Even if climate change was not affecting the country, India would be an “environmental basket-case”, said historian and environmentalist, Ramachandra Guha, at an event in Udhagamandam on Sunday.
Mr. Guha, who was speaking on the final day of a three-day conference ‘NilgiriScapes’ aimed at stoking dialogue for an environmentally-sustainable future for the Nilgiris, said successive governments since economic liberalisation had dismantled environmental regulations and safeguards that environmental movements in the 1970s and 80s had brought about.
“Even if climate change did not exist, we are an environmental basket-case. We have the most-polluted cities in the world. Every one of our rivers is biologically dead. We have extraordinary rates of chemical contamination of soil, loss of biodiversity and so on,” said Mr. Guha.
