The first Earth Day event held in 1970 in New York, the 1972 Stockholm Conference on Human Environment and the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 were watershed moments of the 20th century as they made the world sit up and take note of the imperative need to focus on environmental protection and sustainable development. Since then, environmental activists, world leaders, governments and non-governmental organisations have joined hands across the globe to protect biodiversity and prevent environmental degradation of the Earth’s natural resources.
Of course, this is nothing new for us in India as our civilisation, dating back thousands of years, has always revered Mother Earth and believed in co-existing with all the natural elements that sustain life on Earth. In fact, Bhumi Suktam, a hymn in reverence of Mother Earth in the Atharva Veda, says: “Earth, in which the seas, the rivers and many waters lie, from which arise foods and fields of grain, abode to all that breathes and moves, may She confer on us Her finest yield.”
Thousands of years before the declaration of World Earth Day or World Environment Day, our Vedas spoke against deforestation. The Rig Veda says: “Do not uproot or cut trees as they provide protection to animals, birds and other living beings.” We also have special rituals like Bhumi Pooja to propitiate Mother Earth before a person or an organisation starts a new construction or a farmer starts tilling the land. In fact, the concept of ecological protection is embedded in our DNA from time immemorial as we have traditionally revered and celebrated natural resources, including fauna, flora, rivers and mountains.
India is a mega biodiversity region and there is every need to strike a judicious balance between various developmental requirements and environmental sustainability, especially when mega projects are taken up in power, irrigation and other fields. Environmental protection requires sustained, concerted and conscious action from governments, NGOs and individuals. Development cannot be sustainable if there is indiscriminate felling of trees, encroaching of water bodies, mining of mineral wealth and increasing levels of air and water pollution.
The Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, had cautioned us long back saying that “the Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed”. He also stated: “The good man is the friend of all living things”. With global warming and climate change impacting every aspect of life, there is a pressing need for all citizens, communities, panchayats, municipalities, governments and NGOs to wage a relentless crusade against environmental degradation and ensure that our planet remains greener and cleaner.
It should be a matter of concern for all of us that India’s overall ranking in the Environmental Performance Index 2018 was 177 among 180 countries. India’s ranking, which slipped from 141 in 2016 to 177, was attributed to poor performance in the environment health policy and deaths due to air pollution. “Despite government action, pollution from solid fuels, coal and crop residue burning, and emissions from motor vehicles continue to severely degrade the air quality for millions of Indians,” said a biennial report prepared by Yale and Columbia Universities, along with the World Economic Forum.
It can no longer be business as usual and governments need to come down heavily on those violating environmental laws. Concerted action needs to be initiated and sustained on multiple fronts to ensure that soil is enriched organically, water remains potable and the air we breathe is pure. The Earth we have inherited should be protected and nurtured, rejuvenated and enriched.
Earth Day Network, a non-profit body, organises activities worldwide on April 22, to raise awareness on environmental protection. This year, EDN has declared that the focus will be on mobilising support for a global effort to eliminate single-use plastics along with a global regulation for the disposal of plastics. Seeking to educate millions of people about the health and other risks associated with use of plastics, EDN said: “From poisoning and injuring marine life to the ubiquitous presence of plastics in our food to disrupting human hormones and causing major life-threatening diseases and early puberty, the exponential growth of plastics is threatening our planet’s survival’.
EDN further declared: “Our goals include ending single-use plastics, promoting alternatives to fossil fuel-based materials, promoting 100 per cent recycling of plastics, corporate and government accountability and changing human behaviour concerning plastics.”I am glad that India will be the global host of 2018 World Environment Day on June 5 with ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ as the theme for this year’s edition.
Following the joint announcement in this regard by Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Erik Solheim, UN Under-Secretary-General, the latter hailed India’s global leadership on climate change and said: “India will now help galvanise greater action on plastics pollution. It’s a global emergency affecting every aspect of our lives. It’s in the water we drink and the food we eat. It’s destroying our beaches and oceans. India will now be leading the push to save our oceans and planet.”
Although, India is focusing on recycling and many states have banned the use of polythene carry bags, we cannot allow any laxity in its implementation. Strictest action should be taken against those violating the law as survival of the planet is at stake.It is estimated that every year the world uses 500 billion plastic bags, and eight million tonnes of plastic end up in oceans. About 50 per cent of plastic we use is single-use or disposable and one million plastic bottles are bought every minute.
In 2017, the Central Pollution Control Board estimated that around 25,940 tonnes of plastic waste are generated in India per day.The need of the hour is to demonstrate zero tolerance to environmental degradation. All of us need to take a pledge to end single-use plastics and promote alternative materials, return to our roots of co-existing with Nature so that a greener and cleaner planet can be inherited by our future generations. Mother Earth has been protecting and nourishing us all through the millenniums. The time has come for us to care for her health because our future is inexorably entwined with hers.
(The writer is the Vice-President of India)