Wanted: Freedom Struggle Ii
Environment is one area in which post-independent India cannot be proud of its performance. Today, India is one of the most polluted and environmentally degraded countries in the world.
There have, however, been three small successes over the past three decades but even these have to be qualified. The tiger population started increasing in the late 1970s and 1980s but has begun to show a sharp decline again, leading many to argue that it will disappear by early next century. The forest cover has been maintained since the mid 1980s but nobody knows how much can be called a forest as a large part of the forest estate today is made up of plantations. Rural firewood availability has shown an increase but a big reason for this is the unexpected invasion of an exotic species called Prosopis juliflora on degraded lands from Kutch in Gujarat to Ramanathpuram in Tamil Nadu.
But four small rays of hope have emerged, generated by the democratic character of India's constitution. One, India's NGO movement has not only grown but has also taken a deep interest in environmental concerns. Two, the Supreme Court has interpreted the constitution to give Indian people the right to a healthy environment, something unprecedented in the world, and have thus promoted public participation in India's environmental governance. Three, the people have shown a greater desire to save their environment, in some cases with outstanding results. The villagers of Sukhomajri and Ralegan Siddhi have shown that the rural economy can be pulled up dramatically -- which no other form of economic intervention can do -- if the people are organised to manage their environment. This is possibly the most heartening aspect of India's last 50 years. Four, the media has given support to environmental concerns.
But these small rays of hope are also struggling to make an impact on a national scale. The NGO movement has failed to weld itself into a powerful and well-coordinated nationwide movement that goes beyond a group of people fighting projects to a group of people who can change the environmental governance system and its policies. NGOs have built a powerful amorphous movement with a focus on certain heroes and heroines but it has no national institutions of the kind of Greenpeace and friends of the Earth in the West. Without strong institutions no movement can last once the leader disappears.
The impact of court orders has remained extremely poor because they have run into a brick wall of poor environmental governance. And the courts have not seen their key task as improving the country's poor environmental governance.
The people themselves are making efforts, but even the best of them are failing to spread because the government is not prepared to learn their lessons. Attempts to replicate Ralegan Siddhi have run into political opposition because the village's leader, Anna Hazare, decided to launch a crusade against corruption. Villagers in Sukhomajri have now created lakhs worth of grass production and a forest that can give them a crore of rupees every year but they are today at their wit's end with the constant interference coming in from the government - which wants a large share of the pie - and neighbouring villagers who are being egged on by external agencies.
The media has focused more on big struggles and disasters while vast rural problems and crucial issues like environmental governance have received very little attention.
Overall, the environmental future looks dark. The only answer lies in the second war for independence -- a struggle not with outsiders but with ourselves.