It’s yet another day dedicated to the environment. We have been observing this day for at least two decades in Meghalaya yet the environment is getting from bad to worse. Recently the day temperature in Shillong touched a record 28 degrees. Certainly Shillong is no longer the hill station of yore. Nor is Meghalaya getting greener. So what’s the impact of World Environment Day then? For years, school and college students have been the captive audience who we use to fill up different venues in town on World Environment Day. But it is doubtful if the students imbibe anything at all on such days. One off celebrations/observations are essentially a waste of time and money. The environment cannot be cared for only on a single day while we litter it and poison it the rest of the 364 days. If students were sensitive to the environment they would think twice before littering the streets with different coloured plastic packages that contain junk food. Or with plastic bottles that contain all kinds of juices. Target audiences for junk food and drinks are children. So it means that children are the biggest litterers. So what does that tell us about environmental education in schools? That it is not making any impact?
So would it make any sense to observe World Environment Day in the same manner that it was last year or the year before that or five years ago? The young have to be made to feel the pain of Mother Nature as she struggles to deal with the amount of garbage we force upon her day after day without sparing a thought. Hence it will be good for all those environmental enthusiasts who have lined up well-intended programmes for the day to step back and reflect if they are just following a routine. In other words making this important day just a symbolic observation with no results whatsoever. Every institution will be doing something to observe this day. Some schools might tell their students to do a cleaning drive or plant a tree or some such things. The question is what are we really doing to help this precious environment regenerate itself.