Srinagar, June 5: National Conference (NC) President Farooq Abdullah Saturday said that the nation’s progress must not come at the cost of the environment and stressed on meeting human development goals in integration with environmental ethics and sustainability.
In a statement issued here, Abdullah said that that reckless human activity in the form of deforestation, water and air pollution and overuse of natural resources had imperiled the natural balance in the global environment and J&K had not escaped the global pattern, triggering extinction of various species by the wanton adulteration of lakes and springs with plastic and other adulterants.
He said that the spike in the -animal conflict was also a direct consequence of imbalance between development and ecology.
“The mauling of a 4-year-old girl to death in Ompura, Budgam brings home the negative consequences of the faceoff between humans and wild creatures due to fussy development and negligence of administration. The incident should act as a wake up call for the administration who the locals are accusing of negligence. The incident should be thoroughly probed to fix the responsibility. The administration should come up with a comprehensive plan to secure the lives of people from the impact of human-animal conflict,” Abdullah said.
He said that the need of the hour was making good of the deficiency of manpower, infrastructure and equipment in the Wildlife and Forest department.
“I share in the grief and pray for eternal peace to the departed brave heart,” Abdullah said.