Think before you vote @ Elections

Since elections are just around the corner, thought this would be the perfect time to post this article.

The Sunderbans tiger is falling prey to poaching. Thousands of families in the tidal region are losing their homes and livelihoods due to rising sea level and tidal currents. Unscientific construction and illegal felling is denuding the Himalayan foothills of its forest cover and triggering landslides. The Bhagirathi is gobbling up land as it changes course in Malda. But does anybody care? No, since these are not poll issues in Bengal.


Politicians are insensitive to environmental issues, their counterparts in districts are no better. Any talk of environment that has come up in the last few months is merely an offshoot of some other issue from which direct political gains can be expected. Environmental issues have finally entered the arena of electoral politics, though not directly as it happens in the US or Europe. Here, environmental concerns have emerged out of resistance against land acquisition for industrial development. In Nandigram, for instance, environmental concerns came as an off-shoot of the save farmland' movement. Though environment has emerged as a leading issue in elections worldwide including Barack Obama's US Presidential campaign, politicians here continue to shy away from it. The leaders here fail to address environmental issues that will hurt the poor. Politicians need to talk about sustainable development. Environment must figure in the development agenda. The demand should be for environment management systems to combat pollution during construction and actual operations, Ashden Award (Green Oscar) winner S P Gon Choudhury, a serving technocrat, also believes it is time for environment to figure as a key issue in elections. "If cities, towns and villages become healthy to live in, it will be politically beneficial. The new generation is more environment-conscious. If parties are to woo this section of the electorate, they have to address their concerns," he suggests.