Noted environmentalist Ram Kumar Gupta has made a passionate appeal to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Road Transport and National Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari to seriously reconsider the disastrous construction of the multi-laning network of the national highways and high altitude lakes in the hilly areas of the country, particularly the most fragile Himalayas.
During an interaction with mediapersons here, Gupta stressed that the heaviest floods of the century in Himachal Pradesh and across the country have sent death signals not only for India but also for the rest of the world.
Kumar, a gold medalist throughout his academic career, has studied the catastrophes caused by the environmental degradation in different parts of the world.
He observed that these countries, of late, are facing the wrath of the nature. It climaxed this year which noticed the worst ever calamities causing havoc in many parts of the world.
Gupta said it has been well established that over population, optimum exploitation of natural resources and human consumption of the naturally occurring non-renewable natural resources, ruinous agricultural practices converting forest and grasslands into agricultural land were the accumulated disastrous consequences of spreading toxic elements, bad minerals which destroy biological activities of the soil.
"Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are adding fuel to the fire. These factors are also playing havoc with the wild life, marine habitats, water sources, aquatic life and the wetlands of the earth", he warned.
"For over 100 years, various developed and developing countries carried out deforestation on an alarming scale with impunity resulting in huge soil erosion and high floods causing irreparable soil erosion," the environmentalist added.
He said if preventive measures are not taken at the earliest, nature will deprive earth even of life sustaining water.