Thursday, 16 September 2021 | Samridhi Mall | Dehradun
As the United Nations member countries commemorate the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer on Thursday, environmentalists and activists in Uttarakhand expressed their concerns over the government’s complacency and awareness about the ozone layer.
Activist and lawyer Reenu Paul said, “The people hardly talk about this. Everything depends on the leadership- they don’t create the kind of atmosphere where these discussions can be held and dismiss such issues as a hindrance in their development. When we talk about forestation, the government still tries to refer to old data rather than the latest one. We are in denial mode. They are coming up with projects which are not according to the state’s identity. They don’t see the Himalayas as a fragile mountain range, the significance of the Shivalik range, that’s why we see all these disasters happening around us. They have closed their eyes to whatever is happening around us.”
Activist Lokesh Ohri said, “The general attitude of the people is very constructive, they are very concerned about what is happening to our tree cover. The government seems to think in the opposite direction, they are on an infrastructure building spree. All the resources are with the government and there seems to be a huge gap in what the people want and what the government delivers. We should freeze any more road building activity and maintain the existing ones. The Government of India has sanctioned 60 new projects on Ganga and its tributaries, which should be immediately scrapped. We as a state are facing several natural disasters year after year, but we don’t seem to be doing anything about it.”
The founder of Social Development for Communities (SDC) foundation, Anoop Nautiyal opined, “There is no awareness among people and even if they are aware of the issue, they are not taking suitable actions. The vast majority are indulging in plastic pollution. We cannot look at individual days, the environmental awareness has to be seen in totality by both government and society. The government’s framework needs to be strengthened to avoid loopholes and there is a need for further sensitisation and awareness of society, which should lead to some concrete and sustainable action.”
It is pertinent to mention that in 1994, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed September 16 the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, commemorating the date of the signing, in 1987, of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The Montreal protocol is a global agreement to protect the Earth’s ozone layer by phasing out the chemicals that deplete it.
