Environmental issues in India and Sri Lanka

by Farah Macan Markar

Kanchana Weerakoon Ranasinghe is the President of Eco Friendly Volunteer (ECO-V), an NGO she initiated herself. Kanchana is extremely passionate about the environment, especially birds, and spends a lot of her time campaigning against pollution and working towards creating a cleaner environment.

However as much as she works with nature, she also does her own nurturing, being a mother of two children. Thus Kanchana is a wife, mother, career woman, campaigner and change maker all in one.

Being interested and involved with environmental issues, it is not surprising that Kanchana was selected to be the coordinator of the Sri Lankan delegation of the Youth Yatra Action for Change Project to India in March 2007.

With the participation of young change makers from Sri Lanka, India, UK and Finland, the Yatra consisted of a twelve day journey along the river Yamuna, learning among many issues about youth, culture and environment. Funded with the support of the European Commission, its partner organisations included The British Council (Colombo, New Delhi and Scotland), Swechcha We For Change Foundation India, Sarvodaya Sri Lanka, Allianssi Finland, and UnLtd London UK.

Nature being her forte the Yatra or journey offered Kanchana the opportunity to discover more about issues concerning the environment, in both Sri Lanka and India. One of the main problems regarding the environment she feels is garbage management, especially in urban areas.

As a result now lack of land in urban areas and flooding are becoming major threats and would be problematic very soon.

The latest global issues are becoming major issues in Sri Lanka too but people are still unaware of it?. According to Kanchana one of the main problems in rural areas is sand mining in the flatlands and landslips in the hills. In the coastal areas corals are being destroyed and there is a lot of soil erosion. Forest destruction and encroachment of human elephant conflict are the other major environmental issues in Sri Lanka says Kanchana.

Based on her experience in India, Kanchana feels India's main environmental problem is the scarcity of clean water. Unfortunately we did not have many opportunities to explore the huge country.

My main experience during the Yatra was only on some parts of the Yamuna River. I didn't see many water falls or rivers or streams while travelling from New Delhi to Himalayas.

Maybe my experience is not good enough to make judgment of it, but I always wondered about water resources while I was travelling?. From what Kanchana had heard and read about India she felt that global warming is becoming an environmental issue in India due to the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas.

Poaching of wild animals (especially the lions in Gir Park), garbage management and air pollution, increasing population and constructing dams are also environmental issues in India says Kanchana.

Speaking of the similarities and differences of environmental issues in both countries, Kanchana feels that certain similarities in culture, religions, and party politics have made some common issues in both countries.

However she feels that creating awareness and convincing people in changing their attitudes in Sri Lanka is easier than in India. I believe the high literacy rate, small land area, small population and Buddhist cultural back ground in Sri Lanka are the main plus points which have made it easier to deal with environmental issues in Sri Lanka.

Speaking further about resolving these issues, Kanchana feels it is first important to create awareness and change attitudes. Of course it will take time but at the same time more support from the state level is needed such as in implementing powerful laws and taking actions against environmental injustice.

Among the long term strategies, Kanchana feels it is vital to have better planning and the implementation of more sustainable developmental strategies along with the appropriate technology. Finally people need to be made more sensible and sensitive towards nature. Without this it would be rather difficult to prevent or rather decrease environmental pollution.

The main lesson Kanchana learnt during her Yatra in India was to see and judge environmental injustice in a better way. The Youth Yatra opened my eyes and mouth and shocked me sometimes.

As a result I came back with more energy and determination to speed up my work that I have already been doing in Sri Lanka. Kanchana recalls the environmental pollution she saw in India as being at times very scary. I really don't want to see River Mahaweli or Kelani as weeping as Yamuna in India.

I think India is the best example for somebody to feel both proud and sad about nature at the same time. They have such important qualities like love, respect, care and tribute towards nature but at the same time their life style, religion and attitudes have taken them away from a better environment.