Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, well known for her commitment to the green cause, said today in an interview on December 4 that India is a major culprit whose actions on climate have led to the Chennai floods.

“It is a question of putting the blame always… the West did it. They may have done it hundred years ago. India is one of the main players destroying the climate. India, China and Brazil are the largest producers of methane. Coal, animals and rice, these are the three reasons for methane and methane is 26 per cent more powerful than carbon dioxide in creating climate change,” she said.

“Historically the polluters have been the West doesn’t absolve India from the fact that it is today one of the major polluters,” she added.

Last week in Paris, PM Modi said “climate change is not of our making”. 

Rubbishing that India was not a CO2 polluter, she said, “It’s rubbish. We have been saying that for 50 years. And we go on and on and on,” she said.

“Nobody has connected climate change with economic disaster. Everybody thinks we can do wonderful things economically but with climate change, kabhi kabhi baarish aayegi (there might be occasional rains),” she added.

She added that the repercussions of climate change is already visible in the fact that farmers are suffering, dal prices have shot up to Rs 200 per kg, everybody in Chennai is down under and nobody in Delhi can breathe easy.