Let's talk environment.

The professionals on the panel were Manoj Khatri, editor of The Complete Well Being, Nudrat S, an environmental activist and Melvyn Fernandes, a successful attorney. The discussion was to be on ‘Saving the Environment’ and the panel discussion was conducted by Tabassum Barnagarwala and Newton Sequira, students of Xavier Institute of Communications (XIC) on the  Saturday 16^th March . The audience was students from Science and Environment module, from XIC.

One point that was stressed by all three panellists was the need for citizen involvement in environment on an individual level. Waiting for the government to do something for the environment or just relying on NGO’s to clean up after will get us nowhere. They said and we agree that environmental awareness is now every individual’s duty and we owe it to the future generations to do our best.

A bone of contention throughout the panel discussion was a point that most of the audience seems to agree on, the lack of alternatives i.e. environment friendly substitutes for harmful products. Nudrat made the point that everyone should make effort, in spite of personal inconvenience to avoid harmful products like plastic products. The students stated that availability of alternatives would go a long way towards making people want to avoid plastic, as at the end of the day personal inconvenience would make people cheat. Nudrat also stressed that making alternatives for plastic, like jute, a fad with the customers would also help. She said media needs to make environment awareness something to aspire for or something ‘cool’.

Talking about the legal provisions for environment in the Constitution of India, Fernandes talked about how the legislation of India is one of the most environment-friendly legislations in Asia. He stressed that the problem was not in the policy, but the execution of the policies made to protect the environment.

Manoj Khatri, Editor, Complete Wellbeing
Source: Google Images 

Khatri, while talking about environment related articles and news in the media stressed that media needs to highlight the problems and solutions. He also said that mainstream media is more profit oriented than other magazines. Talking about his magazine, The Complete Well Being, he specifically said that they make the space in their edition for environment issues that needs to be addressed.

The panel discussion made all of us think about how we are doing things that are harmful for our environment every day, just because we aren't aware or it is inconvenient. Even through the course of our discussion many of us realized how we could do some things differently, and contribute towards a better environment and an eco-friendly society.

We realized  thanks to this panel discussion that it is always going to be inconvenient to go that extra mile to be environment friendly. However, with time this would become a habit and would also motivate others to be more environment conscious.

Melvyn Fernandes, Attorney
Source: Google Images

It is now time for us to think about what kind of a future we would give the next generations. Making a few changes in our daily life today, would make the world a greener place to inhabit in the future. It is time to think beyond one’s self and change our habits for the better. Having thrived as a species, it is time for mankind to give something back to Mother Nature and do our bit to ensure that our race continues to flourish.