Dear readers

Humans are irrational creatures - knowingly we pollute, degrade and destroy the very resources that sustain us. I understand that poverty, population and environment just don’t add up, but what’s worrisome is that the poor actually have no means (credit, insurance, access and right to property etc.) to avoid degradation – all they seek are quick results. So, to propose a top down dictum with inspired scientific know-how would be a redundant exercise if the cause remains unaddressed. The poverty loop perpetuates itself in a spiral - degradation, poor soil, poor nutrition, health risks, lower productivity, falling income and further poverty. The powerful, greedy and the wealthy make a mockery of India’s policy interventions, reducing issues to a personal profit and loss balance sheet.

Cash crops are repeatedly grown; soils are pumped with disproportionate chemical inputs; farm litter is used as fuel rather than organic soil enhancers; the little remaining common property is scavenged for fuel/small ruminants’ needs; the backyards of villages increasingly used as open dumpyards with toxic leachates entering the soil; and so the list goes on. The issue before you highlights degradation concerns, with a special focus on waste management. With a population like ours, waste related concerns are bound to hog the centre stage very soon, so disproportionate are the statistics between generation and treatment capacity.

I extend our heartfelt thanks to K K Phull, Under Secretary, Land Resource Division, Department of Land Resources, and B Vinod Babu, Sr Environmental Engineer, Central Pollution Control Board, for their whole hearted and timely support for this issue of G’nY.

Happy reading!