India needs to accord geological assets the same level of protection it gives forests and animals in the wild.
I was recently reminded of a diagram from a class I took in college. The subject was environmental ethics, and the topic being discussed was sentience—or the capacity to experience feelings.
In the diagram, the professor drew a horizontal line, and marked different points on it, each representing a type of life on earth. At one end of the line were humans. Further down the line were other mammals, other vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, and so on.
The line was from a branch of environmental ethics that judges environmental actions based on the sentient value of the life form concerned. The …
Nihar Gokhale led the Chaos coverage at The Morning Context. Nihar wrote on the environment, the economy and resource conflicts in India. He has reported from across the country on everything from displacement, pollution and environmental violations to land regulation, corruption and human rights. He was earlier associate editor at Land Conflict Watch, and his work has appeared in Scroll, The Wire, IndiaSpend, The Caravan and Mongabay India.
Editor, Chaos
nihar@mailtmc.com
Delhi