How will biodiversity be conserved in the end?

A very important quote from the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, related to the environment is that 'The earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.' These words of Gandhi ji point to the fact that humans should use natural resources according to their needs so that no conflict arises between the present and future generations regarding the universal availability and accessibility of resources. Although the concept of sustainable development came after the publication of the final report 'Our Common Future' in 1987 by the 'Brundtland Commission' formed in 1983, Gandhi ji, albeit indirectly, had certainly introduced us to the basic concept of sustainable development through his ideas in the 1930s and 1940s.

India is a country of diversities, and in the Indian historical context, the environment has been considered an integral part of nature and life, and there are many proofs of this. In the Atharvaveda, a separate 'Prithivisukta' has been composed dedicated to the Earth, where the Earth is established as a mother and humans as her sons. In the Rigveda, the air has been given the title of 'Brahma.' In the Isha Upanishad, it has been said to use natural resources with foresight so that the resources can be used properly. And what's more, the great poet Kalidas dedicated the first canto of his 'Kumarasambhavam' to the Himalayas, where he addressed the Himalayas as 'Devatatma.' The question arises that in a country that has such a vast history of environmental protection, why is there a cry for the environment? The reason is clear: the desire to control nature, the dirty mentality of destroying the ecosystem in the name of cultural activities, and most importantly, food habits. According to a United Nations report, the intensity of natural disasters has increased worldwide since 1980. What could be the reasons for this increase in intensity, have you noticed? Our created standard of development, the distorted mentality of plundering the environment to achieve economic strength, and what's more, the transfer of our foresight from the traditional ideals of harmonious and long-lasting environmental protection to fleeting and so-called modern scientific methods.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), biodiversity specifically measures the level of diversity of genetic, species, and ecosystems, which was given by Walter G. Rosen in 1985. It has assimilated all those things that actually make nature, nature. In the modern context, the first voice related to environmental protection at the global level was raised in 1962 by 'Rachel Carson' through her book 'The Silent Spring,' through which she warned of the dangers of DDT in America and pointed out that the spring that once echoed with the chirping of birds is now silent. After that, 'Garrett Hardin,' in his book 'Tragedy of the Commons' published in 1967, has mentioned the tragedy caused by the common people in a very broad perspective. Then in 1971, the convention held in Ramsar, Iran, laid the foundation of modern wetlands for the conservation of fauna. A total of 37 wetlands in the Indian subcontinent have also been established through this convention. In 1972, 'The Limits to Growth,' published by MIT, America, attempted to link the exponentially growing economy and population with the limited availability of resources. This was the same year when the Earth Summit was organized for the first time in Stockholm, Sweden, to discuss the environment, although some people consider the conference held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992 as the first Earth Summit. After the 1972 Stockholm Conference, India also passed the Wildlife Protection Act in 1972, which cleared the way for the establishment of national parks, sanctuaries, and biosphere reserves in the country. Then in 1973, the then Prime Minister, the late Mrs. Indira Gandhi, along with the famous ornithologist Salim Ali, started 'Project Tiger' to protect tigers.

Later, the Forest Conservation Act in 1980 and the Forest Act in 2006 were passed. However, the Forest Act had also been passed earlier in colonial India in 1887 and 1927. The most important steps for biodiversity conservation were taken first in 1992 and second in 2002 when the first international treaty, the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity), came into being under the auspices of the UNO, and the Indian subcontinent is one of its founding members. Two protocols, mainly Cartagena and Nagoya, were added under this treaty. Second, in 2002, the Indian Parliament passed the Biodiversity Conservation Act. Under the Cartagena Protocol, the GEAC (Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee) was formed in India under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, whose main objective was to ensure biosafety, and its term expired in 2016. Then, under this protocol, a supplementary protocol was proposed, which is known as the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol. The Nagoya Protocol was proposed in 2010 at a summit held in the city of Nagoya, Japan, and is related to ABS, i.e., Access and Benefit Sharing. At the 10th conference in Nagoya, the member nations of the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) accepted 10-year targets for the conservation of biodiversity, which have been named the Aichi Targets. These include increasing diversity in coastal areas from 1% to 10%, restoring at least 15% of the ecosystem, and special efforts for coral reef conservation, etc. Despite such a million efforts, according to the India State of Forest Report, 2019, the forest cover in India is 21.67% of its total area, whereas for proper ecological balance in a nation, at least 33% of its total area should be under forest. Deforestation has further accelerated the destruction of biodiversity, global warming, and climate change. Are just conferences, protocols, and laws enough for biodiversity conservation, or should we also take social and cultural dimensions into account? For the preservation of biodiversity, it is very essential that our plan is oriented from the bottom to the top, not from the top to the bottom, and this is possible only when there is maximum participation of the common people in our plans. The most important thing for biodiversity conservation is that we have an understanding of Species Identification. A species can be saved only when the general public is introduced to its pros and cons.

If the carrot grass (Parthenium) brought to India during the Green Revolution is cleaned for five consecutive days, the worker can get a fatal disease like asthma. In villages, if cattle eat carrot grass, they get diarrhea. There is a need to take this pro and con from the lowest level to the national level through seminars and competitions, only then can biodiversity be conserved in its true form. The second important thing through which biodiversity can be saved is to further strengthen the concept of Eco-Feminism. Ecofeminists explain the relationship between women and nature. Women are very close to nature, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they are also a reflection of nature because just as nature is capable of creating an ecosystem, in the same way, women also complete the natural cycle by giving birth to humans from their wombs. If women are given more and more opportunities, their role in biodiversity conservation can prove to be a revolutionary step. The third important thing through which biodiversity can be protected is a change in the dimension of development. The development that is today basically plundering nature due to the accumulation of wealth and economic greed, just needs to be limited to livelihood. If we leave the desire to get the first position at the international level and limit ourselves to sustainable development and livelihood, then biodiversity and nature will return to their true form.