Sustainable Development, the only Reconciliation between Development and Environment

Since the primordial era, man’s irresistible impulse urged him to become civilized. He learnt to make fire by using the flint stones; he also came to know how to manage his own food, clothes and shelter. Moreover, he applied his sense to roll the wheels and tame both wild and domestic animals. These were possible by means of development that has made us what we are today.

The term ‘development’ covers many areas, like the economic, the social improvement and so on.

On the one hand, the economic development refers to the notion of increasing possibilities of employments. On the other hand, the social development includes urbanization.

The advancement of science and its miraculous inventions assist society and economy to become more and more developed day by day. But here a question peeps from everyone’s mind. That is to say, don’t these so-called developments hinder the environmental conservation?

When we are inclined to heavy industrialization and urbanization, we usually make deforestation. Without visualizing the actual consequences to be faced in near future, we get involved to destroy ourselves indirectly. Rainfall is uncertain and deficient everywhere. Soil-erosion, drought and flood have become very recurrent incidents. In the past, the trees used to hold the ground tightly, which has disappeared at present. As a result of the erosion, the depth of the rivers is getting more and more decreased. Time to time drazing is required to restore its profundity. Resulting in, they overflow, sometimes washing away the entire territory. Water-logging is a very common happening in Kolkata and its outskirts and the prolonged deposited water is the breeding ground of the mosquitoes.

Because of knocking down of trees, when it starts raining, it pours incessantly and when it is summer, the sunbeams are extremely scorching. As an effect of this, the entire cycle of seasons gets disturbed.

During the year of 1985, the man made development by way of deforestation, especially in the Himalayan watershed areas, aggravated the danger of flooding; it averaged 1,471 square kilometer per year. India also lost fifty per cent of her mangrove area between 1963 and 1977. Despite thirty years of flood-control programs that had already cost an estimated $10 billion, floods in 1980 alone claimed nearly two thousand lives, killed thousands of cattle and affected 55 million people on 11.3 million hectares (28 million acres) of land. As of the mid-1990s, sixty per cent of the land where crops could be grown had been damaged by the grazing of the nation's 406 million head of livestock, deforestation, and misuse of agricultural chemicals and increase of salinity.

Due to deforestation, natural weather and climate also get affected from their usual stands. Therefore, required rainfall does not arrive at its actual time and sometimes, it gets delayed to come because of which cultivation also gets hampered.

The trees maintain a perfect balance between Oxygen and Carbon-dioxide. While the former is essential for all and sundry to breathe in, the latter aids the greenery to prepare their foods with Chlorophyll. Due to development, the felling of trees causes a large imbalance in the air. So, the normal ratio of the two gases is getting agitated.

Due to cutting down of trees in an indiscriminate manner, due to polluting the environment at large, we have created a great imbalance in our ecosystem. Consequently, many species are becoming extinct year after year. Take for example; Hangul and Snow Leopard in Jammu and Kashmir, Vulture in Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat, Swiftlet in Andaman and Nicobar islands, Nilgiri Tahr in Tamil Nadu and Sanghai Deer in Manipur are all endangered classes of animals and birds, which the Government of India is trying to recover and rescue. Wildlife Institute of India, Bombay Natural History Society, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History are some of the research organizations undertaking research on conservation of wildlife. Recently, global warming is a very dreadful phenomenon, as a result of which, the polar ice getting melted raises the sea level and many coastal areas are imminent to get submerged.

In the name of development, natural resources are getting exploited overtly. Take for instance; water is a limited resource, which is being contaminated each and every day. At present, the residents of the multi-storied buildings, due to high population, have to be supplied with fresh water. So, the ground water level is getting decreased each day. Moreover, hybrid vegetables are produced to meet our needs, because there is over population density. This hybridism not only invites various kinds of diseases to modern mankind but also reduces the productivity of lands, making them become barren. Environmental conservation is thus getting affected more and more.

Apart from that, the domestic and industrial waste water causes pollution to this limited resource. Washing dirty clothes, cleansing cattle, scrubbing utensils etc. are absolutely anti-environmental activities. These can be found in the domestic scenario. The filthy drainage water also gets mingled with the rivers. An impeccable instance of this case would be the Ganga. When the carcasses and the corpses float on the river, the germs get mixed with the water, creating environmental degradation.

Due to uncontrolled dumping of chemical and industrial waste, fertilizers and pesticides, seventy per cent of the surface water in India is polluted. The nation has 1,260 cubic km of renewable water resources, of which 92 per cent is used for farming. Safe drinking water is available to 95 per cent of urban and 79 per cent of rural dwellers.    

However, a start was made in terms of River Action Plan to clean up the polluted rivers in the country. Ganga Action Plan, the first phase of this plan, began in 25-class I towns in the three states, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Unfortunately, even after ten years, it remains incomplete.

The environmental effects of intensive urbanization are evident in all the major cities, although Calcutta—once a symbol of urban quality—has been freed of cholera and most of the city now has water purification and sewer services. Analogous improvements have been made in other leading cities under the Central Scheme for Environmental Improvement in Slum Areas, launched in 1972, which provided funds for sewers, community baths and latrines, road paving, and other services. However, as of the mid-1990s, only 21 of India's 3,245 cities had effective sewage treatment.

Just like water, air is another component that we always need to survive. Over-use of fossil fuels contaminates it, Chloro-Fluro-Carbon (CFC) that is emitted while manufacturing and repairing refrigerators make it unfit to be inhaled. Moreover, the atomic explosions used in wars upset the environmental balance and conservation to the utmost.

Air pollution is most severe in urban centers; but even in rural areas, the burning of wood, charcoal, and dung for fuel, coupled with dust from wind erosion during the dry season, poses a significant problem. Industrial air pollution threatens some of India's architectural treasures, including the Taj Mahal in Agra, part of the exterior of which has been dulled and pitted by airborne acids. It is a perfect instance of Stone Cancer. Moreover, in what was probably the worst industrial disaster of all time, a noxious gas named Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, killed more than 1,500 people and injured thousands of others in December, 1985. In 1992, India had the world's sixth-highest level of industrial carbon dioxide emissions, which totaled 769 million metric tons, a per capita level of 0.88 metric tons.

In order to solve the enormous problem of air-pollution, what we need to do immediately is to utilize the complementary resources like the solar energy, the wind energy and tidal energy.

Besides air-pollution, land-pollution and sound-pollution are some prevalent occurrences now-a-days. Due to the former, the fertile fields are becoming arid and turning to pure waste lands. It definitely affects the environmental conservation.

The violated usage of microphones over the allowed range, the fireworks and so on destroy the balance of nature. These cause pollution, congestion, tension, noise and accidents frequently. Deafness is our daily companion now-a-days. Evidently, the most harmed persons are the destitute.    

In the modern age, people are developed, life styles are refined, but, who cares for the poorest of the poor? Are they really considered to be a part of our society? In the Stockholm Conference in 1972, Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, said that poverty is the greatest pollutant. If we are incompetent to propagate the developments to the lower and marginalized strata at the same time, the entire development process becomes incomplete and futile. It seems that we better return to the era of nature.

Every year, people observe 5th June as World Environment Day, when they deliver series after series of lecture, when lots of seminars are held to arouse public awareness regarding environmental conservation, but simultaneously, also some of us, speakers and listeners, keep on doing disgraceful acts, which affect our nature. Each and every nook and corner of the earth will feel better and more beautiful, only if we take up the task of undoing our misdeeds collectively again from the very beginning with conscious minds and environment-friendly attitude.

However, some steps have been taken by the Government of India for the protection of environment and bio-diversity. Amongst those, the important measures include the enactment of the Wild Life (Protection) Act (1972), Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules (2010), National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-system, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and so on. Some of the significant Indian Acts related to the environmental conservation are Fisheries Act (1897), Indian Forests Act (1927), Mining and Mineral Development Regulation Act (1957), Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (1960), Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act (1974), Forest Conservation Act (1980), Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act (1981), Environment Protection Act (1986), Biological Diversity Act (2002) and Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act (2006).

The National Committee on Environmental Planning and Coordination was established in 1972 to investigate and propose solutions to environmental problems resulting from continued population growth and consequent economic development; in 1980, the Department of the Environment was created. The sixth development plan (1979–84), which for the first time included a section on environmental planning and coordination, gave the planning commission veto power over development projects that might damage the environment; this policy was sustained in the seventh development plan (1985–90). The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute has field center areas throughout the country.

The Wildlife Act of 1972 prohibits killing of and commerce in threatened animals. In 1985 there were 20 national parks and more than 200 wildlife sanctuaries. As of 2001, 4.4 per cent of India's total land area was protected. In addition to 75 species of mammals, 73 types of birds are endangered, as are 785 plant species. Endangered species in India include the lion-tailed macaque, five species of langur, the Indus dolphin, wolf, Asiatic wild dog, Malabar large-spotted civet, clouded leopard, Asiatic lion, Indian tiger, leopard, cheetah, Asian elephant, dugong, wild Asian ass, great Indian rhinoceros, Sumatran rhinoceros, pygmy hog, swamp deer, Himalayan musk deer, Asiatic buffalo, gaur, wild yak, white-winged wood duck, four species of pheasant, the crimson tragopan, Siberian white crane, great Indian bustard, river terrapin, marsh and estuarine crocodiles, gavial, and Indian python. Although wardens are authorized to shoot poachers on game reserves, poaching continues, with the Indian rhinoceros (whose horn is renowned for its supposed aphrodisiac qualities), especially valuable.

Of course, both progress and transition are necessary to create a better future, but at the same time, it is also not desired and expected that they will cause harms to the environmental conservation.

Therefore, sustainable development is required all over the world. The expression ‘sustainable development’ means the economic development that is conducted without depletion of natural resources.

It sounds quite shameful to utter that the initial generations of men inherited a clean earth, but, nowadays, every person gives a defiled one to his progeny.