India’s Environment
Posted by adminAccording to a report by the TERI organization for the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests, the country “holds the dubious honor of suffering from poverty-induced environmental degradation at the same time as pollution from affluence and a rapidly growing industrial sector”.
New Delhi has more than 4 million vehicles, with 200,000 added each year. The air had become so thick with flying ash and particulate pollutants that the city’s administration forced all public transport (including autos) to convert to CNG (compressed natural gas), as well as building a new metro system.
Steady population growth puts pressure on resources, and Indians cope with polluted air and an alarmingly diminishing water table. The sacred rivers teem with bacteria. Development schemes and environmental control measures are often at odds, and legislation is difficult to enforce.
Timber, paper and mining industries have depleted the forest cover. The Chipko activists, tree-hugging Adivasi women who put themselves in the way of saws and axes to stop the loss of their forests in the Garwal Himalayas in 1973, inspired green protests across the planet. The forest protection measures that followed may now be bearing fruit. Between 1999 and 2006 forest cover grew from 19.39 to 20.64 percent of the country.
The damming of rivers and flooding of valleys continues to be a focus for eco-activists, who oppose the dam projects on the Narmada river, the dam at Tehri in Uttaranchal, a region prone to earthquakes, as well as the Sardar Sarovar project in Maharashtra. Tourism has also taken its toll. Many trekking routes in the Himalayas are vertical rubbish heaps, particularly from plastic bottles used for water. In Ladakh local projects have been set up to provide clean, boiled water to visitors. Ancient marble monuments such as the Taj Mahal show erosion due to chemical emissions.
Unenforced regulations in industry and official and management callousness have led to environmental disasters. In 1984 more than 3,500 People were killed in their sleep when toxic methyl ico-cynate leaked from the Union Carbide factory in wopal, Madhya Pradesh. The first fire in the Jharia coalfields in Bihar started in 1916 and there are currently around 70 still burning, causing asthma, cnronic bronchitis and skin and lung diseases. Mercury poisoning is becoming a huge problem. Dumping of the highly toxic chemical by multinational companies such as Unilever (which makes thermometers for the US market in Kodaikanal, Kerala) causes birth defects, tumors and damage to the central nervous system, lungs and kidneys. The North Koel river in Bihar has up to 700 times above the permissible level of mercury.
Soft drinks multinationals are also culpable. The Coca-Cola plant at Plachimada, Kerala, was using up to 1.5 million litres of ground water daily until it was banned from doing so by the State Government. It has also been dumping toxic waste, high in heavy metals, on farmland. In 2003, both Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola were found to have “shocking” levels of pesticides in their bottled drinks.
Fightback is occurring: the Narmada Bachao Andolan are particularly active as is the more radical Mumbai Resistance. And when the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau, riddled with asbestos and due to be broken up in Alang’s shipyard in 2006, was recalled to France in a wave of protests worldwide, many saw this as an opportunity for India to improve conditions for its shipyard workers.
On a more practical level, India practices recycling on many levels - ragpickers sort rubbish so efficiently that plastic bags, paper and wire are sold off by weight - providing social institutions from which sustainable systems can develop.
