It is believed that India is one of the 17 megadiverse countries in the world. “With only 2.5% of the world’s landmass, we have 8% of the world’s recorded biodiversity,” India’s Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, said at the 75th UN biodiversity summit this September.
However, this year, in the month of April, the State of India’s Birds Report 2020 analysed data from 15,000 birdwatchers on the e-Bird platform and showed us a completely opposite picture. The report measured the abundance and distribution of 867 bird species, and concluded- “Of the 261 species for which long-term trends could be determined, 52% have declined since the year 2000, with 22% declining strongly. In all, 43% of species showed a long-term trend that was stable and only 5% showed an increasing trend. Current annual trends could be estimated for 146 species. Of these, nearly 80% are declining, with almost 50% declining strongly. Just over 6% are stable and 14% increasing.”
In the past 20 years, birds such as the Finn’s Weaver, which is a neglected bird species, have seen a major decline in population. The Finn's Weaver's population in Uttarakhand has dropped by as much as 94%. Less than 500 of these birds are found now.
In his response to the Parliament, Babul Supriyo, the minister of state in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, failed to note findings from the State of India’s Birds report, even though autonomous government institutions such as the Wildlife Institute of India, the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History and National Biodiversity Authority had contributions in this report.
This incident only depicts how ignorant the concerned ministers are of the fact that the environment is actually in a state of decline. This shows, that only power matters to these ministers, and not the responsibility that they are given to work on in pure honesty. Today, along with diluting environment laws, the Indian government is misleading the Parliament about the condition of the nature in our country by providing inaccurate and confusing data about the country’s wildlife.
"In the long-term trend assessment, there was appropriate data available only for 261 species, of which 52% had declined [in numbers]. For current trends, there was data only for 146 species, of which nearly 80% were declining," said MD Madhusudan, co-founder of Nature Conservation Foundation.
Endangered species were indexed under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 in various schedules based on their threat status, and Schedule I species are accorded the highest degree of protection.
Under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, flora and fauna are catalogued under six schedules – from I to VI and wildlife crimes against top-schedule species (especially schedules I and II) are dealt stiffer punishments.
In the past few months, the government also seems to overlook the atmospherical effects of its recent Power Plant Installations, although aiming to conserve the conventional sources of energy.
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha and Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM) Scheme for farmers for installation of solar pumps and grid connected solar and other renewable power plants. This scheme has a target to set up 25,750 Megawatts of Solar capacity by 2022 to power irrigation pumps. The scheme comes with Rs. 34,000 Crore of financial support and consists of three components:
Setting up of 10,000 MW of decentralised stilt- mounted grid connected solar or other renewable energy power plants.
Installation of 17.5 lakh standalone solar agricultural pumps.
Solarisation of 10 lakh grid- connected solar agricultural pumps.
At present, around 31 million irrigation pumps are operating in India, of which 21 million are diesel-based. This scheme can convert around one-fourth of all irrigation pumps into solar-based pumps in a span of 3-4 years. Moreover, it is good to increase Farmers’ income, although for a short- span. The Government has made buying pumps affordable for medium and large farmers.
This will also help farmers to grow more crops at low cost of cultivation, aiding their income. Also, this scheme would ensure that irrigation pumps, which are diesel-based and harmful for the environment, will be replaced by Solar-powered pumps, which are be both eco-friendly & cost-effective.
However, this has another angle to it. It consists of certain loopholes that may in turn effect the groundwater levels adversely. Agriculture has become increasingly dependent on groundwater over the years. Around 85% of groundwater has been used up to irrigate 70% of the land, leading to over exploitation of groundwater and its depleting quality and quantity. States like Punjab and Haryana are completely dependent on irrigation facilities due to low annual rainfall.
Diesel- powered pumps were much costlier, thus safeguarding against overuse of groundwater. This scheme does not have any provision to utilise surplus power from off-grid pumps to light rural homes and businesses, which is a missed opportunity. Thus, it does not ensure prevention of groundwater exploitation.
Criticizing policies does not necessarily help until we try to find a solution. Measures like monitoring use of groundwater, hefty penalty on its overuse and ensuring utilisation of surplus power from off-grid pumps to light rural homes and businesses can be taken by the government to make this scheme really helpful.
All in all, "development" is destroying the environment, and actually causing deteoriation and not progress. If the authorities and "ministers", see only one aspect of the policy, that too on the surface level, and take decisions without proper contemplation, not only do they lose the trust of the nation by becoming highly unpredictable, but also end up destroying what they had aimed to improve.