Mr Jairam Ramesh delivering the Satish Dhawan Memorial Lecture. Photo: PG Veena

It was an enthusiastic gathering of students and academics who expectantly awaited an interaction with the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Mr. Jairam Ramesh. He was invited to deliver the prestigious Satish Dhawan Memorial Lecture on September 28th, 2010. This was the 11th lecture in the series organized by ISRO-JNCASR; having been graced previously by some of the impressive glitterati of the nation’s intelligentsia, such as Dr.M.S. Swaminathan, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Dr.Ullas Karanth, Ramachandra Guha, Dr.U.R.Ananthamurthy.

Mr. Ramesh’s talk was entitled “The two cultures revisited: Some reflections on the Environment-Development debate in India”. With an annual GDP growth rate of 9%, India is faced with a trade-off between growth and environment losses, and finding a balance is indisputably required. However, the problem lies in finding an operational meaning for the philosophical concept of balance. The need is to make rational, scientific choices and evaluate the feasibility or ecological cost of developmental projects such as dams, mining, road and rail construction. Mr.Ramesh went on to express that, notwithstanding a possible middle ground, some activities causing environmental detriment will require a firm “no”, and the enforcement agencies should not shy away from doing so.

Mr.Ramesh then spoke of the need for “green accounting”, a measure of the environmental cost of our growth process. He emphasized that real development depended upon maintaining the flow of benefits we recieve from ecosystems. His view was that the debate was not really environment versus development, but one of taking environmental legislations for granted. India has a fairly rigorous system of environmental and ecological safeguards, and we have to prevent the contravention of these laws by the politically and economically powerful. The minister concluded that although technology is an important tool to counter environmental problems, pre-emption and prevention of environmental damages are better than techno-fixes. He reiterated the need for India to sustain a high-growth trajectory for the next three decades, but emphasized that the larger ecological consequences should be factored in.

Mr. Ramesh broke the “no questions" tradition of the Satish Dhawan lectures and answered the queries of an eager audience.On being asked about denying sections of society access to roads or railways due to their potential to destroy forests, the monitoring and regulation of the new CAMPA funds and the upgrading of the forest department field staff, the minister provided detailed replies albeit parrying the more controversial ones without offering specific solutions. Altogether the audience was left with the feeling that the minister appeared to be a pragmatic man, aware that he has to deal with diverse interest groups and find a reasonable working ground. All were impressed with the suave, articulate and amicable minister, who is one of the very few making sincere and transparent efforts towards conservation of India’s wilderness.