No room for symbolic environmental protection

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has issued a warning about a hotter than normal summer this year, which has significantly impacted the delayed monsoon in the northeast region. The India Meteorological Department has said that conditions are favourable for the further advance of the southwest monsoon into some parts of the northeastern states over the next two to three days. As the majority of farmers in Assam depend on monsoon rains for the kharif season, the WMO’s warning and delayed monsoon call for smarter and more resilient solutions. With 60% of Assam’s net cultivated areas still rainfed, the observance of World Environment Day cannot remain ritualistic and mere optics of ceremonial tree planting. It must reinforce the primary lesson – the conservation of wetlands, river ecology, and forest ecosystems is directly linked to shielding farmers in the state from extreme weather conditions. The WMO has pressed the alarm bell that warm ocean waters in the tropical Pacific are fuelling the development of El Niño conditions, which typically increase global temperature-influenced rainfall patterns and the risk of extreme weather in the coming months. Increasing irrigation coverage offers a resilient solution for rainfed areas facing changing rainfall patterns. Currently, 77% of Assam’s gross cropped area is rainfed, and bringing more rainfed areas under irrigation is no longer a choice but is an urgent necessity. Ironically, the State Irrigation Plan (2022-2027) sets a goal to increase the sown area under irrigation in the state to 52% by 2027, but this goal looks far from achievable. This implies that farmers will not only remain tied to rain for growing crops but also to the unpredictability of rainfall patterns. For a state which is highly dependent on supplies of essential commodities, including food grains, vegetables and fruits from outside the region to meet growing consumer demand, the uncertainty over seasonal outlook will only deepen food security concerns. The new harsh climate realities call for prioritising community-based greening and soil and moisture conservation efforts under various afforestation schemes of the central and state governments, such as the Green India Mission and the ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ campaign. Building awareness among all sections of the community about how climate change impacts are influencing rainfall patterns in the already warm globe is crucial to turning these schemes into a powerful and genuine social movement of tree plantation for a sustainable future. The tree plantation comes with the responsibility of taking care of the planted saplings for ensuring a high survival rate and meeting the primary objectives. Traditional village agroforestry in Assam and other states in the region can be a living laboratory for the community, especially the young members of the farm households, to understand the basic science of tree planting and the survival of planted saplings and how improvement in survival rates leads to increased local rain and precipitation that assures water availability for crops and livestock. The NITI Aayog, in its policy document titled “Greening and Restoration of Wastelands with Agroforestry (GROW)”, has emphasised the potential of agroforestry for ecosystem restoration. A strong campaign around agroforestry conservation can help integrate the traditional wisdom of indigenous communities in the state and the entire region into mainstream planning for rainfed areas in the country for ecosystem restoration and resilient agriculture. The agroforestry sector can develop in an organised manner, as recommended in the National Agroforestry Policy, only if communities appreciate their traditional knowledge systems passed down through generations. The sustainable solution demands food security to be based on a mixed model of traditional farming, which usually yields low crops but is climate resilient, and the adoption of modern scientific farming of high-yielding varieties which require assured irrigation. As the impact of climate change drastically alters rainfall patterns, triggering water stress in natural water bodies, converting the entire cropped area into fully irrigated farmland may expose farmers to a greater risk of water shortages in the long run and adversely affect farm production and livelihoods. A viable alternative lies in increasing tree cover through a sustained campaign of tree planting and taking care of the planted saplings, checking forest degradation and conservation of rivers, wetlands and water bodies through strict water-conservation frameworks such as rainwater harvesting. Ritualistic scheme-based campaigns and activities cannot bring about the desired change, and they require the communities to adopt these activities into their cultural practices. Environmental restoration and conservation cannot happen in isolation, and they must be integrated into efforts to achieve sustainable food security in a climate-stressed and ecologically fragile region. Assam needs a stronger community-led movement for environmental conservation and integrating it into their efforts for strengthening food security and protecting farm-based livelihoods. When climate change is real and drives hotter climates and erratic rainfall, there is no room for symbolic activities of environmental protection, as it cannot shield farmers from the impending crisis.