India is at a juncture wherein it stands to be challenged by the nature to protect it. We all know that the intense debate about development notwithstanding, India is already in the big league in terms of national prosperity and the actual challenge it faces is to ensure a distribution mechanism that would help share the gains from growth with the masses.

But it also has another challenge. The trade-off between prosperity and environment. Right now, large swaths of the country have gone dry due to delayed monsoon. The changes in the monsoon cycles is blamed on the issue of global warming and like all other countries (except Bhutan which is not carbon neutral but also has turned itself into a carbon sink) we are also a net contributor to the causes of global warming.

With prosperity comes greater use of energy. With India’s dependence on fossil fuel, coal for example, for generation of electricity, carbon dioxide accounts for 60 percent of the greenhouse gas emission in our country. While development brings greater use of energy, it also brings in its wake, the need for greater infrastructural links like transport. Construction of new roads, railway lines, increased use of airplanes lead not only to greater use of fossil, it also adds to rising greenhouse gas emission.

Going beyond that need, demand for greater space for human habitation is leading to depletion of forests, biodiversity, waste management issues, ground water depletion and water resources. This also has an impact on the livelihood of the poor as they share a symbiotic relation with the nature. The poor depend on the trees for supply of firewood and various other things. But more importantly, rising quantity of non-degradable waste, at a rate that defies management, is also claiming natural resources as victims by choking up water bodies and speeding up soil erosion.

This is not to say that we need to junk our development efforts and take away the steam from the process of economic growth. What is needed, however, is initiation of a social dynamics to balance between economic development and environmental protection. This can never be done through regulations alone. Unless there is a greater awareness about the need to protect our environment as much as we are concerned about our land, we may get to retain the land without its properties that make it so precious to us.

For example, waste management cannot be effective without the participation of the masses in it. People need to be aware of the harm that plastic causes to the environment. There is no mechanism to effectively control plastic litter unless people participate in the process. But making them aware is not enough. Along with it we also need to create easily available and accessible disposal system for such waste so that people need not hoard them for future disposal. Ease, convenience, and access are the key words in this development strategy that strives to work in sync with the environment.

Then there is the issue of tree cover. Without getting into technicalities, it implies that we are not functionally mindful of protecting a major natural resource that acts as a shield to protect the environment. An awareness therefore in this regard is a necessary action point. The same goes for river and other water resources.

The net learning here can be summed up saying that earth doesn’t need protection, we do. Because if we don’t retain the environment that we live in the existence of our race will be at stake. This can only be done through our effort mediated by the government. We do not need to sacrifice development for protecting environment. We need to make development work for the prosperity of environment as well.

Awareness towards environment will let us live in an earth where development will help provide prosperity.