The Earth Hour is observed across the globe on the last Saturday of March giving a message that it is time we protected mother earth from destruction. It calls for preservation of biodiversity. The world conservation union says there are three golden principles for conservation of vitalities of earth, such as conservation of life support system, protection of diversities of lives on earth and sustainable use of resources.
The life support system implies the ecological process that forms land, purifies and regulates the natural flow of water recycle. All in all, it means the planet must be fit for lives of each and every form. Ecological process implies a series of actions that are governed or strongly influenced by one or more ecosystems which means the ecological system in a particular region work together through their interactive relations. For example, the climate of Odisha is formed due to influence of various ecosystems right from seashore to eastern ghat hill region. There are coastal plains, valleys, montane lands and sand cast areas. There are various types of geological formations. The geological formations also influence the general climate of a land through vegetations. For developmental activities, the nature’s built eco systems are drastically reduced, which directly influence the ecological climate of Odisha. So, temperature of the atmosphere is increasing and the hazardous climate is a constant worry for the denizens. Development means increasing capacity to meet human needs and improve quality of human life.
In theory we advocate many things but in practice we do just opposite. There are various laws for management of our environment and these green laws are now almost obsolete. Recently the NDA Government has formed a high level committee to review various environmental laws like Environmental Protection Act, Wildlife Protection Act, Air Act, Water Act and Forest Act.
In Odisha all the plain forests, coastal forests and most of the hill forests are now devoid of canopies due to repeated felling of top trees. The canopy class in natural forests can only be seen when the trees attain full height growth. Such conditions are not prevailing now in most of the natural forests due to various reasons. The major reasons are theft of forest produce like timbers and repeated forest fire during summer. Every year more than four times the forest fires are occurring in our tropical forests, which drastically degrades the environmental situations of State. The similar situation is also seen in all the peninsular as well as tropical and sub- tropical forests.
It is most pathetic that the experts who have poor or no idea about forest canopy advocate for canopy. 70 per cent canopy cover of a forest can create moist climate within the locality. At present, we can get hardly 70 per cent grown cover in our forests.
When we are talking about Earth Hour for protection and survival of earth, we damage and mishandle our own mother land and mother earth in our wanton pursuit of wealth or development. So priorities must be given to conserve the vitality of the earth and its diversities. let us consider the present situation of Kashmir valley. There are several principal lakes like Wular, Dal, Pangong, etc which are the gift of the Himalayan rivers like Indus, Jhelum and the tributaries of Krishna Ganga and Chenab. Due to destruction of Himalayan forests for various reasons like irrigation and power projects including expansion of capital cities and human habitations, there is constant denudation of land of Himalayan hill ranges, which results in perpetual floods.
At the same time, the railway communications are now moving fast within these areas at the cost of Himalayan ecological systems. It is a fact that the human development is essential but there must be a balance between sustainable development and sustainable ecological systems. lest we should be prepared for the worst ecological disasters as the ones happened in J&K and Uttarakhand.
When pollution free globe is not possible in a developing world, the pollution must be within the command of the man, where all living creatures will be safe. We have to restore and maintain the eco- systems of earth. Conservation of biodiversities is most important.
India is very resourceful on biological diversities, because it is a land of tropical zone which associates the mountain ranges like Himalaya, Western Ghat, Eastern Ghat, Vindhya hills, Chhotnagar hills, and Aravali Hill, besides great Indian deserts and the Indian Ocean. There are various riverine plains like Indo-Gangetic plains, Brahmaputra, Godavari, Narmada, Krishna, Kaveri and Mahanadi plains. We need to ensure sustainable use of renewable resources.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)