Page 68 - Journeys Through Society-7

Human Environment United Nations Earth Summit.

Human beings are the most important part of the The Government of India has taken various steps in
environment. Small populations of primitive people line with Agenda 21.
that lived in dense forests and other isolated areas • Spread of organic farming.
adapted to their environment and lived in harmony • The National Rural Livelihood Mission-India's
with nature. On the other hand, the large populations flagship programme for bringing together India's
of developing and developed nations bring great rural women into self-help groups and building
changes to their natural environment to suit their community institutions for the poor
needs, thereby causing ecological imbalance. • Decentralisation of water harvesting facilities

Sustainable Developments • Holistic development of villages
In the last quarter of the century, India has made • Steps for the conservation of forests and wildlife
attempts to achieve human welfare and prosperity
New Forest Policy in India
while safeguarding its natural environment. We have
In the 1990s, India adopted the New Forest Policy.
taken small steps towards the goals of sustainable
It focussed on ecological and social values and the
development.
sustainable use of natural resources for sustainable
The last few decades have witnessed enthusiastic
development. Citizens played a role in decision-
environmental activism. There were increasing
making, while civil society groups provided their
concerns over the rising water and air pollution, and
expertise in advising the Ministry of Environment. The
the decimation of forests and wildlife. These concerns
judiciary started playing an active role in support of
were first expressed by the activists of the Chipko
environmental causes.
movement struggling to save the Himalayan forests.
There have been several anti-dam protests in central New Economic Policy in India
and southern India and traditional fisher-
The New Forest Policy emerged in the backdrop of the
communities have agitated against the
New Economic Policy which India adopted in 1991.
commercialisation of fisheries. The government
It aimed at economic liberalisation and invited global
responded positively with appropriate legislation on
investment into the country. A number of sectors were
wildlife, pollution and forests.
privatised due to liberalisation. Environmental
Governments all over the world realise that regulations were made flexible so that industry and
development can be achieved by the optimum use of
commerce could prosper.
natural resources while keeping in mind the needs of
the future generations. This approach is called Wow Fact
sustainable development. It has three components.
Recycling paper has a significant positive
• Environmental sustainability impact on the environment, equivalent to
• Economic sustainability saving 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil and 3.2 cubic
yards of landfill.
• Socio-political sustainability
The central idea of sustainable development is that
provisions should be made for meeting people's
needs of a home, a decent livelihood, education for AI Fact Technology Literacy
their children, healthcare, and a safe and healthy
AI has become an important tool to tackle most
neighbourhood to live in. environmental sustainability issues such as biodiversity,
There are programmes to promote local sustainability. energy, transportation and water management.
Some of these are called 'Local Agenda 21' plans, Biodiversity research has developed machine learning
or natural language processing solutions to predict
named after the International Agenda 21 Plan for
ecosystem services.
sustainable development adopted in 1992 at the

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