JOIN USThe year that has gone by has given enough signals of the destruction that lies ahead if we continue to neglect the environment in a mad rush to ‘develop’. Nidhi Jamwal looks into how we can learn from the past and work towards a better 2016
The year 2015 has signed off with a loud and clear warning: development that disregards the environment is not only counter-productive but also catastrophic. The recent floods in Chennai are an example of the impact of mindless development and construction frenzy in the city, ignoring the environmental concerns.
Heavy rains lashed Chennai and neighbouring regions in the month of November and early December, killing over 400 people and displacing another 18 lakh. The officials at the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) blamed the unprecedented rainfall on the exceptionally strong El Niño, along with a rare coincidence of various factors.
However, it is being increasingly recognised that the incidence of flooding and the resulting financial losses, estimated to be over Rs 20,000 crore, could have been controlled had the authorities not turned a blind eye towards encroachments on the water bodies.
Urban floods
Urbanisation has lead to fast disappearance of water bodies in Chennai, which act as sponges during heavy downpour and control flooding. The Cooum river, Adayar river and the Buckingham canal are heavily encroached upon. Take for instance, Chennai airport’s second runway which runs over the river Adayar itself.
The number of ponds and tanks in the city has reduced from 650 to less than 30 now. The total area of 19 major lakes in the city has shrunk from 1,130 hectares (ha) to 645 ha. Pallikaranai wetland, which was spread over 50 sq km, is now one-tenth its original spread.
The encroachments on urban water bodies are not limited to Chennai alone. Almost all big cities in India have eaten into their water bodies to reclaim land for construction purposes. It isn’t a mere coincidence that every year during the monsoon months cities such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi report flooding. The government, however, is yet to understand the gravity of the problem.
This is fairly evident from the status of the Central Wetland Regulatory Authority whose term expired last March, but its tenure is yet to be extended. A public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) last year reveals that the authority had met only thrice in the last five years.
Floods that happened in the past including the Mumbai floods (2005), Uttarakhand floods (2013), Kashmir floods (2014) and the recent Chennai floods have made it amply clear that cities must acknowledge the ecosystem services provided by the water bodies and protect them. This is a major learning of 2015.
Freak weather events and drought
The second big environment crisis of 2015 unfolded in the drought-hit, hot and semi-arid Marathwada region of Maharashtra, which is facing third consecutive year of drought and has registered a steep rise in farmer suicide cases. In December, 100 farmers took their lives in Marathwada due to crop loss and related issues, taking last year’s official suicide toll to 1,124.
The successive crop failure is being blamed on a combination of factors that include unpredictable weather, regional imbalance, water problems, changing cropping pattern, and the lack of value-added agriculture. Climate change is a big contributor. For instance, in February-March 2014, Marathwada was struck by untimely hailstorm and rains, which destroyed the standing crops. Last year March, the freak hailstorm again destroyed the rabi crop.
The agrarian crisis in Marathwada clearly shows that our farming community is highly vulnerable to the changing climate. This vulnerability has been documented in a report of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) that was released last November. Among other things, the report suggests use of technology for accurate and speedy crop-damage assessment, reform in the way relief is estimated and delivered, and making crop insurance an attractive and a feasible compensation mechanism for farmers. Building climate resilience in the agriculture sector is the second key learning of 2015.
The hottest year
Linked to the issue of freak weather events is the warming of the planet. Last November, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) announced 2015 to be the hottest year on record. This, it said, was due to a combination of a strong El Niño and human-induced global warming. India has followed the global trend. Last month, the IMD declared 2015 to be India’s hottest year after it analysed data from the year 1901. And, this is bad news as extreme weather events will become more common and most Indian states are ill-prepared to deal with them.
In 2009, the Central government had directed all state governments and union territories to prepare State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCC), consistent with the strategy outlined in the National Action Plan on Climate Change. An assessment of other state-level climate action plans shows several shortcomings. State-level action plans should be built around the strategies of mitigation and adaptation to combat climate change. This is the third important learning.
Delhi’s air apocalypse
Last April, the Central government launched its first air quality index — System of Air quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) — to provide real time information about pollution levels in 10 Indian cities. Delhi, which was declared the world’s most polluted city by the World Health Organisation in 2014, continued to reel under severe air pollution.
On December 23, Delhi recorded 2015’s most polluted day when particulate matter — PM2.5 and PM10 levels remained severe at 295 microgram per cubic metre (µgcum) and 470 µgcum respectively, much higher than the permissible limit of 60 µgcum and 100 µgcum. Dangerously high levels of air pollution forced the Delhi High Court to recently observe, “It seems like we are living in a gas chamber.”
Air pollution in Indian cities is a serious matter. Thirteen out of 20 most polluted cities in the world are from India. Both the Central government and the state governments need to adopt a multi-pronged approach to control rising air pollution in urban India. This is the fourth challenge 2015 has thrown at us.
Green power
Last but not least big story of 2015 is India’s intended nationally determined contribution, as part of which the Central government has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 30-35 per cent by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. It means 40 per cent of its electricity should come from non-fossil fuel and renewable sources. The Central government has set an ambitious target of 175 gigawatt (GW) solar and wind power capacity by 2022, and 300-350 GW by 2030.
This shift from fossil fuel-based power to green power is a welcome step though the challenge of technology transfer and finance still remains. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has also released the much-needed notification to tighten norms for emissions of particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury, and cut water use by coal-based thermal power plants.
Agenda for 2016
First and foremost, the Central government, the state governments, the civic bodies and the urban planning authorities need to realise that water bodies are not an ornamental luxury or wasted land. They provide important ecosystem services. Civic bodies must map all the existing water bodies in their respective areas, and involve local citizens in legally protecting these natural resources and their catchment areas.
Climate is getting more and more unpredictable and freak weather events are on the rise. Year 2015 was the third year in a row when the rabi season was thrown out of kilter in large parts of India. In 2016, all the states must finalise or update their climate change action plans taking into consideration all the factors such as impacts on agriculture and crop insurance, sea level rise, floods and drought, erratic monsoon, vector-borne diseases and health, water security, disaster preparedness etc. Sufficient funds should be allocated for mitigation and adaptation. Municipal corporations, too, need to prepare such plans as they are the implementing authorities.
Residents of urban India are choking on air pollution. According to CSE’s publication, Body Burden 2015: State of India’s Health, air pollution is the fifth leading cause of death in India. It is responsible for about 10,000 to 30,000 deaths annually in Delhi. By 2025 and 2050, nearly 32,000 and 52,000 people in Delhi will die due to inhaling polluted air respectively. Year 2015 has shown there is very tangible link between our environment and our health. The focus of 2016, thus, should be on prevention and not treatment.
At present, MoEF&CC is looking to overhaul the environmental laws of the country for ‘ease of business’. A high-level committee headed by TSR Subramanian recommended some changes, but last July, the Parliamentary Committee on Science & Technology scrapped its report and recommended setting up of another committee. Any overhaul of the environmental regulations in the country should focus on tightening the rules and their strict enforcement. This should be the main agenda of 2016.