Media: an Effective But Under-Utilized Tool of Environmental Conservation

The fast expansion and new advancement in the field of science and technology have steered the world into a new age. The developments have both pros and cons. On the one hand, technological developments have affected almost every aspect of human life, at the other; it has its devastating effects. Thus mankind faces double challenges from modern machines and from saving the nature, the mother earth. At this paradoxical juncture, the role of media, so to say, becomes very important and worthwhile. In this modern knowledge-society, media plays the role of facilitator of development, disseminator of information, and being an agent of change. Regarding the issue of environment awareness, media play a vital role in spreading the message and setting the agenda for the people. Besides bringing it to debates and discussions, the media propose alternatives to the people and policy-makers. The awareness also creates a genuine interest to probe into the exact matter. Thus, environment awareness is one of the important issues even in the field of media. The awareness on environment has shown multiplicity of results in the form different issues of livelihood rights, of displacement and rehabilitation, of sustainability, of pollution led damages and its control etc. Thus, the all-pervading media has really raised the awareness on environment among people. Here are a few observations showing the menace of the environmental hazards caused by the vehicles in the national capital:

• One person dies prematurely every hour in Delhi due to the extremely high levels of suspended particulate matter (SPM) in the city's ambient air, according to a study conducted by the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). Moreover, 52,000 people die every year in 36 Indian cities due to high levels of SPM.

• The real killers are fine particles- the smaller the particles the deeper they penetrate into the respiratory tract.

• Diesel engines produce 10-100 times more particles (one to two orders of magnitude) than petrol engines.

• Over 90 percent of these particles are dangerously fine.

• Delhi uses 2.5 times more diesel than petrol.

• Diesel particles are very carcinogenic. In 1997, a Japanese scientist identified in diesel emissions the most potent carcinogen known as of date.

• There is no technology that can get rid of dangerous particles in diesel exhaust. As the diesel fuel quality gets better and the engine designs get efficient, the number of PM2.5s (particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter) rises dramatically.

• The concentrations of particles less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10s) reaches six times the recommended levels in Delhi winters. The only way to prevent air quality from deteriorating further is to substantially reduce the use of diesel.

• The Supreme Court (SC) of India has already ordered that all diesel buses in Delhi should move to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) by March 31, 2001 , which will reduce particulate emissions from vehicles by 30-35 percent. But particulate levels have to drop by 90 percent if Delhi is to get clean air.

 It was hoped that liberalization of the car industry would help bring better and cleaner technology to India. But transnational carmakers, who are aware of the severe

• While the Indian government not has an active mechanism to cater to the public health, the industry is also pathetic in this regards. The transnationals' lack of moral responsibility will kill urban Indians.

There are number of steps taken at various levels to create awareness about the environment conservation that have a direct or indirect relation with media.

The most important landmark for environmental education at an international level was without a doubt the International Conference on Environmental Education organized by UNESCO and UNEP at Tbilisi in former USSR in 1977. The goals of environmental education were defined as creating environmental awareness; impart general knowledge for a basic understanding of environment, acquiring environmental friendly attitudes and values and to generate new patterns of behavior towards environment. The more recently held United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, popularly known as the Earth Summit, adopted an action plan for Sustainable Development, Agenda 21. Chapter 36 which is devoted to education states that "Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of people to address environment and development issues"(100). Education without communication is simply impossible. Communication in turn will only work with an appropriate medium. In the case of environmental education at educational establishments classes at school, college or universities level serve as this medium. As far as environmental education outside educational establishments is concerned mass media and traditional media like family, neighbors and colleagues have the role of the medium that enables people to communicate successfully. In the following paragraph these three different kinds of media (institutional, mass and traditional media) will be examined to find out on their efforts made in creating environmental awareness and how more or less successful they are.

The mass media considered here trying to explain environmental awareness are newspapers, radio and television due to the fact that these are the most widely and frequently used modern mass media in both India and Germany. First, I will deal with the interested in the offered information on environment and use it. Since independence, the number of Indian newspapers has multiplied several folds. Today Indian newspapers are brought out in 93 languages and dialects. In the household survey, 57% of the interviewed persons stated to read the newspaper for 30 to 60 minutes per day. With an average of about 50 minutes the daily amount of time spent on reading the newspaper, “the backbone of news” in India, is considerably high. While the figures mentioned above underline the importance of newspaper in spreading information, its limits should be mentioned, too: illiteracy in India is around 51%. In addition to that, 93% of the several million copies are sold in the large towns with population over 100.000. This accounts only for 10 percent of the population. How extensively are environmental issues covered in the daily newspapers? After Times of India has abandoned its weekly column, none of India’s daily newspapers has a regular space reserved for environmental news so that these are only addressed as government, ministry and legal news as well as in contexts of science or health. The focus is mainly on local and national issues like air, water and noise pollution as well as deforestation. In contrast to that global environmental problems are only mentioned very rarely, e.g. if they are the topic of international conferences. In general, the demand of journalists when writing on environment is neither an educational or motivational approach nor offering scientific explanation or background information (exceptions are environmental issues that are on the top of the political agenda, e.g. CNG (compressed natural gas)), but it is to inform their readers on the latest trends in political news related to environment. A slight tendency towards a motivational coverage of environmental issues can be observed in the regional language newspapers, e.g. when enlightening farmers on the negative consequences of the use of pesticides Roughly it can be said that India’s most important newspapers like Times of India, The Hindu, Hindustan Times or Indian Express have an article on environmental issues at least every second day with Times of India doing the best job in terms of frequency. The low level of coverage on environment can be explained by different reasons: First, the fairly new field of environmental journalism which starting point was only in 1994 after the Bhopal catastrophe is not considered as an attractive one by journalists, the majority of the journalists covering environment has been asked to do so. Of course, there are several environmental journalists who have chosen their subject out of true commitment, too.

issue. The interest of the reader as far as news on environment is concerned is supposed to be still fairly low by the editors. Nevertheless all of the interviewed editors and journalists felt that there has been an increase in the number of articles on environment both due to a higher awareness and interest of their readers (this is especially true for the younger generation) and the visible deterioration of the state of nature. Although its number of readers is only around 16.000, India’s only environmental magazine “Down to Earth” has to be mentioned when writing on environment and media, because it fills an important lack in Indian media and their coverage of environment. Started in 1992 this magazine is a kind of chronology of Indian environmental history. The outstanding aspect of its approach is not only the coverage of a broad variety of environment related topics (ranking from policy to science, from local to global level) and their scientific background, but also the belief that addressing environmental issues in a developing country like India is not a matter of luxury, but of pure livelihood. Radio is cheap, most easily accessible and radio signals cover almost the whole country. However, on average there are only 4.4 radio / transistors sets per 100 persons. 80 percent are in urban homes, only about six million sets left with 525 million rural10 population. Furthermore the frequency of listening to the radio is relatively low: only 35% of the interviewees declared to listen to the radio regularly, most of them ranking between half an hour and two hours per day. In addition to the relatively small number of people listening to the radio the role of radio in creating environmental awareness cannot be considered an important one due to the fact that there are only very few regular environmental programs, although there is an instruction by Supreme Court for all media that programs on environment should be broadcast: Motivated by the Ministry of Environment &Forests Delhi FM is broadcasting two weekly programs on environment, “Kinare – Kinare” and “Ao Dilli Savaren”. Otherwise, pollution of environment is only unsystematically tackled in programs designed for special target groups, e.g. rural population, industrial workers or in city programs, in women’s or children’s programs. The issues mentioned and the way they are dealt are naturally adjusted to the target group and the background of the program: science programs focus on scientific explanations and new technical developments, children’s programs have a more educational and motivational approach, city programs On the national level of broadcasting news on environment are very scarce, if news on environment are broadcast this is most often at the regional level. In sum, radio is well below its potential in creating environmental awareness and over the last few years no increase in broadcasts on environment can be observed. Nevertheless, there has been at least one progressive approach in the use of radio in environmental education that should be mentioned: In 1998, All India Radio, the Indian National Radio Network, addressed environmental issues such as water, air and noise pollution, deforestation, solid waste disposal, organic farming and other topics in a 52- episode entertainment-education radio serial “Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum” (“Where have we arrived?”), a story of rural background in which a factory settles near a small village. The entertainment-education communication strategy purposely designs and implements a media message to both entertain and educate, in order to increase audience members’ knowledge, create favorable attitudes and change behavior. “Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum” was produced under the leadership of Mrs. Usha Bhasin with the 11 assistance of the Central Pollution Control Board of India. This serial was broadcast weekly with repeated versions from June to December via 31 radio stations covering seven Indian states in the densely populated Hindi-speaking areas of northern India. Due to the wide preprogram publicity via radio, television, press and NGOs working in the broadcast area it was able to attract a listenership of around 100.000 persons. While the serial itself addressed environmental issues in an entertaining manner, trying to contact the listeners in their everyday life context, the epilogues usually delivered by a credible media celebrity advertised the educational message. The approach was an interactive one: A competitive spirit was fostered among listeners by awarding prices for the quality of provided feedback, outstanding community work by listeners in the realm of environmental conservation was also recognized. Impact studies accompanying the broadcasting process showed that the radio serial provoked not only past-broadcast discussion, but also the founding of clubs in which members listened to the serial collectively and started campaigns to save the environment. “Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum” is an excellent example that the use of entertainment education communication strategies in the field of environment can be equally successful as in social ones in which it has been practiced before. In my opinion, this approach, especially, but not only via the medium Due to the high level of illiteracy in India, electronic media are in a key position. Furthermore, inquiries have shown that both radio and television are perceived as authoritative and friendly media by vast percentages of the population. Since India’s 45 million television sets cover 86.5 per cent of the country’s population, television is one of the most powerful effective means of propaganda and persuasion. Over 10 million Indian homes have cable and satellite connections. Television has become a new status symbol even in remote villages. In rural areas people have at least sometimes access to television e.g. in small restaurants and long route busses. Probably, the rapid growth rate of television sets (3 million annually) will even increase the importance of television in the future. A further advantage of television as an educational media is that it is helpful in teaching practical work: A televised presentation can be as clear as a face-to-face demonstration. With an average amount of 138 minutes spent on watching television per day and more than 50% out of all the interviewees watching television two to three hours per day, television dominates newspaper and radio not only in the frequency of usage, but also in the amount of time spent on it. Considering these promising prerequisites for the use of television in environmental education it is good news that - compared to newspapers and radio - television does a good job in covering environmental issues: Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and Animal Planet Channel are broadcasting exclusively on endangered species, wild and sea life. The national channels are regulated by law to offer environmental programs. Doordashan the most important channel of dissemination that reaches all over the country has three regular programs on environment: each of the weekly broadcasts of scientifically profound “Earth Matters” focuses on one special environmental problem. Targeted at educated people “Earth Matters” offers information on the sources, explains the consequences of the problem considered and gives suggestions for solution by changing individual behavior. Weekly “Terraquiz”, India's first environmental quiz show on television, is a competition of the top ranking schools from Green Olympiad and is sent between Hindu and English news. “Nature Plus” is even broadcast daily, most often however at midnight. The broadcasting of a forth weekly programme of 30 minutes named “Earth” in form of a magazine that subsidizes successful initiatives of individuals is planned by the Ministry of Environment & Forest in cooperation with Doordashan. In addition to that BBC’s “Earth Report” offers exclusively information on environment and with the daily broadcast of “The new adventures of Captain Planet” on Cartoon Network there is at least one As for radio it is true for television that even if there is no consistent programming on environment ecological issues are tackled in the news as well as in children’s, health, science, rural, agricultural and educational programs. In contrast to radio and newspaper, politicians have recognized televisions’ potential in creating environmental awareness so that the Ministry of Environment and Forests grants special money for the production of films on environment. Although adds on television are highly cost intensive the Ministry of Environment & Forests has proposed to Discovery Channel to produce 50 seconds of informational adds on nature and pollution that should be broadcast four times per day and changed monthly. Having discussed the medias’ supply of information on environment, this paragraph will focus on demand side (using the results of the household survey): To what extent do people perceive environmental information provided by the media? What kind of medium is most extensively used? A vast majority of 80% of the respondents claimed that they were informing themselves regularly on environmental issues. Out of these 80%, 93.8% used television, 82.7% used newspapers while only 35.8% mentioned radio programs as a source of information. These figures, once more underline that television and newspaper play a more important role in environmental awareness creation than radio does, both out of the perspective of supply and demand on information on environment. 70% of the interviewees stated the amount of information on environment to be exactly right, 24% felt that it was too low. To sum up, we have to ask the following questions: What role do Indian media play in creating environmental awareness? What are their weaknesses, what their chances? What could be done to enhance their effectiveness in raising the level of consciousness of ecological problems? A common weak point shared by radio, TV and newspaper in India is that there are no journalists specialized (only) on environmental issues, that journalism on environment is neither a part of the education as a journalist nor is there a possibility of further training in this field. Consequently, the frequency and quality of coverage on environment depends to a high degree on the personal interest and commitment of the journalists and editors. Further typical limitations of modern mass media in India are the language, the educational and the urban – rural biases that make it necessary to design special programs for all the different target groups if the aim is to reach a vast part of the population. A general problem in using media for education is the lack of feedback and control of the audience or readership so

can be offered only in few cases, the same is true for a deepening of information gained through the usage of media, e.g. via sharing experiences through discussions. Interestingly, only television and radio have an educational and motivational approach when dealing with environmental issues, while newspaper editors feel that their job is limited to providing their readership with information. The active campaign policy of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the guiding jurisdiction of Supreme Court and the activism of NGO’s have been able to promote news on environment more forcefully so that an increase in the coverage of environment over the last few years can be observed for both television and newspaper. A definite obstacle for environment playing an even more prominent role in media is commercialization. Since many editors feel that “you can get no money out of environment”, environment is not an agenda. Despite of all the limitations for medias’ use in increasing environmental awareness of the population, medias’ role in that respect is an enormous one. The focus of Indian media when covering environment is definitely on local and typical Indian problems like water and air pollution, deforestation and on the campaigns launched by Ministry of Environment and Forests (e.g. against the use of crackers at Diwali or the promotion of bags out of natural materials instead of plastic) as well as government politics while ecological problems at the global level are neglected to a great extent. It is amazing to see that people asked to brainstorm the environmental problems they have heard about mention exactly the issues covered in Indian. This fact gives strong evidence to the power of media in communicating environmental issues. People themselves seem to be convinced of the dominant role of media in creating environmental awareness anyway.

Environmental Education, Awareness and Training plays a significant role in encouraging and enhancing people's participation in activities aimed at conservation, protection and management of the environment, essential for achieving sustainable development. The Ministry, therefore, accords priority for the promotion of non-formal environment education and creation of awareness among all sections of the society through diverse activities using traditional and modern media of communication. Some of the major

MASS AWARENESS

Despite great efforts to spread environmental awareness by the Ministry through several schemes, it is felt that a large population especially in rural areas is still left out. The best way to reach out to them and make them aware of the environmental problems is through media, particularly the electronic media. "Mass Awareness" has therefore been identified as one of the thrust areas of the Ministry, not only to intensify the efforts already being made in this direction but also to launch new initiatives. The Doordarshan and few other television channels are proposed to be extensively used for telecasting environment based programmes and infomercials. Professional Media agencies which are hired to assist the Ministry in carrying out the campaign also play a major role. To encourage individual efforts in producing films/documentaries on environment/wildlife related themes in the country, the Ministry has sponsored organization of a film

The Ministry also sponsors various programs which do not fit into straitjacketed programs like NEAC, NGC, etc., and are aimed at creating environmental awareness among children. These include environment quiz (both written as well as televised), organization of activities for observation of special occasions such as earth day, special programs for children, etc. These proposals which are received throughout the year from various NGOs and other agencies, are considered on merit as and when received and are supported. Few examples such programs are: 1. An international written Environment Quiz program known as Green Olympiad conducted by TERI. It is conducted in more than 200 centers across the country. Last year the quiz was conducted in both Hindi and English and more than 70,000 school students from India, Russia and UAE participated in this competition. The regional winners were selected for the televised quiz program named TERRAQUIZ which was telecast on National channel of Doordarshan. It was a great success in sensitizing the children about environmental issues. 2. Awareness activities / events by NGOs, academic institutions etc. on the occasion of special Environment days like Earth Day etc. 3. Written environmental quiz programs in different regional languages are being started. The winners of written quiz would participate in a televised quiz program. 4. Organization of an annual Vacation Program on Environmental Resources for high school level students namely �Vacation program on Natural resources- building a broader constituency of support for conservation� by ATREE.

To see how far media has attempted to raise the awareness, a case study is taken of the fortnightly-published magazine, from the Center for Science and Environment-'DOWN TO EARTH'. This magazine is solely committed to raise each and every issue regarding environment, nature and sustainable development. From the various issues of concern, in this paper, three important issues are raised. They are the rural regeneration, the drought in Gujrat, and the air pollution in Delhi. Though, the daily newspapers and the mainstream magazines rarely devote its columns to the environmental concerns; these issues however find space in pages devoted to the science. time after independence. The policy stated: "there is a need to create consciousness of the environment which must permeate all ages and all sections of the society beginning with the child. Environmental consciousness should inform teaching in schools and colleges and should be integrated in the entire education process". Although there was no separate environmental education policy and plan of action either at the Union or the State levels, environmental education had been influenced by politics and plans of other sectors and strategies of environmental education have been outlined stage-wise and subject-wise in the National Curriculum Frame Work 1987. By scanning the curriculum evidence has been found that environmental education concepts in terms of awareness and knowledge seem to be adequately covered, while the development of skills for the study of environment and environmental ethics, attitudes and actions need strengthening (Bandhu, p.187). The most recent developments are the introduction of Environmental Science as compulsory course for all the undergraduates after the invention of Supreme Court and the introduction of Environmental Studies (EVS) as a curricula area at primary stage (1st to 5th class). EVS combines science with social studies and environment and stresses the link between teaching and the immediate environment of the child. The interviews conducted with both government and public school principals and teachers in the South of Delhi showed that EVS is already taught at some of the schools and will be introduced in the other ones during the next months. The age of the children at primary stage naturally requires a practical or even project based approach of teaching16 environmental issues. Not surprisingly, the teachers for EVS reported that the emphasis of their efforts was rather to create awareness on environmental issues and to give the children concrete suggestions how to behave in a more environmentally friendly way than explaining the scientific background of environmental problems. Although the introduction of EVS in primary stage can definitely welcomed, since it stresses the importance of environmental issues by granting them an own subject and motivates children at an early age to deal with problems of environmental pollution, it is too early to evaluate how successful a subject like EVS can be in creating environmental awareness and altering the behavior of the children in an more environmentally friendly way. A problem EVS has to face is a lack of teachers that were prepared to teach environmental issues during their professional education. How to teach on environment and to sensitize school children for their possibility to contribute to a cleaner environment has not at all been tackled in the professional education of Indian teachers. Due to this fact, the personal commitment of teachers to issues covered in EVS gains crucial importance.

that they are even obliged to do so by curriculum. At the upper levels (6th to 12th grade) environmental concepts are extensively covered in other subjects like science, geography, economics and sociology, but there is no special subject focusing on environment and consequently no specific grade for knowledge on environmental issues. Through all levels a stress on local or India’s national environmental problems, first of all pollution of air, water and pollution by waste, more than global ones like depletion of ozone layer or greenhouse effect can be observed. This might be partially due to the more practical and motivational than scientific approach as mentioned above. A common feature of nearly all interviewed schools is an increase in the amount of time spent on teaching on environment. The explanations for this phenomenon offered by the school principals were the deterioration of the state of nature, a growing level of 17 awareness towards environmental pollution as well as a more forceful environmental education policy launched by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Supreme Court. A new approach to address environmental issues at school is the Eco-club scheme that aims to bring NGO’s more closely to the school system. It has been introduced in 2001 and up to now a coverage of 100 high schools chosen by the district administration in each of India’s 559 districts has been realized (a coverage of 100 high schools per district results in a coverage of all high schools in 40% of the districts). Further expansion is planned. The most important difference to normal classes on environment is the project manner Eco-club scheme uses to address environmental issues. These projects that are suggested by the Ministry of Environment and Forests tackle a wide range of topics, the schools can choose on their own which campaigns they want to launch: The projects range from campaigns like "Say no to plastic bags", against the use of crackers at Diwali or campaigns promoting the use of natural colors at Holi to efforts in creating a green and clean surrounding of the school by collecting waste and planting trees and flowers. In addition to that, projects on how to save energy and offering information on renewable energies have been launched. Most of the projects urge the children to deal with environmental issues they are confronted with in their everyday life and give concrete suggestions how to behave in an environmentally friendly way. The idea of the Ministry is that among the younger part of the population awareness of environmental problems is quite high, but this awareness will only result in an environmentally Environment and Forests, e.g. poster painting, essay writing or debates. The winners receive money prices additionally to the small annual amount of financial aid (4000 rupees) every Eco-club is granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The publicity of events like these and the role of children as multipliers in their families and neighborhoods even enhances the effectiveness of Eco-clubs and extends it to groups different from schoolchildren.

Although there is no doubt that the traditional media like direct interaction and communication of an individual with his family, friends, neighbors or environmental activists can play an important role in enhancing environmental awareness, another perspective would stress that the frequency of discussions on environment or, in more general terms, the use of traditional media is more an indicator of the prevailing level of environmental awareness than a factor contributing to it.

No doubt, media, especially mass media have a bigger role as far as the issue of environment conservation is concerned. This is evident from various studies being conducted. General observations also support the claim as there are number of examples when media played a central role to bring forth the environmental concerns. May it be Narmada Bachao Andolan or Changing the route of rivers to favour the business interests of a central minister in Himachal Pradesh a in the last decade of 20th century. Even at local level, the media have done a lot to pressurize the authorities to take action against the illegal mining and deforestation. Although, keeping the reach, role and affectivity of the media this contribution is much less than its potentials. Particularly, the mainstream media do not give due importance to the issues. Let us hope that the media will take more responsibility to protect the environment and make this world a better place to live

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