Its time for elections and this is the best time to allow your decision to have a great impact.
Over the past few years we have seen an enormous widespread of environmental destruction all over the country.
Literally millions of trees have been killed and millions more in the process of being killed along with all the species of wildlife that live and feed on them. A giant chunk of the environment was sacrificed at the expense of the health and well being of millions of citizens to help business interests.
Recently India's environment has been brutally destroyed.
Mumbai Vadodra Delhi Expressway – 30,786 Trees
Dwarka Expressway – 13,690 Trees
Mumbai Nagpur Expressway – 1,00,000 Trees
Highway Widening in Goa – 3,500 Trees
Mangaluru Chitradurga Expressway – 50,000 Trees
Chennai Salem Expressways – 4,00,000 Trees
Bangalore Chennai Expressway – 1,35,000 Trees
Upper Ganga Canal Expressway – 1,00,000 Trees
Char Dham Expressway – 43,000 Trees
Karnataka Western Ghats Projects – 21,55,000 Trees
The entire world is facing a climate emergency and some leaders are focused on “business as usual”. On the other hand, there are also those leaders who are acknowledging the climate emergency which is staring mankind in the face, and they are taking proactive steps to avert climate change.
We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. Albert Einstein
So, on that note, we should be careful who we vote for, definitely avoid voting for the same people who will sacrifice your future to help their personal goals, and if none of the candidates are concerned about the environment then you must inform them to do so or you have the option to vote NOTA.
Many citizens are purposely not voting because their future is not being considered by the candidates. They just want votes but they are not at all concerned about protecting and fixing the devastated environment. Citizens are also considering to vote NOTA to highlight that none of the authorities have been taking serious steps to curb illegal environmental destruction in their constituencies. Which in turn has seriously impacted the physical health of residents nearby of all age groups.
No matter who gets finally elected, that person will be your representative, so make sure to be in touch with them on a personal level and you must insist on environment protection. If you don’t talk about it and if you are waiting for somebody else to talk about it, then you will find yourself waiting forever for the environmental conditions to improve.
Selvarajan
Founder Green Circle
*My Green Manifesto*
If I were a candidate for elections, I, as an environment conscious citizen of India, will like to assure the following:-
1. I will ensure that no development project will be given a clearance if it suggests cutting down of trees.
2. No project, whether mining, real estate or otherwise will intrude the territories of reserved forests
3. I will ensure strict enforcement of the forest conservation norms as enshrined in the existing laws
4. All urban land owning authorities must maintain the set proportion of their land to Green areas .
5. Existing natural water bodies will not be allowed to be converted into entertainment boating areas
6. Tree felling norms will be reviewed and stringent norms will be made for identifying dead trees etc.
7. No mass scale felling will be allowed at any cost for redevelopment projects
8. *Sustainable development* definition and rules will be formed
9. Urban tree clinics will be formed to treat the affected trees to address issues such as nailing, pruning, termite infection, concretization , misuse of trees. Separate policing norms will be enacted
10. Land owning authorities will not be permitted to change the area use at any cost.
11. NGT working will be revisited and necessary changes will be made in existing laws to make it effective
12. I will focus on making the forest area to one third of the total area within next 10 years
13. Solid waste management rules 2016 would be enforced by fixing accountability and time frame for the municipal authorities
14. Working of MoEFCC, CPCB and state boards is not satisfactory and hence will be revisited
15. Encouraging Organic forming, eco friendly projects, plastic free projects , better sewerage treatment, composting incentives, e-waste recycling etc will be my priorities
Since no party is up to my expectation, my vote is for none of them (NOTA)
For dwarka expressway the count of 13690 is that NHAI asked for cutting permission, but in actual the figure is much more and is being Recounted by forest department.
Come together and do some impactful strong and sustainable work which really have excellent result.