It is important for us to develop an ethical relationship between human beings and the natural environment. Human beings are a part of the environment and so are other living beings, including plants and animals. They cannot be denied their right to live. They need to be considered as entities with the right to co-exist with human beings.

However, the development of human civilisation also needs optimum exploitation of natural resources without causing any permanent damage to the environment. We can adopt the following strategies for sustainable development of man and environment together.

 

1. Develop appropriate waste management policy by employing more people for the collection of garbage from different places and segregating them appropriately.

2. Create social awareness for cleaning the garbage and taking care of the environment, and the benefits of the same for people’s health and happiness through media campaign.

3. Use part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan tax for funding the environmental NGOs, and enable them to act as citizens’ representatives and watchdogs.

4. Prescribe strict emission norms for vehicles and other populating industries.

5. Stricter penalties should be imposed for the violation of environmental norms.

6. Make the process of complaints simpler and easy, and reward them appropriately.

7. Create detailed environmental databases and make them accessible to all citizens.

8. The pollution control boards should be adequately funded, staffed and empowered.

9. Indian universities must include environmental studies in all courses to sensitise the future citizens of India about their role and responsibility towards the environment.

10. Higher rates of GST on the vehicles that increase pollution. (263 words)