The above sights of the compound walls built by loosely packing small stones ares till visible in our village.
But the granite walls below are replacing them because they are more sturdy and lasting!
However there is a down side to this changing story!
There is lot more aggressive granite quarrying which is making hills and mountains look bare increasing the risk of soil erosion and landslides. The rocks were the guardians of the soil eco-system.
The loosely packed walls could be built by any farm worker with some experience as it did not need skills of precision as much as needed in the granite wall building.
The trained artisans are costly to hire. The wall building is no more affordable as granite and labour charges are expensive!
As I hear stories of others around us who tell us how they are unable to cope with the compulsions of changing times economically, Anna and I also had to face this when we had to rebuild our damaged walls with the granite stones. It almost consumed our savings.
The demands on life and living come upon many too heavily!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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