CHENNAI: Pointing out that India has emerged as the hunger capital of the world beating even sub-Saharan Africa with one in every four of its citizens going hungry to bed, noted environmentalist Vandana Shiva of Chipko Movement fame, said that the food conthesumption pattern of Indians was dipping very close to the levels present during Great Bengal Famine in 1943.The per capita food consumption of Indians has dipped from 170 kg to 150 kg per year,” Shiva said delivering a lecture at Shaastra, the technical festival of IIT-Madras. “This is as low as the levels seen during the great Bengal famine,” she said.Stressing on the negative impact of industrialised farming, Shiva also pointed out the damage caused due to green revolution and chemicals-based farming. “Chemicals- based industrial farming is the biggest consumer of freshwater resource in the country, is the biggest cause of climate change by contributing 40 per cent of total green house gas emissions of the country, biggest user of chemicals and leaves behind the biggest impact on land usage,” she said. Quoting statistics, Shiva said that 75 per cent of indigenous species were destroyed due to chemical farming and resultant pollution. Climate change and induced disasters are adding up to the miseries of farmers, she said. Underlining the need for conservation, she said,“The Gangotri glacier is disappearing at the rate of 25 meters every year. If we fail to make peace with our environment at the earliest, human beings will not survive for more than another hundred years on this planet.”
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