Earth Day, Vyarth Day – time, govt walked the talk

On Earth Day, I laud all those working to make our planet better. India is committed to further sustainable development in line with our culture of living in harmony with nature, wrote Prime Minister Narendra Modi on twitter.

But for this tweet and a mention by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and a junior Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, the nation has not heard anything from the Government on the Earth Day that was observed on April 22. Shocking was the total silence from the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Control (MOEFCC). At least on the Press Information Bureau (PIB) website, there was no mention of any MOEFCC event. For the uninitiated, PIB is the Union Government’s official media wing. Sad to see the fatigue setting so early despite the PM and other Ministers’ talks on global fora about environment, sustainability, reduction of dependence on fossil fuels and what not.

Commerce and Textiles Minister Piyush Goyal said the government will create an ESG (environmental, social and governance) task force in the textiles sector, keeping in view India's commitment towards sustainability. Goyal made the announcement during soft launch of e-commerce website of Ministry of Textiles dedicated to handloom and handicrafts in Rajkot, as part of ‘Saurashtra Tamil Sangamam. That was it. There was no mention of the Earth Day, but Goyal spoke about how Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are connected with history and culture but are also connected due to having a strong traditional and modern Textile sector. Then came the political overtones as the Minister said the ‘Saurashtra Tamil Sangamam’ is being organized due to the strong belief of the PM in ‘Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat’.

Now let us look at what Dr Jitendra Singh who is a Minister of State at a host of ministries - Science & Technology; Earth Sciences; PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space – said. He said with the "LiFE" (Lifestyle for Environment) movement launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is committed to further sustainable development in line with our culture of living in a new music composition on ‘Earth and Environment’ harmony with Nature by United Nations Ambassador and Grammy Award winning Indian music composer and environmentalist Rickey Kej was also launched at the event.

The Earth Sciences Ministry release said Earth Day is an annual event observed on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It was first held in 1970. The theme for World Earth Day 2023 is ‘Invest in Our Planet.’ This ongoing theme encourages us all to invest in a better future for our planet by tackling environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity, and waste reduction.

Let’s see what else Dr Singh said: the Ministry holistically addresses all the aspects relating to Earth System Science for providing weather, climate, ocean, coastal State, hydrological and seismological services. The services include forecasts and warnings for various natural disasters like tropical cyclones, storm surge, floods, heat waves, thunderstorm and lightning; alerts for Tsunamis and monitoring of earthquakes etc. In addition, the ministry also has the mandate of making ocean survey and exploration for living and non-living resources and exploration of all the three poles (Arctic, Antarctic and Himalayas).

The Minister added that the services provided by the ministry are being effectively used by different agencies and state governments for saving human lives and minimizing damages due to natural disasters.

MoES is also supporting the celebration of Earth Day at more than 75 places/schools/colleges/institutions across the country with a focus on girl students/differently abled students and aspirational districts. Great. But is that enough? Absolutely no! Moreover, the focus appears to be on disaster management rather than the preventive aspects.

It is not the job of MoES alone to work on the environment related aspects. What about irrigation, water supply, rural development, MOEFCC, urban development, housing, highways and roads, civil aviation, defence, Panchayat Raj, family welfare, finance, education, railways and a host of other ministries? Doesn't each and everyone have a role to play? This is exactly why I responded to the PM’s tweet: “Sir, it's time the government walked the talk. Kindly make rainwater harvesting across India - from Panchayat to Parliament - a must. Everybody talks about it, nobody does anything. Let govt depts, projects set an example.”

We, therefore, called for making rainwater harvesting a must for all government departments from the Panchayat to Parliament and increased transparency in the execution of climate related policies. Earth Day will turn out to be a Vyarth (waste) Day with the government agencies themselves ignoring the environmental aspects in their race for rapid urbanisation and infrastructure development, we told the PM. Even the MOEFCC remains a silent spectator when the state departments do not respect the Centre’s directives.

Modi and his government always talk big about minimum government and maximum governance. But a recent shocking development goes against this philosophy as the MOEFCC’s website Parivesh.nic.in has stopped updating information on environmental aspects such as the regulatory bodies’ meetings, environment impact assessment reports, the clearances applied for and granted and so on. For the last more than six months, the website meant for Pro-Active and Responsive facilitation by Interactive, Virtuous and Environmental Single-window Hub (PARIVESH) has stopped updating information.

The government’s talk of maximum governance appears to be hollow due to the non-availability of key information in public domain. If the government thinks that the required information can be obtained via the RTI (Right to Information) Act route, let me tell them that the system is awfully slow in responding to queries. As it is, the government departments get a month-long window to respond yet our experience is that they do not reply during the stipulated period.

As fellow environmentalist Nandakumar Pawar, director of Sagarshakti, said the government’s commitment for environmental protection is unfortunately not visible in action, and the neglect of the environmental norms in developing projects is clearly visible from the Chardham roads to Navi Mumbai International Airport, NMSEZ and JNPT SEZ.

Global warming, climate changes are discussed only on international platforms, but in actual implementation, there is an utter lack of transparency, Pawar rightly said.

Lack of accountability is the biggest victim of the mad race for so-called infrastructure. We have been raising our voices against the destruction of mangroves, wetlands and hills in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and no authority worth its name is bothered to check the ground situation.

As the Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited (NMIAL) obtained the environmental clearance based on misleading claims, the green groups have requested the MOEFCC to re-check the ground situation. MOEFCC in turn asked the Maharashtra Environment Department to look into the complaints and report. It has been a year since we complained and we still await the report.

The pathetic situation is not limited just to the financial capital alone. Friends from across the country keep messaging on our WhatsApp groups that environmental care is not even a half-hearted job – be it in Delhi NCR, Haryana, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, Bengaluru, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and even in Gujarat. As Bittu Sahgal, president of BNHS, points out there is not even a semblance of rain forestry at any of our dams. Then, what is the point in trying to arrest water at these dams when it doesn’t rain adequately?

Rain water harvesting? What’s it, a Mumbai civic official asked me. We once complained to Manisha Patankar, the then Maharashtra principal secretary for environment, about the lack of interest among the district level officials, she replied: “well, we have to sensitise them regarding the environment.” Is there anything left to say in such a pathetic situation?

(The columnist is a Mumbai-based independent media veteran, running websites and a youtube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging)