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Interaction with Padma shri Dr. Anil P Joshi, Director HESCO (Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation)

Tuesday, 24 July 2012

Excerpt from an interaction with Padma Shri Dr. Anil P Joshi, Director HESCO (Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation)

What according to you is development?
Development according to me is not urbanization. The whole idea of development has confined to a small area called a city while the rural areas remain untouched/ignored. The major strength the people living in urban areas is money and this is something which the rural people lack off. India as a country claims that it has grown. Something still remains is a huge gap between the urban and the rural areas. In the course of the so called development we forgot about environment, and this has lead to different problems like climate change, global warming etc. Natural resources are depleting day by day. Almost 90 percent of the natural resources are been governed by the rural folks. For food, water, forest, greenery etc. we have to depend on the rural people. Time has come where a shift is required on how we view development. Economic development is only equated as development, this should change.  There should be a new idea called the GEP- Gross Environmental Product, where the environmental aspects also should be taken in to account. 
What would happen if the farmers stop farming? Who will provide you food. The works done by these farmers also should be acknowledged. A time will come when there will be a new concept called the ‘Nature Industry’ where we will have to pay the farmers for what all they produce. Even their contribution in conservation of water, production of oxygen and other resources which are inevitable for the human kind will need to be compensated. What I would request to the farmers is to just wait and stick on to the greatest profession they do, i.e., providing food. They will be very well acknowledged in the near future.

End.

HESCO is a Non-Profit Organisation in Dehradun. The organisation works mainly on environmental conservation, women empowerment and rural development.

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