Date:05/09/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/09/05/stories/2005090501131003.htm

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Green PMs

This refers to the editorial "India's extinct green Prime Ministers" (Aug. 30). It is significant that Prime Ministers lost interest in conservation of nature after 1991 because economic reforms and the process of globalisation started in that year. Our political leadership has ushered in an unsustainable development model. It believes rapid economic growth will make us a developed nation soon and that we can worry about the environment later. But most of the damage done since 1991 to our air, water, and land may very well be irreversible.

Ramiah Ariya,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Even her severest critics have to admit that we owe much to Indira Gandhi for environment protection. The fact that the Silent Valley escaped the opportunists' axe is an example. It showed what unflinching courage could achieve. It was during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure as Prime Minister that turtle conservation gathered momentum, in Lakshadweep in particular.

P.R. Krishna Narayanan,
Kochi, Kerala