*Note: The following series of posts were scribed in
real-time but posted after-the-fact due to poor internet connection at my hotel in India.
Please reference the date included in the post title for a truer sense of time. Thanks!
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Today marked the beginning of unimaginable events. It marked
the start of my second study in the rural areas surrounding Udaipur, a
moderately-sized city with two million people. This western Indian city is geographically
situated beneath a mountain range that separates the desert in the north from
the semi-arid land in the south. The remaining forests skirting the mountain
range act as the last wall, the final buffer zone protecting these remaining productive
lands from becoming barren. It is ground zero for climate change, and thus an important battlefield to fight against deforestation
for the advancement of public health. In the coming weeks, my mission is to capture and record information as I learn more to help understand and explain why.
To begin: The first time I traveled to Udaipur was back in December of
2011. At that time, I was a student taking International
Development in India, a course focused on developing a solar cooker that
could provide a technological solution to the human and environmental health
concerns associated with harvesting and burning firewood for cooking in rural
communities. The fact that this seemingly simple problem-solution scenario continued
to persist on a large scale across much of India motivated me to find out what
was complicating the situation.
Women carrying a day's collection of wood home from a managed forest in Karech village.
I was eager to learn more about the problem, more than just the
proposed technological solution we offered with low-tech solar cooking devices.
My call for contextualized understanding came from exploring system dynamics –
the flow of people, energy, and products into and out of a system with
recognition of all related ecological and health impacts. Of all the flows, the
movement of wood became my most fascinating fixation.
I learned that wood was far more than fuel for cook fires.
It was a traded commodity, a bartering tool to obtain buttermilk and other
resources from larger villages and nearby towns. This realization became clear from
a conversation I had with a woman in the village of Karech. I asked the mother if
she owned a solar cooker, a stove that worked without wood, would she continue
to collect wood. Her answer was a surprising yes. That was the moment my
elevated, rosy-eyed perception of engineering was rightfully reigned in.
Pivotal lesson learned: Engineering was not going to be capable
of saving the day. Though, nuanced with the expertise of other problem-solving
disciplines, engineering could play a contributing role.
This lesson has played out in the formation of our new research
team. So now I fast-forward three years ago to today, and I am thrilled to commence
my second round of studies working with engineers AND an anthropologist,
archeologist, geographer, ecologist, political scientist, urban planning
specialist, gender studies graduate, and international studies majors with
focuses in sustainability and human rights. We are diverse. We are on mission. And together, we are ready to dive deeper in the complex system dynamics my research adviser and I began to uncover just prior to leaving India in January of 2012. I have four weeks in India this second go around. The time is now. Let the work (and fun) begin!
Strolled into town on camelback...a slight stretch, but a good first sign for a joyful journey ahead.
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