A sound economy needs a sound environment
HINDUSTAN TIMES A sound economy needs a sound environment Bittu Sahgal June 16, 2014
Going
by our Intelligence Bureau (IB) and some of the voices in the
government, anyone asking for the protection of the country’s forests,
its rivers or its coasts is anti-national and destroying the country’s
economy.
I have spent the better part of my life working to save
India’s natural wealth from the assault of development (largely in vain
it often seems). I told successive governments that the hundreds of big
dams planned in the Himalayas are not only ecologically destructive,
but also make little economic sense, given that climate change is going
to drastically affect the water flow.
I have fought against
highways and tourism projects inside protected areas, asking that these
few remnants of wildlife be left alone. And I have campaigned for the
protection of the few tigers we have left today from the onslaught of
development in their remaining habitats. I guess, according to the IB,
that makes me part of the anti-national brigade. So be it.
We
are in good company. Baba Amte, Padma Shri and Magsaysay award winner,
would be anti-national too — he vociferously fought for the rights of
Madia Gond tribals threatened by the Bhopalpatnam and Inchampalli dams
planned for the Indravati River. Sunderlal Bahuguna, Padma Vibhushan
awardee, who has been opposing the clear felling of the forests and the
construction of dams in the Himalayas for decades, is another one of
those anti-nationals.
What the IB and its masters in government
fail to realise is that there can be no economy without an intact
ecology. If you want to set up a factory, you need a viable water
source. If that water source is polluted, you need to invest money on
filtration systems. If the air is too polluted, productivity is lost as
workers take more sick days. If our catchment areas are degraded or
destroyed, floods and mudslides, followed by drought, are inevitable,
dragging down the economy.
A sound environment is a must for a
sound economy. You don’t have to take it from one of us
‘environmentalists’ — the World Bank, which ironically has probably
done more than any other agency to destroy India’s environment,
recently said that environmental degradation costs India 5.7% of GDP.
The same report also said that strategies to reduce environmental
degradation would cost less than 0.04% of the average annual GDP growth
rate.
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