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India occupies 2.4% of land, manages 17% of the world’s population: Dr. A.K.Ghosh

In a seminar at Heritage Institute of Technology on “Sustainable Development- Myths or Reality” today, Dr. A.K.Ghosh, Director, Centre for Environment and Development, Kolkata said that India occupies 2.4% space on the earth and manages 17% of the global population which is really extraordinary in compared to other countries. Dr. Ghosh said that comparing with the pre-independence period India is now in a well defined condition and improving in the various fields of education, science and technology.

“We became increasingly inquisitive about the applications of science to make quick changes in the present scenario,” said Dr. Ghosh. Moreover he referred to the conference which was held at Rio De Janeiro, which first laid the foundation of the concept Sustainable Development where eminent scientists spoke about development path for the mankind. This gave rise to Agenda 21^st (Agenda for the 21^st century) which said that human society cannot have the same development in future like today. Focusing on these areas, 5 indicators were thoroughly studied which were population growth, pollution load, industrial development, agricultural production and utilization of resources. It was found out that all the graphical curves representing the present situation of these indicators went up, stayed flat and then declined except two curves only went upwards. Those were population growth and pollution load. This research was carried out at MIT lab.

Citing on these factors Dr. Ghosh said that environmental factors would be integrated with economic and social issues and would become a central part of policy making process which is now happening today. “Briefly the UN had given 134 indicators for sustainable development which are not at all economic indicators,” said Dr. Ghosh. Later on he cited few case studies from his own experience which occurred at Sunderbans where he used different scientific ways to solve crucial problems of mankind which were inhabited in one of the islands there ( the name of the island is Chotomolla Khali). In the first case study he gave the solution of scarcity in electricity in those areas where he along with his research team in association with WBREDA, generated electricity through wood by decomposing the biomass of the wood into bio-fuel and converting stored energy into heat energy to generate electricity. For this a separate land was allocated by the team for growing trees for this purpose and then utilizing them for the generation of electricity and again start the process of reforestation on the same land. “500 Kilo watt power plant had been established there to take the benefit of this process”, said Dr. Ghosh. In the second case study, he gave the solution of health problems in those areas by establishing a nursery of medicinal plants there which can cure 50 common diseases through herbal treatment. The nursery is now maintained by the villagers there and Earth Day Network had supported the whole cause financially. In the third case study, he gave the solution of food problem in Sunderbans which extensively occurred in the time of ‘Aila” in the year of 2009. There his team had grown salt tolerating rice seeds biologically which can withstand huge floods and rainfall. It is not to be forgotten that 50 islands of Sunderbans is inhabited with 48 lakh people where at one time there was no electricity, presence of 1 doctor for 30000 patients and infested with lots of other problems.

The seminar was also addressed by Prof. Pranay Chaudhuri, Principal, Heritage, CEO, Shri Pradip Agarwal and Registrar Prof. Sobhen Roy. It was an initiative by the Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Heritage Institute of Technology Kolkata. More than 100 students and faculty members benefited from the seminar.