New Delhi, 18 Apr: The humans have \u201cselective amnesia\u201d about the significance of forests, the Supreme Court said on Thursday while advocating the need for a change in approach towards natural resources from anthropocentric to ecocentric.
\nThe court made the observations in its verdict by which it not only set aside the Telangana High Court judgement declaring 106.34 acre forest land in Warangal district as private but slammed it for \u201cgraciously gifting\u201d it to a private person who could not prove his title.
\nIt also came down heavily on state officials for abdicating their duty to protect forest land.
\nA bench of justices M M Sundresh and S V N Bhatti said, \u201cHuman beings indulge themselves in selective amnesia when it comes to fathom the significance of forests. It is the forests which give life to the Earth by replacing carbon dioxide with oxygen, thereby providing a hospitable environment for the steady growth of diverse life forms.\u201d
\nIt said it was the \u201cspirit of the forest\u201d which moved the earth, and the history of humankind would to be understood \u201cthrough the prism of the environment, the forest in particular.\u201d
\nDespite forests providing “unblemished, selfless and motherly service”, people continued to destroy them, while remaining unmindful of the fact that they were inadvertently destroying themselves, the bench said.
\nUnderlining that protection of forests was in the interest of humans, the top court said vulnerable sections of society would be most affected by their depletion.
\n\u201cThere is a crying need for a change in our approach. Man being an enlightened species, is expected to act as a trustee of the Earth. He has to ensure the preservation of the ecosystem and to continuously endeavour towards the protection of air, water and land,\u201d the Supreme Court said.
\nIt said the time has come for humans to live sustainably and respect the rights of rivers, lakes, beaches, estuaries, ridges, trees, mountains, seas and air. (PTI)
\n\u201cThe need of the hour is to transform from an anthropocentric approach to an ecocentric approach which will encompass a wider perspective in the interest of the environment,\u201d the apex court said.
\nUnderscoring the economic implications of forests, it said, \u201cWealth of a country has to be seen not only from the perspective of mere revenue, augmented through its industries and business activities. Rather, it has to be seen by giving due importance to its natural wealth which actually contributes much more than the other factors.”
\nThe top court said a country with excess forest cover would be in a position to sell its surplus carbon credit to the one in deficit and that \u201ca difference of one and half degrees Celsius in temperature saves the global economy tens of trillions of dollars.\u201d (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, 18 Apr: The humans have \u201cselective amnesia\u201d about the significance of forests, the Supreme Court said on Thursday while advocating the need for a change in approach towards natural resources from anthropocentric to ecocentric. The court made the observations in its verdict by which it not only set aside the Telangana High Court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-239125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}