Correspondent
KOHIMA, SEPTEMBER 27
GOVERNOR Ashwani Kumar today called upon the professionals, social and political leaders to favour the common people with their formulations on sustainable mountain development.
Delivering the valedictory speech of the SMDS-III at NBCC Convention Hall here tonight, Kumar said, “We all can live happily on the mountains, in the plains and on the seashore, provided we are able to contain our population, reduce our consumption and limit our desires.” “Nature – this planet – this earth has enough for all of us to last for millions of years,” he said adding the earth is capable of providing us enough water, food and fuel for many more years.
Nonetheless, he said the ordinary people have great expectations from the professionals and the social and political leaders. He, therefore, called upon them to favour the common people with their formulations on sustainable mountain development.
Quoting the statistics from the Cambridge University, he said the world population in 1750 was around one billion. In 1850, it became was just over 2 billion. In 1950 it was over 3 billion.
Today, he quoted that it is 6 billion and in 2050 it will be 9 billion.
India’s population in 1950 was about 370 million, in 2050 it will be 1.6 billion while by 2030, India will beat China in population, he said.
“This growth in human beings will put extreme pressure on land and its resources,” he feared.
Today, he said the mountains and hills are sparsely populated with stringent laws to prevent outsiders buying land from Kashmir to Kohima and settling in the Himalayas, presumably to preserve the mountains.
In several North East hill states, he said, people are already facing agitations/bandhs and even killings have taken place, to demand imposition of Inner Line Permits and prohibit outsiders from settling down or even seeking daily wages or any business.
“The question is how long we will be able to prevent this huge humanity from seeking food, water and shelter in the healthy environment of the hills,” he said, saying as demographic dividend is a theoretical concept its practical applicability is in grave doubt.
He also reminded the gathering on what Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Einstein said about the earth and human beings. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs but not every man’s greed”. And Albert Einstein said, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. And I am not sure of the universe,” meaning he was not sure about the infiniteness of the universe but he was sure about the stupidity of human beings.
The Governor congratulated the organizers of the Summit, especially the Sustainable Development Forum of Nagaland, Indian Mountain Initiatives and Government of Nagaland, for taking this initiative and inviting representatives from all 11 Himalayan states of the country to Konia to deliberate on the issues confronting these states.
