With afforestation becoming the way of living, we see lot of greenery has been lost. This is progressing in such an alarming rate that this has led to eventual increase in the climate. The rate is so bad that the increase of global temperature in the past 20 years is almost equivalent to the one that we achieved in the past two centuries or so.
Why this is happening?
Human greediness is the main cause. The conversion of forests into urban concrete and increase in the usage of resources has led to this. I myself had personally witnessed almost half of the greenery or Bengaluru was lost just in the span of 5 years. While there were many causes quoted by the Government including the introduction of Metro, we cannot keep that as a major excuse. While human development is important, it is not the primary one.
What are the effects?
In the above case, the rainfall of Bengaluru has decreased tremendously in the past decade. The temperature has also started soaring high. We may think that this is the case of one city but one must understand this affects the globe as a whole and when it happens, the glaciers of Arctic/Antarctic region starts melting. If you still do not understand the seriousness, these melt down can lead to increase in the sea level thereby making lot of coastal cities getting completely submerged in ocean. A recent study suggests that within the next 100 years, cities like New York, Mumbai, Tokyo, Parts of China, Kolkata, Venice and few other cities and islands are facing the extinction.
Can this not be avoided?
Well. For anything and everything, there is a solution. While we may not undone the damage that has already been done, we can slow down the process of eventual destruction and if stars on our side, we can even avoid catastrophe.
One of the major action that can be done in the first place is to start planting trees. This has to be done uniformly across all the States because planting 1 lakh sapling in one state and cutting down 2 lakh saplings on the other side will not solve the purpose. Tree felling should be avoided to the maximum extent possible. Thanks to #DigitalIndia initiative by the Honorable PM of India Shri Narendra Modiji and sapling of lakhs and crores of saplings across various states by actors, politicians are doing some good to the nation.
Care should be taken to preserve age old trees because the output of oxygen by these trees are far higher that even 1000 saplings cannot achieve because a sapling is still young and will only have very limited output.
Encouragement should be given by the respective State Government in setting up terrace garden and subsidies should be given for saplings, seeds, manure etc., Organic Farming would be the end result of this which would not only help us produce our own food which is free from pesticides but can also contribute to the society and the environment to a greater extent.
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