DEVELOPMENT OR ENVIRONMENT?
Shreyas Piplani
Author is a Law Student, FIMT, New Delhi
“All our
efforts to defeat poverty and pursue sustainable development will be in vain if
environmental degradation and natural resources depletion continues unabated.
– Kofi
Annan
Development is the foremost
important aspect of the country. Every nation aims that its development must
take place at a very rapid rate and should progress exponentially. In the
present century almost all the countries present on the globe has undergone a
lot of economic changes. No doubt, the method of the development which the
mankind has followed is necessary for the growth of the country but at the very
same time reckons the environmental balance of the world. The technological and
industrial developments have improved the economic conditions of the mankind by
altering the ecological balance. Industrialization, urbanization and erosion of
the soil have affected the natural environment adversely.[2] Particularly,
when we talk about developing nations like India which holds the second largest
population of the world, counting approximately 1.37 Billion people.
India is currently facing a huge
economic and development crisis and if the problem persists the citizens of the
country would have to face a lot of economic problems. Highlighting the fact
that approximately 35% of the Indian
youths are unemployed even after completing their graduations. The families
are still not having enough income to support their livelihood and if the
development of the country and its citizens is not given ample importance, its
people would starve to death. But the environmental problems which the whole
globe is facing must not be neglected at all. India is also witnessing a lot of
environmental degradation and if not taken into consideration seriously would
lead devastating effects. So, what should be done? Should we protect the
environment at the cost of the development of the society or mainly focus on
the development of the society and ignore the environmental degradation. This
question has been a debatable topic and has been advocated since a long time by
various visionaries of the world.
What if, you are made to choose
between the left eye or the right eye. Which one would you choose? It’s pretty
obvious, both of our eyes are equally important and even if one eye gets
damaged our life will become miserable. Likewise, both the aspects environment
and the development should be treated equally. For this, the practice of Sustainable Development is to be
followed and it has become a need of the hour for us to practice it else the
doomsday is near.
JUDICIAL VIEW OF SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA
The practice of
Sustainable development means that the development of the society must take
place in such a way without compromising and hampering the needs of our future
generations. Our country India has been laying a lot of emphasis on the
practice of sustainable development and it has been ranked 57th globally for practicing sustainable
development. The court in the case of Citizen Consumer and Civic Action group v. Union of India, observed that while the court
has social accountability in the matter of protection of the environment there
should be a proper balance between the same and development activities, which
are essential for progress. In short, there can be no dispute that the society
has to prosper but it shall not be at the expense of the environment. In the
like vein, the environment shall have to be protected, but not at the cost of
development of the society. Both development and the environment shall co-
exist and go hand in hand, therefore, a balance has to be struck and
administrative action ought to proceed in accordance therewith, and nor de- hors the same.
Nowadays, the child from
the very beginning is taught the importance of the environment and a need to
conserve it. The Hon’ble Supreme Court
in the case of M.C Mehta v. Union of
India, has directed the states and other educational authorities to create
environmental awareness amongst students through medium of education, to
introduce compulsory education on environment and directed the NCERT to prepare
a module syllabus to be taught at different grades and submit the same to the
court.
It is to be kept in mind that both
development and environment must go hand in hand, in other words, there should
not be development at the cost of the environment and vice versa, but there
should be a development while taking due care and ensuring the protection of
the environment. A person must not be oblivious of
the very fact that the natural resources have got to be developed for the
purpose of social development but one cannot at the same time that tapping of
resources has to be done with requisite attention and care so that the ecology
and the environment may not be affected in any serious way. It has to be always
remembered that these are the permanent assets of mankind and are not intended
to be exhausted in one generation.
“What is the use of a fine house if you
haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on”
-Henry
David Thoreau
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