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| Flamingos come to b]Bhopal only when it is extremely hot and conditions are drought-like |
June in Bhopal was never like this; it used to
be cloudy and pleasant and we would switch off the air-conditioners as these
contraptions wouldn’t be needed. There would be a few pre-monsoon showers to
bring the temperatures down. But now it is so different. While there are no
pre-monsoon showers the sun is blazing away and one cannot really go out even
in a vehicle that is air conditioned – as, thankfully, most vehicles are these
days. In fact, my wife and I have been confined in the house for around 10 days
or so.
That climate has
changed for the worse is now a matter of fact. People who do not believe in the
phenomenon of climate change – people like Donald Trump – are lucky as they do
not feel or perceive the changes. They are so luckily placed that they can describe
the purveyors of climate change as having a “political agenda” and have the
gall to reject their laboriously put together reports. But, apparently, it is
already too late to retrace back the steps as, it looks like, we are almost
next to the tipping point. An Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has
said that now the whole thing could be reversed if global emission of CO2 is
reduced by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 and use of coal is totally stopped.
Implementing these conditions is not possible as there are Donald Trumps of
this world who wield enormous power and do not believe in global warming and
have so far behaved like a bull in a china shop. Such men are unlikely to do a
thing to save the world from the oncoming catastrophe. Scientists have warned
that if no action is taken now to reverse the trend there could be significant
changes detrimental to human life on this planet once the full effects of
climate change kick in after 2030.
Global warming
as a phenomenon has been in public discourse for more than a couple of decades.
The conservation of the environment with the centrality of trees and forests in
the effort has been emphasised over and over again by the scientists studying
the phenomenon. The print media has been very pro-active in reporting the
developments on the environment front. And yet, it is now reported that during
the last two decades Bhopal lost 26% of its greenery. Experts estimate that if
the felling of trees continues in the city at the same rate (which is very
likely) greenery that was once 67% of the land area of the town will remain
only on 3% of its area.
Worse, in the last five years the city administrators
are reported to have felled more than 250,000 trees that were more than forty
years old. Obviously, all these hundreds of thousands trees were planted as the
newly-designated capital of the state started digging roots in the newer and
virgin areas of the town. All these trees were cut down in the name of
development of the city and the government projects that should have taken care
to preserve the trees instead of cutting them down. Hundreds of thousands of
trees in a small area of a small city means a lot and no wonder Bhopal lost its
salubrity. The average temperature shot up by 5 to 7 degrees Celsius and what
we have today is the blistering heat and hot winds of Central India. The sun
beats down relentlessly as there is nothing like a dense vegetative cover to
temper its heat. To beat the heat people use air-conditioners, a jungle of
external units of which can be seen in the business district of MP Nagar that
too spew hot air out into the surroundings.
The latest
reports say while the civic bodies of the town (if I am not mistaken, there are
three) went on merrily hacking down trees in the city the compensatory
afforestation was carried out tens of kilometers away. That did not give any
benefit to the townsfolk who are virtually withering in the heat. According to
the civic bodies wherever trees were hacked down there was no space available
for compensatory plantation. If such was the case the trees in question should
not have been cut down. The need for development could not have been so
compelling that uncalled for hardship should be inflicted on the citizens. But
that is the way our civic bodies – with least amount of civic sense and least
care for the comfort of the citizens. It appears to me to be a sensible matter
to hold the civic bodies and their heads accountable for this neglect of micro
climate of the city. Simultaneously, the head of the department of environment
and the chief minister need to be asked to answer for their gross indiscretion
and failure to guard the interests of the people. One wishes that somebody
hauls them up in the courts for their cavalier attitude towards as vital a
matter as the local climate.
The planet seems
to be hurtling unchecked towards disaster and the civilization that has been
built up over the millennia is under serious threat of getting extinguished by
none other than the humans who claim to be the most intelligent animals in the
universe. One does not really know what happens when we cross the tipping
point. We the old guard are going to pass on. It is the up-and-coming
generation that will get the worst of it – unless they quickly get into the act
themselves to save the planet.
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