Mumbai, February 18 Industrialist Nadir Godrej on Wednesday criticised the decision to carry out development work in national parks, instead advocating for "monetisation" through activities like tourism that promote biodiversity.
The chairman of Godrej Industries also publicly expressed his concerns about pollution, pointing out that 60 per cent of Indians are struggling with the issue, and questioning why we are unable to address it.
Recalling that his uncle was involved in the Project Tiger, which is widely credited with increasing the population of big cats in India, Godrej spoke against "damaging" national parks.
"People are trying to damage national parks for the sake of development. I don't think that's a good idea. Let's have development without damaging the national parks," he said while speaking at the Mumbai Climate Week here.
Making it clear that he is not against monetisation, he urged for more efforts to promote tourism and to use the jungles for other aspects like forest products, pointing out that his company procures some oils from forest produce.
"There are many ways to monetise biodiversity. But we must be very careful that we preserve biodiversity while we monetise it," he said.
These remarks come amidst a raging controversy over the Maharashtra government's decision to allow iron ore mining in the tiger corridor near the Tadoba Reserve by creating an open-cast mine.
Pollution is leading to loss of life, impacting the quality of life for 60 per cent of Indians, Godrej said, expressing shock that the presence of the sea has not helped the city.
"I think we all need to speak up," the septuagenarian said, pointing out that other cities in the world, like Los Angeles and Beijing, have solved the problem.
There is no single authority to tackle the problem of pollution, he said, suggesting a GST-like structure between the Centre and states to address the issue.