A green Question

Amidst hue and cry over environmental protection and bio diversity preservation, convincing the need for green credentials becoming a difficult task. Whilst mull over development and growth environmental consideration force to keep a back seat. Business is for making profit and stringent regulations will badly affect the economy and investment.

When time moves we strive to manage a balance; conservation and development. The concept biological diversity and biodiversity conservation came to our attention when the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) opened at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 famously called ‘Earth Summit’. After 20 years the 11^th Conference of Parties (CoP), CBD took place in Hydrabad, India. India is home to the three of the world mega diversity hot spots, the Western Ghatz Srilanka region, Indo Burma region and the east Himalayan region. Also certain flag initiatives Project Tiger and Project Elephant are doing a reasonably good job. Our   special based approach for bio diversity protection has already gained global attention. The only population of Asiatic Lion in the world, in the Gir National Park, have more than doubled in numbers, moving from ‘critically endangered’ to ‘endangered’. The story of the Chambal Gharials is also inspiring. The one horned rhino in Manaas, Kaziranga etc. shown a tremendous come back, from about 200 to nearly 3,000.

But the fact is that among 18 million diverse species, we know only 1.4 million. So many species are becoming extinct before they identify. The biological register, social forestry and artificial forestry are a few programs to protect our indigenous species diversity. Though debating, Western Gahatz Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) throws light to the conservation of bio diversity. An intelligent, democratic and participatory planning for protection and diversity based zonation is a need of this hour. We should work for a environmentalist far sighted plan rather than a politician short sighted plans. The reason underlined behind is that, whilst failing almost all mitigation strategies and binding agreement on emission cutting the only option left with us is the preservation of bio diversity and increasing the spread of bio diversity.

The recent tussle between the National Investment Board (NIB) and Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) over allowing large investments more than 1000 crores without social and environmental clearance raising a serious concern.   Athe same time both MoEF and Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) chastised for “slowing down India’s galloping economy”. The situations invariably prove that, a balanced approach is vital for social and economic development. All our development should meets the need of present and will not be jeopardized the ability of the future to meet their demands.     

Paul V Mathew