Green India Clean India

1. Green India, Clean India
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” In my
opinion, this is one of the most thoughtful and poignant quotation about our environment. India
is the fourth worst country in the world when it comes to handling environmental issues,
according to the 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI). Out of 180 countries, India
ranked 177, only better in environmental performance than the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Bangladesh and Burundi. This is especially worrying because two years ago, India's rank was
141. Not only this there are several statistics pointing out our low rankings, indicating poor
environmental conditions in our country.
The EPI report said that a low rank meant that a nation needed to step up its efforts in cleaning
up air quality, protecting biodiversity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It also said that
countries like India (with an air quality of 5.75), China and Pakistan faced a public health crisis.
The fact that rapidly growing economies like China and India ranked low reflects the strain
which economic growth has on the environment. That said, China is ranked 120 and ostensibly
in much better shape than India. The top five countries in terms of green rankings are
Switzerland, France, Denmark, Malta and Sweden. Switzerland stands out in the categories of
climate and energy, and air pollution. Denmark, Malta and Sweden stand out for high scores in
air quality within environmental health. Malta scores the highest in water and sanitation.
There are many environmental issues in India. Air pollution, water pollution, garbage and
pollution of the natural environment are all challenges for India. Pollution remains a major
challenge and opportunity for India.Environmental issues are one of the primary causes of
disease, health issues and long term livelihood impact for India. We are facing various
environmental challenges. It is essential to get the country acquainted with these challenges so
that their acts may be eco-friendly. Some of these challenges are as under:
● Population growth: with a population of 1.25 billion and a high growth rate it puts
considerable pressure on its natural resources and reduces the gains of development.
Hence, the greatest challenge before us is to limit the population growth.
● Poverty: due to excessive population, it's clear that there is a shortage of natural
resources. The poverty and environmental degradation have a nexus between them. The
vast majority of our people are directly dependent on the nature resources of the country
for their basic needs of food, fuel shelter and fodder. About 40% of our people are still
below the poverty line.
● Agricultural growth: The people must be acquainted with the methods to sustain and
increase agricultural growth with damaging the environment. High yielding varieties
have caused soil salinity and damage to physical structure of soil.
● Lack of clean Water: It is essential of rationalizing the use of groundwater. Factors like
community wastes, industrial effluents and chemical fertilizers and pesticides have
polluted our surface water and affected quality of the groundwater. Low groundwater
table levels are very concerning.

2. ● Loss of forests: due to increasing development and urbanization, lots and lots of forests
are cleared. Forests along the rivers are also cleared due to construction of dams, and
this extensive deforestation has lead to the degrading environmental condition.
● Air quality: due to low vegetation coverage, it's but obvious that the air quality will be
poor. And reports have suggested that 4 out 10 most polluted cities in world belong to
India. India was the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, in
2009 at 1.65 giga tonnes per year, after China and the United States.
Most of these problems are common for all developing countries and can be tackled effectively
to reduce the impact of these factors. Government of India has laid down several rules and laws
to control this and maintain a sustainable development for the country. Indian laws from recent
history include the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974, the Forest
(Conservation) Act of 1980, and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1981. In
1985, Indian government created the Ministry of Environment and Forests. This ministry is the
central administrative organisation in India for regulating and ensuring environmental
protection. Despite active passage of laws by the central government of India, the reality of
environmental quality mostly worsened between 1947 and 1990. Rural poor had no choice, but
to sustain life in whatever way possible. Air emissions increased, water pollution worsened,
forest cover decreased.Starting in the 1990s, reforms were introduced. Since then, for the first
time in Indian history, major air pollutant concentrations have dropped in every 5-year period.
Between 1992 and 2010, satellite data confirms India's forest coverage has increased for the first
time by over 4 million hectares, a 7% increase. “ Green India, Clean India” campaign has started
to raise an issue over these problems and has helped in teaching and sending the message of
sustainable development and importance of our environment.
Afforestation and festivals like ‘vanmahosthsav’ has lead to an increase in the vegetation
coverage over these years and statistics suggest that the actual forest coverage has increased
over the past decade. Several laws forbidding deforestation and making biodiversities
inaccessible for locals and constructors. Recently on June 2018, Delhi High Court ordered to
clear and chop around 16000 trees in south Delhi for development. This step was harshly
criticised in social media and people and NGOs have started their own chipko movement to
protect the trees. Taking into consideration the air quality of Delhi, it's very sad to see High
Court taking decisions like this. Instead, we should opt for sustainable development, where
development goes hand in hand with protecting the environment.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyanor Clean India Mission is a campaign in India that aims to clean up the
streets, roads and infrastructure of India's cities, smaller towns, and rural areas. The objectives
of Swachh Bharat include eliminating open defecation through the construction of household-
owned and community-owned toilets and establishing an accountable mechanism of monitoring
toilet use. Run by the Government of India, the mission aims to achieve an Open-Defecation
Free (ODF) India by 2 October 2019, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, by
constructing 90 million toilets in rural India at a projected cost of ₹ 1.96 lakh crore. The mission
will also contribute to India reaching Sustainable Development Goal Number 6. The campaign
was officially launched on 2 October 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi. It is India's largest cleanliness drive to date with 3 million government employees, school

3. students, and college students from all parts of India participating in 4,041 statutory cities,
towns and associated rural areas.
We should not only think of afforestation while thinking of making India green, we should also
take into account the cleanliness of our surrounding. Reduce, reuse and recycle policy can be
implemented on an individual level to reduce the levels of pollutions. Substituting plastics with
jute and paper bags are good step towards making India green. We should be less dependant on
non renewable sources of energy like petroleum, coal etc and switch for green energy like solar
power, wind power, natural gas etc. Changes won't happen overnight, but everyday if we put
small small efforts, we could make it clean in near future.
Mohini Kumari
Prayaas Corps. Intern