Water reserves are dangerously low owing
to the delayed rains in
most parts of the country; in some places, reservoirs are bone dry. Scientists
express fears that in 3 or 4 decades, most Indian cities will be unlivable as
they will run out of water. The delayed rains and the disruption of the
seasonal cycles is another aspect of climate change, and it should be clear by
now that such a change has dire consequences for the survival of life.
The climate change that we confront today
is the product of human intervention as opposed to the climate fluctuations
experienced by our ancestors. While bad seasons are a part of the natural cycle,
the issue today is not the occasional natural disruptions but continued and
increasing problems due to human intervention in nature, as well as a dire need
for an efficient response to disasters or disaster-in-the-making by governments.
As the problem is a man-made one, its solution lies in a sincere and creative
response to the crisis by the government by taking into confidence various
communities, especially marginalized communities.
In Goa, the almost-dry June is unprecedented
in recent memory. The delayed monsoon has sparked fears of the
scarcity of water and the disruption of the agricultural cycle in the future. The
situation in Goa is grave because successive governments and profit-hungry
business interests have destroyed the environment and the landscape at an
unparalleled rate—politicians and bureaucrats call such destruction
‘development’. This ‘development’ involves unnecessary and environmentally
destructive mega-projects, be they bridges, roads or highways, real estate in
eco-sensitive areas, the cutting of trees and mangroves, the destruction of
hills and mountains that act as water catchment areas or reservoirs, and
rampant mining that forever destroys forests and water resources.
A stoppage in the destructive
‘development’ creates conditions where the environment heals to its previous
condition. Following the ban on mining activities in Goa, many farmers reported
a better yield as the groundwater table improved considerably. But though the
ban on mining had given some respite to the forested areas of Goa, construction
of mega-projects in other parts continues with the axing
of thousands of trees.
The regularity of rainfall depends on trees
and the forest cover. It is not enough that forests are preserved within the
borders of Goa. What happens in the neighboring regions, too, affects the
environment in Goa. The Maharashtra government, for instance, announced
that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project will affect more than 54,000
mangroves. The NGO Vanashakti, which released their findings last month of
monitoring forests and eco-sensitive areas of the Konkan, says
that within four years – from 2014-2018 – almost 1,600 acres of forests were
lost to industry and mining.
Almost every environmental clearance from
the government or an independent body involves the destructions of thousands of
acres of forests. The ruling politicians and those who benefit from such
mega-projects claim that the government bodies carry out compensatory
afforestation. The Government of India until recently had a policy of
afforestation, which the BJP government made into a law. However, the
policy and the law does not work in reality as it does on paper. Sometimes
the land earmarked for the compensatory afforestation displaces forest-dwelling
communities, in other instances, it is unsuitable for plantation, or the
compensatory afforestation project suffers from the apathy of the forest
department.
The future, therefore, seems to be clear:
Goa (as many other parts of India) faces rampant deforestation, and consequently
a disruption of the seasonal cycles. While activist and civil society groups
are finding
some small but significant successes in their fight for the preservation of the
environment, the question of the best way, or ways, to tackle
environmental destruction still confronts the people of Goa. Successive
governments have not adequately performed its duty in protecting the
environment, nor have they shown goodwill towards the Goan environment by
making strong protection policies and laws and implementing the same in letter
and spirit. How, then, do we safeguard our future?
If we want to avoid delayed rains and
other catastrophic climate change issues, we need to think of environmental
concerns together with social concerns. In most occasions, the destructive
‘development’ is promoted in areas where communities of lesser socio-economic
status live—land and water bodies are grabbed without any concern for the life
and livelihood of such communities. For instance, in Goa’s mining areas, tribal
and agrarian communities have lived for centuries; their lifestyle was seriously
affected by mining. For the promotion of tourism, fishing communities, as well
as agrarian ones, have suffered the ill-effects of high-end projects and
upmarket ‘development’. Often the government and big businesses exploit the
differences between different caste and class statuses, between those who own
the land and those who are tenants—playing these sections against one another,
and often using the legal procedures and the people’s lack of knowledge of
these legal procedures to promote non-sustainable economic activities.
Currently, policy decisions by governmental
bodies concerning the environment do not integrate the people—thus destructive
policies displace communities, considering them as extraneous to the process of
policy formation. Contrary to the governmental vision, environment-related
activism in recent times in Goa is progressing in the right direction. The
agitation against the increasing handling and transportation of coal, for
instance, has integrated the concerns of the fishing community, some leaders of
the movement earn their livelihood from fishing—a reason such efforts meet with
success. Environmental activism can deepen their respective movements by
subverting the caste and class fractures in Goan society.
Thus, stronger vision for a better
environment and better politics needs to combine ecological issues with
sociological ones.
(First published in O Heraldo, dt: 3 July, 2019)
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