Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
World literacy day which was celebrated recently across the world (Sept 8th) had a lovely theme for this year “ Literacy and Sustainable Societies”. According to this theme we were only supposed to celebrate the literacy day literacy but to create awareness about the issues of sustainable development also . Achieving the goal of sustainable development is only possible when we preserve and protect our environment by making ourselves and our children literate about environment and ecology because literacy is a key driver for sustainable development. The literacy skills are the prerequisite for the learning of a broader set of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, required for creating sustainable development which further leads to sustainable societies.
Sustainable development :
It a process for meeting human development by maintaining the ability of our natural systems which further provide the natural resources and ecosystem services. Most of our economy and society is dependent on natural resources and that is why there is a dire need to protect these resources. Sustainable development is the practice of reserving resources for future generation without causing any harm to the nature and its other components. Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social, political, and economic challenges faced by humanity in the modern times.
The Glaciologists & Geologists claim that third world war could be fought over water as the glaciers are melting at an alarming rate. The population is increasing day by day , the ground water is siphoned off, forests and trees are being cut down massively. Today one in five people across world have no access to safe drinking water and it estimated that by 2020 we shall need 17% more water than currently. Let us take example of our own state ie Jammu & Kashmir , in-spite of being located under the foothills of snow-clad mountains and glaciers we are undergoing tremendous drinking water crises. We are practically witnessing climate change especially from the last couple of years. Around a decade back we went through a drought like situation which destroyed our apple orchards of Kashmir region. From the last couple of years we are witnessing excessive rainfall and unseasonal snowfall. We are excessively making use of polyethene be it milk packets, biscuits , junk food etc, everything is packed in plastic material. We import all sorts of food products manufactured by Multi National Companies (MNC’s) which has a negative impact on the health of our kids plus heaps of polyethene gets accumulated in every nook and corner of our towns and villages. We never take pains to go through our glorious past. There are plenty of herbs and other natural products around us which could be processed and used in our day today lives. Our authorities too have failed to establish such processing units which could have lead us towards sustainable development. Is our younger generation familiar about herbs such as Obej , Wopal Haakh , Pamb Haakh , Krechh , Kral Mondd, Handhh ? We can’t even recognize them in-spite of the fact that we come across them routinely. Saffron is grown in Kashmir and the same is exported in its original form. Have we ever thought of processing saffron or extracting oil from it ? We only know that Soyee (Stinging Nettle) is injurious to our body as it causes severe skin allergy, rashes , inflamation and pain but we hardly know how to make tea from Soyee leaves ? We have plenty of corn (Maize) in our hilly areas but we don’t have small scale maize processing units in our villages.
In 2013, global carbon dioxide emissions due to fossil fuel use was recorded as 36 giga-tonnes. This is 61% higher than what was recorded in 1990. There is an urgent need for putting in use our natural resources and by the grace of God our state is rich in these resources. The only thing we need to do is to identify these resources and put them into use in a calculated manner. How sad it is to see huge bunches of chips packets and other eatables being sold even in the ordinary shops of our remotest areas, but we hardly find a one single local product being sold there. Thinking of development at the cost of destroying our forests and natural habitats is an act of brutality and murder.
Conclusion :
We have legacy of Sheikh ul Alam (RA) with us who taught us about importance of forests for agriculture purpose (Ann Poshee Tele Yelee Wan Poshee).We are lucky enough to have a person like O P Sharma (Vidhyarthi) an Indian Forest Service officer(IFS) of 1987 batch who has been recently posted as Director Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing. Mr Sharma a son of the soil originally hailing from Ramnagar Udhampur has been organizing tree talks involving large section of society. He has been targeting the youth especially the school and college children plus villagers during his tree talk campaign .
From the last two years Mr Sharma has organized more than 376 tree talks in nook and corner of state from Kupwara to Kathua, Doda to Rajouri, Budgam to Bandipora. We hope under his leadership environmental education will get a boost in J&K. In order to promote our forest wealth like wild herbs, plants etc the Directorate of Ecology, Environment & Remote sensing is soon going to organize a Forest food festival in Srinagar on October 4th in association with local Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology and Centre for Conservation of Culture & Heritage (CCCH) in Srinagar. We are hopeful such initiatives would be undertaken in other parts of state as well wherein other stake holders like departments of education, tourism, Cultural Academy , and NGOs can come forward for organizing these types of activities. This will help us to spread the message of sustainable development , natural wealth and environment in every educational institution right from a primary school to university.
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