The warm and majestic green landscapes, the glory of the snow crowned mountains, the pristine maiden rivers and lakes – can soon be a matter of history! The clarion bells keep ringing over the degradation of various flora and fauna, and now things have got only graver. The very topography of our land has got altered, rather plundered! Thanks to the human rat-race.

The Irony

Being an adventure seeker, I have been visiting various places especially across the Himalayas and it pains my heart every time to see the deteriorating condition of these places. The beautiful pockets of nature are being replaced by plastic bottles, litter, dams, rapid construction, luxurious hotels and resorts – making these areas dull and grey! The irony of the situation is that the luxury and modernization that we are trying to achieve from such rampant dissection of these ecologically sensitive areas, is absolutely menacing.

The Devastation

We need to understand that things are not so smooth anymore. Clearly, there is an increase in the occurrence of natural calamities now. Man has been reckless in the past decade – ignoring guidelines, exploiting natural resources and taking full advantage of the political bureaucratic nexus! It has aggravated the estimated dire consequences to the pinnacle. Development is taking place at the price of the destruction of nature. The spoilage of the Dal Lake causing the locals to abandon their means of livelihood, the soil erosion due to flooding of the Brahmaputra, loss of life and property due to floods almost every few years in Assam and the recent devastation in Uttarakhand testify the above mentioned fact!.

Beep-Beep!

Not only within the country but all across the globe, there is a drastic change in the climate due to devious human activity, thereby altering ecosystems callously. The tsunami in Thailand, the hurricane Katrina and the Sandy Storm in the United States are to name a few. There is increase in population and decrease in natural resources. Today deforestation and global warming have reached to such a level that there is a constant environment alarm beeping, via natural disasters. According to the United Nation Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “we are close to a 6 degree increase” in global temperature (at the Council on Foreign Relations; February 2013). If this is the current path then may be sometime henceforth, the polar ice might be thin enough to float, triggering a colossal chain reaction of collapse!

Call for action…

It is high time to protect our environment.  The power and beauty of the natural world cannot be tamed – man is a fool to do so! There is much said and written in this regard but it is high time to pull up our socks. Little things of common sense can go a long way in making a difference. For instance, using buckets and pails for bathing is better than using showers, turn off your vehicle’s engine at red light, reuse and recycle, use eco-friendly products or reduce the flow of water when washing something. Another interesting concept to save our environment is using creativity as a tool to fix the problem. Great creativity can make something out of nothing, a monotonous idea into a great novelty!  We need to think differently and out of the box, thereby attracting and involving the human mind to do various things to save our environment. This increases the power and effort in this direction manifold, with the streak of enthusiasm.  

Apart from this, green societies should be given impetus. These are an association of persons, business and organizations that create local and global support systems developing sustainable resource based communities. Grooming green societies is grooming culture of optimum utilization. Last but not the least, both our centre and state governments should not merely provide financial help but also devise an adequate plan and policy. A workable solution is the need of the hour because – TO MOULD HISTORY OF OUR FUTURE, WE NEED TO HARMONIOUSLY MOULD THE ENVIRONMENT OF OUR PRESENT!

Cover Feature article of Identity India magazine in its September 2013 issue