THE HAPPY HIMALAYAN NATION

Bhutan-The Happy Himalayan nation

                                                                                                         -Aditya Reddy

Have you ever wondered that a country’s growth would depend upon the happiness? Have you ever thought that the people can happily live without any e-gadgets in today’s contemporary world? If you’re wondering where such a place would exist, this country is right above us and it is the smallest neighbouring country.

        The Land of Thunder Dragon – Kingdom of Bhutan – is a small monarch country which is located on the foothills of Himalayas and is sandwiched between two super nations- India and China.

Even though the entire country’s GDP is less than 2billion$, in 1970s, the 4^th King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck believed an economic approach dehumanised the development process. He instead decided to focus on a concept that is called as "Gross National Happiness" or GNH. The development of a country would be measured by its remaining citizens' happiness.

“Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product.”, His Majesty the 4^th King of Bhutan.

        Being one of the smallest economies in the world, education is completely free for all the citizens and those who work hard are given free college education. Health care is completely free and all medical programs are provided by the state.

        The people in Bhutan are the most down to earth people. Bhutanese don’t care about the TV, radio, or Internet-simple living. The gap between the normal people and royalty is not that far. Though being a monarch nation, the King of Bhutan imposed democracy even though the people never demanded for it or fought for it. This allows all the Kings of Bhutan to retire by the age of 65. The present King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck is so modest that he himself sits to chop the onions and stuff while serving food to the underprivileged. Adding a photo regarding the same!

Fun Fact: There are no beggars or homeless people in this country.

        

The people of Bhutan celebrated the birth of the King and Queen's first son by planting 108,000 trees across the nation. That’s how Eco-friendly Bhutan is. The constitution of Bhutan states that:

The Government shall ensure that, in order to conserve the country’s natural resources and to prevent degradation of them ecosystem, a minimum of sixty percent of Bhutan’s total land shall be maintained under forest cover for all time.

This means that more than half of the country is under forest cover. The entire country of Bhutan generated 2.2 million tons of carbon-dioxide and the forest can assimilate up to three-times that amount of generated carbon-dioxide. So, this country is a net carbon sink for 4 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Bhutan isn’t just carbon neutral, but to be more accurate, it is a carbon negative country.

Bhutan exports most of the renewable electricity which they harness it from the fast flowing rivers. So today, the clean energy which they export offsets 6 million tons of carbon-dioxide in their neighbourhood. By 2020, Bhutan will export enough electricity to offset 17 million tons of carbon dioxide and if they were harnessing just half of their hydro-power potential, it would offset 50 million tons of CO₂ a year. That is more CO₂ what the entire city of New York generates in one year.

So, within their country, they’re a net carbon sink and outside, they are offsetting carbon.

        Due to global warming, this poor country has faced a lot of flash flood with a lot of causalities in the past few years. The people of Bhutan have done nothing to contribute to Global Warming but still they are facing the consequences of nature’s wrath.

These are few of the steps taken by Bhutan to remain carbon-neutral:

• ·        Providing free electricity to farmers which would instead stops the usage of firewood and decrease the greenhouse gasses.
• ·        Subsidising the purchase of electric vehicles and LED lights.
• ·        Entire government is trying to go paperless.
• ·        Plastic bags are banned for ecological reasons.
• ·        Bhutan is world's first wholly organic nation
• ·      Not killing  animals to protect their fauna.
• ·        Tobacco is illegal. The consumption of tobacco is not altogether prohibited, though it is largely banned in places of public accommodation.

Fun fact: There is not a single traffic signal in the entire country.

The most important part in their country is the “Protected Area”. These are the forests reserved for National Parks, Sanctuaries and Biosphere Reserves which is the core for carbon sink. They cover almost 50% of the total country’s land mass and these protected areas are connected with each by biological corridors which allows all the animals to roam all over the country.

It means that if an animal was found in the sub-tropical forest, then the same animal can also be found in the alpine regions.

        Living Eco-friendly is a bit expensive and for a country like Bhutan, it’d end up all of their resources. Due to this reason, a program called - Bhutan for Life - was started by the King of Bhutan which is an innovative funding initiative that aims to provide a sustained flow of finance to maintain the country’s protected areas and biological corridors for perpetuity (14 years, until Bhutanese government takes over the costs entirely without foreign assistance). The World Wildlife Fund is their principal partner in their journey.

This the reason why the people of Bhutan are the most happiest even though they are struggling to make their country more better and also sharing their happiness with others.

If a small country like Bhutan has committed to live carbon neutral forever, then why not all other countries also follow such policy which would make the world a better place to live.

NOTE: If you want to know more about Bhutan For Life, here’s the link:http://www.bfl.org.bt/