Environmental issues and protection have become hotly discussed topics in today’s world with the growing awareness among people. While environment is a very broad term, politics and environment are deeply connected in the sense that natural resources are vital for any political economy and most of the developing countries find it difficult to strike a balance between development and sustaining environment with instances all over the word.
In the case of India, urbanisation and economic growth has brought considerable environmental depletion, and governments have given focus to environmental legislation to some extent especially after independence. There has been an evolution of environmental policies in India but there is an agreement that the acts as well as their implementation indicate certain compromises and biases.
The paper thus deals with urban environmental politics in India with focus on public policies and their implementations affecting the environment. Amidst the various environmental challenges faced by cities the need for effective environmental policies becomes more imperative.
All the socio-economic changes in a society have an impact on environment directly or indirectly. Internationally, we have witnessed discussions on environmental issues and attempts at collaboration through summits and conferences. In the recent years environment has been the focus of many significant programmes or policies in India as well some of the examples being the Swachh Bharat abhyan etc and there has been a gradual politicization of environment.
However even though the need for sustainable development has been realised developing countries like India more often than not place greater weightage on ‘development’ and the subsequent environmental damage is seen as a necessary step. The programmes relating to environmental protection and development thus are by and largely interlinked*. A lot of times the poor bear the brunt of it for instance whether it is for the construction of a dam or the beautification of a city. Moreover, in a diverse country like India caste and class are often important influencers not only on environmental movements but also on government actions.
References
- NRDC – Global Warming 101
- World Health Organization – Climate Change and Health
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – Environmental Topics
- International Union for Conservation of Nature – Climate Change and Biodiversity
- European Union – Environment
- NASA Climate Change
- C40 Cities – Research and Insight
