Similarly, it would seem that environmental preservation and rehabilitation would figure high on the priorities for development. However, development, as currently practiced in the countries of South Asia, has overtaken poverty as the single-largest course of human rights violations and of environmental degradation.
Numerous examples abound.
Take for example Bhopal, the worlds worst industrial disaster, a typical example of the dumping of hazardous technologies and substances in the name of industrial technology. The much vaunted green revolution in agricultural development has left in its wake departed soul, chemical, and energy intensiveness and dependency. It has had multiple negative impacts on the availability of water, the pollution of groundwater, drought, and desertification. Deforestation and unsustainable use of forest resources has both caused and contributed to such drought and deforestation. Reforestation programs that involve monocropping of eucalyptus trees for timber production have further depleted already scarce water resources, and it is hardly a surprise that local communities are ripping out eucalyptus seedlings as fast as they are planted.