The ethical basis of environment education and awarness:

1.The Honorary Supreme Court of our country has thus ordered

that every young individual at school and college level be exposed to a course
on environment.
2.To create awarness of environmental issues and to bring pro environmental action.

The Gandhian way of life

Mahatma Gandhi had deep insights into the
need to conserve resources. ‘Mans needs but
not his greed can be supported by our earth’
was an important concept that was initiated
by him when people had not realized how
short the world would be of resources in
future. At the time natural resources seemed
to be limitless to most people. This was thus
a new concept and suggested the need for
a uniquely different pattern of living.
Gandhiji believed in simplistic living to save
our earth’s resources. He once said that if
India was to become an industrial nation on
the lines of England, the world itself would
be stripped bare of its resources by India’s
people alone.

Education in nature – The Shantiniketan

model
Rabindranath Tagore founded Shantiniketan
and taught an environment-based philoso#phy. Tagore’s philosophy of education
fo#cused attention on the need for a
harmonious association between human
beings and their environment. To achieve this
he relied on exposing young people to na#ture. This went back to our roots where in
ancient India, learning centers were estab#lished in remote forests. Tagore linked
these
concepts with celebrations of nature through
music, dance, drama and poetry. At
Shantiniketan, there were celebrations for
each season and ceremonial tree planting.
He started Vriksha ropan way back in 1928.
In fact much of what was initiated in
Shantiniketan is now accepted as the route
to environment education and sustainable
living and is essentially based on preserving
nature.

3.There are two aspects that are closely connected

with ethical issues that are related to our environment.

4.Valuing nature as a resource: It is essential that

a value system that is based on environmental
concern becomes a part of the thinking that we
as responsible citizens of our country and our
earth need to bring into our own daily lives.
5.In the Hindu scriptures, Bud#dhist philosophy and especially in the Jain
reli#gion, each and every species on earth is
supposed to have a place in the scheme of life.
Many species were not only valued, but also ven#erated.
6.Bringing back an ethic for nature conservation
requires environment education and conserva#tion awareness. The best way to do so
is to ex#pose young people not only to our dependence
on natural resources from the wilderness, but
by bringing about an appreciation of the beauty
and wondrous aspects of nature
7.Appreciating the beauty of Nature and treasuring the magnificence of the
Wilderness:e beauty of Nature that gives it
an intrinsic value which we tend to ignore. These
are not mundane day to day events, they are
magical and mystical aspects of nature’s clock
that is ticking silently all around us. They are
part of our living throbbing earth. If we fail to
enjoy these wondrous aspects of Nature our lives
will always remain empty
8.without the
wilderness the earth will eventually become
unlivable.
9.The concept of ‘Karma’ is based on a thinking
that the soul moves from man to animal and in
reverse depending on ones actions.
In Hindu philosophy the earth itself is respected
and venerated. In contrast, in Western thought
Nature is to be subjugated and used.

6.5.8 The conservation ethic and traditional

value systems of India
1.In ancient Indian traditions people have always
valued mountains, rivers, forests, trees and several animals. Thus much of nature
was vener#ated and protected
2.The mango tree is protected for its fruit around most
farms even when wood becomes scarce. The
Mohua tree (Madhuca indica) is protected by
tribal people as it provides edible flowers, oil
from its seeds and is used to make a potent
alcohol.
3.In Indian mythology, the elephant is associated
with Ganesha. The elephant headed Ganesha
is also linked to the rat. Vishnu is associated with
the eagle. Rama is linked to monkeys. In my#thology, Hanuman, the monkey god,
rendereinvaluable help to Rama during his travels to
Lanka. The Sun god, Surya, rides a horse and
has a superb chariot on which he moves through
the sky. The lion is linked to Durga and the
blackbuck to the moon godess. The cow is as#sociated with Krishna. Vishnu’s
incarnations
have been represented as taking various animal
forms which serially include, fish, tortoise, a boar
and a dwarf, and a half man half lion form.
4.In traditional societies of the past, these
examples were all a part of ethical values that
protected nature. As modern science based on
the exploitation on nature spread into India,
many of these traditions began to lose their ef#fectiveness as measures that led to
conserving
nature.
Concepts that support nature’s integrity must
thus become a part of our modern educational
systems. This constitutes a key solution to bring
about a new ethic of conserving nature and liv#ing sustainable lifestyles.