“Bawal blues”

I have read Farrokh Vajifdar’s response (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, January 21, 2008) to my article "Bawal blues” (Parsiana, December 7, 2007) and agree with him that the need for firewood is greater among the poor. A permanent solution for this would be to grow bawal trees on about 300 acres of land in a forest area or lands used for growing grass. The bawal wood grown here would provide adequate kathi for fire temples all over India.

Fire temples all over India require about 2,000 tons of kathi per year. If we plant one lakh trees and cut around 4,000 trees per year, we will get 2,000 tons of kathi. New trees must be replanted in the original spot. In this manner 4,000 trees can be cut annually for as long as 25 years. The bawal forests will remain intact and the ecology will not be disturbed. I have been proposing this plan for the last 30 years but unfortunately no one from the community is interested in implementing it, not even trustees of the apex body.

I agree with Vajifdar that members of the community do respond to appeals for funds for repairs of fire temple buildings. Incidentally, four fire temples in Bombay have been receiving gifts of kathi from members of the community for the past 35 years, that too without any appeals for help. Hence the trustees of these fire temples do not have to pay for the kathi. In another five (or more) agiaries in Bombay over 75 percent of the kathi is being provided by members of the community for many years. The trustees of some agiaries have told their panthakis that they must bear the entire cost of kathi. In most cases the community bears the cost of kathi in these agiaries as well. Building or repairing agiaries is not a daily occurrence, but kathi is required daily for all the fire temples. In my opinion, members of the community have contributed much more by way of funds for kathi than toward repairs.

The largest concentration of fire temples is in the city of Bombay where about 700-800 tons of kathi are required annually. However, Bombay uses over one lakh tons of firewood in a year, the main consumers being Hindu crematoria, bakeries, factories and industrial establishments. When used in factories and for industrial purposes bawal wood fetches double the price. This is one of the reasons for the escalating prices of bawal wood. If we were to produce our own bawal wood in the manner suggested above, the ecology would be saved.

I fully agree with Vajifdar that food producing land should not be disturbed by using it for planting bawal trees. My suggested ‘bawal wadi’ or ‘bawal baug’ should be located in a forest area or on grass producing lands only.

If bawal kathi is kept open to the sky for a period of one year the water portion would dry completely and it would be ready to use in fire temples. The bawal wood available here cannot be kept for seven years either in an open or a closed place as Vajifdar has suggested as it will start decaying and be attacked by white ants. As per our religious tradition, beliefs and Zoroastrian principles, wood damaged by white ants cannot be used in our agiaries.

FARROAKH F. GOVADIA