{"id":13157,"date":"2022-08-20T13:50:37","date_gmt":"2022-08-20T08:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=13157"},"modified":"2022-08-20T13:50:37","modified_gmt":"2022-08-20T08:20:37","slug":"stepping-back-from-an-ecological-abyss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/stepping-back-from-an-ecological-abyss\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping back from an ecological abyss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stepping back from an ecological abyss<\/strong><\/h2>\n

(Relevant for GS Paper-3)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As India celebrates 75 years of Independence,\u00a0 Has India\u00a0 be able to balance its development needs with the sustenance of its ecological foundations.<\/p>\n

Environmental problems faced by indians<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • According to NITI Aayog, \u201c600 million people in India face high to extreme water stress… with nearly 70% of water being contaminated;<\/li>\n
  • India is placed at 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index\u201d.<\/li>\n
  • Land degradation and desertification are taking place over 30% of our land, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation.<\/li>\n
  • Average levels of land productivity are one\u00adfourth or one\u00adfifth of what they could be; pumping in artificial fertilizers restores a bit, but at the cost of pushing the soil further towards death.<\/li>\n
  • The World Bank \u2014 itself partly responsible for pushing India into unsustainable pathways \u2014 reported in 2013 that India was losing 5.7% of GDP due to environmental damage.<\/li>\n
  • The obsession with economic growth \u2014 despite growing evidence of GDP being a very poor indicator of human well\u00adbeing treats the natural environment (and related livelihoods) as fodder<\/li>\n
  • for exploitation. Despite public posturing about the Sustainable Development Goals, the natural elements without which we would all be dead \u2014 land, water, biodiverisity, air \u2014 continue to be ignored or mauled.<\/li>\n
  • 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.<\/li>\n
  • 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.<\/li>\n
  • So, India\u2019s 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    New initiatives<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
      \n
    • 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,<\/li>\n
    • India\u2019s crafts have sustained several hundred million people in the past, and can do so again if the in-<\/li>\n
    • credible traditional and new skills in textiles, footwear, cleaning agents, vessels, pottery, furniture,<\/li>\n
    • architecture and construction, water\u00adrelated technologies, and range of household items are given<\/li>\n
    • Community\u00adled 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 top\u00addown \u2018protected area\u2019 model. As advocated by the United Nations Environment Programme, public transportation, organic farming, land and water regeneration, renewable energy, community health, eco\u00adfriendly construction, ecotourism, and small\u00adscale manufacturing can significantly enhance job creation. Linking programmes such as the Mahatma Gandhi Na-<\/li>\n
    • tional Rural Employment Guarantee Act with such activities, as happening in some States, also hashuge potential.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      \ud83d\udd0e\u00a0 www.triumphias.com<\/strong><\/span>
      \n\ud83d\udd0e\u00a0 https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCsv76U-4y0dAIiHT92oYUgA<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Stepping back from an ecological abyss (Relevant for GS Paper-3) As India celebrates 75 years of Independence,\u00a0 Has India\u00a0 be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,42,844,1038],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-general-studies-iii-technology-economic-development-bio-diversity-environment-security-and-disaster-management","category-gs","category-gs-mains"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13159,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13157\/revisions\/13159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}