FUTURE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT WILL BE LINKED TO PROTECTING THE EARTH
FROM MINDLESS CONSUMPTION AND DESTRUCTION: PM
The Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari
Vajpayee has expressed his firm belief that future human development
will be linked to protecting the earth from mindless consumption
and destruction. In an interview to Shri Bittoo Sehgal, the editor
of Sanctuary, a monthly magazine on environmental issues, Shri
Vajpayee said, "repairing the excesses of the 20th
century will be integral to future development programmes"
and cited as an example, the "devastation wrought by drought"
that one reads in newspapers today. Following is the text of the
interview with the Prime Minister:
Q: June 5th is
celebrated as World Environment Day by the United Nations. In
October, we observe National Wildlife Week. How would you respond
if I said that the true temples of Lord Ram, the forests of India,
are nevertheless being destroyed and that virtually no one from
the Sangh Parivar is doing anything to protect this ancient and
hallowed heritage?
ABV: (Smiling) How should I respond?
I agree with you that our forests, indeed the earth itself, should
be looked upon as a temple of God. But society seems unable or
unwilling to treat our forests with respect. In fact, they are
treated merely as commodities for sale. Almost every God and Goddess
in our pantheon is associated with some animal. And, that animal
is venerated almost as much as the deity itself. Our folklore
and our arts and crafts reflect our love and reverence for the
animal world. Sadly, the reality is otherwise.
Q: But should part of the responsibility for
this state of affairs not be laid at the doorstep of post-Independence
planners and politicians, who have, in fact, moved the country
away from such ancient values?
ABV: Again there is some truth to what you say.
People in the government and the administration cannot shirk their
responsibility. But you cannot blame narrow segments of our population
for this. We are collectively guilty of drifting away from old
values. One of the most visible signs of such drift is the condition
of the Ganga, the mother river and the fact that the tiger, the
vahan of Durga is not safe from poisons, traps and guns.
Q: As Chairman of the Indian Board for Wildlife
(IBWL), surely you have the power to change this state of affairs.
But how will this happen if the Board meets only once in four
or five years?
ABV: I sincerely regretted this delay when I
addressed members of the IBWL on January 18, 2002. I would like
the Board to meet more regularly.
Q: You did indeed inject fresh impetus into
the wildlife movement, but will you support the hard decisions
that need to be made? Or will short-term gains rule the day as
they have done for the past five decades in India?
ABV: We will take hard decisions. Even the Supreme
Court is encouraging us to do this. But as the Prime Minister
of a nation of one billion people, I must also carry the public
and different sections of society with me. We will achieve much
more if we work together rather than at cross-purposes. I firmly
believe that future human development will be linked to protecting
the earth from mindless consumption and destruction. Repairing
the excesses of the 20th century will be integral to future development
programmes. An example is the devastation wrought by drought that
we read about today in our papers. Soon the same areas may be
in the grip of floods. It is not a secret that forest destruction
has a major role to play in both these tragedies. So, we have
to evolve a long-term, sustainable perspective on development.
Q: In which directions do our solutions lie?
ABV: Many of the solutions already exist. They
do not need to be invented. Take the example of Palamau district
in Bihar where pani panchayats exist to harvest water and manage
watersheds. Here, traditional structures and modern scientific
inputs are combined to determine how much water a particular crop
needs. This drought-prone area is undergoing positive change.
There are many more examples and many individuals, such as Rajinder
Singh of the Tarun Bharat Sangh in Alwar (Rajasthan) and Anna
Saheb Hazare in Ralegaon Siddhi (Maharashtra) and Sundarlal Bahuguna
and his Chipko movement in Uttaranchal. I believe that in the
name of development and modernity, we have dismantled strategies
for sustainability and the traditional life-sustaining structures
that had served our people for centuries. Perhaps, it is time
we went back to the future.
Q: How does this plan fit in with India's global
image and ambitions?
ABV: If you go back a decade, you will see that
the 1992 Rio Conference acknowledged the need to harmonise economic
development with resource use. Successive Indian governments have
been trying to achieve this balance and while we have succeeded
to some extent, clearly we have a very long way to go.
Q: Could you point to some of the successes
that you refer to?
ABV:
There are many but let us start with wind power generation. Even
the most critical among us will agree that electricity production
is crucial to national development. India has a built capacity
of over 1,000 MWs of wind power! That places us fourth in the
world, after Germany, the US and Denmark. But my advisers suggest
that India has a wind power potential of 20,000 MW, which is why
I feel that we have a long way to go. In the Tenth Five Year Plan,
we have set ourselves the target of producing at least 10 per
cent of power from renewable sources of energy.
Another success
is the fact that the tiger is still alive in India, despite dire
predictions from experts as recently as 1990 that our national
animal will not survive to see the 21st century. I acknowledge
that the tiger is still in grave danger. I do not wish to give
the impression that I am trying to cover up or deny our national
failures. But sometimes we must look at a half-full glass
and not always a half-empty one, as environmentalists tend to
do.
Here I would like to acknowledge
the catalytic role played by the 'Kids for Tigers' who accompanied
you and Sunil Alagh of Britannia to my residence earlier this
year, when the children asked me and my Cabinet colleague Shri
T.R. Baalu, Minister for Environment and Forests, to save the
tiger. Since then, both of us have instructed officials to try
and make up for lost time. I am committed to saving the tiger
and our natural heritage.
Q: How can environmentalists play a more positive
role in India's development?
ABV: I do not wish to be misunderstood.
I believe that environmentalists are already playing a vital role
in India's development. It was brought to my attention, for instance,
that carefully constructed rainwater harvesting systems in Rajasthan,
set up centuries ago, were being ravaged by miners who had been
given licences to quarry. Soon the affected area was hit by a
severe drought. Had the structures been in place, the impact of
the drought would have been somewhat less. I hope that such a
crucial watchdog role continues to be played by environmentalists.
I also hope that some kind of internal self-regulation takes place
to prevent lobbies from manipulating environmental groups for
narrow ends, which as you know, also takes place.
Q: Your support for the National Wildlife Action
Plan and the National Conservation Strategy 2002 was welcomed.
But on the ground, support for tigers is still lacking. In the
Kudremukh National Park, for instance, the government advocated
redrawing the boundaries to facilitate iron ore mining.
ABV: I am aware of this particular conflict.
Often wildlife and economic imperatives are going to clash. I
hope, however, that such exceptions are the ones that will prove
the rule that India seriously wishes to protect the tiger and
its remaining wild forests. In the long run, the two objectives
are not antithetical to one another. I personally brought this
to the notice of all Chief Ministers when I reminded them about
how the super-cyclone that devastated Orissa had spared all those
lives and homes and properties that were sheltered behind the
thick mangroves in the Bhitarkanika area. Protecting our environment
does not mean putting a stop to development, or halting progress.
We must evolve pragmatic solutions to problems posed by development
projects.
Q: Prime Minister, we are waiting for the very
first point on the National Conservation Strategy to be fulfilled,
namely that "wildlife and forests shall be declared a priority
sector at the national level for which funds should be earmarked."
You also said that you would announce a Forest Commission.
ABV: (Smiling) You are putting questions
to me like a Parliamentarian now! These things take time. Our
meeting was held in mid-January this year. You know the kind of
traumas the nation has been through. Our decision to declare wildlife
and forests as a priority sector is pucca. And I agree
that it should not be delayed too long. Ecological security determines
internal security and you will shortly see us take some positive
steps on both fronts.
Q: India has some of the best laws and policies
in the world, but they are not implemented.
ABV: In this regard, the responsibility of the
centre is unambiguous. We can strengthen, coordinate, monitor
and, in some instances, even take corrective action. But for concurrent
subjects like wildlife and forests, the operational functions
lie with the states. Sometimes, there is a gap here. To plug this
gap, we must win the support and involvement of various sections
of society. People must internalise the fact that caring for wildlife
cannot be limited to maintaining zoos or even designated sanctuaries.
As a people, we must want to provide space for elephants
and tigers. I have instructed that the Tenth Plan lays greater
emphasis on winning peoples' cooperation, but all of us must assume
responsibility to achieve such ends.
Q: If you had a magic wand, how would you use
it to improve the environmental conditions of our people?
ABV: I would restore the age-old
philosophy of co-existence, not merely between human beings, but
between all living beings that need to live in harmony within
the cosmos. I would restore the delicate balance of nature, the
complementarity and co-existence of different life-forms; between
plants and animals and between nature and humans. This is the
only way that the balance of the five basic elements - the panchtatva
- air, water, fire, earth and sky can be restored.
Q: What would you leave with us as your last
thoughts on the subject of environmental protection?
ABV: History proves that good ideas only make
a real impact when they become mass movements. This is what the
environmental movement must become, not merely in India but throughout
the world. This is in our self-interest. It is in the interests
of the children for whom we must somehow leave behind a cleaner,
better, safer country and a more beautiful world.
