Kr. Swarn Kishore Singh
“If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato & Kant- I should point to India. If I were to look over the world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow- in some parts a very paradise on earth- I should point to India.” said Friedrich Max Muller.
In the month of June last year while I was travelling on Srinagar-Leh highway and approaching Sonamarg, I noticed a very strange thing, which flabbergasted me very awkwardly. Previously when I had visited that place, almost a year prior to that, I was a witness to a free swift flowing crystalline milky stream, but this time it was replaced by a lazy moving slug. When I enquired, I got to know that construction work on Srinagar-Leh highway was underway and the muck coming out of the construction work is being dumped in the runnel directly as well as indirectly, therefore the water gets heavy and coloured. Then when I reached back to Srinagar and one evening while relaxing in the lawns of Hazratbal Dargah, which banks the western side of Dal Lake, what I saw was really appalling, I saw some people of the locality throwing household wastes directly in the lake and even a drain was getting dumped in the lake. We, the people in India use water bodies as a dust-bin and don’t feel any compassion for the health of these bodies; infact a lot of us do it for fun as well.
Our fore-fathers had bestowed upon us a duty to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lake, rivers and wild life and to have compassion for living creatures which is as a fundamental duty of every citizen of India as is given in Article 51A (g) of constitution of India. Not only a fundamental duty of the citizens but the same endeavour is a guiding light for framing of policies for the state and hence a directive principle in the shape of Article 48A in Part-VI of the Constitution of India was inserted in the Constitution of India by virtue of 42nd amendment Act, 1976 which is as;
Protection and improvement of environment and safeguarding of forests and wild life- The state shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country.
In Rio de Janeiro summit of Nations Conference on environment and development in June 1992, India had vowed to the other participating countries to provide judicial and administrative remedies for the victims of the pollutants and other environmental damages.
In the same direction, the union parliament in 2010 passed The National Green Tribunal Act to provide for establishment of a National Green Tribunal for the effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection; conservation of forests and other natural resources. This legislation also includes provisions for enforcement of the legal right relating to environment and giving relief and compensation for damages to persons and property and for that matter connected herewith or incidental thereto. It was just an offshoot of Article 21 and there are various judgments of Hon’ble Supreme Court which stretch right to life to assure the citizens of India the right to healthy environment. The Apex court has time and again exhibited its concern with pollution cases; from pedestrian case Ratlam Municipality v. Vardhichand till M.C. Mehta vs. Union of India, it has been passing orders to the degree of even closure of industrial projects causing pollution and directing for taking steps necessary to take care of pollution in such cases by delivering certain landmark judgments and laying down some very path-breaking precedents like polluters-pay principle etc. The Apex Court has observed time and again held that no project, howsoever big and immense it may be, is not to be given precedence over human lives and the environment therein. Our commitment towards conservation is not new one; we have a history of around 5000 years practising the same. We are known for worshipping trees, animals and rivers. This has been our way of exhibiting our reverence towards the environment and its components around us.
In April last year, work on the second phase of the ambitious project of present NDA Government i.e. four laning of Jammu- Srinagar highway commenced. The work started from Udhampur to Banihal stretch. Within a week of commencement of the work, the rivers and forests of this stretch were flooded with muck and debris, and air was as pure as is in Shanghai. Locals approached the authorities but in vain, because the local administration very shamelessly rebutted their claim for pure air and water with a sentence which is “Ye national project hai, inko rokenge to company bhaag jayengi”. So in a way the Government had surrendered these natural resources before the unquenchable greed of some corporate just because it was a national project. National project or international project or even bigger so-called project; nothing is sacrosanct over the integrity of the ecological balance of any area anywhere in the world. On the contrary there is another example, Jaypee group had installed a cement plant in Bagheri village of district Solan and violated certain environmental laws and the Green Bench of Himachal Pradesh High Court had served the defaulting company with a fine of Rs 100 crore along with cancellation of permission for operation of the cement plant.
In times when rivers like Ganga & Yamuna are being granted the status of living legal entity, we here in J&K are still dumping garbage in Dal, we are still having a shrinking Wular, we are still dumping industrial wastes and muck in river Chenab, we are still having a Tawi which is nothing but a permanent dumping yard for sewerage of cities like Udhampur & Jammu, we are having Jhelum which is flooding every year because people have intruded some much into it that now the water of Jhelum oftenly enters into the houses of people. When will we start managing our water resources? The same goes with the rest; for example forests are depleting at such a pace that very soon we will be at par with Haryana as far as forest cover is concerned. Also, last year in the month of August, while I was on my way to a far off shrine i.e. Sharva-Dhar in district Ramban; the path to the shrine goes through a very dense forest having a variety of trees, herbs and shrubs but it was predominantly having Deodar trees. The meek and persistent fragrance of Deodar resin was really enchanting but what I got to see next was very disappointing and surprising; the trunk of the most of the Deodar trees were peeled and bark taken off. This was very strange for me but when I enquired more; I got to know that the trees which have had received this treatment will get dried up in a span of 8-10 months and then the forest officials will call it a dead tree and sell it. This all was going when a partnership of interest of forests department officials and some smugglers has been forged. And these things are not happening in district Ramban only but everywhere in the state.
The State Government inspite of showing some commitment and grit to put some check on these malpractices are partners in the deterioration of the natural resources, the determination the Government exhibits on international forums while they talk about environment protection surprisingly vanishes on ground. India now is the main torch bearer of environmental awareness on international arena especially after US pulled off from the Paris summit. In this blind race of development let us be a sane voice in letter and spirit and atleast preserve what are blessed with. In times when we are trying to irrigate Thar Desert and trying to put a check on spreading of desert; we are trying every possible thing to make new ones.
We are mining and quarrying so recklessly as if it is some unending source. It is really very painful to witness a scene on the Jammu-Srinagar highway; when the dust clouds kiss the skies, the river are coloured with mud and chemicals, forests dilapidated, the wild animals dying on the roads, but I suppose we do not even have the right to feel the pain because our so-called Government is building the so-called infrastructure for us at our own corpses. What a dilemma! We all know what had happened in Uttarakhand in 2012 and I won’t be surprised if incident like that will take place here in J&K. The Kashmir flood in 2014 was just an alarm for us to wake up and make amends but we seem to be in a deep slumber and such floods are not going to wake us up. And remedy to this deep slumber is found in an Urdu couplet of Rahat Indori which is;
Jo tor hai duniya ka, usi tor se bolo,
Behron ka ilaka hai, zara zor se bolo!
(The author is a practising advocate and a political and legal analyst)
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