Daily UPSC Mains Question – July 9

GS – 2

Amidst a pandemic, project in critical forest habitats are being considered or have been given clearance by Environment ministry. Critically Analyse the statement.150 Words.

In the News:

• The 21st century has seen multiple lethal epidemics. Two were serious enough for the World Health Organization to designate as pandemics.
• The accelerating destruction of wild habitats, forests and diversified food systems for urbanisation, mining, and industry means pathogens which were once largely confined to animals and plants in the wild are now better positioned to infect humans. As long as we do not address this march to unsustainability, we will remain vulnerable to pandemic outbreaks.

Drawing the wrong lesson:

• It is troubling then that our governments are drawing the opposite lesson from the COVID-19 challenge. Through the lockdown, ‘expert’ bodies of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) have considered, and in many cases cleared, multiple industrial, mining and infrastructure proposals in critical wildlife habitats, and life and livelihood-sustaining forests.
• As several groups have pointed out to the government, its draft Environment Impact Assessment will undermine environmental protection.
•  As per the draft, starting a project before obtaining environmental approvals will no longer be a violation, and it can be regularised post-facto. The draft even allows for a class of projects to secure clearance without putting out any information in the public domain.

Sum effect:

• The sum effect of the moves will be further environmental degradation. India already has an abysmal record of environmental destruction and development-induced displacement.
• The effects of these are overwhelmingly borne by Adivasi and other marginalised groups. It takes a steadfast commitment to ecological illiteracy to argue that wanton environmental destruction will deliver never-ending, seamless growth.
• These giant leaps backward will not make us at manirbhar (self-reliant). Rather, they will further endanger habitats and lives, and intensify our vulnerability to infectious diseases and related socio-economic shocks.

The pandemic crisis can be overcome only when a state is sensitive, has decentralised steps and ensures empowerment. Explain in detail.250 Words

In the News:

• The novel corona virus pandemic has affected the lives of many and its catastrophic impact goes far beyond the disease itself. Governments across the world have dealt with the problem in different ways.
•  Posterity will judge how good or how bad any government performed in 2020 on this count.

Finding cause:

• Some small countries have claimed victory in containing the impact of the disease, but their claim appears to be hollow and even myopic; the fact is that these countries are affluent, and have sealed their boundaries.
• Democratically elected governments have found it more difficult to derive the same legitimacy. With the growth of fundamental freedoms, such as those of speech and expression, unquestioning obedience to governmental authority began to fade. Unquestioned obedience is the holy grail of every autocrat.
• Their fundamental credo is that society is best-served if a government or other type of institution takes on executive or sovereign power, with the consent of the people.

Consolidating power:

• There is a bending of individual free will towards the collective will. Ironically most such leaders constantly invoke “the will of the people” when consolidating executive power. So, the social contract is being used by modern governments to justify greater aggrandisement of power in the hands of the sovereign, under the garb of “public good”.
•  In fact, if the world events that occurred in 2018-19 were to be examined later by future historians, they would be excused for having an image that people across the world had voluntarily surrendered their individual rights to their governments, who exercised these powers with discipline and benevolence.
• There are two India’s. The first is an India that observes social distancing, buys its groceries and provisions by observing all precautions and largely obeys governmental directives about COVID-19 prevention.
• The second is an India that crowds railway terminals to travel long distances, sometimes for days, to get back to native towns, and when that fails, decides to resort to the drastic step of even walking those hundreds of kilometres, defying all governmental directives.
•  It is for the second India that the impact of COVID-19 has hit hardest and the impact has nearly nothing to do with the disease. “Social distancing” was a stirring phrase and call that those of us who are privileged responded to with gusto.

For those in governance:

• The centralised sovereign will work well against a mighty external aggressor, but not against a microscopic pathogen. What is required is not just a decentralised approach but also a state which is sensitive and responds not only to the needs of those who cry out for help but also meets the requirements of those who are voiceless.
•  While no elected government would publicly espouse such a position, it is the unwritten premise underlying every rule and diktat which is issued.COVID-19 can only be defeated by an empowered populace.
•  The social contract requires to be rewritten. It does not require anything drastic such as a revolution or anarchy. Rather, it only needs fundamental introspection and rethinking by the governing classes including bureaucrats.