Green revolution: Air is what's bothering Indians

GREEN WITH AWARENESS: CNN-IBN panelists discuss the findings of the State of the Environment survey.

                  

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Flush and forget

Most respondents in the survey wanted the government to clean up rivers but only 5 per cent of them said the sewage from their homes could be ending up in rivers.

Individuals can’t be accused of ignorance and neither can they do much about where their sewage goes, but this point of the survey finding reflects a “flush-and-forget syndrome”. Individuals must be aware of their environment even if they can do little to solve its problems, said Narain.

Solving problems is the state’s responsibility, said Sibal. “Citizens must be aware but it is the state’s responsibility to clean up rivers and put in policies for that. There are priorities in life: we need flyovers and we need trees. We should have growth and we should be green,” he said.

As many as 74 Indians said they plant trees as their personal effort to help the environment—a good effort but the panel believed it’s time our efforts moved on.

“Environment in India cannot be any longer be about planting trees and not using plastic bags,” said Narain.

“It can’t be business as usual,” said Sibal. But are Indians willing to pay the price for a better environment?

As many as 51 per cent respondents were willing to pay a tax which would help the environment. As many as 32 per cent were willing to pay an ‘environment tax’.

“We have to realise there is no free lunch but in politics if one party wants to raise taxes that make economic or environmental sense the other party would oppose it,” said Guha.

Sibal agreed that an ‘environment tax’ would almost be impossible. “It would be a very, very difficult political decision to take. It would create a hullabaloo.”

Would the environment improve five years from now? The panel was optimistic but only if country planned its efforts and put a price to the environment.

“I am optimistic but we will need to do things much more differently. There will be very difficult choices. It can’t be ‘I will have my, my AC and do what I am doing’ and yet I will protect the environment. Protecting the environment is about reducing consumption, sharing and paying more. Doing this will mean inconvenience,” said Narain.