On the occasion of World Environment Day 2022 on June 5, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi stated that India’s forest cover grew by over 20,000 sq. km in the last eight years. Prime Minister Modi highlighted that India’s efforts to protect the environment are multi-dimensional. The campaign slogan for this year’s World Environment Day was “Only One Earth: Living Sustainably in Harmony with Nature”. The Prime Minister also launched the ‘Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE) Movement’, a global initiative, and asserted that its vision is to live a lifestyle that is in tune with our planet and does not harm it.

 As drastic and extreme events are happening across the world, currently floods are affecting millions of lives in Assam, which witnesses immense destruction and displacement by the floods every year. May this World Environment Day 2022 remind us once again that we can no longer continue to cut down trees, turn agricultural land into vast urban agglomerations, decimate our corals, swamps, mangroves and grasslands, pollute existing freshwater bodies, increase ambient temperatures through anthropogenic activities, and over-exploit marine resources because many of these ecosystems will soon reach a point of no return. So, let us tackle this in big and small ways, whether through concerted policy action, scientific research, stakeholder engagement, lobbying, developing sound financial and technological models to avert the point of no return.

This month’s cover story ‘Environmental Governance in India’ highlights that India has a long history and tradition of living in harmony with nature. Respect for nature is an integral part of the value system in India. Historically, the protection of nature and wildlife was an important article of faith reflected in people’s daily lives and upheld in myths, folklore, religious beliefs, art, and culture. We can achieve the same level of development, prosperity and welfare without necessarily going down the path of reckless consumption. In this way, India maintains a delicate balance between its rich traditional heritage and modernity without negatively impacting the environment. India is one of the proactive countries in the world to address the various aspects of climate change both at national and international levels. Over the years, many clean and green development initiatives at both the state and national levels have contributed significantly to climate change adaptation and mitigation. A number of new policies and initiatives in various fields such as e-mobility, green transportation, renewable energy, waste management, reforestation, water, etc., have also been introduced to minimize the impact of climate change.