Dear Gobar Times Readers, I am sitting in India but I can tell you
where will you find water below the ground in China or the forests in Africa or even where
to drill in Turkey to get petroleum oil. No I am not having any crystal ball in front of
me that is telling me all this. These technologywalas have told me about the latest tool
they have got. It has a very long name Geographic Information System or GIS. With this
system they tell me that I can think like I have the world natural resource atlas or globe
in front of my eyes. It would tell me where I can find water under the ground and also the
rivers, ponds, lakes etc, minerals, forests, places crowded with people or mountainous
areas. I can know everything about Kanpur city by sitting in Paris. But I am thinking that
if the all the oil companies are to be knowing about oilwells then they will start
drilling and misusing GIS also. He is also telling me that I can know about the land owned
by me in my village just by touching the screen of a computer. But I am also to be making
maps of my village and all the water canals and the fields. They are telling you
everything about each road in the village and even has the handpumps mapped on it. But
with knowing about GIS I am also to be having one eye in the sky.
Pandit Gobar Ganesh
E-mail: panditji@cseindia.org
|