Report released at annual media summit held in Rajasthan’s Alwar district
Nimli (Alwar), February 11, 2019: Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the New Delhi-based research and advocacy think tank, released its annual State of India’s Environment report here today at a three-day media conclave attended by over 80 journalists. The report was released by eminent jurist and former Supreme Court Justice Madan B Lokur and CSE director general Sunita Narain. The attending journalists have come from across India. The conclave is being held at CSE’s new residential training campus – the Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI), located in Nimli.
The three-day conclave includes in-depth briefing sessions on some of the critical issues of environment and development – from climate change, agriculture and air pollution, to sanitation, water management, environmental governance and human-wildlife conflicts. The briefings are being delivered by top experts in these fields: K J Ramesh, Director General, Indian Meteorology Department, Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Government of India; Bhure Lal, Chairperson of the Chairperson, Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA); Gufran Baig, Director of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune; Ajay Deshpande, former expert member of the National Green Tribunal; Bharti Chaturvedi, Director, Chintan; and Yadavendra V Jhala, Head of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology Department at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.
Speaking at the release of the report, Sunita Narain said: “2018 was the year of revolt – from the streets of Paris to those of Delhi, people rose up in protest. Let’s hope that in 2019, protest will lead to realisation that change must come in the way we do business, the way we live. It must ensure that growth is equitable and so sustainable.”
“The question for a country like India is where and what is our way ahead. Can we take the beaten path or should we reinvent? As yet, there is little appetite for this reinvention. But I believe that it has to be the agenda for the years to come,” she added.
Justice Lokur, in his address, spoke at length about the numerous environmental acts based on which the judiciary has passed landmark judgements – however, laxity in implementation has left these acts and judgements ineffectual.
The State of India’s Environment report is an annual compilation done by Down To Earth, the fortnightly which CSE helps publish. The 2019 report is an extensively researched document covering a wide range of subjects – water and sanitation, waste, health, air pollution, the commons, forests and wildlife, elections, climate change, urbanisation, renewable energy and agriculture. Said Richard Mahapatra, managing editor of Down To Earth: “The State of Environment report, CSE’s flagship annual publication, brings to the notice and knowledge of the discerning reader all that has happened in the year on issues of environment and development, with rich analysis and state-of-the-art data and statistics.”
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