We wish our readers a very happy New Year 2023. A new year symbolizes new beginnings- hopefully positive- and happier outcomes. But it is the same old plight- or rather worsened up- where the nature and its inhabitants are concerned. Sheer apathy on the part of both the government and the public, lack of tolerance, lack of respect and a tendency to sabotage, seize and ultimately destroy natural spaces- including forests, mountains, lakes and springs- are causing the nature to show its violent side. Yet we are just not ready to listen. How do we justify shortening of a few distances by building bridges, overbridges, flyovers or metros when the cost is as high as an irreparable loss to invaluable flora and fauna? Even the oceans are being outraged for this very purpose without giving even a fleeting thought to marine life and ecosystem!
Crazy is the word that best describes the mad pace at which urbanization is taking place in India. No ethics are involved, no science is considered and no explanation given- It is a simple matter of making money out of everything, sparing not even the most sacred of places like the fragile ecosystems and bountiful green covers. Foolish claims of planting ten times more saplings make a mockery of the efforts put in by the forest officials, various NGOs and environmentalists in the past to ensure an enviable green cover with every specimen of biodiversity possible. A flyover can wreak havoc over not just the greenery (shrubs, small plants, grass included and not just trees as is being touted) but also kill the entire biodiversity (from a bee to a beast). But the short-sighted, ill-informed and environmentally uneducated policy makers fail to fathom that. To them, following ‘saheb’ command is ultimate, even if it later backfires on the common man- the ‘saheb’ has scored a brownie point!
Now, who is benefitting from all that pace of connectivity? Think. There are areas in India- so many of them- that need lanes and roads desperately. These areas get cut off from the main lands during bad weather and school children cannot even reach their schools or the patients, a doctor. Yet, there is no urgency on that front, but the entire focus is to benefit the trader community or a religious pilgrimage. Why but for revenue, money. Why is the government so crazy about collecting a fortune as quickly as possible? Where will it all be used? The public is not the beneficiary for sure because the only type of employment generation being done is of the third-rate category with the educated youth being forced to put their degrees on the shelf and take up jobs in companies that require just a motorcycle of them! Is this how we foresee our future where there are just two classes- the uber rich and the labour! Where will the educated and aware middle class go? Why is there no patronage given to the pen or the plant? Maybe because both come in the way of exploitation of Mother Earth!
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