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(Population &
Environment : Myths And Mission) |
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The stress that human activities impose
on the environment, and the manifestation of damage caused
as a result, have come under widespread global attention
in recent years. The Rio Summit in 1992 and the subsequent
International Conference on Population and Development
held in Cairo were two major events where the nexus between
population changes and the state of the environment was
explored within a policy context. Recent literature on
this and other related issues has also highlighted the
question of the carrying capacity of ecosystems and how
this can be threatened by rapid population growth.
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In actual fact, population changes are
but one of many factors influencing the carrying capacity
of the earth and overall environmental quality. The interaction
between environmental variables on the one hand and population
changes (as well as other economic variables) on the other
is a dynamic one. Human societies are not oblivious of
the impacts of their actions on the environment, but are
often unable to respond appropriately within a time frame
that might contain or reverse any damage caused on ecosystems
and the stock of natural resources thus affected. There
is enough documentary evidence of large scale damage having
been caused to the forests of North America and Europe
right up to the middle of 19th century arising out of
unsustainable exploitation of forestry resources for construction
and fuel uses. However, in subsequent decades not only
was the rate of exploitation brought under check, but
even on the supply side major efforts were made to plant
large areas of land with trees, which have proved largely
successful. |
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The CBD family approach meets the challenge
of reaching out to every section of the community with
each member of the CBD family motivating his/her peers.
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The tragedy of the Indian situation
defining population-environment issues is that Population
growth over the past five decades has been very rapid
in relation to previous years, largely as a result of
increase in life expectancy. |
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Institutional solutions have not been
implemented by which protection of the environment and
management of natural resources would be essentially restored
to local communities as a paramount responsibility, rather
than through a system of centralized command and control. |
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Economic policy has not incorporated
instruments and measures that would price environmental
services rationally to ensure optimal use and avoid over-exploitation
of natural resources. |
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Low income levels do place a constraint
on the allocation of resources for environmental protection.
As an example, it can be mentioned that the developed
countries too addressed the problem of environmental damage
effectively only when their incomes reached a much higher
level than India can attain even in the next two to three
decades. |
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Notwithstanding the constraints that
India faces with the momentum of population growth and
consequent pressures on the country's ecosystems, there
is much that can and needs to be done to correct the present
situation. TERI's major project GREEN India 2047 (Growth
with Resource Enhancement of Environment and Nature) essentially
attempts to mainstream environmental decision making as
an element of economic decision making. This is brought
about by estimating the economic value of environmental
damage that has taken place in the country in the first
fifty years of independence, then projecting the likely
damage on a business as usual basis in the next half century
and arrive at policies and strategies by which the cumulative
damage of the past can be corrected by the year 2047.
Some results from the study need to be mentioned to highlight
the implications of this work for policy making and for
changes in mindsets and value systems. It need hardly
be mentioned that between 1947 and 1997, India's population
increased from 336 million to almost a billion, but much
of the damage and degradation that has taken place in
the country's natural resources has occurred on account
of institutional weaknesses in our governance structure
and a lack of attention to the cost of services that the
environment provides in human activities. This applies
as much to the pricing of water and the indiscriminate
cutting of trees as it does to the use of automobiles
in congested areas without paying for the pollution caused.
Today, India is losing over 10% GDP on account of environmental
costs, as estimated in the GREEN India 2047 study. The
country is losing 11-26% of its annual agricultural output
on account of soil degradation, and of course, water scarcity
in some parts of India has reached crisis proportions.
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The time has come for implementing a
new development paradigm, which is essential for correcting
the damage of the past and avoiding the dangers of the
future. The challenge of population change can only be
solved through higher literacy levels, better health care
and social reform, which eliminates the discrimination
seen in different parts of India against the girl child.
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Dr.R.K.Pachauri
Director
Tata Energy Research Institute
NewDelhi |
