Earth Day Post: Minimizing Foot Prints

Much as I love to travel, a part of me is always feeling guilty about the footprints left by us travellers. Let's admit it, travel is hardly anything environment friendly. The least we can do is to try to minimize our footprints, or if possible, go Carbon Neutral.

It would be nice to scribble some tips and then forget all about it, but it is much better to say what I am trying to do myself. Here are a few things I have been consciously trying to do, things that have happened by themselves and things that I hope to do someday.

* Not to drive. I have cut down on driving trips drastically. Three years back, nearly every trip I made was in my car. Now I am also consciously cutting down on my driving. Even within the town, I don't take the car out unless I have absolutely no choice. I now use a bicycle for short rides around home, which were done with a car earlier. And if I remember correctly, I haven't made a driving trip since last August.

* Not to Fly. Flying is one of the least fuel efficient ways to travel. From the usual habit of flying everywhere(when I travel North-South, which is pretty long distance), I have started taking trains. It it not entirely successful, the basic reason being that train journeys require lot of planning in advance. And my return journeys are usually open, which makes things more difficult. When I travelled to Rajasthan this February, I managed to take the train to Delhi. But when I was ready to return, I could not find seats in any trains, forcing me to fly back. But I must admit that abstaining from flying is not entirely by choice. Since I have not been working 9 to 5 these days, I try to keep spending to minimum.

* Simple things - like behaving properly in environmentally sensitive regions is something I have been doing for a very long time now. Things like dispose garbage properly, take care of your consumption, avoid being noisy in the jungles or burning wood, etc. I once stopped consumption of tea(once part of my daily diet) and switched over to coffee(which is also destructive, but to a lesser degree), when I was disturbed by seeing sprawling tea estates in erstwhile thick jungles of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is more personal move though, I would not go around telling people to change their food habits much, except not to waste too much food.

* Some thing that I strongly hope to do in the next few years is to go Carbon Neutral. The strategy is simple - buy land and start growing trees there and do little else. A few people have been doing this already, and this is a project I am very keen to do once I have some extra money in hand. And then, as and when there is surplus money, expand the periphery of the forest. I am not sure when I can begin on it, but hopefully in less than 3-4 years from now. Ah, I can just imaging a long stretch of my private forest and going there birding every morning, makes me smile.

* Another thing I hope to do, but don't know when and how I can start - to volunteer in our National Parks and surrounding villages in projects aiding conservation. I nearly teamed up with folks at Eaglenest last year but had to drop out due to some constraints.