Valmik Thapar on the tigress that made him fall in love with the wild
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Time of India
6 days ago
- Time of India
₹1,000 cr down the drain, as Chennai's public toilets still stink
City corporation's Singara Chennai dream has been drowned by stench. Even after more than ₹1,000 crore was spent to clean public toilets, they remain stinky, dirty and in a ramshackle state. Now, Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) plans to pump in another 1,000 crore for the same failed cause. In order to clean, maintain and build 10,000 public toilet seats in the city across 1,260 locations, the GCC spent 620 crore under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in the last five years, and another 430 crore was spent to privatise toilets in two zones -- Royapuram, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar — and partly Marina in a nine-year privatisation deal. This apart, they spent around 50 crore to build and maintain mobile toilets, e-toilets, and Singara Chennai's 'Oppanai Araai's toilets. A field visit by TOI, however, showed the money has gone down the drain. You Can Also Check: Chennai AQI | Weather in Chennai | Bank Holidays in Chennai | Public Holidays in Chennai In Anna Nagar, a 10-storey SBM toilet that once existed, and still shows on Google Maps, is now missing. Another toilet in Tower Park has no door on the women's side, just a pink curtain, and it reeks of urine. At the SBM toilet outside Rajarathinam Stadium in Egmore, the floor is filthy and no staff was present to monitor the seats. None of these facilities had CCTV, although it is required under GCC's tender rules. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Benefits of Trading Bitcoin CFDs IC Markets Learn More Undo In the Adyar zone alone, the GCC spent about 1.6 crore within six months from Feb to maintain toilets. Yet, the toilets remained shut and the commode was plastered with cement. In a nearby location, on Indira Nagar fourth main road, the e-toilet marked on Google Maps was removed five months ago. At Apparao Gardens in Aminjikarai, a two-decade-old public toilet stands crumbling with its floor lined with water-filled holes, and a stray dog resting on a toilet seat. One of the walls is cracked and looks ready to fall. "This toilet has been such as this for as long as I can remember," says Padmini, a resident living nearby. "Using a restroom should be a peaceful experiance, not something where you worry if something will fall on your head. " The GCC has not enforced any of its key-performance indicators such as cleanliness, CCTVs, water supply, presence of staff, ramps, and proper sewage outfalls. Not has it blacklisted any of its contractors, including Dr RSB Infra who handles privatisation in Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zones. In these zones, the GCC inflated maintenance costs per seat from 3.18 per seat to 364, which was 300-times the cost of toilets maintained in popular private firms. DMK councillors too have flagged GCC's poor maintenance of toilets. In the council, accounts committee chairman K Dhanasekaran admitted that the corporation lacked both adequate funds and technical expertise to design and maintain toilets. While existing toilets are poor, there are no toilets at all in popular public spaces like Guindy and Koyambedu. The mobile toilet buses launched by mayor R Priya last year are nowhere to be seen. Ignoring the glaring scams, lack of enforcement on the six-month shorter contracts and nine-year contracts as well, officials continue to bank on nine-year contracts as a permanent solution. "The nine-year privatisation is one of the first corporation-funded toilet privatisation models in India," said PV Srinivasan, superintending engineer of special projects. Yet, GCC is sitting on this 1,243 crore privatisation deal for 13 zones for nearly two years now. On the delay, mayor Priya said that bringing in high-quality private toilets is a tedious approval process. "The special projects team first identifies the sites. These are then inspected for structural stability, and finally sent to the council for approval. This takes time," she said. She said the corporation is speeding up approvals and implementation. "Work is underway for the rest of the 13 zones and when these toilets are operational, they will be of a good quality," she said. Though tenders have been awarded to three contractors, work is yet to start anywhere and the six-month contracts continue to be in place. Officials promise works will be finished by Dec 2026.
The Hindu
12-06-2025
- The Hindu
Valmik Thapar and the golden light
He could have been carved from a granite crag of Ranthambhore, the place he delighted in. A mountain of a man, full-bearded, with a voice like thunder, Valmik Thapar could seem intimidating but was actually gentle and courteous. I enjoyed working with him on several of his books, and not one of my colleagues ever had an unkind word to say about him. That said, he was happiest in the wild, and didn't much care for the social circuit of Delhi, his home city. He wasn't one for small talk, preferring to use his voice, as with all the other faculties and resources he could muster, in service of the beloved tigers he had been obsessed with for 50 years. Valmik was the son of the distinguished public intellectuals Raj and Romesh Thapar, who started the influential magazine, Seminar. The Thapars were friends with many important politicians and industrialists, but did not hesitate to hold them to account when they erred. Valmik inherited the fearlessness of his parents and often took on the wealthy and powerful when they stood in the way of his determination to save wild tigers from extinction. Transforming Ranthambhore Over more than 40 books (including the last one he ever wrote, The Mysterious World Of Tigers — with his usual meticulousness, he finalised the proofs from his hospital bed, a few days before he passed away from cancer on May 31, 2025) and documentaries, he described in detail how he was drawn into the world of tigers. At the age of 23, he felt tired and disillusioned by the purposelessness of his life in Delhi. In early 1976, he decided to visit Ranthambhore in Rajasthan on the off chance he might see a tiger or two — there was no real thought behind this visit except the desire to flee the city and the ennui he felt there. When he disembarked at Sawai Madhopur, the train station from where he would have to make his way to Ranthambhore National Park, he wasn't much impressed by what he saw. A dirty small town in the Indian hinterland, indistinguishable from the other dirty small towns dotted all over the country, it seemed highly improbable that he was going to find any tigers there. Nevertheless, he figured he might as well get on with it. Hiring a horse carriage, he went in search of Fateh Singh Rathore, the warden of the park, who would go on to become his tiger guru. At the time that Valmik first began visiting Ranthambhore, it was almost impossible to see tigers. To start with, there were very few of them around — 13 or 14 at the outside. These animals rarely showed themselves, mainly because of the constant human activity within the park. Almost single-handedly, Rathore fought to save Ranthambhore's tigers. He resettled more than a dozen villages within the core area, watched over the tigers to ensure they weren't disturbed, went after poachers at considerable risk to his own life, lobbied governments and bureaucrats, raised funds, and more. In Valmik, he found a willing chela (disciple) and a tremendous ally. Through their efforts, along with those of a few other kindred spirits, and a host of dedicated forest officials, Ranthambhore is today a shining example of tiger conservation. What began as 400 sq. km. of parkland has grown to 1,700 sq. km. And, there are almost 100 tigers in Ranthambhore and sightings are common. Emotional engagement Although self-taught, Valmik was a first-rate naturalist, his field observations over the decades considerably expanding our understanding of the magnificent big cat. But what set him apart from other dedicated naturalists was the way in which he disseminated his passion for tigers. Anyone who has read his books and watched his movies can see that devotion come shining through. He would talk unabashedly about the tears that rolled down his cheeks when he saw tiny cubs playing with their mother, Laxmi; he would mention the awe he felt when he saw Genghis, the master hunter, who ruled the area of Ranthambhore's lakes, first demonstrate the art of hunting prey in the water; and he wouldn't shy away from confessing his love for a special tiger he named Noon. In his new book, he writes: 'She was a tiger who filled up my senses… Fateh teased me… that I had fallen in love with this tigress… Many scientist friends warned me to keep detached and not humanise tigers, but in truth, I was delighted with my emotional engagement with Noon. It deepened my understanding of the mysterious world of tigers.' One of the things Valmik cherished was walking with tigers, especially in the early mornings. In his words, 'As the sun rises, the golden light slides off the tiger's body. It's a magnificent spectacle.' As I write this tribute, I see him striding through that radiance, watching for all eternity over wave upon wave of Ranthambhore's tigers. The writer is a publisher and author.
Time of India
03-06-2025
- Time of India
Valmik Thapar on the tigress that made him fall in love with the wild
Valmik Thapar, conservationist and chronicler of India's wild tigers, died on May 31. In this excerpt from 'Living with Tigers', he recounts how Padmini, in the 1970s, initiated him into the Ranthambore forest and changed his life forever
