THE UN COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES LIKE INDIA AND CHINA TO SET THEIR OWN STANDARDS
AND WORK TOWARDS THE CREATION OF A BETTER AND CLEANER WORLD! An interesting piece of news had come out a few days back, where it was stated that the government is planning to replace polluting ‘chullahs’ in rural households with green stoves (stoves fuelled by biomass). As stated there, this flagship program would cover around 140 million households. In other words, it would cover over 560 million people. This, in itself, is a wonderful initiative and would go a long way in not just saving the precious forests of India but would also arrest many ailments which emanate from the poisonous smoke of chullahs. Another interesting news that has come up in the recent past is that India’s forest cover has grown by 728 square kilometers during 2005-07 and thus now stands at 21%. Similarly, one has also witnessed that there has been a sincere effort on the part of the government and also the judicial system to crack down on illegal mines in forest areas and force the fuel guzzling and polluting ...