Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Whose planet is it anyway?

Some home truths about how we manhandle our environment

PHOTO: K. ANANTHAN

LESSONS LEARNT On environment.

Embarrassment, remorse, shame, not untinged with a sense of horror and alarm. Everywhere, there is raw, untreated, in-your-face statistics. Fifty to 100 species of plants and animals become extinct every day. Forests the size of a football field are being destroyed every minute. One child dies due to water-related disease every 15 seconds. The number of people who lack access to safe drinking water is 1.1 billion and 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation.

Snuffing out life

Couldn't care less? Such statistics are only for people who live elsewhere? Orange snow in Siberia, five lakh trees being cut down just for the Sunday newspaper in the U.S., so many starving to death in Africa...

But, look closely. The exhibition on Environmental Awareness, organised by PSG Urban Health Centre and the Kotagiri Wildlife Association, says devastation is at our doorstep. And, each one of us right here in Coimbatore is responsible for it.

Remember that plastic packet you chucked out of your car window? Or, when you refused to segregate garbage because you couldn't be bothered? Or kept putting off attending to that leaking tap? Well, that leaky tap translates to 50 litres of water wasted a day. And, that packet you tossed out along with a million others similarly disposed is choking the life out of our water resources.

Our neighbour, the Nilgiris, is mute testimony to that. Rich in flora and fauna, vandalism, insensitivity and callous treatment of this fragile eco-system will not only lead to extinction of species, but also deprive the Kongu region of precious water.

Beautiful pictures of noted photographers like T.N.A Perumal and K. Maruthachalam shows the rich natural heritage of the Nilgiris. The Nilgiri Tahr, birds of rare distinction, tigers, majestic elephants, exotic flora all make their home here. So does the Noyyal in all its beauty. But, they will soon be gone, if another set of photographs is to be believed. Choked sewage, rotting garbage, agricultural lands awash with effluents, the beautiful Noyyal transformed into a stinking, fetid drain, is all too real.

Elsewhere, a display shows a row of edibles like semolina, tea leaves, cinnamon, bay leaves, turmeric, curry powder and alongside, their adulterated counterparts that look the same but are actually made up of toxic dyes, saw dust, dried cow dung, crushed stones and sand!

Help stem the rot

But, all is not lost. We can still pull back from the brink. Simple steps could make a huge difference. Segregating garbage, avoiding the use of plastic, teaching people basic hygiene (this could reduce the incidence of diarrhoea by 37 per cent), installing soak pits, and getting back to cultivating traditional crops could repair some of the damage. One learns that glass produced from recycled glass rather than raw materials will reduce air-related pollution by 20 per cent and water pollution by 50 per cent. Did you know that penguins can convert salt water into fresh water? Or that there are any number of websites related to job opportunities in the environmental field? That there is a pollution-related disease for every letter of the alphabet?

"Children have responded positively to the expo," says Dr N. Ramkrishna, Medical Officer of the Urban Health Centre, as he shows the feedback children have written in support of the environment.

Sustain life

"This is an effort to sensitise people on the enormity of damage being done and teaching them how important, air, water and the earth is to us," he says. The Millennium Development Goals of the UN talks of ensuring environment sustainability, and this is a step towards that. Hundreds of children visited the expo after its inauguration by the PSG trustee G. Rangaswamy. Students of various colleges have chipped in to make the event meaningful. The exhibition is on till Sunday (February 11) between 9 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. at the PSG Urban Health Centre, Avanashi Road. Interested schools should call Dr. Ramakrishna at 94434-61802 to fix a time for their visit.

P.S.

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