THE LAW OF ‘NATURE’!

Environment needs to seep into our thought process. We may be following the societal norms, the national laws, the religious norms but it is high time we hear the ‘Laws of Nature’

We hear demands of a strong nation, development, Reservations, a Mandir, secular University campuses; not that they are right or wrong but that we need to add to the list – Our right to Environment irrespective of nationality, religion, caste, creed. The Capital is facing a Health Emergency. The water crisis has always been there. Droughts, heavy rainfalls have been there too. But the ones facing these problems were farmers, not us.

Today we have started taking these issues seriously because cities are directly being affected. Chennai was facing a water supply crisis some time ago. Bangalore is next in line. The New Year has brought chilling winds with it. We experienced continuous long period of rainfall in 2019. What will be in the box this year?

In 2019, unprecedented rainfalls lashed cities of India and the World. In addition to Monsoon and changes in pressure over the Arabian Sea, this is happening due to the ‘Heat Island Effect’. Sun’s heat gets trapped and piles up in the cities due to concretization resulting in Convectional rainfall in the evening. So we notice this phenomenon of low temperatures in the morning, high temperatures during the day and rainfall in the evening. Starting from Kerala last year, floods and heavy rainfalls have struck almost every state in our country.

Lately, such extreme weather events are happening all over the world. This can be seen the the Australian Bush fires and it’s effects on humans as well as wildlife. Keeping aside the debate of Pro Greens vs. Anti-Greens, nature has started coming to our doorsteps violently and making us aware of the fact that Humans are not the owners of this planet and should refrain from behaving like ones.

Our Leaders

According to the Supreme Court of India, Right to Environment is a Fundamental right under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. So why are we not demanding its implementation from the Government? The Environment is not reacting as per the possible statistics and formulas. The issue of Environment change has to be addressed by the World Leaders. We have to start politicizing our Environment. It should become an election issue. By politicization, I don’t mean the petty politics, but the check and balance politics.

Politicians should feel that they are answerable to us for the Environmental losses. Once we start demanding Environment friendly policies from our leaders, the opposition leaders will start questioning the Government over its policies. Thus each elected Government will try to implement and show what they are doing for the environment.

We can see these examples in countries like USA, Sweden, and Denmark etc. Pro-Environment Green Party started in Germany secured many seats in National Elections and was a part of the coalition Government. India has started taking lead globally by the formation of the International Solar Alliance.

The People

Politics of a country is the reflection of the aspirations of the people of that country. Hence to make environment a part of the political agenda, first, the people need to demand it. Secondly, to demand it, people need to understand that Environmental Change is an issue which is affecting them directly and the Government should do something which brings them out of this danger. Thirdly and most importantly, before blaming the Governments, the people should also understand that there is no easy solution to this issue without public participation.

Today NGOs and Self Help Groups which are working for the environment are being tagged as ‘Environmentalists’. What is the reason for this classification? Saving the Earth is neither the job of some handful people known as ‘Environmentalists’ nor just of the Politicians. Is our life in line with the nature?

Our clothing is plastic, home appliances are plastic. Our modes of transport are polluting. Even our toothpaste, brushes and soaps are polluting. While reading this, just look around and try to think about the components of appliances around us, the toxic chemicals in them.

Once, at a Save Mula-Mutha river exhibition in Pune organized by Jeevitnadi, I saw a chart showing the amount of toxic chemicals discharged into the river from a single household, yearly, multiplied by the population of Pune in 2016. The figure was mind-boggling. 73,00,000 kg of toxic chemicals per year directly into the river without any treatment! Environment needs to seep into our thought process. We may be following the societal norms, the national laws, the religious norms but it is high time we hear the ‘Laws of Nature’. Hear around, the Mother Earth is speaking!