Ecological Damage will take its Toll on Farming

Context: There is a strong link between the Chamoli tragedy and the farmers’ agitation as the ecological damage has various implication on farming.

Ecological challenges in the Himalayas (‘The Third Pole’):

• Worsening glacier retreat: E.g. Gangotri glacier has retreated 850 metres between 1996 and 1999; hastened by black carbon deposits due to stubble burning and forest fires.
  • Asian Brown Cloud (ABC): A man-made cloud of carbon emissions, dust and other poisons; results in less sunlight, less rain, and an inverse warming effect leads to faster rate of glacier melting.
  • Rising number of glacial lakes: About 25,000 at present, poses future risks.
• Change in water availability: Flash floods and avalanches will be followed eventually by drought due to change in volume of water carried by the Ganga, the Indus, the Brahmaputra etc.
  • Farmers depending on the water will find less rain, less river water, and polluted air that doesn’t allow crops to grow.
• Haphazard construction of power projects: Large hydro-electric projects are often slotted as ‘alternative energy’ programmes - to get environmental clearance easily.
  • Disregarding warnings:  e.g. The Rishiganga power project was pushed through despite committee after committee warning against its building.
  • Ignoring ecologically sensitive zones: e.g.  Etalin and Dibang in Arunachal Pradesh.
  • Displacing tribal villages: e.g. Athirapally in Kerala, and Bodhghat in Chhattisgarh.
  • Eased norms for various projects: Like classification of ‘small’ Hydro Power projects as ‘linear’ (like a road) which exempts it from Gram Sabha permission.
• Issues with disaster prediction: Experts from Defence Geo-Informatics Research Establishment (DGIRE) admits that there is little ability for daily data gathering to be able to predict a disaster

Adverse impacts of agriculture on ecology: follows a closed-loop  - 

• The more the burning of agricultural waste and other pollutants, the less the chances of survival of present crop patterns, and down the road, any crops at all.

Way forward:  To reduce ecological damages.

• Promote alternative means of power: like solar, wind and micro dams.
• Come down heavily on polluters: Similar to China’s environmental policies.
• Coordinate with China: For data-gathering exercise for the entire Himalayan area.