Here is what environmentalists and experts expect from the new regime
Image: Getty Images Environmental charter for the new government
Sustainable development, pollution, employment generation and agrarian crisis did not play major roles in deciding the outcome of the 2019 General Elections. That though doesn’t mean that these issues are peripheral and the new government must address them effectively. Read the full charter here
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According to the State of Global Air Report 2019, 12 lakh people are dying prematurely due to toxic air and dying 2.6 years earlier in India. 
Even as a major British newspaper changes its terms for climate change, it is imperative that India, suffering the most from it, builds a groundswell of opinion in favour of real action to prevent climate catastrophe. 
India’s GDP for health is less than 1.5 per cent and is one of the lowest in the world. 
The new government must convene a meeting of central and state health ministers annually, to build consensus across the political spectrum and accelerate action on an agreed agenda. 
The new government will need to prioritise this in the coming years, otherwise we will run out of resources, poison our environment and have landfills all around. 
Our river systems are suffering badly from water scarcity and non-point source pollution. 
Sustainability, more than anything else is agriculture’s biggest challenge. Whoever can manage water can claim to be Indian agriculture’s saviour. 
People don’t just want jobs, but good ones that are stable, are in the formal-sector, have safe working conditions, collective bargaining rights and regulations against arbitrary dismissal. 
India must strengthen the mechanisms of natural resource management that is people-centric and sustainable to ensure economic and social stability. 
To start work, the Sustainable Development Goals first need to be popularised by the new government. 
While the mission got people talking about sanitation and cleanliness, its implementation needs a lot of work. 
BJP-led NDA has won 38 out of 48 reserved seats for Scheduled Tribes across the country, of which a majority is from forest-rich areas. .png)
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