Fixing India's environment
Prateek Raj
![Prateek Raj]()
Prateek Raj
Associate Professor, Business and Health at UCL ? Author of Atypical: Five Strategy Rules for a New World
There is a public outrage in Delhi over Delhi's pollution and smog. However the same "public" is sometimes willing to label environmental rights as "anti-development" and environmental activists as "anti-nationalists". The attitude is classic not-in-my-backyard syndrome. For our development, we are willing to destroy other people's backyards, in the name of "national" development.
Here is a simple three point approach on how to fix India's environmental vows.
- Empower locals- Strengthen local/tribal ownership of land and environment, and stop government interference on behalf of industrialists in the name of "free-market" and "development". There is nothing free market about government arm twisting locals/tribals for private "developmental" projects. The locals are best able to assess the impact of a "developmental" project on the environment, and would be best able to stop myopic projects that hurt in the long term.
- Learn from London- London, in the past century, faced similar issues being faced by many urban areas of India today. Government should increase provision of green spaces in urban areas, and remove encroachment of public lands. Government should expand urban planning departments by hiring young planners, and improve planning standards, management of floating population, and resulting unregulated colonies.
- Learn from Vedic ecology- Government needs to reward renewable energy and industries that promote closeness and harmony with the local nature, and penalise industrialised animal agriculture and other forms of denaturization. Development and industrialisation does not equal destruction of the environment and common resources. The long term consequences of myopic development are severe, and already being felt by millions. India needs to chart its own way, which does justice to its own cultural values.
Associate Professor, Business and Health at UCL ? Author of Atypical: Five Strategy Rules for a New World
8 å¹´Would you be willing to sell off Ayodhya or Banaras to mining companies, if they give you a good deal? Probably you would not. Democratic capitalism means people cannot be forced into a contract. But when organisations like Vedanta Resources Plc, use governments to arm twist locals to give up their land, it is neither democracy nor capitalism. It is cronyism. Maybe, getting the Bauxite beneath the sacred lands of Dongria Kondh tribe, will be good for the bottomline of Vedanta. But Dongria Kondhs are NOT obliged to be concerned about Vedanta's bottomline. Their cultural heritage is national heritage too, and in no way any less important than the cultural heritage of other Indians. To talk about Dongria Kondhs, does not make me an anti-development, anti-national. Development should happen under right institutions. Institutions that support democracy and maintain free voluntary markets. Every concerned citizen of India should stand up for the rights of Dongria Kondhs. Few years ago a famous court asserted the democratic rights of Dongria Kondhs. Today, the tribal lands are being pried upon again as Orissa government challenges the rights of tribals over their traditional lands. Stand up for Dongria Kondhs. They need your help once again.