The Hindu Business Line : Environmental priorities for the Government

THERE are several notions about the environment in India and the need for environmental protection arising out of a host of factors ranging from judicial pronouncements to campaigns launched by green activists, media publicity and international developments like the concern over global warming and loss of biodiversity.

One common notion is that environment simply means greenery and wildlife and environmental protection begins and ends with protection of our national parks and wildlife reserves. This view has been nurtured by nature and wildlife enthusiasts and by colourful presentations on the electronic and print media.

A second and a more widely held notion is that environmental concerns really relate to air and water pollution. In this essentially urban view of the matter, if discharges of municipal and industrial effluents into water bodies could be prevented or if automobile and industrial emissions into the air could be minimised or done away with, then the quality of life in urban areas would improve.

A third, activistic and virulent, view is that economic development is generally environment-unfriendly and even anti-social and, hence, people would be better off without such development. The ongoing agitations against large projects, particularly irrigation or hydropower projects, would prove this point.

The pro-development stance

Just as there are such perceptions of the environment, there are opposing views on the need for environmental protection. One is that environmental protection, in the sense of conserving nature in its pristine form, is a luxury which a poor country like India can ill afford. People first, nature next would sum up this school of thought.

Another pro-development view, underpinned by economic history, is that economic development is marked by environmental degradation up to a point but beyond that it is accompanied by environmental improvement.

That is, if society can tolerate environmental degradation for a while for the sake of economic development, then as incomes rise and peoples' basic needs are met, demand for a clean environment would emerge as it had happened in the developed countries. As early as in 1972, the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, while addressing the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, said: "Poverty is the biggest polluter... The environment cannot be improved in conditions of poverty." Hence, environment cannot be divorced from development in India.

Population pressures

The foremost concern from the developmental and environmental points of view is India's growing population. The present population of 1.2 billion is expected to stabilise at 1.5-1.7 billion of which nearly 35 per cent would be in the age group of 15-50 years. The basic needs of food, clothing, shelter and employment of this section of the population would be much higher than that of the other sections.

The healthcare needs of this productive group would also be sizeable from the overall economic point of view as the loss to the economy arising from disability to work among this group would be significant.

A notable feature of the population increase is its concentration in urban areas. By 2015, 40 per cent of India's population will be living in the urban areas compared to 28 per cent now. The growing population applies enormous pressure on land, water and forests to meet its needs of food, shelter and energy.

Family welfare to control population growth thus emerges as the highest priority both from the environment and development angles.

Food security

The country's food security is being threatened by several factors. India produced about 211 million tonnes of foodgrains in 2001-02. Because of lack of purchasing power, about 35 per cent of the population consumes food that provides less than 80 per cent of its minimum energy requirements. To bridge this nutrition gap and to meet the requirements of the expected increase in population, food production will have to be stepped up substantially in the coming years. Increasing output by bringing more land under cultivation does not appear to be possible because already the arable 143 million hectares of the country's total geographical area of 329 million hectares has been brought under cultivation. The worrying feature is that 80 million hectares of the 143 million hectares has become degraded due to salinity and loss of top soil due to water and wind erosion.

As a result of land degradation and increasing population, per capita availability of arable land declined from 0.365 hectare in 1951 to 0.219 hectare in 1991.

Fodder shortage, shrinking forests

The pressure on arable land is compounded by another factor. The 400 million head of cattle in India need about 880 million tonnes of fodder per year. Against this requirement, the annual availability of fodder from all sources is only 400 million tonnes.

One way of relieving the fodder shortage is to raise fodder crops on more land but that would be possible only by diverting land from other crops. Any such diversion would imply raising the productivity of the remaining area for cereal crops, a feat that can be achieved only by more intensive cropping practices or by introduction of high yielding varieties.

This is just what the greens oppose, though productivity increases can be achieved by means that are not necessarily eco-unfriendly. It may be in order to advert here to the recent attempts to introduce GM crops in India. No less than Dr M. S. Swaminathan has championed this idea but environmental groups have expressed opposition to it.

Closely allied to the problem of shrinking arable land is the problem of shrinking forest land. Varying estimates put the forest cover in the country at 19.5 per cent to 22.5 per cent of the total land area. Of this, only about 11.5 per cent is really under acceptable cover, that is with a crown density of 40 per cent and above. The main reasons for the loss of forest cover are the exploitation of forests for meeting fuel, timber and fodder needs. If the vast area of wastelands classified as denuded forests or revenue wastelands could be converted to `energy forests' or to raise timber and fodder or to grow pulpwood to meet the needs of paper industry, then the pressure on forests would ease considerably.

Convergence of environment and development is thus possible.

Water crisis

As important as food is fresh water. Water scarcity is emerging as a major environmental and economic disaster. The average annual per capita availability of water went down from 6000m³ in 1947 to 1250m³ in 1999. The threshold availability below which an area would be declared `water-stressed' is 1,000m³ per person per year. This level may well be reached by 2025 and go down to 760m³ in 2050. A point to note in respect of water availability in India is that of the total annual precipitation of 400 million hectare metres (ha.m.), only 110 million ha.m. are utilisable. Of this potential, currently 75 million ha.m. are utilised and this figure is likely to go up to 105 million ha.m. in the next decade or so. That is, almost all the utilisable potential would need to be harnessed by 2015. A `limit to growth' indeed!

Of the total current usage of water, agriculture accounts for 84 per cent, industry (including energy generation) 5 per cent and domestic use 3 per cent. One way to relieve the acute water shortage in some parts of the country is to divert water from areas where it is surplus.

This trans-basin diversion of water envisaged under the river interlinking scheme has come under much debate. Surprisingly, environmental considerations are being held out to persuade the Central and State governments to give up the proposal.

On the management of India's water resources, surface as well as groundwater, there's a wide divergence of approach between pro-environmentalists and modern water managers. The former shun large storage and distribution projects like dams and canals and prefer small local works like village tanks, check-dams and wells.

The water managers are contemptuous of small water conservation measures and traditional technologies. Without going deeper into this controversy, one may say that there is merit in both the approaches and one need not be dogmatic.

Water pollution, contaminated food

Let us turn to another area, public health, where, again, there is no dichotomy between environmental and developmental needs. The World Bank study, referred to earlier, estimated that 59 per cent of the environmental costs to the economy was due to surface water pollution.

According to the Central Water Pollution Control Board, half the volume of polluted water is contributed by municipal sources and half the pollution load is due to industrial sources. The human toll of water pollution is immense. To give one example, 1.5 million children die before they reach the age of five years due to waterborne diseases.

With better sanitation and improved water supply, deaths due to diarrhoea can be reduced by 65 per cent and overall child mortality can be brought down by 55 per cent. Another public health scourge in India is malaria. Estimates of malaria cases in India vary from 1.6 million to 3.0 million annually. About 25,000 lives are claimed by malaria every year. A curious and a sad fact about malaria control is that the cheapest way of control, spraying the insides of houses with DDT, is strongly opposed on environmental grounds though many believe that there is no scientific basis for such an opposition.

Dr Roger Bate, author of When Politics Kills: Malaria and the DDT story, said in a newspaper interview three years ago that: "There has never been a scientifically peer-reviewed study that has shown any harm to human beings from DDT. Given that billions of people have been exposed to it, there should be substantial evidence of harm rather than simply allegations of green alarmists".

The Greens sound the alarm too often and for trivial reasons. Look at the alarm raised on pesticide residues in soft drinks. The matter held the attention of the entire country for months. Compare it with an earlier situation when many toothpaste brands (there were, of course, some exceptions) were found contaminated with coliform matter well above the permissible limits.

The findings went almost unnoticed. In a country where food adulteration is rampant and even an organised business, one would expect greater attention to be paid to deal with that problem than raise Cain over soft-drinks.

Energy scenario

Last, let us look at the energy scenario in the country. There is a direct correlation between economic growth and energy consumption. Even in 2020 hydrocarbons will provide at least 50 per cent of the country's energy requirements. In power generation, coal based power stations will continue to retain their primacy.

Any fossil fuel based power generation is beset with environmental problems. Of late, since global warming has emerged as a serious environmental threat, the case for other sources of power generation that do not emit greenhouse gases assumes importance.

Promotion of hydropower and non-conventional sources of energy such as windpower and solar energy need thrust. Clearly, environmental and developmental needs converge here. But look at the opposition to hydropower projects from environmentalists.

One should hasten to admit that the human problem arising out of these projects cannot be minimised and surely the affected populations should be not only adequately compensated but should be looked after for many years till they get adjusted to their new lives. But the cry against such projects has acted as a big disincentive to their even being considered.

Our environmental priorities should not be allowed to be distorted by agenda set by pressure groups and by passing fancies. Let us remember what Principle I of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development states:

"Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature."

(The author is former Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.)