We must also realise that even as environmental problems have grown, the institutions for the oversight and management of natural resources have shrunk. Most importantly, while the environmental constituency has grown, core beliefs have been lost. In this way, the underlying politics of environmental movements have been neutered.
It is important we point to the fundamental weaknesses and contradictions in the environmental movement. It is only then that we can deliberate on the direction for future growth of the movement.
First, we have lost the development agenda in environmental management. Instead of working to regenerate the natural capital for inclusive growth, we have increasingly framed action as development versus environment. This has happened because we have successfully disconnected environmental management from development.
The management of natural resources - swinging between extraction and conservation - is leaving out of its ambit millions who live on the resources. These people cannot afford either the degradation of resources or pure conservation. They need to utilise natural resources for their livelihood and economic growth. In this way, the environmental movement is in danger of making enemies of the very people whose interest it is working to protect.
We need to move beyond conservation, to sustainable management of natural resources. This is what we need to discuss and work for in the coming years. Environment must become India's development agenda again. This is the imperative.
Secondly, the debate on environmental issues is increasingly polarised and seen as obstructionist. In this way, the positive agenda gets negated and lost. The fact is that in real life we need to go beyond absolute positions, so that there is some resolution and some movement forward. In an ideal world, there should be enough trust and confidence that once we begin to move ahead, there can be reviews, assessments and course correction.
This is difficult in the current scenario where the world is unevenly divided between those with the polluters, mining companies and dam builders, and the rest. Institutions that can help resolve conflicts and take credible decisions have been weakened. Trust is lost all around, so the worst defence plays out.
But it is also a fact that playing defensive does not work in the long run. The environmental movement is able to stall, but not stop, environmentally disastrous projects. Worse, since there is no space for the middle ground that can allow discussion on how a project should function if it is allowed, there is no improvement in the situation on the ground once the project is sanctioned. The entire energy is invested in blocking projects and once a project is cleared the mission is lost. There is no emphasis, or even capacity in many cases, to look at the alternative that would mitigate environmental damage.
Thirdly, environmental struggles are increasingly about "not in my backyard" (Nimby). This is understandable because people are the best protectors of the environment and are saying that pollution must not happen in their backyard. But the problem in a highly iniquitous country like India is that this can simply mean that people do not want something in their backyard, but it can move to the backyard of someone else who is less powerful.
We must realise that even as middle-class environmentalism will grow, which is important, it will not be enough to bring improvement or change. This is because solutions for environmental management require inclusive growth. Otherwise, at best, we will have more "gated" and "green" homes and colonies, but not green neighbourhoods, rivers, cities or country.
Fourthly, and most critically, one has to look for solutions and not just pose problems. The search for technologies and approaches to environmental management will have to recognise the need to do things differently, so that sustainable growth is affordable to all. One must also recognise that strengthening institutions is vital; we cannot improve performance without investment in boots on the ground.
This demands a new way of environmentalism to embrace ideas without dogma but idealism and purpose. This environmentalism will have to move beyond the problems of today and yesterday. And for that we better imbibe the politics that will deliver it.
For a detailed essay on new environmentalism, please see State of India's Environment 2015, published by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in January 2015