What green lessons have we learnt?

What green lessons have we learnt?
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The World Environment Day was celebrated by entities, corporates and the government alike, on Sunday. But, has the message of conservation really reached the masses. Can we really have a clean city?

Karnataka State Pollution Control Board Chairman Bhomanand Maney told this website’s newspaper that although many organisations were campaigning for a cleaner city, they were not questioning the conservation credentials that we have.

He queried: “How many of us actually follow conservation emanating in a true form? It starts right at home, where garbage should be disposed properly. If you observe the suburbs, we can notice millions of plastic bags on vacant sites. Slums are the key; we must campaign there. The pollution control board will select volunteers to spread the message of conservation consistently,” he said.

Maney said that the city was highly polluted as there is no scope for limiting the vehicles being registered and it was unable to control pollution emanating from auto-rickshaws and other automobiles.

“When coupled with infrastructure projects, roads are congested and the amount of fuel burnt is enormous. All government departments, citizen bodies and NGOs should sort out the problem. We have to set aside only a few minutes of our time and start conservation at the street level,” he said.

Here is what a few citizens said - Prakash S, an insurance agent who spends most of his time travelling, said that he was too busy to think of conservation. “I buy plastic water bottles and throw them on the street after finishing. But, I know it is not correct,” Prakash said.

Divakar P, a physical director at a prestigious private school, said that a model should be developed in a manner where people are fined on the spot. “In our school, we make students throw the thrash only in bins, any misconduct will result in a spot fine. Since the punishment is monetary, students make an effort to walk to a bin. The same can be followed in public places,” he suggested.

Greenpeace campaigner Benson Issac said that people only tend to think about the environment only on special days like this. “We opposed cutting of trees in the city, a Greenpeace campaign is a never ending effort to reach out to the masses. Citizens have to participate more,” he said.

Now is this the lesson that we are going to learn?