Reduce the natural debt too

One major focus of any Budget in any country is the reduction of the national debt. I would like to see at least an equal emphasis on reduction of our natural debt. But this would happen only if we measured our natural debt and estimated broadly what we are recklessly borrowing from nature in the form of cutting down forests, overexploiting our groundwater resources, polluting the air we breathe and the water we drink and degrading the rich soil of this country. Two years ago the Annual Economic Survey carried a chapter covering these issues, but it seems to have been given up for reasons unknown. I hope the budget will provide a large allocation for afforestation, conservation of forestry and biodiversity, and the joint forest management programme. I hope these funds will be made available to NGOs. I hope such NGOs will also be involved in implementing renewable energy programmes in rural areas with enhanced funding for these activities. In the ultimate analysis, all this would make good economics. TERI has estimated that India loses over 10 per cent of its GDP due to environmental and natural resource degradation. Annually, 2.5 million lives are lost prematurely due to air pollution, mainly indoor air pollution from cooking. Does it make economic sense to ignore our growing debt to nature?