Dr. Anil Joshi’s column – Economic strength is also based on natural resources | डॉ. अनिल जोशी का कॉलम: आर्थिक मजबूती प्राकृतिक संसाधनों पर भी आधारित है

Dr. Anil Joshi Padmashree awarded environmentalist

Monsoon has almost gone. Winter has arrived. But this time the heavy rains have surprised not only India but the entire world. To understand this changing climate, we will have to think from a scientific point of view also. We cannot say that this is just an unusual incident.

Scientists are predicting that this winter may be harsher than ever before. This change in weather is not limited only to heat, rain and cold, but it will also affect agriculture, forests and the overall ecology.

The question arises that how do we face this challenge? Well, every country claims to be serious towards its environment. Be it conservation of rivers or expansion of forests, governments make claims, but the question always remains as to how serious these efforts are. We do not give any value to ecology, because our focus is only on the economic condition of the country.

We take pride that the GDP of America, Australia or China is going down, while India’s economy remains strong. We should not forget that our economic strength is also based on our natural resources and hence it is important to maintain them.

Rivers, forests, soil – conservation of all these is necessary. But what is our responsibility towards these resources is a big question. Along with economic development, protection of the environment is also important. And this will be possible only when these resources are also accounted for.

In this spirit, ‘Gross Environment Product’ (GEP) has been adopted as a new initiative in Uttarakhand. HESCO scientists have prepared this indicator, which has also received international recognition. Its objective is to measure, just as economic development is measured, the quality and quantity of environmental resources – forests, water, air, soil, especially the efforts the government makes to improve them.

The equation of GEP is also similar to that of GDP. It tells how much forest quality has increased in a year, how much water quantity and sanitation has increased, how much air quality has improved and how much efforts have been made to make the soil organic.

Uttarakhand is the first state to adopt this indicator and its eco-rate has come out to be 0.9%. This means there has been an increase in these resources compared to the previous year. Although this indicates improvement compared to previous years, it needs to become even better.

When the government claims a GDP rate above 6%, then they also have to see what progress we have made in protecting the environment and how to make it a good rate. Only by harmonizing Gross Environmental Product (GEP) and GDP can we move towards a balanced and sustainable development. (These are the author’s own views)