From 10-Minute Dedications to Life-long Pacts

Editorial:
The State Green Mission was a wonderful idea, pleasantly imaginative and reassuringly evocative of the need to recognize Green as The Colour for the next generation. It was a ‘mission’ launched by the State Government, but it was not just a government programme. It might have ended up as that, but the idea was to catalyze public participation in ecological conservation; no, not the government ‘approved’ joint resource management assemblies, but a more from-the-people initiative, an involvement which will will ensure the mission sustenance. Tree plantations should have been the trigger that reintroduced Sikkim to greenery and the need to nurture it and not just ‘organise’ plantation drives to get photos taken and issue press releases. The act of planting trees should have ideally led to understanding Sikkim’s ecology more intimately than the token ‘biodiversity hot-spot’ introduction that completes most understandings of what the State contains. This obviously did not happen because most plantation drives were undertaken with saplings that the ‘volunteers’ neither recognized, nor even bothered to enquire about, leading to a situation where the survival rates of planted saplings remain anybody’s guess. The fault was not with the idea though. Maybe, the people’s participation which might have been cultivated gradually was compromised by eager-to-please and prompt-to-be-counted organizations and departments which usurped the initiative, and as is wont, distanced the people from the idea with their over-fawning.
Of course, it is very possible that the general public has grown too lethargic even to engage in an initiative which conserves their own future, but hopefully, the generation still in the making is more open and willing. Ideas like the State Green Mission and the Green School awards should address them directly by informing them in schools and colleges and inviting them over to power the Mission. It is in this light that the “10 Minutes for Earth” had brought fresh hope. And it was not so much about getting all of Sikkim planting and would have more than served its purpose if Sikkim came together to acknowledge environment and stood together to recognize that they have a collective responsibility towards it. There will be those who dismiss the 10-Minute dedication as a gimmick, and they would not be wrong, because a gimmick it is. And a gimmick is what is prescribed to shake loose the propensity acquired by Sikkim to lie to itself and simply pretend that all is well. Given the fragility of Himalayan eco-systems and the worrying march of Climate Change, there is never room for complacence when it comes to environmental issues. In that regard, one misses the earlier excitement that had complemented the 10-Minute initiative, because, let’s accept it, the excitement was missing this year, so while the [plantation] numbers might have been impressive, the spontaneity was wanting. It will be through spontaneous collaborations that Sikkim will notice all it has lost, what it still retains and what it could nurture and conserve of the environment they inhabit. For the dedication to lead to commitment, the young will need to be roused every year, not the departments and Panchayats. The young, if they are adequately inspired, will keep the pact for life where the official arms will only keep the date. It is the former that the 10 Minutes to Earth should seek to establish.