Essays

Fifty-five years of development' have spurred on unplanned urbanization, extensive industrialization and the building of a series of big dams. In the process, India has landed bang in the middle of an ecological crisis. We have lost half our forests, poisoned our waters, eroded our lands and rendered millions homeless, resource less and more impoverished. Three of our cities are amongst the 15 most- polluted cities in the world. Several of our plant and animal species are extinct. Why and how has this happened? And how can the situation be remedied? What is the difference being made by government legislation and people's movements for the environment?

India's entire development process has been distorted by the structure of inequality outlined above. Adapted almost

wholesale from the West and characterized by unrestricted, large-scale industrialization, urbanization, consumerism and materialism, today's path towards progress is quite evidently causing severe environmental destruction and resource depletion. It is a process that greatly benefits small sections of Indian society, has some trickle-down effects on a somewhat larger section, but almost leaves out a large section that becomes more and more impoverished. Millions of people today are worse off than they were when our modern development process was started. Tribals have been alienated from their land and forests, nomadic communities have had their pastures taken away by mega- projects, marginal peasants and the landless have become economically more insecure. Between 20 to 30 million people have been displaced by development projects, rendered refugees in desperate search of shelter and jobs, because they had no say in the development planning of the country. For these people, 'development or destruction'? is not a cliche, it is a burning question.

The localized and national impact of environmental degradation is now becoming increasingly clear. Loss of topsoil, salinity, pollution, shortage of water and biomass has caused serious declines in agricultural productivity in many areas, making the food security situation bleak. A World Bank study reported that the cost of environmental damage due to pollution is 4.5 percent of the GDP. Polluted air poses serious threats to human life, the short-term effects of which can be seen as health hazards and diseases. India is spending about Rs 4,600 crore every year to make up for health damages due to ambient air quality. The Centre for Science and Environment's Fifth Citizen's Report (1999) states that in the 33 Indian cities for which air quality is available, deaths particularly due to paniculate air pollution went from 40,000 to 52,000, an increase of 30 percent in just three to four years. Noise levels are so high that certain areas record over 90 decibels for the better part of the day.

While environmental degradation ultimately affects everyone, the poor feel the immediate and most severe impact. Millions of workers in India are exposed to unhealthy occupational environments, full of dust, heat, noise, dirt, gases and dangerous machinery. Perhaps 70 percent of the diseases in India (in terms of the number of people affected) are caused by polluted water. These diseases hit the poor more than the rich because of the unhygienic conditions in which they live. Annually, hundreds of thousands of industrial workers, especially contract labourers, fall prey to environmentally degraded working conditions. Agricultural labourers, the poorest rural strata, are most exposed to the dangers of threshers and pesticides.

When land productivity declines, rich farmers manage to sail through in the short-term by increasing external inputs such as pesticides and fertilizers. Marginal farmers, However, are fighting a losing battle and many end up taking their own lives, like the cotton farmers of Andhra Pradesh in recent times. Marginal farmers are further affected by the loss of various indigenous varieties and knowledge of crops and livestock as they are left with no fallback systems.

Loss of biodiversity has increasingly marginalized and impoverished many tribals and other forest-dependent communities which directly depend on various components of biodiversity for food, drink, medicine, culture; spirituality, etc. Even among the poor, women are affected more than men. In many societies, women bear the major  responsibility of collection of fuel, fodder, water and such basic subsistence needs. As these resources are depleted, the drudgery of women increases and sometimes they have to -walk for more than 10 kms to collect these resources.  This causes serious health problems for women. Neglect of the home and children because of increased hours of work often has serious social implications.

Inappropriate technologies and the mismanagement of resources are certainly responsible for environmental degradation. But they are not the roots of the crisis. At the root is the socio-political structure of the country.