Zee JLF 2018 | Don’t ignore changes in environment: Experts

Environmental concerns dominated the fourth day of ZEE JLF. Several sessions questioned the development paradigm at the cost of rocks, forests, rivers and oceans. In a discussion titled, “The Last Wave: Islands in Flux”, author, journalist and activist Pankaj Sekhsaria cautioned people about some of the irreversible changes in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which have shot into prominence because of their strategic location.

“Much before the 2004 tsunami, which had created havoc — elevating and submerging parts of the island — the unique flora, fauna and cultural traditions of the indigenous tribes had suffered visible damage,” he said. The urgency to develop and populate the islands had led to growth in infrastructure that made exploitation of timber easy and hence damaging to the environment. “Located in a seismically active zone, it’s in a precarious zone where upsetting the ecological balance can have disastrous consequences,” he said.

Another session focussed on the Aravallis, the mountain range that cuts through northwest India. Pradip Kishen, naturalist, that some of the earliest prehistoric human sites on the Indian subcontinent were located in Mangarbani, a forest in the Aravalli range in Faridabad district, just south of the capital. He also spoke about the Dhok tree which only grows in the Aravalli hills, and how they make clonal colonies that might be among the oldest living organisms on earth. The Aravallis themselves he said were the oldest Fold Mountains on Earth, around two billion years.

Pranay Lal, biochemist and author of a book on India’s natural history, revealed that 40% of all the geological monuments in India that need to be conserved lay in the Aravallis. Besides their role in recharging the water table in this part of the country, the granite and other hard rocks of the Aravallis could help in carbon sequestration, the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide as a way of reversing global warming.

Yet another session focussed on wildlife and the tiger. “The land on which the tigers roam, where the crocodiles and birds live, that is where the coal is, the best of our natural resources are to be found,” said Prerna Singh Bindra, the author of the recently published, “The Vanishing: India’s Wildlife Crisis”