Why it is assumed that the environment only belongs to humans?

This may seem like an easy question with an obvious answer, but has many complex dimensions to it. The earth as a single ecosystem has provided suitable conditions for the co-existence of a diverse variety of life forms in their respective environments. Humans because of their incomparable supremacy have acquired a position of superiority over all other life forms. Can it then be assumed that the environment belongs to humans more than others and that they have, or should have, greater access to it, compared to others?

Human societies have organized themselves into nation states. These nation states have been further divided into the advanced industrialized nations and the underdeveloped or the developing nations. However, no such formal division of the environment has taken place. But the developed nations, because of their economic and political superiority, have appropriated a much greater share of the natural resources of the earth. It is estimated, for instance, that about 27% of the world population living in developed countries enjoys about 75% of world’s wealth and resources. This process has inevitably led to to conditions which have created severe environmental stress. And the ongoing debate between the developed and the developing nations, as to on whose door lays the major responsibility is yet to be resolved. It is, therefore, also in this context that the question ‘whose environment’ becomes relevant.

Moreover, even within the nation states, there are different groups and classes. Among these groups and classes, there is unevenness of access to natural resources, based on economy, politics and strategic location. This can often lead to a situation of conflict. A plan to build a tourist hotel on a piece of land which is a reserve area, or an area inhabited by the local tribal people, will raise a similar problem.

In India, the decision of the government to build big dams on the rivers to provide water and electricity, prevent floods and provide irrigational facilities has inevitably led to displacement of large groups of people and wildlife and have invariably encountered the resistance of the local population who previously occupied that land. It is here also that the question ‘whose environment’ becomes important.

It should, therefore, be clear that the questions of man’s relationship with environment, competition between different nations vis-à-vis resources and its consequences on environment and the conflict between different social groups and strata regarding access to, and utilization of, natural resources increasingly become political. It is a certain kind of politics (or a political decision) that can create a situation of conflict, which can only be resolved politically, i.e. through political pressures and interventions. Finally, the debate over environment is, above all, a debate over the share and distribution of resources. It is in this sense that eh environmental question is also a political question.