ABSTRACT
India faces some daunting tasks in the immediate future. Regional disparities have to be reduced, income distribution must be made more equitable, urbanisation should be channelled to prevent undue metropolisation, industry must provide more jobs and agriculture more food-because by the year 2,000 more than a billion Indians will have to be fed. In tackling these problems, due attention must be paid to the ecological aspects of economic development. It is not a privilege of the rich nations to worry about environmental degradation. India is threatened by total deforestation, India’s great rivers are polluted. Remedial action should nevertheless be easier in India where, for instance, deforestation is not caused by continental air pollution, but by indiscriminate cutting of trees. Poor forest guards are bribed by unscrupulous entrepreneurs who take whole truckloads to the sawmills. Firewood is getting more and more scarce and the burning of cow-dung also has its limits. About half of India’s fuel consumption takes places in innumerable kitchens, most of which are equipped with incredibly inefficient ovens that utilise about 5 per cent of the energy of the fuel consumed. Fuel has become more expensive than the food cooked in those kitchens.
