Stepping back from an ecological abyss
(Relevant for GS Paper-3)
As India celebrates 75 years of Independence, Has India be able to balance its development needs with the sustenance of its ecological foundations.
Environmental problems faced by indians
- According to NITI Aayog, “600 million people in India face high to extreme water stress… with nearly 70% of water being contaminated;
- India is placed at 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index”.
- Land degradation and desertification are taking place over 30% of our land, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation.
- Average levels of land productivity are onefourth or onefifth of what they could be; pumping in artificial fertilizers restores a bit, but at the cost of pushing the soil further towards death.
- The World Bank — itself partly responsible for pushing India into unsustainable pathways — reported in 2013 that India was losing 5.7% of GDP due to environmental damage.
- The obsession with economic growth — despite growing evidence of GDP being a very poor indicator of human wellbeing treats the natural environment (and related livelihoods) as fodder
- for exploitation. Despite public posturing about the Sustainable Development Goals, the natural elements without which we would all be dead — land, water, biodiverisity, air — continue to be ignored or mauled.
- Government is dismantling environmental and social security policies to favour corporate access to land and natural resources, such as the latest proposals to amend forest and environment laws, and the Environment Impact Assessment notification.
- With greater integration into the global economy, the entry of multinational (and big Indian) corporations into every sector, and increasing exports of natural materials and imports of toxic waste, the issue of environmental sustainability was relegated to the background.
- So, India’s biggest challenge: can ecological sustainability be ensured while generating livelihood security and dignity for more than a billion people? Answers do exist, in thousands of initiatives across the country, as documented in the Vikalp Sangam process. Five thousand Dalit women farmers of the,Deccan Development Society have demonstrated how organic, rainfed farming with traditional seed diversity can provide full food security and sovereignty.
New initiatives
- Several hundred handloom weavers in Kachchh (Gujarat) have shown how dignified, creative livelihoods can be revived based on organic Kala cotton and a mix o traditional and new skills. Indeed,
- India’s crafts have sustained several hundred million people in the past, and can do so again if the in-
- credible traditional and new skills in textiles, footwear, cleaning agents, vessels, pottery, furniture,
- architecture and construction, waterrelated technologies, and range of household items are given
- Communityled ecotourism, such as homestays in Uttarakhand and Ladakh and Sikkim, has combined increased earnings with ecologically sensitive visitation. Community conserved areas have shown a democratic approach to wildlife protection very different from the topdown ‘protected area’ model. As advocated by the United Nations Environment Programme, public transportation, organic farming, land and water regeneration, renewable energy, community health, ecofriendly construction, ecotourism, and smallscale manufacturing can significantly enhance job creation. Linking programmes such as the Mahatma Gandhi Na-
- tional Rural Employment Guarantee Act with such activities, as happening in some States, also hashuge potential.
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