Development Needs to Be Regulated to Save Environment
India’s rising temperatures and environmental degradation threaten coastal cities. Experts urge action to curb pollution, protect ecosystems, and preserve natural resources for a sustainable future.
Environmental News from India:
With the earth’s temperature slated to rise by 1.5 degrees C by 2025 due to environmental degradation and increasing pollution, all efforts need to be made to protect the environment by desisting from activities that have led to the present situation, said Judicial Member of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Kolkata, Justice B.
Amit Sthalekar, on Saturday. “If the earth’s temperature goes up with no effort to contain it, it will trigger the melting of glaciers around the world, causing the sea level to rise and inundate coastal areas including cities like Mumbai and Kolkata,” Justice Sthalekar said while speaking at the Odisha Environment Congress-2022 held at Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan(SOA) in association with NGT and Odisha State Legal Services Authority. Pointing out that development was taking place at the cost of the environment, he said NGT had directed action against the construction of resorts on the seashore in violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ).
“Such construction was taking place right on the beach though the CRZ rules don’t allow any activity within 500 meters of the High Tide Line. It causes the beach to narrow down and makes the sea deep in that area which leads to the destruction of the beach itself,” Justice Sthalekar said. “You cannot play with the environment,” he told the students attending the event, adding, “be alive, alert, and aware of the degradation of the environment taking place around us.”
Expressing dismay over the rampant use of plastic and polythene, Justice Sthalekar said he was of the view that the use of such substances, which don’t degrade for 400 years and destroy the soil, should be completely stopped. “The ill-effects of modernism have been hitting us badly as use of earthen ‘kullads’ has been completely forgotten,” he said, saying there was a need to go back to the era when grocery items were delivered in paper bags. “If we return to earthen kullads, it would not only generate employment but also help us to go back to nature,” Justice Sthalekar said, adding, “when we hurt nature, it will hit us back.” NGT expert Member Sambalpur Dasgupta said 52.90 million tonnes of solid waste was generated in the country annually, of which plastic waste alone accounted for 5.6 million tonnes. “About 78 percent of this waste was collected, of which only 25 percent was processed,” he said, adding that NGT was strictly enforcing the rules. Amidst the gloomy scenario, the good news was that India was among ten countries that had large forest cover accounting for 24.6 percent of the total land mass with the dense forest area spread across 99,779 sq km, Dasgupta said. The forest cover in Odisha, he said, had increased by 537 sq km, which was heartening. Addressing the students, Dasgupta said it was up to them to work as watchdogs to save the environment.
Source: United News of India
