The Hindu : New Delhi News : Shift focus now from economy to ecology, says Pitroda

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 14, 2007
ePaper

New Delhi

New Delhi

Shift focus now from economy to ecology, says Pitroda

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Emphasising the need to shift the country’s focus from the economy to ecology, National Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda on Saturday said people have no right to kill animals, destroy plants and thereby harm the eco-system.

Delivering the inaugural address at the launch of the Indian Institution of Foresters here, Mr. Pitroda said he was born in 1942 at Titlagarh in Orissa and grew up in the lush green teak forest cover. “My father was a carpenter who had migrated from Gujarat to Orissa. I remember once travelling to Kalahandi in a bullock cart along with my father. There used to be a tiger in every village in the early 1950s. Life was rich in environment and ecological system.”

Mr. Pitroda said even though the media was highlighting issues like nine per cent growth, industrialists signing big deals, foreign capital flowing into the country, it was giving little importance to environment.

Stating that poaching was surreptitiously going on in the country, Mr. Pitroda said: “We have no right to kill anybody. People take great pride in displaying trophies of wild animals in their houses. Some people feel they control the environment. We must give respect to animals, plants and insects. Our rivers are filthy, stinky and polluted. You will be forced to think about our environment while travelling from Mumbai’s airport to Nariman Point. I know all this is a big idea, difficult to swallow and nobody will agree but we seriously need to do something about it. Don’t wait for Government policies.”

Mr. Pitroda said as Chairman of National Knowledge Commission he would take the responsibility for conveying to other members of the Commission to think about ways to protect the country’s environment. “As Chairman of the Commission I am looking into the disparity between the rich and the poor, the urban and the rural. Now the question is how would you nurture knowledge.”

Environment rights activist Maneka Gandhi said when she became the Minister for Environment and Forests years ago she wanted to check the authenticity of the figure of 25 per cent forest cover. “I asked for satellite pictures of the forest cover. Apparently they were taken during the sugarcane season so the canes were shown as part of forest cover. So I asked for satellite pictures after the sugarcane season and we found that the country had only eight per cent forest cover. Each forester needs to give correct figures. ”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi

News Update

Stories in this Section