Being Human

1181

By M.C. Linthoingambee

If suppose one day we could all be termed as one, no distinction between men, animals or plants what would that be like? Imagine yourself as a part of the elephant herd migrating from one place to other and the paths that we use to take for migrating has been blocked with fences. Where would you go? You feel like a locked up prisoner in the prison cell with no food or water and we could only assume what would the end results could be. While they travel in troops of herds it is awfully difficult to cope up with a new surrounding as a result of which many die. This is the situation of being endangered and if the worst is yet to come, extinction will take its place. The total forest requirement of India is approximately 30 percent while it has only 18 percent remaining in reality. Natural calamities are an unpredictable lot and we all know the recent destruction at Kedarnath, could that have been lessened a little if we hadn’t uprooted the roots of the many floras that lies endangered with human greed. If we are really talking of Intergenerational Equity wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could still dream about leaving the same environment that we received for our future generations. Environmental Law has immensely stepped in to tackle the present scenario in this undeniable crisis.

The evolution of Environmental Law is one that has resulted since the pre-independence era till today. Once the evils of environmental degradation were dealt under the harness of the Indian Penal Code which gave penal provisions for whoever committed the above under Sections 268 – 294A dealing in various sectors like public health, morality, food adulteration, etc. While the former dealt with a more substantive provisions of determining rights the procedural aspect were catered under Sections 133-144 for environment protection. All these provisions had not met up to the required expectations henceforth several other changes were made. With the amendment of the 42nd amendment to the Constitution of India several laws dealing with both forests and wildlife were made. Article 48A gave special provisions to the Indian Parliament to make laws on forests and wildlife conservation whereas Article 51(A) (g) gave provisions to every citizen of India making it a mandate on them to care, protect and preserve the environment. So of how many of us really plant trees? How many of us water the plants? Little initiative steps can make a lot of difference if only we slowed down to see what is really going on.

The cause of environment pollution is a general outbreak with the source of it categorizing into air, water, soil, noise, etc. We also saw what recently happened at winters in the United States with the minimum temperatures recorded on board with the uncertain escape of the Polar Ice Caps. All the usual causes are unknown. But all the problems of emissions of smoke in the air, disposing chemical waste in the river, etc are not going to solve themselves until we find an expert in solving this heavily jumbled jigsaw puzzle. The Environment Protection Act, 1948 became an umbrella in the formation of other legislations dealing with the environment. There are standards laid down to the quality control of air, water, soil and various others. Where the Central Government has full right to observe through these procedures, it is us who must preach through the methods of sustainable development. The general acceptance of rain water harvesting has also contributed immensely to the exercising of a success.

With corporatization becoming a main motive of the heavily unemployed sector, we could imagine no less and root for de-forestation taking form immensely. In order to build those tall building and houses to occupy for these corporate, we need land and the only option that lies ahead is conquering lands. Land Acquisition by the government themselves has resulted in a heavy distortion to ordinary lives of several categories of tribes that are settled in the midst of the forests (jungle). Their lives are heavily dependent on what lies in the forest so when we take away their land either for the construction of dams, highways they go in vain. They may go to protest but hardly anybody hears them. Narmada Bachao Andolan was one of those examples where protesting to protect the natural environment became a crime. More and more are at stack when family driven societies are cast out of their own homes. We hardly or never put ourselves in their shoes until it falls on us. It makes me wonder if the story of Noah was indeed a true story. The legacy of an old testament in which God asked Noah to build an ark before he destroys earth and use that ark to save his family and the animals. If it was today, who would God chose to build that ark? Several organizations are working to befit the role of guardians of the environment. Brikesh Singh founder of Greenpeace India spends most of his time in the jungle trying to make a point of losing the entire trail left behind by big corporate and yet still little is known of him. We are all busy running to attain luxury.  Re-use, Re-duce, Re-cycle are the three important R’s that can help omit our past mistakes and perhaps  help cherish our home.

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