Forests are the first casualty of the development projects

The ruling UPA government has shown its true colours in recent months. The green signal by Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to Posco as well as to build the untested nuclear power plants in Jaitapur clearly exposes the government’s determination to protect the corporate interests. Though, several conditions were put before giving the clearance, we know the irrelevance of such conditions which rarely get implemented. The exchange of black money may be huge but the destruction of the livelihood of thousands of tribals and ordinary people will be immeasurable.

The neo liberal policies followed since 1991 to achieve eight percent GDP growth have taken toll of our natural resources. The World Bank study concluded that the country lost almost four percent of the GDP as a result of environment destruction and related issues like, spread of water borne diseases due to pollution, and the rising number of diseases due to polluted air, and pesticide infected soil.

Despite these clear indicators of the disastrous impact of destroying the natural resources, why are our political leaders and bureaucrats keen on continuing the policies that lead to ecological poverty of people and the country?

An analysis of decision making process in regard to protection of natural resources in India indicates the need for strong leadership at the centre with a national perspective. The support of Indira Gandhi in 1980s to the Silent Valley struggle in Kerala to save Western Ghats, and Chipko movement in Himalayas was instrumental in halting the destructive developmental process in the initial stages.

The much debated and controversial Forest Conservation Act was passed during her regime in 1980 to halt the process of destruction of forests. This acted as a speed breaker to those state governments who were willing to sacrifice the forests at the altar of development.

Indira Gandhi ignored the political compulsions of short sighted policies that were detrimental to environment. She was able to put national interest before the parochial interest of regional leaders. However with the changing times, the evolving democratic set up in the neo liberal regime has failed to produce strong national leaders with broader vision and commitment required to protect the environment.

Contemporary democratic practices do not allow political parties to look beyond vested vote bank politics. Short term interests gets priority over national interests. For them the natural resources are like a bottomless pit to be used without any regards to its sustainability. Even the tribal leaders and farmers elected representatives start to collaborate with corporate power. Madhu Koda from Jharkhand is a living example of this case.

The high voltage national debate on Bt Brinjal is an excellent example of how the political parties derail the decision making process in favor of corporate interests. This strategy has paid handsome political dividends as it is hailed as one of pioneering attempts towards proactive informed decision making. What the people did not realise was that the politicians were playing a double game. Behind the doors, the government was quietly allowing field trials of numerous GM crops without any precautionary measures, deliberately contaminating our centres of diversity.

Like in the case of Bt cotton where the companies illegally released the seeds without permission, most of our crops are already contaminated by GM crops due to field trials. Under compulsion government has no other option but to give permission to GM crops.

The political will to take on the corporate interests is limited to dialogues and debate, not challenging their motive to weaken the self reliance of farmers, and the power to destroy the natural systems, affecting the countryside for generations to come. The lawmakers who were supposed to protect the interests of the country blindly follow the orders of the totalitarian corporate institutions.

With the change of guard in Environment Ministry, the environment activists were happy to have a Minister who was talking their language. But the truth is something grotesque. The rate of approval to various projects is same as during the notorious Raja’s tenure. Recently, the Ministry gave permission to 40 mega projects in the wild life habitats in just three hours! And most of these are in total violation of the existing laws and rules.

The decision making process shows the lack of political will among the rulers as well as the bureaucracy to follow the existing laws to conserve the environment. Most of the parties have included environment protection in their manifesto; but it is rarely put into practice.

It is a national tragedy that almost all the political parties, both at national and regional levels are unanimous about one point agenda of ‘development’ that leads to destruction of the ecosystems that sustain our economies. In fact it is appropriation of these resources for the benefit of top 8 percent of the population in the country. It also shows the ideological bankruptcy of the parties, who are unable to provide an alternate path of development that benefits larger sections of the society.

Bolivia, a country equal to the size of Karnataka, has passed the Law of Mother Earth that grants nature the same rights and protection as humans. This was possible due to the strong political will of Evo Morales, the President. Even Bhutan, our tiny Himalayan neighbor has adopted the concept of Gross National Happiness, an innovative path towards development.

Why are we lagging behind? The need of hour is to take decisions in keeping the interest of future generations above all else. Will our political leaders show courage and willingness to conserve our natural resources for present and future generations?