INDIAN INITIATIVES FOR ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION

Abstract

Society, at large, has to realise the gravity of environmental degradation and participate fully in the mitigation of environmental problems. This article discusses the Indian initiatives and the important milestones in the path of environmental protection and pollution abatement. The commitment of the Indian Government to the cause of public awareness of environmental conservation is reflected in its outreach and educational programmes. It involves ministries, environmental monitoring agencies, NGOs, academic and research institutions. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has played a leading role in the national priority programmes of environmental monitoring, assessment and pollution control. All the stakeholders have succeeded to some extent in creating public interest in environmental issues but much more needs to be done. National level institutions like NEERI, NIO and TERI are actively involved in research to find feasible solutions to our environmental problems and in the dissemination of relevant information through their publications. In our country, voluntary organisations and NGOs have been contributing immensely to environmental causes. Following the directive of the Supreme Court in 1991, environmental education is a compulsory component of school and college curricula. India has contributed significantly to the deliberations at COP (Conference of the Parties) fora especially the recently held COP-21 at Paris. Our suggestions for creating a pollution-free world have always been welcomed by the participating countries especially the developing countries. This article also presents the results of an environmental study carried out in Wilson College, Mumbai in which the effect of salinity on the rate of degradation of effluents released in marine waters, was quantitatively studied using reaction kinetics.