Nature conservation is Govts duty ....by NARAYANI GANESH in the TOI.

To think that free market forces by themselves can protect the environment is a fallacy. See what it has done to the tiger. Lucrative trade in the animal's skin and body parts has almost finished off the species. Total extinction hasn't happened yet because however tame or badly implemented, anti-wildlife trade regulation still serves as a deterrent. The tiger would have become extinct by now if not for the fact that trade in wildlife and wildlife products is illegal.

As an agreement between governments, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora aims to ensure that international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Official intervention backed by inter-governmental cooperation lends the issue of wildlife protection the gravity it lacks when left to market forces.

Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world, was till recently a visitor's nightmare. And residents were becoming increasingly vulnerable to pollution-induced respiratory diseases. The capital got its act together only after the Supreme Court intervened to make conversion from diesel to compressed natural gas mandatory for public transport vehicles. Today, visitors are amazed at the transformation. Left to the free market, this would never have happened.

Take the case of Goa, promoted internationally as a beachcomber's paradise. With hotel chains ruling Goa's coastline, beaches were being privatised and built upon, choking off access for local fishermen. Coastal ecology suffered until the government intervened to ban construction within 200 metres of the shoreline. Any efforts to save the planet must be conducted on a war footing, say scientists. And waging of wars cannot be left to profit-seeking corporations. Community welfare is the stated objective of elected governments, indeed a central part of the rationale for government itself.