U’khand becomes 1st state to start working on how to measure GEP

DEHRADUN: Working to develop a blueprint to measure Gross Environment Product (GEP) for quantifying ecological growth measurement in the country, Uttarakhand government has become the first state to form a five-member committee in this regard. The committee will be headed by the principal secretary forests Uttarakhand.

Anand Bardhan, principal secretary forest department Uttarakhand said that GEP is a new concept that looks into measuring the growth of environmental produce in the state, similar to GDP.

“This concept is very sketchy at the moment and we have formed a five-member committee with experts from different backgrounds who would be helping us in forming the blueprint on how to measure GEP. As we have GDP, similarly we are trying to see if we can quantify what is GEP that is being produced, which includes products received from forests, water resources” said Bardhan.

This decision was taken during a meeting held here on Thursday at Wildlife Institute of India (WII). Those who participated in the meeting included Prof K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific advisor (PSA) to the government of India, chief secretary of Uttarakhand, principal secretary for forests of Uttarakhand, Anil Prakash Joshi, founder of Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO). Representatives had also come from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Department of Water Resource Development and Management from IIT Roorkee, among other institutes.

Noted green activist Anil Prakash Joshi, who was bestowed Padma Bushan award this year, and who is the brainchild behind the concept of GEP said that the idea is to develop a growth measure parallel to Gross Domestic Product.

“The movement had been initiated in 2010 to assess ecological growth measure in the form of Gross Environmental Product (GEP) parallel to GDP in Uttarakhand.

“Over the years the government has been sensitized about this, and with the 2013 flash floods the state government became more serious about these issues,” said Joshi.

He added that it was initially accepted by the former governments of Uttarakhand and simultaneously, a petition was filed by him in Uttarakhand High Court regarding supporting the concept of GEP.

The State was directed by High Court to develop this measure in 2015.