For those who thought that Green Parties -- campaigning in the political arena for environmental causes -- existed only in Britain, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and the advanced world, please think again.
Even if it is a David vs Goliath battle, at least someone stood up here in India, never mind the gargantuan odds.
Along the scenic Devprayag-Bubakhal State Highway-31, in district Pauri Garhwal of Uttarakhand, is the head office of 'India Greens Party'. In July 2019, India's only 'green party' was registered with the Election Commission of India. Its founder-mentor Suresh Nautiyal has shared the vision of the fledgling party to make India clean and green -- ecologically and politically.
This is in sharp contrast to mainline political parties, who have maintained a deafening silence on environmental issues, even as the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign gains momentum and fury. This when the media is filled with headlines every day of how air-water-food pollution is adversely affecting every Indian's health, nutrition, and lifestyle.
Consider the following:
* Experts estimate that around 33,000 to 43,000 trees will be cut in the construction of the Char-Dham Road project. The project envisages all-weather connectivity to four major pilgrimage sites in Uttarakhand -- Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri.
* In January 2020, the government passed an ordinance to amend the Coal Mines Act of 2015 to open the coal sector for commercial mining
* More than 60% of the forest area in the country falls within 187 tribal districts.
* Lakshadweep is experiencing coastal erosion. experts fear rising sea levels may make certain islands uninhabitable.
The drastic fall in India's ecological standing is best encapsulated in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), an international ranking system that measures the environmental health and sustainability of countries. According to the Environmental Performance Index 2022, India ranked the lowest among 180 countries, after Vietnam (178), Bangladesh (177), and Pakistan (176).
With an overall score of 18.9, India is at the bottom of all countries in the 2022 EPI with low scores across a range of critical landmarks. This rank is steadily going down. In 2019, India was ranked the fourth-worst country (177) in the world out of 180 countries, a steady drop since 2014, when India was ranked 155th, globally.
For India's mainline political parties, though, environmental damage is not an issue that is worth their while.
Bengaluru -- once called the 'city of gardens', 'the greenest city of India' -- has been facing an unprecedented water crisis, but the helplessness of ordinary citizens and activists has not found a national political platform. Nor has it become the poll agenda for mainstream political parties who have otherwise taken pride in Bengaluru's success story as 'India's Silicon Valley'. As a young software developer quipped, "Now we are not Working from Home, now we are ready to Go Home."
New Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) have witnessed knee-jerk reactions, solutions to waste management and air pollution. The NCR gasps for clean unpolluted air, year after year, with its average Air Quality Index (AQI) well beyond the 'severe' 300 mark.
Large tankers are seen spraying water droplets on high-traffic roads and trees on road-dividers to reduce air pollution. These are short-term measures, making temporary or no difference in pollution levels. Neither the Aam Aadmi Party, Congress, BJP or any other regional political party has given any priority to environmental degradation and decay which can be seen, smelt, and touched by the citizenry.
Rahul Gandhi on his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, when addressing farmers in Tapi district of Gujarat, raged against atrocities of the government towards farmers: "You, like millions of farmers in India, work all day under the scorching sun, invest your entire strength, and now you're just asking for fair MSP (minimum support price) for what you grow. BJP says no, Adani and Ambani will sell potatoes, and farmers’ hard-earned money will not be given to them. They say we won't provide legal MSP. But they have forgiven the debts of the country's biggest billionaires, a total of Rs 16 lakh crores!"
As a leading light of the INDIA coalition, Rahul Gandhi and team are side-stepping the gamut of farm-related environmental issues which farmers, especially in the granary of India (Punjab, Haryana, western UP), face season after season. MSP is only one issue of contention; farmers agitations, since 2020, have seen thousands of tractors filled with farmers and families taking to the roads, demonstrating to be heard by governments who control the host of production, post-production inputs needed for farming.
Bharat Ratna Dr MS Swaminathan had warned, "Water, the life blood of agriculture, is under severe threat", in the National Commission of Farmers' reports he submitted to the Government of India through 2006-2008. He identified that allocation of water to agriculture was facing a losing battle with the industrial, domestic, power, and other sectors. Added to this reduction was the compulsion to intensify agriculture and enhance productivity. His clarion call for evolving programmes for efficient water management seem to have fallen on deaf ears of mainstream political parties seeking votes while promising employment, welfare cheques, free rations, and cooking gas cylinders.
With World Water Day 2024 being commemorated on March 22, the late Dr Swaminathan's appeal to conserve every drop of water and rendering "water as everyone's business" must be reaffirmed for the benefit of preserving India's environmental resources.
The mighty Ganga, much revered and worshipped by millions of Indians, continues to bear the brunt of degradation due to rapidly increasing population, rising standards of living and exponential growth of industrialization and urbanization. Notwithstanding the efforts of the National Mission for Clean Ganga of the Ministry of Jal Shakti, and its Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, the deterioration in the Ganga water quality impacts the people immediately. In some stretches, particularly during lean seasons, the river has become unfit even for bathing, revealed its website.
In 2014-15, the Modi government initiated the Namami Gange project to clean the Ganga with an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore. The programme has made a significant shift -- from merely cleaning the river through a network of sewage treatment plants, it is becoming a model for propelling the rural economy with focus on the cultural aspects of the Ganga. In early 2023, the United Nations recognised Namami Gange as one of the top 10 world restoration flagships to revive the natural world.
Still, the challenges are enormous in this river belt that sustains about 40% of the country’s population, and is regarded pretty much as the country's political heartland. In the Ganga basin approximately 12,000 million liters per day (MLD) sewage is generated, for which presently there is a treatment capacity of only around 4,000 MLD. Approximately 3,000 MLD of sewage is discharged into the main stem of the river Ganga from the Class I & II towns located along the banks, against which treatment capacity of about 1,000 MLD has been created till date.
New India, Aspirational India then awaits its 'green hour' which can successfully bring the country's rivers, mountains, forests, land, air, and water onto the agenda of mainstream parties, across the political spectrum.
