India is facing an alarming rise in air, water and soil pollution. The rapidly worsening environmental situation is causing health disorders among humans and animals, polluting water resources and adding to global warming by causing more noxious emissions. One of the most credible air quality monitoring bodies of the world, IQAir, released its annual report earlier this week, in which New Delhi was ranked the world’s most polluted capital and India the third most polluted country in the world.
The parliamentary standing committee on agriculture had, in a report on the impact of chemicals on agriculture and allied sectors, said that the rampant use of chemical fertilisers and the failure to use organic manure had wreaked havoc on India’s soil. The committee gave the example of the excessive use of nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium or NPK fertilisers, and said that while the desirable ratio for these nutrients’ use is 4:2:1, they had been found to be used in the proportion of 31: 4.8:0.1. It said that in the absence of adequate soil testing facilities and efforts to educate farmers, the indiscriminate use of nitrogen fertilisers had led to poorer soil health and damage to the overall environment.
The situation on the water front is no better. The Union government’s policy think tank, NITI Aayog, and its Comprehensive Water Management Index have painted a grim picture. Yet, these issues are not among the main concerns of our political parties. In the ongoing Lok Sabha election campaigns, issues relating to the environment have not found prominence in the manifesto of any political party. This is in sharp contrast to the concern shown to these issues by politicians in Europe, where a party formed to protect the environment is part of the ruling coalition in Germany. Almost half a dozen European countries have political parties that have protection of the environment as their main agenda.
It may be already late for India to centre-stage these issues in the political discourse before these polls.The push needs to come from the public. The prime minister won hearts last year when he mentioned the slogan of ‘One Earth, One family, One Future’ at the G20 summit in New Delhi. It is time for Indian voters to impress upon political parties that they wish to leave a safer planet for the generations to come.