Indian opposition leader calls for more focus on environmental issues

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday stressed the need for treating environmental issues on par with political ones, while stating that environmental destruction has reached a critical point today. Taking to social media platform - Facebook - to share his concerns on the World Environment Day, Gandhi said: "Till we make environmental issues, political issues, they won't get the importance they deserve. This World Environment Day, let's get together and commit to doing just that."

The Congress president said that "environmental destruction has reached a critical point today and there might be "no turning back" if the people failed to make amends today. "Mankind's insatiable lust for power and wealth has speeded up the pace of environmental destruction, like never before in the history of our planet. We're at a tipping point, from which if we don't reverse the environmental degradation we are causing, there may be no turning back," he said.

"There is now enough scientific evidence to show that much of the degradation we have caused, particularly in the last hundred years or so, is irreversible. Global warming isn't a myth. It's a reality," he further wrote. He said that Indians across the country are struggling today and hit out at the government for not taking adequate action.

"India's polluted cities, where citizens struggle to breathe, are not a myth. They too are a reality... Millions of Indias are suffering and even dying as a direct consequence of environmental degradation and the unwillingness of our Government to address these issues on a war footing," said Gandhi.

(With inputs from agencies.)