Comments on: India’s Environmental Challenges

By: tanisha agrahari

tanisha agrahari — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:57:17 +0000

the rate of deforestation is very high . this is the time to stop the deforestation or it will be too late.

By: Mohan CHandra Pargaien

Mohan CHandra Pargaien — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:10:43 +0000

Infact its right time to act at all levels to counter the problems. Mass awareness and resposiveness towards environment is very very poor among indians. Same time the unabilty of Beauraucrats either due to complacency or uleterior motives to deliver the mandated provisions for effective enforcement of various environmental Laws/Acts, lukewarm and superficial attitude of corporates, lowest priorty of Government coupled with problems of unemployment and hunger have made our country as one of the easiest targets for propogation and multiplication of environmental hazards.

By: always indian

always indian — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:09:38 +0000

Post World Environment Day, We have so many things to ponder on environmental change in India. We have been counted in with the list of other South Asian countries prone to natural disasters by UN in their report mentioned on our blog – Always Indian. The link to it – http://alwaysindian.com/2009/06/un-says-india-is-prone-to-natural-disasters/ The reason given by the United Nations is shame on us, According to the report the developing countries lack in disaster planning methods and require a better planning. We hope understand this at the earliest.

By: Brahmastra

Brahmastra — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:33:34 +0000

"Building efficiency measures, such as those suggested by the Obama Administration in America (reconfiguring buildings to make them more sustainable and making sure future construction is more environmentally friendly, including natural cooling techniques and solar panels."

I think India is way ahead of the US when it comes to energy efficiency already and shouldn't really be looking to a high-wastage society like the US for lessons here. Every other house in Bangalore already seems to have solar water heaters. Public transportation is widely used. "Tube lights" are widely used for lightning even at homes. While there is always room for more efficiency, the US would be the last country to take lessons from.

By: preemptive question

preemptive question — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:28:23 +0000

the rapidly receding Himalayan glaciers, most notably the Gaumukh glacier, where Ganga starts.

are we sure this is not an islamic conspiracy?

By: Camille

Camille — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:26:23 +0000

I think there are two issues here: 1. Whether India is going to be proactive in choosing an alternate developmental path from the destructive, unnatural, and degradation-based development path of the U.S. and other "western" nations; and 2. Whether it will hold other nations accountable for their share of environmental harm, as well.

There's a lot of potential in a growing economy to "get it right" and "do it different." Some of these issues are issues that India has control over -- e.g., protecting its citizens from the groundwater depletion/raiding of multinational corporations (coughcoughCoca-Colacoughcough). Other features, including climate change, are the product of a collective, global failure to prioritize the environment.

By: bytewords

bytewords — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:46:28 +0000

back in 97, i remember reading a fairly extensive series of articles in india today on how bad the water situation can get in india. there is the following site: http://www.indiawaterportal.org/ that collects information on water policy in india, though not in a very reader friendly manner. one question: water per capita per annum was projected to drop from 2731 cubic m in 1991 to 2000 cubic m in 2020 and 14xx in 2050. how good is this projection?

water scarcity is real and potentially huge. i don’t know how much longer we have an opportunity to react, is there any leads in Mint’s article about that?

but on second thought, let it be. first data point: did it really drop from 96% to 67%?

and the solution is rainwater harvesting for larger buildings—to fix problems in rural areas? what rural areas are they talking about? if this is the magnitude of loss in the north, it is unlikely you will fix the problem even if you drastically reduced urban consumption.

secondly, distribution losses??? first time i heard this wrt to water—how much do they estimate “distribution losses” are? in several rural areas, there is no distribution, leave alone distribution losses. frankly, it makes me suspicious of Mint’s article—they seem to be writing some generic nonsense once someone told them water is a problem.

By: paradesi

paradesi — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:38:56 +0000

To me what is really scary is the rapidly receding Himalayan glaciers, most notably the Gaumukh glacier, where Ganga starts. If these disappear, the North Indian rivers will just become a “barsati naala”, flooding in the monsoon season and dry at other times.

By: cij

cij — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:06:16 +0000

Water problem is the most acute and immediate of all the listed ones. In the last 30 years, many villages have moved to depending on rain water rather than ground water. Long time ago I have heard of a proposal to build national water grid (I think during when PVN Rao was prime minister) but that would means states resolving the water disputes (eg Karnataka-TN & Andhra-Maharashtra) properly.

The only way to spur energy conservation by Indians is to price the energy properly. The price of electricity is tiered but not by a lot. Increasing that would induce middle and upper middle class folks to save energy.