Climate change: Greta Thunberg should get TS, AP lawmakers thinking

When Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg thundered at the United Nations recently, dressing down 'adult in the room' (assembled world leaders) of endangering her future by not acting quickly on toxic emissions, conservative crowd frowned at her and termed the 16-year-old climate activist as 'mentally ill'.

As the doe-eyed activist is inspiring millions of schoolchildren across the globe to take up the cudgel and lead a war on climate change, the lawmakers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh should introspect and should feel ashamed over their insensitivity on the fatal ecological imbalance that threatens to wipe out the next generation.

The rains that pounded Hyderabad this week wreaked havoc in residential colonies and commercial areas, a clear consequence of thoughtlessness of the officials concerned and gluttonous babus in the corridors of power.

According to National Committee on Environmental Planning, there are five factors that lead to the ecological imbalance in India. They are degradation of land and soil erosion, deforestation, faulty utilisation of water resources, environmental problems from faulty mining practices and industrial and atmospheric pollution.

According to a study, in the erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh, about 7.3 million ha (26.6%) area suffers from severe soil loss, (exceeds the tolerance limit of 12.5 tonne/ha/yr) mostly concentrated in Kadapa, Adilabad, Visakhapatnam, Chittoor, Anantapur, Nizamabad and Vizianagaram districts. The total soil loss in the area will be of the order of about 26 million tonnes which contributes to 72 per cent of the total soil loss in both the States. The fact is, about 59 per cent area in both the States can be managed with minimum management practices like field bunding or proper land cover through crop planning. About 21 per cent area can be conserved through contour bunding and appropriate vegetative barriers. The remaining area of 19 per cent is mostly affected by very severe and extremely severe soil loss. These areas are very fragile and need utmost care for management. But neither legislators nor officials care two hoots to tackle the problem.

According to a national survey conducted 2009, maximum loss of forest cover happened in undivided Andhra Pradesh and after the bifurcation, this continues unabated. What more, a woman forest official was brutally attacked by ruling party activists in Telangana for trying to protect the forest land in recent times!

Overexploitation of groundwater in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh caused drops in groundwater levels, drying up of open wells and seasonal and permanent failures of shallow and deep bore wells over a period of time. Lack of proper planning by the authorities are making the situation alarming by each passing day. They have constructed dams disregarding ecological essentials in order to swell their ill-gotten assets in the garb of public welfare. These unscientific and unscrupulous dams and projects have displaced millions of tribal people, drowned million hectares of rich forest areas, failed to prevent and control floods and often created destructive flash flood in the downstream villages.

Even as mining operation has already resulted in large scale deforestation, soil erosion and various health hazards to human beings and animals, an elected government is facilitating large scale uranium mining in Nallamala forests. A responsible Minister was heard speaking of harmless uranium mining. Poor Madam Curies must be weeping in the heaven!

Pollutants from innumerable industries in both the States are being mixed with atmosphere which include lead from automobile emission, urea dust from fertilizer factory, cement and lime dust from cement factories, increasing radiation of nuclear power stations etc. To add to the woe, industrial effluents from fertiliser factories, paper mills and leather factories are constantly being discharged in rivers, lakes and seas, creating huge health hazards for the population of the country. It is high time we all woke up and demanded our rulers to act fast!