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Written by: Dr. Jyotsna Sharma

Category: ENVIRONMENT

Published: 20 November 2023

Just imagine your life without water, air and food. How long a human race can survive in the absence of all these elements that is Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Ether? Life on earth is nature's best gift to us. Our beautiful planet bestowed us with wonderful assets in the form of flora and fauna. The health and well-being of everyone depends on the diversity of life on earth. In the words of E.O.Wilson, "We are in a bottleneck of overpopulation and wasteful consumption that could push half of earth species to extinction in this century. Shall we ever think that being human it is our ethical responsibility to save and protect habitats, plants, species, animals? It is highly disappointing when it is observed that citizens are not at all taking care of their rivers. We can actually see garbage in and around rivers.

What kind of belief and faith it is that we ourselves destroying natural resources. Whose responsibility is this to clean and sanitize rivers, ponds and land? We are losing biodiversity now faster than ever. Some of the major factors which are affecting the environment and biodiversity are increasing population, crowded urban areas, cities, land, extension, and exploitation of natural resources.

We are failed to preserve natural resources in the race for industrialization. To provide food, shelter, water, natural resources have been exploited. Just because of the increased population, trees were cut down to provide wood for housing. Agricultural land had to be cleared for setting up of factories and industry which are ultimately pressurizing to exploit other natural resources, plastic, plastic made products. Polluted air, polluted water, and polluted land pose serious challenges as it is directly causing harm to us. Life expectancy is diminishing every day. We are facing multiple health issues which were never heard before. We will have industrial set ups but will not have pure air to breath, clean drinking water and enough power to run these set ups. Pollutant's severely affecting our health and immunity.

If there is a problem then it must have a solution too. Educating and imparting training to the citizens is the best way to combat any problem. The Environment Education division works under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. This division implements Environmental Education Programme that is (EEP). It is one of the central sector scheme-Environment Education, Awareness, Research and Skill Development (EEARSD). This scheme has been approved for continuation till the year 2025-26. The objective of this program is to sensitize children/youth towards adopting sustainable lifestyles through various initiatives.

This division also acts as a nodal division in the Ministry for matters related to National Education Policy, 2020. This is the principle envisaged of NEP, 2020 to make environmental education an integral part of a school curriculum. Under this program, the target beneficiaries are Eco-clubs which formed under National Green Corps Programme, Echo clubs/Youth clubs or other such clubs are formed under various schemes of the Ministry of Education, youth clubs of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangthan(NYKS), National Service Scheme(NSS),cells/units etcformed under Department of Youth Affairs.

Every effort is wasted if it is not properly implemented. This program is also implemented through implementing agencies either at the central or state level. These agencies organize sustainable lifestyle workshops, competitions, exhibitions, projects etc for the target beneficiaries. This program helps to develop critical thinking, compassion, and empathy towards ecosystem, flora, and fauna. These programmes also provide opportunities to experiment create and develop sustainable solutions which may help to think of using resources thoughtfully. We can summarize as we are the one who is responsible to destroy our biggest gift and we are the one who is responsible to conserve and protect nature by putting little effort.

Accept this responsibility on a very serious note that we will try our best to make environment clean. The best way is to keep your house clean, try to make optimal use of water and teach every single step of sustainable ways of living to children's. Let's introduce plates and bowl made up of banana leaves which may be decompose easily. Many such models are available through which we can learn how we can contribute to save environment.

Our single step is taken honestly may lead us towards a healthy life. We must take a pledge to keep our environment, clean and green, planting more medicinal plants and trees, stop wasting water, find ways to make minimal use of plastic, find substitutes for harmful chemicals and combat every type of pollution by learning different ways of protecting natural resources as well as integrate good habits of saving resources and respecting too in our day to day life. It is time to pay back to Mother Nature.

Reference:- https://moef.gov.in/en/environmental.education