'Delhi youth need to be more environmentally aware'

A survey of 250 students studying in premier institutes shows that population, corruption and poverty topped their priority list, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Apr 5, 2007, 23:19:41 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The young brigade of Delhi is aware about the environmental issues, but consider population, corruption and poverty more important than it.

A survey of about 250 students of 12 Delhi University Colleges, IIT-Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Indraprastha University and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, has brought out that the most important issue in global context is spread of HIV/AIDS and in Indian context, it is country’s rising population. Unemployment was found to be high the scale of a disturbing issues for the students interviewed in the age group of 18-24 years.

The survey conducted through environment clubs by Rahul Sachdeva and his team of the Indian Institute of Ecology and Environmental Studies found that Environmental issues like global warming, extinction of plants and animals and pollution of rivers were found to be lower on their agenda of the majority of the students.

Over 50 per cent of the respondents were found to largely aware about the environmental issues but were found to be wanting on knowledge about the issues concerning environment. “They knew that Indian rivers are polluted but did not had much knowledge why it is taking place,” Sachdeva said. In case of general issues like unemployment, the knowledge was found to be much better.

The survey, done through a questionnaire between October 2006 and January 2007 found youth general knowledge to be varying depending on the issue. Over 50 percent of respondents know about the gas responsible for global warming, the sun rays that causes ozone layer depletion and forms of renewable energy.

But, only 25 per cent respondents know that Protect Tiger is responsible for conservations of the national animal and just 19 per cent got knowledge of Centre for Science and Environment’s finding on pesticide residue in colas.

To some pertinent questions, the response of Delhi’s young was not found to be very encouraging. While Delhi’s youth are aware that garbage should be dumped in bins, only 30 per cent of the respondents said they ask a person to dispose garbage in a bin.

To another question whether they will be interested in participating in afforestation drive, only 43 per cent responded in positive. Similar for cleanliness, 55 per cent responded in yes.

The study concluded that educating youth about environmental issues around them could help in making them more aware about the hazards of environmental loss and recommended to make environmental studies mandatory in educational institutions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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