19 Dec : Collection, presentation and dissemination of Environment and socio-economic data regularly will help planning of sustainable development more effectively. For this purpose we need State of Environment Report (SoE).
This will be invaluable assistance in regularly providing the public, government, non-government, organisations and decision makers with accurate, timely and accessible information on the present condition and future prospects of the state of environment in India. Inaugurating a Consultation Workshop on State of Environment Report-India 2008 here today, Sh R. H. Khwaja, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests said that our march towards our goal will help us to reach the goal, but without Vision Mission Framework we may reach very late. In the process we would loose more time, more energy and more efforts. Sh. Khwaja added that it will give us clarity for security in the field of climate, energy, water and managing urbanization. He appealed to create environment awareness and generate an ‘Environment Will’ for sustainable development.
SoE Report will give status, and trends of national environment including land, air, water and biodiversity. Its purpose is to present an overview of the environmental situation in space and time, to create awareness and ownership of issues among stakeholders, to enable policy and strategy formulation and to facilitate analytical and informed decision making.
Policy planners will get ready data for promoting environmentally sustainable economic development. The contradiction between rapid development and environmental degradation will be resolved by holistic planning which will consider the natural resources and their carrying capacity. It is under consideration to prepare and publish SoE Report every year before the annual Budget is presented in the parliament.