India is one of the developing nations that is growing at a very rapid rate.  Technology, agriculture and infrastructure are all growing at a pace that is beyond the projected growth rate for a country like India where substantial population is still below the poverty level.  However, National Geographic found India at its best in terms of green revolution.  The major cities where most of the development takes place is in the state of chaos.  All environmental issues could be felt in cities, be it pollution, waste management or spread of diseases. 

Education centers are often focused on growth oriented courses that would be of business value to the enterprises.   The working community in general are committed towards creating value for the developing technologies, for example.  Therefore, environmental issues that is a social responsibility for all tend to take a back seat compared to issues like profits, growth, new products and better career options, etc. 

While environmental aspects are not totally ignored, the city development in India is seen with partial success with no clear goals, growth directions, infrastructure, pollution control and advanced medical facilities.  With overall development totally not in control, the issues tend to magnify to a much larger extent.  For example, the environmental issues in cities are in a critical state with pollution due to burning of fossil fuels is on constant rise.  Rural India is much greener and less crowded.  As a result, the overall result for the entire nation with respect to green nature is balanced to some extent. 

But this is no substitution for not fully adopting ecofriendly options in cities.   India?s major environmental problems include reduction of forest area and cultivable land, resource depletion (water, mineral, sand, and rocks), poor public health facilities, loss of biodiversity, and lack of awareness of ecosystems.  Starting from the cities, a drive to launch fully eco-friendly technologies have failed due to multiple reasons (a) loss of businesses for fossil fuel based companies (b) existing investments in fossil fuel based technologies and its use by public.  There are however, pockets of success but these are statistically insignificant to claim any success. 

Every major city is flooded with vehicles, people, construction, uncontrolled traffic and therefore the pollution is also out of control in major cities.  This is due to rapid urbanization and as a result many of the food items for example in cities have tested for high content of toxic substances.  With the high population growth in parallel and more people wanting to relocate to cities calls for much more efficient city planning with ecofriendly technologies in place.  New and remote cities should be based on ecofriendly technologies and that would ensure the environment around stays healthy. 

Governmental programs such as satellite monitoring of greenhouse gases or solar cities are great initiatives, however, these are happening in isolation rather than a mandatory initiative where every Indian state is required to commit to a certain % of their land dedicated to ecofriendly living.   Such initiatives would drive India not only to a greener state but a cleaner and environmentally safe place to live. 

Image credit 1: http://slideplayer.com/slide/8985436/

Image credit 2: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/reviews/annual-state-of-india-s-environment-soe-2018-58898