Tuning into Change : Green Broadcasting

Dr. Dipendra Kumar Mazumder, Faculty , National Academy Broadcasting & Multimedia,

Prasar Bharati, Delhi.

 

…. and so we went on with our daily business and livelihood, year after year, while Mother Earth was silently weeping, yet trying her best to undo the damage that was being done to her health, by our actions. But when the doing outweighed the undoing, the Frankenstein we created, started its havoc.

So today, we are witnessing rising global temperatures, the Earth’s average temperature increasing due to Greenhouse Gas Emissions and 2024 was the hottest year since record-keeping began in 1880, by NASA. Extreme Weather Events, like more frequent and intense hurricanes, cyclones & typhoons ; increased heatwaves, wildfires, and prolonged droughts ; unpredictable heavy rainfall leading to floods and landslides have become so very common, not to mention the alarming rate at which ice caps and glaciers are melting, putting coastal cities at higher risk of floods due to rising sea levels and low-lying island nations at the risk of disappearing altogether.

Additionally, absorption of excess CO₂ is making oceans more acidic resulting in decline in fish population, affecting food security. Migration patterns of animals are getting disrupted. Rising temperatures and habitat destruction threaten species survival while deforestation and changing ecosystems lead to species extinction. Droughts and changing weather are reducing crop yields while farmers struggle with unpredictable growing seasons. Heat-related illnesses and deaths are increasing, in both man and animals. Air pollution and smog are worsening respiratory diseases. Climate refugees increase due to loss of homes and livelihoods. Droughts and changing rainfall patterns are reducing freshwater availability and increased competition for water resources are leading to bizarre conflicts in society.

So, what can be done to eliminate the Frankenstein ? The answer is, each one of us has to put in our might, if we are to leave a habitable planet behind us, for our posterity. The problem of Climate Change has been aggravated by us, and now, it is our responsibility to mitigate it. Different strategies and approaches to counter the problem has to be employed depending on the phenomena that is the priority in a particular geography of our planet. But on the whole, it has been found that the more the green cover our planet has, the less will be the detrimental effects of Climate Change. Focused antidotes can then follow. The Green Cover of our planet has come down drastically to make way for human settlements and to cater to the demand for timber , for that. The other biggest culprit being the huge demand for fossil fuels, to meet the energy needs. But replenishments has not been proportionate resulting in the lungs of Mother Earth getting collapsed. All channels of communication has to be put to maximum usage to make the citizens aware of the impending holocaust and stir them to action. Such an endeavour was undertaken by one Public Service Radio Station in India, All India Radio ( Akashvani ), Dibrugarh, in Assam, a north-eastern state of India.

All India Radio ( AIR ) Dibrugarh had shown exemplary sensitivity to the cause of ‘Environment Conservation and countering Climate Change’, through a series of its broadcasts , branded – ‘Green Broadcasting’. Starting from the World Environment Day , the Station had coloured most of its programmes ‘ Green ’ , for a whole month, year after year, till it decided that the listeners can continue its mission, own their own. So much so that, during that month, even its daily News had to contain one item on environment. Its broadcasts had started every day , during ‘Green Broadcasting’ , with a salutation to our environment. Jingles on environment protection were also galore. Community Service Announcements, Slogans, Special Songs, Dramas, Talks, Discussions, Phone-in- Programmes , and even special

 

Signature Tunes of Programmes, all flavoured with ‘environment conservation’ themes, were broadcast then. Scientists, Environmental Activists, Social Workers, Politicians and chosen representatives from the listening public were invited to the studios of AIR , Dibrugarh and an intense campaign to save our fragile environment was made, from there.

The other notable feature of Green Broadcasting was – ‘voting for the environment’, in which one close-ended question on a subject related to ‘Environment Conservation’ was thrown open for public voting, once a week . The response of the public were recorded in the studio at a particular time of the day and on closure of the voting period , the result was broadcast. Green Broadcasting’s implementation was planned in such a kaleidoscopic way , that the message of environment conservation touched each and every one in the society.

Another endeavour of the Station in the same direction was ‘ Kolpobrikhyo ’ , a social forestry project . Two hundred listeners were registered with the station and they had a homework of giving their feedback after the broadcast of each episode. They also had to give an ‘impact feedback’, like , how many saplings they had planted in their homes, schools, colleges, or in other public places, as a precipitation of the broadcast. They were required to send photos of such plantations. The Station also executed plantation programmes, involving the local administration in important locales of Dibrugarh Town. This endeavour had resulted in the plantation of about 20,000 trees in the listening range of AIR, Dibrugarh , then . These trees today have grown much taller than those who planted them and silently salute the endeavour of AIR Dibrugarh, for their existence.

This endeavour had other important accomplishments. One stretch of Rain Forest in its vicinity was threatened by the mushrooming of plywood industry in its fringes, which was taking a heavy toll on its timber. But because of the pressure exerted on the Government by the local people having been made aware by Green Broadcasting, of the calamitous effects of deforestation, that stretch of Rainforest got declared first as a wildlife sanctuary on 13 June 2004, but the demand for declaring it a National Park continued, so that the threat to its deforestation could be totally eliminated. So, on 13 December 2020, the Government of Assam upgraded it into a National Park.

The Hoolock Gibbon is an ape native to the north-eastern part of India, but the sharp decline of its population due to its merciless hunting, was nearly pushing it to extinction. But today, even if a stone is thrown towards that ape, the stone would be chasing the thrower. That ape too , whose life expectancy is only about 25 years, has reason enough to thank AIR Dibrugarh, for most of its population reaches that age.

To honour that AIR Station for the terrific job that it had done for Environment Conservation and Countering Climate Change, the National Academy of Broadcasting & Multimedia, the apex training institution of India’s Public Service Broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, had organized a Training Programme on – “Environment Conservation & Countering Climate Change ” in January 2024, there in Dibrugarh, which was addressed by the Forest Man of India, Jadav Payeng, who single-handedly had transformed 1,360 acres of barren sandbar of the river Brahmaputra, in Assam, into a forest reserve, because of which the Government of India, had honoured him with the fourth highest civilian award of the country, Padma Shri.

That All India Radio Station has truly lived upto its motto of – “ Bahujana Hitaya ; Bahujana Sukhaya ” ( for the benefit of the majority ; for the happiness of the majority ).