Retelling the Same Planetary Tale: Again and Again
With the economic model of development firmly adopted and actively implemented, India’s natural countryside is witnessing fast paced changes. Changes that test our resilience and will continue to present new challenges in the face of rapidly evolving ecosystem threats. In many ways, India is a mirror to the global situation where our persistence in following the present growth model is further degrading the fragile landscapes.
While a nation is defined by its
boundaries, multiple actors cooperate to make it a living space. India’s story
has been substantially impacted by its diverse geography and natural features.
From the monsoons which provide an enviable certainty to millions of farmers to
the trade winds which provided intrepid explorers to explore distant lands,
from the Himalayas which provided a natural unbroken barrier to all sorts of
discomfort including invaders and the cold draught of wind that sweeps down the
Tibetan plateau to the richness of the soil which has ensured stability for
thousands of years, India has been blessed with subtle gifts from nature that
enabled civilizations to thrive long before a settled agrarian society arrived
at what are now euphemistically referred to as the first world.
The nation’s ecological integrity is now at
stake and while many may claim that the current ecological crisis is not our
making but the result of the vagaries committed by the west, especially in the
post second world war period, it does not absolve us from the responsibility
that within the boundaries of the planetary common, the causes and impacts are
not of a limited nature.
Firmly entrenched within the capitalistic
society, the western world after a quarter of a century of obfuscation and
offering entreaties to the so called developing world, has now effectively
washed its hands of cleaning up its mess. Rather, the continued exploitation of
the worlds resources continues unabated, albeit obscured in fancy terms and aid
packages. India and many other countries are still viewed either as a resource
base or a market for dumping products that may not have been needed in the first
place. Under the Paris agreement of 2015, so much billions of dollars were
promised to lift developing countries into a greener economy but the results
are there to be seen. Now, increasingly even the pretense of trying to help
seems to be a distant promise, as the west tries to consolidate its rapidly
fracturing societies bereft as they are of the easy pilferage that they were
used to for the past two the three centuries.
Are we following the same pattern. Is our
model of development, which on the surface appears to be replicating the
western model of extraction, still has space or scope to move tentatively
towards achieving the goals of sustainable development. Can we uphold the
ideals of a just transformation where inequality can be at its minimum and
justice the order of the day. Can we move beyond caste, class, religion and
gender inequities to usher in a green model of development, one that places
priority over nature and equality. These are broader questions that may take
lifetimes to evolve but the polycrisis that we find ourselves in might find
answers from an equally diverse coming together of positive action.
The impending crisis that unfolds before us forces everyone to rethink contemporary ways of dealing with them. From small forest hamlets to urban high rises, this multipronged crisis has the capacity to impact everybody. Though a stark reminder exists that some stakeholders may suffer more than others. Resilience is likely to become a precious commodity in the coming decades.
