Twenty-
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five companies, including Walmart, Nike, Woolworth’s South Africa, Coop
NEXT COVERAGE ❯
Switzerland and C&A, consumed 75 per cent of global organic produce.

A report on organic cotton by Textile Exchange, a non-profit which works

(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/)
to extend textile sustainability across the globe, states that from US
$300 million in 2001, sale of organic clothing had reached $2 billion in
2007. And, India was a major player. It overtook Turkey as the biggest
producer and exporter of organic cotton. However, farmers recieved no
support from the government. What kept them going was premium that
private companies gave over the government’s minimum support price
(MSP).

Organic incentives

MSP of long staple cotton had been raised from Rs 2,030 to Rs 3,000 per
100 kilograms in 2008-09, while that of medium staple cotton went up
from Rs 1,800 to Rs 2,500 per 100 kilograms. “Organic farmers were
getting a huge 25 per cent premium over MSP,” says Kamal Kishore
Dhiran, farmer of Palodhi village in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district.

This apart, organic farming has its own advantages. Under rain-fed
conditions, organic cotton flowers twice in a season, says farmer Tilok
Chand Bhuria of Khamlai village in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargon district.
“Bt, on the other hand, flowers only once a season unless irrigated very
well.” Bhuria switched to organic with help from Maikaal Bio-Re six years
ago. His cultivation cost has dropped. “In Bt the maximum saving is Rs
5,000 per acre. After converting to organic farming, I can save Rs
10,000,” he says (see ‘Organic v chemical’).
    (https://api.whatsapp.com/send?text=Loneliness of Narmada Human https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/loneliness-of-narmada-human-39817)  

Metal L NEXT COVERAGE ❯

Low running
effective, wi

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Bodor®Lase

Additional income for organic farmers comes from intercropping. In

Pandhurna village of Yavatmal, Kawdu Punwatkar harvests 150 kg of
lentils, vegetables and jowar, besides 200 kg of cotton from his one-acre
farm.

Jaswant Singh Chauhan in Amlatha village of Khargon, who switched to

organic a few years back, says his farm’s soil is now better and
conserves more moisture. “In the past two years, I harvested 30 kg more
cotton, besides lentil and jowar.” Organic cotton seed is an untapped
source of income. “It is high in demand for its fodder value and fetches
thrice the price of Bt cotton seed,” says farmer Subhash Kamdi of Madni
Dindora village in Wardha. Kamdi sells seeds generated from his 2.5-
acre organic cotton plot for Rs 30 per kg.

Group certification cuts cost

Most organic farmers operate in groups formed by non-profits or

exporters. Being part of a group has its benefits. Farmers are spared the
entire cost and effort behind the complicated certification process, says
Rajeev Baruah, director of Maikaal Bio-Re. “Certification costs Rs 500
per farmer. There are additional administrative and field costs.

Group certification makes it easy for farmers and us,” he says.

Organisations also bear the cost of transport and ensure transparent
weighing, which is handled by farmer cooperatives. Since cotton is
collected from villages, farmers do not have to pay market cess or shell
out money to touts and middlemen. A farmer saves at least Rs 300 per
100 kg, estimates Arun Chandra Ambatipudi, executive director of
Chetna Organics, a non-profit that promotes organic cotton cultivation in
Andhra Pradesh. “Chemical farmers have to pay these extra expenses
and end up earning less,” he says. This year in Andhra Pradesh, chemical
farmers got Rs 3,600 per 100 kg while organic farmers earned Rs 3,900,
as much as the MSP.

But the curve of India’s organic cotton production reversed in 2010-11.

Production dropped by a steep 47 per cent although India maintained its
world lead with over 60 per cent share.

World market falls

India, which had flushed the global market with its organic cotton,
created a glut of sorts. At this time, the German edition of Financial
Times published a report in early 2010, titled “Label Scandal”. It stated
  
that global clothing brands such as H&M, C&A and Tchibo were selling
 (https://api.whatsapp.com/send?text=Loneliness of Narmada Human https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/loneliness-of-narmada-human-39817) 
clothes made of Bt contaminated organic cotton. These brands were
NEXT COVERAGE ❯
sourcing organic cotton from India. Sanjay Dave, the then director of
Agriculture Processing and Exports Development Agency (APEDA) in
India, admitted that organic cotton was getting contaminated “on a

(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/)
gigantic scale” in the country (see ‘Farmers on shaky ground’).

Mani Chinnaswami of Tamil Nadu-based Appachi Cotton says the

scandal, along with more complaints of contamination, reduced India’s
cotton prices. “Besides, European economy was reeling from
recesssion. Introduction of alternative initatives that did not insist on
cotton grown with less pesticides and water, also gave competition to
the expensive organic cotton,” he says. The sharp cut in prices trickled
down to the farmers and the premium that private companies were
giving them crashed drastically.

In the past two years, companies like Ecofarms have not given any
premium to farmers. Earlier, says Dhiran, the company paid 10 per cent
or more. This year, Maikal Bio-Re has fixed premium at Rs 460 per 100
kg, while Pratibha Syntex is giving Rs 100 over the market rate.

The drop in premium has hit farmers hard. In irrigated areas, especially
in the Khargon-Khandwa-Burhanpur belt of Madhya Pradesh, farmers say
keeping cost down is difficult given the rising expenses on labour and
power for irrigation. “Cotton prices in the market are abysmal,” says
Rajesh Patidar who is registered with Pratibha Syntex. “If premium is
also low why should we continue with labour-intensive organic farming?”

Bhuria says premium of Rs 1,000 per 100 kg is necessary. “A few years

ago, 20-25 per cent premium made organic farming viable. Now, when
picking one kilogram cotton can cost Rs 15, how do we manage without
premium?”

Without the incentive, says Chinnaswami, farmers would turn to

chemicals. “Whose loss would that be?”

Selling organic

The biggest hurdle before organic cotton is that in the absence of a

domestic market, it is entirely dependent on the vagaries of the
international market. Organic groups are finding it increasingly difficult
  
to market their cotton. Much of the produce has to be sold in the open
 (https://api.whatsapp.com/send?text=Loneliness of Narmada Human https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/loneliness-of-narmada-human-39817) 
market. “We have the potential to produce 1,700 tonnes of lint a year. Of
NEXT COVERAGE ❯
this, we can market only 800 tonnes. The rest is sold to Cotton
Corporation of India,” says Ambatipudi. Farmers have to bear the price
cuts.

(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/)
The good news, however, is that the international market is likely to
revive soon, says Prabha Nagarajan, India representative of Textile
Exchange. “Many big brands and retailers have indicated continuation of
organic cotton programmes as part of their sustainable cotton
initiatives,” she says. D P Arya of Pratibha Syntex, Indore, world leader in
organic textile manufacturing, says buyers in the UK and the US are
again taking interest in organic cotton.

But there is an urgent need for alternatives to total dependence on

international market. “The potential is enormous even if brands focus on
segments such as infant and baby wear, yoga clothing, lingerie and
sleepwear. High-end men’s and women’s apparel could also work,” says
Nagarajan. “At present, there are very few players in the domestic
market for apparel. Big domestic brands and retailers need to get
engaged with serious intent. This would need a multi-stakeholder
approach and support from the government.”

While organic cotton, like any other market product, is subject to market
laws governing demand and supply, commerce cannot be the only
determining factor governing its future. Crucial factors like
sustainability, farm economics, ecological balance and soil health must
be taken into account. Formulating right policies to provide support
farmers’ initiatives will go a long way in the evolution of organic cotton.

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