Suparna Roy: Development vs. Environment- is one of the controversial issues of modern and progressive world. The concept of development today and couple of years ago are not same. Development of human civilizations started being measured when we realized that, “we are limited with resources.” Since then, people started thinking about development protecting nature. Whenever any conflict arises in between the two, both developed and developing countries are eager to choose ‘development’. The natural environment of Bangladesh is also part of this controversial issue. 17 corer people live in the 1, 47, 570 sq.km and economic growth is the primary concern of individual. Over the last three decades, Bangladesh witnessed 200 natural disasters. Though geographical location next to the Bay of Bengal is one of the reasons of those disasters, environment pollution is also a reason. A database between 2008 and 2017 stated that, around 37 million people in Bangladesh were affected by natural disaster. Bangladesh is in the 7th position among countries most extreme weather conditions and in the 3rd position for natural disaster.
Soil, air and river are the primary objects of nature. Population densities, socio-economic environment, irresponsibility, political influence, non-implementation of laws, industrializations are the reasons of increasing environment pollution day by day. Over population is creating a pressure in every sector. For securing their basic necessities, Government is focusing on economic growth even harming the environment. The entrance of Rohingas is also increased the pressure. Government or Khas lands are not used for the betterment of environment because of political influence. And for the same reason, the numbers of illegal industries are increasing. That toxicity hampers the balance of environment. To control all those issues we have almost 200 environment laws but still this matter is out of control.
Sustainable development is a fair approach to protect environment in developing countries. The jurisprudence of sustainable development creates an equal balance of development and environment. As a developing country, Bangladesh needs balance equality where economic growth and environmental protection both can be solved. Bangladesh has MDG, SDG plans to deal with the Environmental problems along with 200 environmental laws. Enacting new laws cannot solve the problems. We have enough laws on environment which need to be implemented properly. Government should take every possible step to aware its citizens. Bangladesh gives its consent on international environmental laws and policies. So it is the responsibility of every citizen to protect the environment. As well as, Government can introduce environmental education and scientific research on environment to protect the environment. This method will involve young generation to generate new ideas for the betterment of environment. Also Government should promote training to deal with the random natural disasters. Authority should promote awareness among people to protect environment.
Humans are creature and modular of the environment”. If we care for humanity, we must protect our environment for the present and future generation. Environment is necessary for physical and mental progress. Tree plantation is an instrumental action which will help us to tackle issues like natural disaster. Development is necessary but we cannot ignore nature. Environment is the key to the existence of life on earth. Environment is everything that is around and the entire life system of a human depends on it. So it is responsibility of every individual to protect environment and to ensure no development can be made harming environment. We need a place to where development and environment are equally balanced. Human with the support of Government can make this aim true and also can gift a colourful nature to the upcoming generations.
(The writer is a participant of National Environmental Writing Contest 2020 and can be reached at [email protected])