View Point… Natural Resources
Natural resources
When my travel was confirmed, I took a look at the American map. It was for the first time, I realized how big this nation is geographically. It has 9 time zones. (source : http://www.timetemperature.com/tzus/time_zone.shtml) From east coast to west coast, it would take almost 6 hrs by flight. I guess that would be like going from Bangalore to Delhi, Delhi to Bangalore and Bangalore to Delhi again. (correct me if I’ am wrong). In Chicago, there is this lake called Lake Michigan. This lake is sooo very huge!. It’s like a sea. I couldn’t see any land the other side of the lake, even from the Sears towers (tallest building in America). And the best part is, Lake Michigan is a Fresh water lake!!… wot more could these people want??.. Not just that, Lake Michigan is only the third largest!!.. there are another two fresh water lakes which are larger than lake Michigan!!!.. These two lakes are shared by US and Canada. Americans have realized the vast treasures their land possesses. In fact, they have started to protect it already.
In India, my heart pains to hear that the Ganga is dying.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_of_Ganga)
Manis 
dude, I wont agree with you completly though. I agree Ganga no more retains that purity, and may not be as clean as ” Lake Michigan”.. but jst think about this once – How many people are actually able to enjoy the Lake, other than seeing it..If you go to Haridwar, You will enjoy the strong current of Ganga, which is actually a pleasure..& believe me, it is far better than the waves which u experience in sea-shore..Try to Experience the nature the Indian Way !!!
Dude,
Good article. It has been on my mind for quite some time to see what made US so successful. (Natural resources should be maintained and taken advantage of effectively for a nation to create more wealth) I think, this is bcos of some bold and futuristic economy that US has. Risk taking and innovation is urged in US where as in India we are always defensive. One could argue that this is because of the economic situation in India. But that is not true. We have seen that India has improved better since 1990 than how it has improved earlier to 1990. Primary reason as I come to undderstand is bcoz, India has started opening its economy. So instead of ppl in Delhi deciding what is good for every1, today economy is free and anyone can start business and the money for it is also available.
So my conclusion is we got it rong between 1950-1990 and now we r on the right track. We probably dont have the natural rerces that US has. But we have other strengths that we could leverage as a nation and we not have a good model to leverage them better. Hopefully, that will give us enough money in future to preseve some of the natural resources like Ganga.
@ Arvind,
Thanks for your comment. It looks like you have got me wrong. I’am not trying to belittle India’s natural resources. My viewpoint is that, in U.S, people in general and the Government in particular have realised the importance of their priceless resources. To prove my point, refer to the link:
http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/riverflow.html
The article tells us the measures taken by the people and Government to prevent further pollution of the Chicago river and Lake Michigan.
On the other hand, could you please tell me the measures taken by the Government of India to prevent further pollution of the Holy river Ganga??. From what I can recall, the Rajiv Gandhi government had taken some steps to clean the river. This was years ago. This years’ Budget does not talk anything about conservation of any natural resources. From what I have gathered, the FM spoke about giving some 50 crores for project “Tiger”. I would say this amount is pittance. By the time the money goes to the ground level, there would be hardly any funds, but then this would be another topic all together. To sum it up, I think the GOI, needs to be more dedicated to the longterm denefits of our
country and its people. Stronger and more effetive steps need to be “implemented” by the GOI.
One last point. It is not that the people in U.S don’t enjoy nature. They certainly do, but more importantly, they enjoy nature with a sense of conservation and responsibility.
Hope you got my point.
@ Sriperumal,
Thanks for you comment too. I second your thoughts. The GOI, has been doing a better job post 1990s. But, when it comes to ground level implementation, we as a nation need to improve a lot.
These comments have paved way for me for another article on viewpoint.
Thanks much!!
Did some googling to find more information on the steps taken by GOI to clean the Ganges.
http://www.hindu.com/2004/08/28/stories/2004082807430400.htm
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganga_Action_Plan
Though, their efforts have been failing, its nice to see that there have been people working on cleaning the Ganga.
Love your website… however there are “6” times zones in the USA. Please see the attached map.
@ Rae,
Thanks for you comment and the correction given, appreciate it!!
9 time zones only if you count HAWAII, in which case it takes much longer to fly from newyork to Hawaii