The Bhopal and Chernobyl disasters contributed to an increased coverage of environemental issues in Indian newspapers in the 1980-es. At the end of the 1990-es, environement was no longer a key issue in Indian media.

This is some of the results of a large research project done by mr. Poornananda Dasegowdanakoplu Swamy Gowda. He is a senior lecturer at Mangalore University in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India. 

Dams = development?
For the last five years Poornananda has investigated the coverage on environemental issues in four Indian newspapers, namely Indian Express, The Hindu, The Times of India and the Deccan Herald.

- My survey reveals that the Indian press began seeing environment as an issue only in the mid-1980s. The Bhopal disaster of 1984 marked the turning point in environmental journalism in India. The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 raised questions about the safety of nuclear power plant in India. Anti-nuclear protests gained momentum after the Chernobyl disaster. This issue was given the top coverage in the newspapers in the late 1980s.
 
Big dams dominated environmental news coverage in the 1990s, Poornananda tells. All mainstream newspapers still equate big dams with development. 
 
 - They strongly believe that big dams are need for a country like India. They show a lot of concern for the environment only in very general terms but when it comes to specific projects they argue that the projects should not be stopped on environmental grounds. 

Event-oriented with official sources
Newspaper reporting of the environment is basically event-oriented. The have seldom taken initiative in reporting the environmental problems. They report them only after the environmental problems are raised by the grassroots level activists. For Poornananda it is clear that the press does not set the environmental agenda. Official sources are the major sources of environmental information.
 
- Independent sources are rarely quoted. Whenever independent sources are quoted official statements countering the statements of the independent sources are also used. When officials "say". the independent sources always "claim". This shows that journalists believe in the official version and view independent sources with lot of suspicion. 

Decline after 1990 
Water pollution, air pollution, deforestation and wild lifer endangerment have been the major environemental issues throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

- Your survey covers the years from 1980 to 1998, and has there been any develoment in the coverage?
- As I have already said the coverage begins to increase dramaticlly after 1984 and shows a declining trend after 1990. The year 1986 registered the highest coverage given to the environment in the two decades. 
- Are print media more concerned about environemental conditions than broadcast media?  
- I have not actually done this comparison. The broadcast media were under the control of the government till the early 1990s. They rarely reported controversial environmental issues, and radio is still under the government control, mr. Poornananda ends.

By Jon Peder Vestad

Published on the Net on May 2., 2001