Environmental considerations and options in managing India's long term energy strategy

Economic development in India has, historically, been based on a great concern for nature. This reality was very evident right uptil the early 1800s. During the colonial period, India witnessed a rapid exploitation and degradation of its natural resource base, which resulted from a disempowerment of age-old local institutions and large scale, low price export of timber from India to Britain.

Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India's freedom struggle, when asked if he would like to have the same standard of living for India's teeming millions as was then prevalent in England said, "It took Britain half the resources of the planet to achieve this prosperity. How many planets will a country like India require!" Mahatma Gandhi also had the foresight to say: "Europeans will have to remodel their outlook, if they are not to perish under weight of the comforts to which they are becoming slaves..... time is coming when those who are in a the A mad rush today of multiplying their wants, will retrace their steps and say: what have we done?". His words seem to have proved truely prophetic.

In recent years, environmental policies and legislation have evolved in India, providing a comprehensive framework to guide economic development along an environmentally friendly path. The last few years have also witnessed major economic reforms resulting in rapid development of all sectors of the economy - agriculture, industry, transport and infrastructural projects. Correspondingly, this period has also seen a mushrooming of environmental NGOs in the country reflecting concerns, at the grassroots level, for the adverse environmental consequences of this pace and structure of development.