This Lawyer Wants Political Parties To Actually Care About The Environment Before It's Too Late

The general elections are underway in our country and political parties are trying their best to convince people to vote them to power. Their respective manifestos touch upon several issues they will work on and try to achieve if they come to power. From providing employment to improving country's economic growth, these manifestos have it all. However, one major exclusion from these list is the concern for the environment. Even though parties mention it, it hardly materialises during their time of rule.

In an exclusive conversation with Indiatimes, environment lawyer Ritwick Dutta touches upon issues that are critical to the environment's cause and what political parties can do so that there is no further damage to our natural resources.

Recently, India's 14 cities got a dubious distinction of being in the unwanted list of 15 most polluted cities of the world, as per a report. Another study stated that most deaths in India are caused due to air pollution. Taking a sly dig at the political parties' concern for the environment, Dutta said, "If there was a basic concern for the environment, the situation would have been different. These indicate the political parties have failed."

Dutta added that environment concerns included in the manifestos are simply a farce and are there just for the sake of it. "Environment is there in manifesto but like a footnote. Are they serious about it? If you look at it, it is not there. Nothing about prevention. When it is about rivers and forests, government say they will put in so much money to clean it. No one says we will ensure no further pollution will occur, no further deforestation occurs, no mining takes place that is avoidable. None of them are saying this", he said.

When asked about the huge rise in deforestation of urban forests, Dutta felt a lot needs to be done in this regard. "Very important to realise when we say the level of pollution is high it is because there are more vehicles, industries. The only thing that saves us is the little green cover that exists. The value of this green cover is not seen in terms of oxygen it generates, they're only seen as real estate business", he said.

He hit out at the urban planners for ignoring the natural green cover in the city. "Urban planners feels that every inch of green cover is a waste. The manicured parks are nothing but are water guzzlers. It is not a failure of only political parties but a collective failure of us a whole including urban planners", he added.

Touching about rising cases of human-animal conflict, Dutta said that industrial growth at the expense of natural greenery is a bane for the environment. "My point is there is no recognition of the fact that an animal needs a habitat and it needs to be secured. Railways tracks are crossing the regional movement of animals and they are being hit. Country has prioritised man made infrastructure and not natural infrastructure. As a result, there is a serious crisis", he claimed.

He also rued the fact that no state is coming up with a proper plan on how to deal with human-animal conflict.

Dutta is hopeful that the National Green Tribunal(NGT) is given more power so that there is no further degradation of environment. He wants the next government to give NGT more teeth so that there is a better grievance redressal mechanism in place for everyone.

These issues are definitely the need of the hour and political parties should take note in order to ensure a better future for everyone.

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