Environment Geography PDF

Geography with Sandeep Sir
Environmental Geography
Principles of Ecology
Ecology is the study of how living things interact with each
other and with their environment. It is a major branch of biology, but has
areas of overlap with geography, geology, climatology, and other sciences.
The Following are the fundamental concepts and principles in ecology,
beginning with organisms and the environment.
Organisms and the Environment
Organisms are individual living things. Despite their

tremendous diversity, all organisms have the same basic needs: energy and
matter. These must be obtained from the environment. Therefore, organisms
are not closed systems. They depend on and are influenced by their
environment. The environment includes two types of factors: abiotic and
biotic.
1. Abiotic factors are the nonliving aspects of the environment. They

include factors such as sunlight, soil, temperature, and water.
2. Biotic factors are the living aspects of the environment. They consist
of other organisms, including members of the same and different
species.
Niche
One of the most important concepts associated with the

ecosystem is the niche. A niche refers to the role of a species in its
ecosystem. It includes all the ways that the species interacts with the biotic
and abiotic factors of the environment. Two important aspects of a species‘
niche are the food it eats and how the food is obtained. Each species eats a
different type of food and obtains the food in a different way.
Habitat
Another aspect of a species‘ niche is its habitat. The habitat is

the physical environment in which a species lives and to which it is adapted.
A habitat‘s features are determined mainly by abiotic factors such as
temperature and rainfall. These factors also influence the traits of the
organisms that live there.
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Competitive Exclusion Principle
A given habitat may contain many different species, but each

species must have a different niche. Two different species cannot occupy the
same niche in the same place for very long. This is known as the
competitive exclusion principle. If two species were to occupy the same
niche, they would compete with one another for the same food and other
resources in the environment. Eventually, one species would be likely to
outcompete and replace the other.
The Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a unit of nature and the focus of study in

ecology. It consists of all the biotic and abiotic factors in an area and
their interactions. Ecosystems can vary in size. A lake could be considered
an ecosystem. So could a dead log on a forest floor. Both the lake and log
contain a variety of species that interact with each other and with abiotic
factors.
When it comes to energy, ecosystems are not closed. They need

constant inputs of energy. Most ecosystems get energy from sunlight. A
small minority get energy from chemical compounds. Unlike energy, matter
is not constantly added to ecosystems. Instead, it is recycled. Water and
elements such as carbon and nitrogen are used over and over again.
The term ‗ecosystem‘ was coined by A.G. Tansley in 1935.

Ecosystem is a self-sustaining unit of nature. An ecosystem is a functional
unit of nature encompassing complex interaction between its biotic (living)
and abiotic (non-living) components. For example- a pond is a good example
of ecosystem.
Many ecologists regard the entire biosphere as a global ecosystem, as

a composite of all local ecosystems on Earth.
In nature two major categories of ecosystems exist: terrestrial and aquatic.
 Forests, deserts and grasslands are examples of terrestrial

ecosystem.
 Ponds, lakes, wet lands and salt water are some example of
aquatic ecosystem.
 Crop lands and aquarium are the example of manmade
ecosystems.
The interaction between the living organisms and their

environment can be studied in a puddle of water or a hole in a tree, which
are very small ecosystems or in large ecosystems such a forest, river or
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ocean. Irrespective of their sizes all ecosystems share many common

characteristics.
Types of ecosystems: Ecosystems are classified as follows: (i) Natural

ecosystems (ii) Manmade ecosystems
(i) Natural ecosystems
(a) Totally dependent on solar radiation e.g. forests, grasslands,

oceans, lakes, rivers and deserts. They provide food, fuel, fodder and
medicines.
(b) Ecosystems dependent on solar radiation and energy subsidies

(alternative sources) such as wind rain and tides. e.g. tropical rain forests,
tidal estuaries and coral reefs.
(ii) Manmade ecosystems
(a) Dependent on solar energy-e.g. agricultural fields and aquaculture

ponds.
(b) Dependent on fossil fuel e.g. urban and industrial ecosystems.
Components of an Ecosystem
They are broadly grouped into:-
(a)Abiotic and
(b) Biotic components
(a) Abiotic components (Nonliving): The abiotic component can be grouped

into following three categories:-

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(i) Physical factors: Sun light, temperature, rainfall, humidity and

pressure. They sustain and limit the growth of organisms in an
ecosystem.
(ii) Inorganic substances: Carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus,
Sulphur, water, rock, soil and other minerals.
(iii) Organic compounds: Carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and
humic substances. They are the building blocks of living systems and
therefore, make a link between the biotic and abiotic components.
(b) Biotic components (Living)
(i) Producers: The green plants manufacture food for the entire
ecosystem through the process of photosynthesis. Green plants are
called autotrophs, as they absorb water and nutrients from the soil,
carbon dioxide from the air, and capture solar energy for this process.
(ii) Consumers: They are called heterotrophs and they consume food
synthesized by the autotrophs. Based on food preferences they can be
grouped into three broad categories. Herbivores (e.g. cow, deer and
rabbit etc.) feed directly on plants, carnivores are animals which eat
other animals (e.g. lion, cat, dog etc.) and omnivore’s organisms
feeding upon plants and animals e.g. human, pigs and sparrow.
(iii) Decomposers: Also called saprotrophs. These are mostly
bacteria and fungi that feed on dead decomposed and the dead
organic matter of plants and animals by secreting enzymes outside
their body on the decaying matter. They play a very important role in
recycling of nutrients. They are also called detrivores or detritus
feeders.
Ecosystem – Structure and Function
Interaction of biotic and abiotic components results in a

physical structure that is characteristic for each type of ecosystem.
Identification and enumeration of plant and animal species of an ecosystem
gives its species composition.
The important structural features are species composition

(types of plants and animals) and stratification (vertical and horizontal
distribution of various species occupying different levels). Another way of
looking at the structural components is through food relationships of
producers and consumers. Several trophic levels exist in the ecosystem.
For example, trees occupy top vertical strata or layer of a forest, shrubs the
second and herbs and grasses occupy the bottom layers. These structural
components function as a unit and produce certain functional aspects of
ecosystem.

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Some of these aspects are: Productivity, energy flow, nutrient cycle
Species Composition:
A community is an assemblage of many populations that are

living together at the same place and time. For example a tropical forest
community consists of trees, vines, herbs and shrubs along with large
number of different species of animals. This is known as species
composition of tropical forest ecosystem.
Each ecosystem has its own species composition depending

upon the suitability of its habitat and climate. A forest ecosystem supports
much larger number of species of plants and animals than grassland. The
total number and types of species in a community determine its stability
and ecosystem balance (ecosystem equilibrium).
Stratification:
The vertical and horizontal distribution of plants in the

ecosystem is called ecosystem stratification. Tallest trees make the top
canopy. This is followed by short trees and shrubs and then the forest floor
is covered with herbs and grasses. Some burrowing animals live
underground in their tunnels or on the roots of the plants. Each layer from
the tree top to the forest floor has its characteristic fauna and flora. This is
termed as vertical stratification of forest ecosystem. On the other hand
desert ecosystem shows low discontinuous layers of scant vegetation and
animals with some bare patches of soil showing a type of horizontal
stratification.
Functions of ecosystem
Ecosystems are complex dynamic system. They perform certain functions.

These are:-
 Energy flow through food chain

 Nutrient cycling (biogeochemical cycles)
 Ecological succession or ecosystem development
 Homeostasis (or cybernetic) or feedback control mechanisms.
Ponds, lakes, meadows, marshlands, grasslands, deserts and
forests are examples of natural ecosystem. We have seen an aquarium; a
garden or a lawn etc. in our neighborhood. These are manmade ecosystem.

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Energy Flow through Ecosystem:
Food chains and energy flow are the functional properties of

ecosystems which make them dynamic. The biotic and abiotic components
of an ecosystem are linked through them.
Food Chain:
Transfer of food energy from green plants (producers) through a
series of organisms with repeated eating and being eaten is called a food
chain. Each step in the food chain is called trophic level.
E.g. Grasses → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Hawk/Eagle
During this process of transfer of energy some energy is lost into

the system as heat energy and is not available to the next trophic level.
Therefore, the number of steps are limited in a chain to 4 or 5. Following
trophic levels can be identified in a food chain.
(i) Autotrophs:
They are the producers of food for all other organisms of
the ecosystem. They are largely green plants and convert inorganic
material in the presence of solar energy by the process of
photosynthesis into the chemical energy (food).
The total rate at which the radiant energy is stored by the
process of photosynthesis in the green plants is called Gross Primary
Production (GPP). This is also known as total photosynthesis or total
assimilation. From the gross primary productivity a part is utilized by
the plants for its own metabolism. The remaining amount is stored by
the plant as Net Primary Production (NPP) which is available to
consumers.
(ii) Herbivores: The animals which eat the plants directly are called
primary consumers or herbivores e.g. insects, birds, rodents and
ruminants.
(iii) Carnivores: They are secondary consumers if they feed on
herbivores and tertiary consumers if they use carnivores as their food.
E.g. frog, dog, cat and tiger.
(iv) Omnivores: Animals that eat both plant and animals e.g. pig,
bear and man.
(v) Decomposers: They take care of the dead remains of organisms at
each trophic level and help in recycling of the nutrients e.g. bacteria
and fungi.
There are two types of food chains:
1. Grazing food chains: This starts from the green plants that make food
for herbivores and herbivores in turn for the carnivores.

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2. Detritus food chains: start from the dead organic matter to the
detrivores organisms which in turn make food for protozoan to carnivores
etc.
Food web:
Trophic levels in an ecosystem are not linear rather they are

interconnected and make a food web. Thus food web is a network
interconnected food chains existing in an ecosystem. One animal may be a
member of several different food chains. Food webs are more realistic
models of energy flow through an ecosystem.
The flow of energy in an ecosystem is always linear or one way.

The quantity of energy flowing through the successive trophic levels
decreases. At every step in a food chain or web the energy received by the
organism is used to sustain itself and the left over is passed on to the next
trophic level.
Ecological pyramid:
Ecological pyramids are the graphic representations of trophic

levels in an ecosystem. They are pyramidal in shape and they are of three
types: The producers make the base of the pyramid and the subsequent
tiers of the pyramid represent herbivore, carnivore and top carnivore levels.
 Pyramid of number: This represents the number of organisms at

each trophic level. For example in grassland the number of grasses is
more than the number of herbivores that feed on them and the
number of herbivores is more than the number of carnivores. In some
instances the pyramid of number may be inverted, i.e. herbivores are
more than primary producers as you may observe that many
caterpillars and insects feed on a single tree.
 Pyramid of biomass: This represents the total standing crop biomass
at each trophic level. Standing crop biomass is the amount of the living
matter at any given time. It is expressed as gm/unit area or kilo
Cal/unit area. In most of the terrestrial ecosystems the pyramid of
biomass is upright. However, in case of aquatic ecosystems the
pyramid of biomass may be inverted.
 Pyramid of energy: This pyramid represents the total amount of
energy at each trophic level. Energy pyramids are never inverted.

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Biogeochemical Cycles
The movement of nutrient elements through the various
components of an ecosystem is called nutrient cycling. Another name of
nutrient cycling is biogeochemical cycles (bio: living organism, geo: rocks,
air, and water). In ecosystems flow of energy is linear but that of
nutrients is cyclical. The entire earth or biosphere is a closed system i.e.
nutrients are neither imported nor exported from the biosphere.
Nutrient cycles are of two types: (a) gaseous and (b) sedimentary.
The reservoir for gaseous type of nutrient cycle (e.g., nitrogen,
carbon cycle) exists in the atmosphere and for the sedimentary cycle
(e.g., Sulphur and phosphorus cycle); the reservoir is located in Earth‘s
crust.
The Carbon Cycle

Of all the biogeochemical cycles, the carbon cycle is the
most important. All life is composed of carbon compounds of one form or
another. That is why it is of such grave concern today that human
activities since the Industrial Revolution have modified the carbon cycle
in significant ways.
The carbon cycle is a biogeochemical cycle in which
carbon ﬂows among storage pools in the atmosphere, ocean, and on the
land. Human activity has aﬀected the carbon cycle, causing carbon
dioxide concentrations in the atmospheric storage pool to increase.
The source of all carbon is carbon dioxide present in the
atmosphere. It is highly soluble in water; therefore, oceans also contain
large quantities of dissolved carbon dioxide.
The global carbon cycle consists of following steps-

 Photosynthesis:
Green plants in the presence of sunlight utilize CO2
in the process of photosynthesis and convert the inorganic carbon
into organic matter (food) and release oxygen. Annually 4-9 x 10 13
kg of CO2 is fixed by green plants of the entire biosphere. Forests
acts as reservoirs of CO2 as carbon fixed by the trees remain stored
in them for long due to their long life cycles. Avery large amount of
CO2 is released through forest fires.
 Respiration
Respiration is carried out by all living organisms. It is a
metabolic process where food is oxidized to liberate energy, CO2
and water. The energy released from respiration is used for
carrying out life processes by living organism (plants, animals,

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decomposers etc.). Thus CO2 is released into of the atmosphere

through this process.
 Decomposition
All the food assimilated by animals or synthesized
by plant is not metabolized by them completely. A major part is
retained by them as their own biomass which becomes available to
decomposers on their death. The dead organic matter is
decomposed by microorganisms and CO2is released into the
atmosphere by decomposers.
 Combustion
Burning of biomass releases carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere.
Impact of human activities
The global carbon cycle has been increasingly disturbed by
human activities particularly since the beginning of industrial era. Large
scale deforestation and ever growing consumption of fossil fuels by
growing numbers of industries, power plants and automobiles are
primarily responsible for increasing emission of carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide has been continuously increasing in the
atmosphere due to human activities such as industrialization,
urbanization and increasing use and number of automobiles. This is
leading to increase concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, which is a
major cause of global warming.
Nitrogen cycle
Nitrogen is an essential component of protein and required by

all living organisms including human beings.

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Our atmosphere contains nearly 79% of nitrogen but it cannot

be used directly by the majority of living organisms. Broadly like carbon
dioxide, nitrogen also cycles from gaseous phase to solid phase then back to
gaseous phase through the activity of a wide variety of
organisms. Cycling of nitrogen is vitally important for all living organisms.
There are five main processes which essential for nitrogen cycle are
elaborated below.
(a) Nitrogen fixation: This process involves conversion of gaseous nitrogen

into Ammonia, a form in which it can be used by plants. Atmospheric
nitrogen can be fixed by the following three methods:-
 Atmospheric fixation: Lightening, combustion and volcanic activity

help in the fixation of nitrogen.
 Industrial fixation: At high temperature (400oC) and high pressure
(200 atm.), molecular nitrogen is broken into atomic nitrogen which
then combines with hydrogen to form ammonia.
 Bacterial fixation: There are two types of bacteria-
 Symbiotic bacteria e.g. Rhizobium in the root nodules of
leguminous plants.
 Free living or symbiotic e.g. 1. Nostoc 2. Azobacter 3.
Cyanobacteria can combine atmospheric or dissolved nitrogen
with hydrogen to form ammonia.
(b) Nitrification: It is a process by which ammonia is converted into nitrates

or nitrites by Nitrosomonas and Nitrococcus bacteria respectively. Another
soil bacterium Nitrobacter can covert nitrate into nitrite.
(c) Assimilation: In this process nitrogen fixed by plants is converted into

organic molecules such as proteins, DNA, RNA etc. These molecules make
the plant and animal tissue.
(d) Ammonification: Living organisms produce nitrogenous waste products

such as urea and uric acid. These waste products as well as dead remains of
organisms are converted back into inorganic ammonia by the bacteria. This
process is called ammonification. Ammonifying bacteria help in this process.
(e) Denitrification: Conversion of nitrates back into gaseous nitrogen is

called denitrification. Denitrifying bacteria live deep in soil near the water
table as they like to live in oxygen free medium. Denitrification is reverse of
nitrogen fixation.

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Water Cycle
Water is essential for life. No organism can survive without

water. Precipitation (rain, snow, slush dew etc.) is the only source of water
on the earth. Water received from the atmosphere on the earth returns back
to the atmosphere as water vapour resulting from direct evaporation and
through evapotranspiration the continuous movement of water in the
biosphere is called water cycle (hydrological cycle).
Water is not evenly distributed throughout the surface of the

earth. Almost 95 % of the total water on the earth is chemically bound to
rocks and does not cycle. Out of the remaining 5%, nearly 97.3% is in the
oceans and 2.1% exists as polar ice caps. Thus only 0.6% is present as fresh
water in the form of atmospheric water vapours, ground and soil water.
The driving forces for water cycle are 1) solar radiation 2) gravity.
Evaporation and precipitation are two main processes involved

in water cycle. These two processes alternate with each other Water from
oceans, lakes, ponds, rivers and streams evaporates by sun‘s heat energy.
Plants also transpire huge amounts of water. Water remains in the vapour
state in air and forms clouds which drift with wind. Clouds meet with the
cold air in the mountainous regions above the forests and condense to form
rain precipitate which comes down due to gravity.

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On an average 84% of the water is lost from the surface of the

through oceans by evaporation. While 77% is gained by it from precipitation.
Water runoff from lands through rivers to oceans makes up 7% which
balances the evaporation deficit of the ocean. On land, evaporation is 16%
and precipitation is 23%.
Phosphorus Cycle
Phosphorus is a major constituent of biological membranes,

nucleic acids and cellular energy transfer systems. Many animals also need
large quantities of this element to make shells, bones and teeth. The natural
reservoir of phosphorus is rock, which contains phosphorus in the form of
phosphates.
When rocks are weathered, minute amounts of these

phosphates dissolve in soil solution and are absorbed by the roots of the
plants. Herbivores and other animals obtain this element from plants. The
waste products and the dead organisms are decomposed by phosphate-
solubilizing bacteria releasing phosphorus. Unlike carbon cycle, there is no
respiratory release of phosphorus into atmosphere.
Atmospheric inputs of phosphorus through rainfall are much

smaller than carbon inputs, and gaseous exchanges of phosphorus between
organism and environment are negligible.

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Ecological Succession
Biotic communities are dynamic in nature and change over a

period of time. The process by which communities of plant and animal
species in an area are replaced or changed into another over a period of time
is known as ecological succession.
Both the biotic and abiotic components are involved in this
change. This change is brought about both by the activities of the
communities as well as by the physical environment in that particular area.
The physical environment often influences the nature, direction, rate and
optimal limit of changes.
During succession both the plant and animal communities
undergo change. During succession some species colonize an area and their
populations become more numerous, whereas populations of other species
decline and even disappear.
The entire sequence of communities that successively change in
a given area are called sere(s). The individual transitional communities are
termed seral stages or seral communities. In the successive seral stages
there is a change in the diversity of species of organisms, increase in the
number of species and organisms as well as an increase in the total
biomass. There are two types of successions (i) Primary succession and (ii)
Secondary succession.
Primary succession
Primary succession takes place over bare or unoccupied areas
such as rocks outcrop, newly formed deltas and sand dunes, emerging
Volcano Islands and lava flows as well as glacial moraines (muddy area

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exposed by a retreating glacier) where no community has existed previously.

The plants that invade first bare land, where soil is initially absent are called
pioneer species. The assemblage of pioneer plants is collectively called
pioneer community. A pioneer species generally show high growth rate but
short life span.
The community that initially inhabits a bare area is called
pioneer community. The pioneer community after some time gets replaced
by another community with different species combination. This second
community gets replaced by a third community. This process continues
sequence-wise in which a community replaced previous by another
community.
The terminal (final) stage of succession forms the community
which is called as climax community .A climax community is stable, mature,
more complex and long lasting. The animals of such a community also
exhibit succession which to a great extent is determined by plant
succession. A climax community as long as it is undisturbed, remains
relatively stable in dynamic equilibrium with the prevailing climate and
habitat factors.
Succession that occurs on land where moisture content is low
for e.g. on bare rock is known as xerarch. Succession that takes place in a
water body, like ponds or lake is called hydrarch.
Secondary succession
Secondary succession is the development of a community which
forms after the existing natural vegetation that constitutes a community is
removed, disturbed or destroyed by a natural event like hurricane or forest
fire or by human related events like tilling or harvesting land.
A secondary succession is relatively fast as, the soil has the
necessary nutrients as well as a large pool of seeds and other dormant
stages of organisms.
Homeostasis of Ecosystem
Ecosystems are capable of maintaining their state of

equilibrium. They can regulate their own species structure and functional
processes. This capacity of ecosystem of self-regulation is known as
homeostasis. In ecology the term applies to the tendency for a biological
system to resist changes.
For example, in a pond ecosystem if the population of
zooplankton increased, they would consume large number of the
phytoplankton and as a result soon zooplankton would be short supply of
food for them. As the number zooplankton is reduced because of starvation,
phytoplankton population starts increasing. After some time the population

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size of zooplankton also increases and this process continues at all the
trophic levels of the food chain.
Note that in a homeostatic system, negative feedback
mechanism is responsible for maintaining stability in an ecosystem.
However, homeostatic capacity of ecosystems is not unlimited as well as not
everything in an ecosystem is always well regulated. Humans are the
greatest source of disturbance to ecosystems.
Fundamental Concepts and Principles of Ecology

There are certain basic fundamental ecological principles which
describe various aspects of living organisms e.g. evolution and distribution
of plants and animals, extinction of species consumption and transfer of
energy in different components of biological communities, cycling and
recycling of organic and inorganic substances, interactions and inter
relationships among the organisms and between organisms and physical
environment etc.
Some important fundamental concepts and principles of ecology in

terms of eco-system may be outlined as follows:
1. Eco-system is a fundamental well-structured and organised unit that

brings physical environment and living organisms together in a single
framework which facilitates the study of interactions between biotic and
abiotic components. Ecosystems are also functional units where in two
biotic components, namely autotrophic and heterotrophic components are of
major significance.
2. The biotic and abiotic components of biosphere ecosystem are intimately

related through a series of large scale cyclic mechanisms which help in the
transfer of energy, water, chemicals and sediments in various components of
the biosphere.
3. Sustained life on the earth is a characteristic of eco-system, not of

individual organisms or population.
4. In 1974, M. J. Holliman suggested four environmental principles to

describe holistic nature of natural environment which largely influence the
biological communities in a biosphere eco-system.
The different principles are as follows:
(i) Nothing actually disappears when we throw it away because all the
materials are rearranged and cycled and recycled through a series
of cyclic pathways in the natural environment.

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(ii) All systems and problems are ultimately if not intimately, inter-
related. It does not make squabble over which crisis is most
urgent. We cannot afford the luxury of solving problems one by one
that is both obsolete and ecologically unsound anyway.
(iii) We live on a planet earth whose resources are finite.
(iv) Nature has spent literally millions of years refining a stable eco-
system.
5. According to D. B. Botkin and E.A. Keller (1982) the physical and

biological processes follow the principle of uniformitarianism. This principle
states that same physical (right from the origin of the planet, earth and its
atmosphere) and biological (since the origin of first organism) processes
which operate today, operated in the past not necessarily with constant
magnitude and frequency with time and will operate in future but at rates
that will vary as the environment influenced by human activity.
6. Natural hazards affect adversely the biological communities in general

and man in particular when biological processes are associated with natural
hazards, yet severe hazards are created.
7. All living organisms and physical environment are mutually reactive. The
varying degrees of interactions among organisms, at both inter and
intraspecific levels are positive, negative and sometimes neutral.
8. Solar radiation is the main driving force of the eco-system and it is

trapped by green plants through the process of photo-synthesis. Energy flow
in eco-system is unidirectional and non-cyclic. Eco-system energy flow
(energetics) helps eco-system. The energy pattern and energy flow are
governed by the laws of thermodynamics.
9. The energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next higher trophic
level but organisms at higher trophic levels receive energy from more than
one trophic level.
10. R. L. Linderuan (1942) suggested some principles about the

relationships between the trophic levels within a natural ecosystem.
(i) Principle-1: With an increase in distance between the organisms of

a given trophic level and the initial source of energy, the probability
of the organisms to depend exclusively on the preceding trophic
level for energy decreases.
(ii) Principle-2: The relative loss of energy due to respiration is
progressively greater to higher trophic levels because the species at
higher trophic levels being relatively larger in size have to move and

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work for getting food and therefore more energy is lost due to
respiration.
(iii) Principle-3: Species at progressively higher trophic levels appear
to be progressively more efficient in using their available food
supply, because increased activity by predators increases their
chances of encountering suitable prey species, and in general
predators are less specific than their prey in food preference.
(iv) Principle-4: Higher trophic levels tend to be less discrete than the
lower ones because the organisms at progressively higher trophic
levels receive energy from more than one source and are generalists
in their feeding habit and they are more efficient in using their
available food.
(v) Principle-5: Food-chains tend to be reasonably short. Four vertical
links is a common maximum because loss of energy is
progressively higher for higher trophic levels and species at higher
levels tend to be less discrete.
11. The inorganic and organic substances are circulated among the various
components of biosphere through a series of closed system of cycles
collectively known as biogeochemical cycles.
12. The eco-system productivity depends on two factors:
(i) The availability of the amount of solar radiation to the primary

producers at trophic level-I.
(ii) The efficiency of the plants to convert solar energy into chemical
energy.
There is marked positive correlation between primary productivity and solar

radiation.
13. There is inbuilt self-regulating mechanism in natural ecosystem, known

as homeostatic mechanisms, through which any change caused by external
factors in the eco-system is counter balanced by the responses of the system
to the change in such a way that ultimately eco-system or ecological stability
is restored. The ecological diversity and complexity enhance ecological or
eco-system stability.
The ecological stability can be attained by the following manners:
(i) According to C. S. Elton (1958), increase in the diversity of food

webs promotes ecosystem stability.
(ii) According to P.H. MacArthur (1955), the ecosystem stability
increases with increase of number of links in the food web.

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(iii) According to E.P. Odum (1971), high species diversity of a mature

ecosystem representing a climax community is related to more
stability of natural eco-system.
14. Eco-system instability results when an eco-system becomes unable to

adjust with environmental changes.
15. According to Charles Darwin (1859), evolution of species epitomises the

inherently dynamic nature of ecosystem.
16. Darwin‘s concept of progressive evolution of species was subsequently

challenged by Devries and a new concept of mutation was proposed.
Mutation is a process of spontaneous evolutionary change which introduces
inheritable variations in species.
T. Dobzhansky (1950) suggested the following ideas regarding

mutation:
(i) The mutation process furnishes the raw materials for evolution.
(ii) During sexual reproduction, numerous gene patterns are
produced.
(iii) The possessors of some gene patterns have greater fitness than the
possessors of other patterns in available environment.
(iv) The frequency of superior gene patterns is increased by the process
of natural selection while the inferior gene patterns are suppressed.
(v) Groups of some combinations of proven adaptive worth become
segregated into closed genetic system, called species.
17. The transition stages of sequential changes from one vegetation

community to another vegetation community are called ‗sere‘. The sere is
complete when the succession of vegetation community after passing
through different phases, culminates into equilibrium condition. The vegeta-
tion community developed at the end of succession is called ‗Climax
vegetation‘ or ‗Climax community‘
18. Besides community succession, the eco-system also undergoes the

process of successional changes. There are two fundamental ideas regarding
the process of successional changes.
(i) According to E.P. Odum (1962), ecological succession is one of the

most important processes which results from the community
modifying the environment,
(ii) According to R. H. Whittaker (1953), the successional development of
ecosystem is characterised by four major changes in the ecosystem
viz.

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(a) Progressive increase in the complexity and diversity of

community;
(b) Progressive increase in the structure and productivity of the
eco-system;
(c) Increase in soil maturity;
(d) Increase in relative stability and regularity of populations within
the eco-system and stability of the eco-system itself.
19. The eco-system is mainly modified by man through the exploitation of

natural resources. Man reduces ecological diversity and complexity by
removing a host of biotic communications.
20. Preserving diversity in a world of rapidly shrinking resources will require

a prompt and universal response on an appropriate application of ecological
knowledge.
Biotic Regions (or) Biomes of the World

Biome is defined by a broad-scale collection of flora and
fauna that although different in detail from ecosystem to ecosystem share
some commonalities. Ecosystems within a biome are often similar in
nutrients and energy available to plants and animals. This leads to similar
types of flora and fauna across the biome, even though individual
ecosystems within the biome differ in scale, structure, and function.
The contraction or expansion of biome pattern and distribution

is not solely a function of changing temperatures; it also displays changes in
atmospheric pressure, humidity, and amount of precipitation, wind
directions, and other atmospheric factors. Biomes are also strongly
controlled by the type of soil and other aspects related to the lithosphere,
hydrosphere, and cryosphere.
Ecosystems fall into two major groups, aquatic and terrestrial.

Aquatic ecosystems include marine environments and the freshwater
environments of the lands. Marine ecosystems include the Open Ocean,
coastal estuaries, and coral reefs. Freshwater ecosystems include lakes,
ponds, streams, marshes, and bogs. Terrestrial ecosystems, which are
dominated by land plants spread widely over the upland surfaces of the
continents.
We divide terrestrial ecosystems into biomes. There are four

principal biomes: (a) forests (b) grasslands, (c) deserts and (d) tundra

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1. Forest Biome
Forests are large areas supporting rich growth of trees.

Depending on the climate and type of trees they are generally grouped into:
1. Tropical rain forests

2. Temperate deciduous forests
3. Boreal or north coniferous forests
Tropical rain forest
The tropical rain-forest occupies low-altitude areas near the

equator in South America, Central and West Africa, and in the Indo-Malay
peninsula and New Guinea regions. Although these areas are physically
isolated, the forest growing in them shows great similarity of structure and
function. These are found in the high rain fall areas on either side of the
equator, having high temperature and high humidity and receive above 200
cm of rainfall per year. Soil is rich in humus.
It is a broad-leaved evergreen forest of dense, prolific growth

and an extremely diverse fauna and flora. The hot, wet tropical climate is
highly conducive to plant growth and there is very little seasonality which
means that the growing period extends throughout the year.

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All green plants strive to reach the light so that they either
become very tall, or adopt a climbing habit or live as epiphytes (plants living
on other plants but not deriving food from them). The dominant trees are
extremely varied in species but have similar appearances, typically
characterised by buttress roots, dark leaves and a thin bark. The leaves
possess thick cuticles for protection against the strong sunlight, and drip
tips whose probable function is to shed water rapidly, thereby aiding
transpiration.
These forests have a very rich biodiversity e.g. Brazilian tropical

rain forests have more than 300 species of trees in an area of 200 square
kilometer. Trees are tall growing up to 50 to 60 m. These forests also
support epiphytes, like vines, creepers, woody creepers and orchid etc.
These forests are rich in tree dwelling animals such as monkeys, flying
squirrels, snails, centipedes, millipedes, and many insect species are
common on the forest floor. Many snakes and mammals are adapted to live
in the trees because this is where the bulk of the foliage exists.
Providing the tropical rain-forest is undisturbed it is the most

diverse and productive type of forest ecosystem, but if the canopy is depleted
the soils soon become infertile. Nutrient cycling is rapid, as the vegetation is
demanding, and decomposition is accomplished quickly by bacterial action.
Temperate deciduous forests
This type of forest, dominated by broad-leaved deciduous

trees, had a great extent in the past when it covered most of the temperate
areas of Europe, eastern North America, eastern Asia and small parts of

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South America and Australia. The temperate deciduous forest has probably
been more modified by human activity than any other type of ecosystem.
Temperate deciduous forest consists largely of trees that drop

their leaves during the cold season. It is characteristic of the marine west-
coast and moist continental climates.
There is a longer growing season, higher light intensity and a

moderate amount of precipitation of between 50 and 150 cm per annum.
The temperature regime is also characterised by lack of extremes but there
is still a marked cold season which plants and animals must endure. The
climatic zone it occupies is less extreme than that of the boreal forest.
Trees common to the deciduous forest of eastern North America,

southeastern Europe, and eastern Asia are oak, beech, birch, hickory,
walnut, maple, elm, and ash. Where the deciduous forests have been cleared
by lumbering, pines readily develop as second-growth forest.
In Western Europe, the mid-latitude deciduous forest is

associated with the marine west-coast climate. Here, the dominant trees are
mostly oak and ash, with beech found in cooler and moister areas. In Asia,
the mid-latitude deciduous forest occurs as a belt between the boreal forest
to the north and steppe lands to the south. A small area of deciduous forest
is found in Patagonia, near the southern tip of South America.
Larger amounts of nutrients are used and their movement is

more rapid. There is a bulk return of nutrients from the trees with the leaf
fall of autumn. Characteristically the leaf litter is nutrient-rich and decays
by the action of bacteria to form mull humus. The soils associated with the
temperate deciduous forest are varied but on the whole they are brown
earths.

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Boreal Forest or north coniferous forests:
Boreal forest is the cold-climate needle leaf forest of high

latitudes .It occurs in two great continental belts, one in North America and
one in Eurasia. These belts span their land masses from west to east in
latitudes 45° N to 75° N and they closely correspond to the region of boreal
forest climate.
The area occupied by this formation has been subjected to

severe glacial or periglacial activity and has much subdued relief and
surface water. The conditions for life are harsh because of the adverse
climate. The growing season is only of three or four months' duration and
even during this time; the energy input from solar radiation is small because
of the high latitude. Temperatures are low throughout the year, although the
average temperature of the warmest month of the year is higher than 10° C.
In the winter the temperatures fall too many degrees below freezing and
permafrost frequently extends into the northern edge of the forest.
Precipitation ranges from 40 to 70 cm per annum, mostly falling as snow,
the weight of which may cause mechanical damage to the trees.
Despite the climate, coniferous trees forms dense canopies

which intercept a great amount of light and precipitation so that conditions
beneath are dark and dry. Consequently there is little opportunity for
undergrowth to develop and very few other plants are associated with the
coniferous trees.
The boreal forest of North America, Europe, and western Siberia

is composed of such evergreen conifers as spruce and fir, while the boreal
forest of north-central and eastern Siberia is dominated by larch. The larch
tree sheds its needles in winter and is thus a deciduous needle leaf tree.
The combination of coniferous dominants which are low in

nutrient demand, the lack of diversity, and the climatic conditions, results
in slow, impoverished nutrient cycles. Most decomposition is fungal since
bacterial activity will be slow in these conditions, and the resulting humus is
the mor type. Characteristically the boreal forest is found growing on
podzols which tend to become highly acidic.

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Monsoon forest:
Monsoon forest, also called dry forest or tropical deciduous

forest. It is typically open, but grades into woodland, with open areas
occupied by shrubs and grasses .Monsoon forest of the tropical latitude zone
differs from tropical rainforest in that it is deciduous; that is, most of the
trees of the monsoon forest shed their leaves due to stress during the long
dry season, which occurs at the time of low Sun and cool temperatures.
This forest develops in the wet-dry tropical climate, where a long

rainy season alternates with a dry, rather cool season. They are located in
the monsoon climate beyond the equatorial region between 10◦ and 25 ◦ and
North and South of the equator. The countries are along the coastal regions
of southwest India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, and
Cambodia, South western Africa, French Guiana, and northeast and south-
eastern Brazil.
In the monsoon forest of southern Asia, the teakwood tree was

once abundant, but it was cut down and the wood widely exported to the
Western world to make furniture, paneling, and decking.

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2. Grassland Biome
Grasslands are areas dominated by grasses. They occupy

about 20% of the land on the earth surface. Grasslands occur in both in
tropical and temperate regions where rainfall is not enough to support the
growth of trees. Grasslands are known by various names in different parts of
the world. Grasslands are found in areas having well defined hot and dry,
warm and rainy seasons
Place Name Of The Grass Land

1. North America Prairies
2. Eurasia Steppes
3. Africa Savanna
4. South America Pampas
5. India Grass Land, Savanna
Grassland ecosystems contrast with forest ecosystems in several

ways. They have a much smaller biomass, of which a large percentage is
made up of roots. Grasses are probably not as effective at precipitation
interception as trees, except for the period of maximum growth. The grass
form facilitates stem flow, and surface run-off is greater from grass-covered
than from forested slopes. The annual primary productivity of a grassland
ecosystem is only about an eighth or ninth of an adjacent forest area. The
smaller standing crop also means that there are more limited nutrient
reservoirs in grassland.
Two main types of grassland are normally distinguished:

temperate grasslands, in which woody growth is absent or negligible, and
tropical grassland (savanna) in which scattered trees are much more
common.

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Temperate Grasslands
These include the prairies of North America, the steppes of

Eurasia, the pampas of South America, and the veldt of South Africa.
Smaller tracts occur in Australia and New Zealand. Precipitation in these
areas ranges from 25 to 100 Cm per annum, and the grasslands extend over
a wide range of soil conditions. Trees only occur on steep slopes or near
water. The geographical isolation of these areas from each other has led to
some species differentiation, but most other features are similar.
The animals of the grassland are distinctive, and feature many

grazing mammals. The grassland ecosystem supports some rather unique
adaptations to life .Animals such as jackrabbits and jumping mice have
learned to jump or leap, to gain an unimpeded view of their surroundings.
Tall grass prairie is a ground cover of tall grasses along with

some broad-leafed herbs, named forbs. Steppe, or short-grass prairie,
consists of sparse clumps of short grasses. Steppe grades into semi desert in
dry environments and into prairie where rainfall is higher. Steppe grassland
is concentrated largely in the mid-latitude areas of North America and
Eurasia.
Prairie grasslands are associated with the drier areas of moist

continental climate, and steppe grasslands correspond well with the
semiarid subtype of the dry continental climate. The Pampa region falls into
the moist subtropical climate with mild winters and abundant precipitation.

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This grassland biome includes tall-grass and short-grass prairie

(steppe). Tall-grass prairie provides rich agricultural land suited to
cultivation and cropping. Short-grass prairie occupies vast regions of semi
desert and is suited to grazing.
Tropical grasslands (Savannas):
Tropical grasslands are commonly called Savannas. They occur

in eastern Africa, South America, Australia and India. Savannas form a
complex ecosystem with scattered medium size trees in grass lands.
The savanna biome is usually associated with the tropical wet-

dry climate of Africa and South America. Its vegetation ranges from
woodland to grassland. In savanna woodland, the trees are spaced rather
widely apart because there is not enough soil moisture during the dry
season to support a full tree cover. The woodland has an open, park like
appearance. Savanna woodland usually lies in a broad belt adjacent to
equatorial rainforest.
Savanna biome vegetation is described as rain-green. Fires

occur frequently in the savanna woodland during the dry season, but the
tree species are particularly resistant to fire. The much greater diversity of
tropical as opposed to temperate grasslands is often a function of the added
variety afforded by wooded plants. In some cases the tree cover may be as
much as 50 per cent; in others it may be nil. Marked contrasts exist in the
appearance of the savanna during the year: the brown and withered short
grasses of the dry season give way rapidly to tall lush growth with the arrival
of the summer rains. The Ferralsolic soils of savanna areas frequently
include near-surface lateritic crusts, creating an impermeable surface soil
layer in which nutrients, especially phosphates and nitrates, are markedly
lacking.
As in the case of prairies, tropical grasslands tend to show little

ecotone development, especially on margins adjacent to tropical rain-forest.
Overall, savanna boundaries on all continents reveal only poor correlation
with precipitation amounts or the duration of the rainy season.
The African savanna is widely known for the diversity of its large
grazing mammals. With these grazers come a large variety of predators—
lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, and jackals. Elephants are the largest
animals of the savanna and adjacent woodland regions.

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3. Desert biome
The desert is a highly evolved ecosystem that supports a

multitude of plants and animals. The desert biome includes semi desert and
dry desert and occupies the tropical, subtropical, and mid-latitude dry
climates. Desert plants vary widely in appearance and in adaptation to the
dry environment. Deserts are hot and low rain areas suffering from water
shortage and high wind velocity. Annual rain fall is very little. It may be less
than 25 cm per annum. At some places if it is high it is unevenly
distributed. They show extremes of temperature. Globally deserts occupy
about 1/7thof the earth‘s surface.

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The desert biome includes several formation classes that are

transitional from grassland and savanna biomes into vegetation of the arid
desert.
Semi desert is a transitional formation class found in a wide

latitude range, from the tropical zone to the mid-latitude zone. Semi desert
consists primarily of sparse xerophytic shrubs. One example is the
sagebrush vegetation of the middle and southern Rocky Mountain region
and Colorado Plateau.
Dry desert is a formation class of plants that are widely

dispersed over the ground. It consists of small, hard-leafed, or spiny shrubs,
succulent plants (such as cactus), and/or hard grasses. Many species of
small annual plants appear only after rare and heavy downpours.
Desert plants around the world look very different from each
other. In the Mojave and Sonoran deserts of the southwestern United States,
for example, plants are often large, giving the appearance of woodland.
Desert animals are insects, reptiles, and burrowing rodents.

Desert shrew, fox, kangaroo, wood rat, rabbit; armadillo are common
mammals in desert. Camel is known as the ship of the desert as it can travel
long distances without drinking water for several days.
Adaptations: Desert plants are hot and dry conditions.
(i) These plants conserve water by following methods:

 They are mostly shrubs.
 Leaves absent or reduced in size.
 Leaves and stem are succulent and water storing.
 In some plants even the stem contains chlorophyll for
photosynthesis.
 Root system well developed spread over large area.
(ii) The animals are physiologically and behaviorally adapted to desert
conditions.
 They are fast runners.
 They are nocturnal in habit to avoid the sun‘s heat during
day time.
 They conserve water by excreting concentrated urine.
 Animals and birds usually have long legs to keep the body
away from the hot ground.
 Lizards are mostly insectivorous and can live without
drinking water for several days.
 Herbivorous animals get sufficient water from the seeds
which they eat.
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4. Tundra biome
The word tundra means a ―barren land‖ since they are found in
those regions of the world where environmental conditions are very severe.
There are two types of tundra- arctic and alpine.
 Arctic tundra extends as a continuous belt below the polar ice

cap and above the tree line on the northern hemisphere. It
occupies the northern fringe of Canada Alaska, European Russia,
and Siberia and island group of Arctic Ocean.
 Alpine tundra occurs at high mountain peaks above the tree line.
Since mountains are found at all latitudes therefore alpine tundra
show day and night temperature variations
Permanently frozen subsoil called permafrost is found in the

arctic and Antarctic tundra. The summer temperature may be around 15°C
and in winter it may be as low as –57°C in arctic tundra .A very low
precipitation of less than 400 mm per year .A short vegetation period of
generally less than 50 days between spring and autumn frost. Productivity
is low.
Typical vegetation of arctic tundra is cotton grass, sedges, dwarf

heath, willows birches, and lichens. Animals of tundra are hurepian
reindeer, musk ox, arctic hare, caribous, lemmings and squirrel. Their body
is covered with fur for insulation; Insects have short life cycles which are
completed during favourable period of the year.
Most of them have long life e.g. Salix arctica that is arctic willow
has a life span of 150 to 300 years. They are protected from chill by the
presence of thick cuticle and epidermal hair. Mammals of the tundra region
have large body size and small tail and ear to avoid the loss of heat from the
surface.
AQUATIC BIOMES
An aquatic ecosystem refers to plant and animal communities‘

occurring in water bodies. Aquatic ecosystems are classified on the basis of
salinity into following two types:
 Freshwater
 Marine
Fresh water ecosystem
Water on land which is continuously cycling and has low salt

content is known as fresh water and its study is called limnology.

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i. Static or still water (Lentic) e.g. pond, lake, bogs and swamps.
ii. Running water (Lotic) e.g. springs, mountain brooks, streams and
rivers.
Physical characteristics:
Fresh waters have a low concentration of dissolved salts.
The temperature shows diurnal and seasonal variations. In tropical lakes,
surface temperature never goes below 400C, in temperate fresh waters, never
goes above or below 40C and in polar lakes never above 40C.
 In temperate regions, the surface layer of water freezes but the
organisms survive below the frozen surface.
 Light has a great influence on fresh water ecosystems. A large number
of suspended materials obstruct penetration of light in water.
 Certain animals float upto water surface to take up oxygen for
respiration. Aquatic
plants use carbon dioxide dissolved in water for photosynthesis.
 Lakes and ponds are inland depressions containing standing water.
The largest lake in the world is Lake Superior in North America. Lake
Baikal in Siberia is the deepest. Chilka lake of Orissa is largest lake in
India.
Three main zones can be differentiated in a lake:-
a. Peripheral zone (littoral zone) with shallow water.
b. Open water beyond the littoral zone where water is quite deep.
c. Benthic zone (bottom) or the floor of the lake.
Aquatic organisms can be floating in water or free swimming or

sedentary (fixed), depending on their size and habit. Microscopic floating
organisms such as algae, diatoms, protozoans and larval forms are called
plankton. Rooted aquatic plants, fish, mollusk and echinoderms are bottom
dwellers.
Wetlands are areas that periodically get inundated with water

and support a flourishing community of aquatic organisms including frog
and other amphibians. Wetlands are between aquatic and terrestrial
ecosystem. They show an edge effect and form a ecotone. Ecotone is a
transitional zone between two ecosystems. Swamps, marshes and mangroves
are examples of wetlands.
Marine Ecosystem
Oceans cover 70 per cent of the surface area of the world, they
are habitable throughout and support a total biomass probably as much as
ten times that on land. In many ways, the marine environment is much
more favourable to life than land areas; it is more equable, and the two most

31
essential gases for life, oxygen and carbon dioxide, are readily available in
water, provided it is not polluted. In addition, many of the nutrient minerals
found in the Earth's crust are dissolved in the sea in varying amounts. The
main environmental gradients in the sea are related to temperature, salinity,
and light intensity.
The most saline conditions occur where temperatures, and

hence evaporation, are highest. Many marine organisms have very narrow
tolerance ranges to particular salinity concentrations, which may therefore
localise them considerably in terms of depth or area. In the open water of
the major oceans, the range is much less, from 37%o in the tropics to 33%0
in polar seas.
Temperature variations in the sea are much less than those on

land. The difference between the surface temperature of the warmest seas
(32°C) and the coldest (-2°C) gives a range far less than that of land (about
90°C). Both vertical and horizontal ocean currents play a major role in
equalizing variations of temperature, salinity and dissolved gases in the
oceans, as well as being important factors in the global energy budget.
The availability of light exercises as much fundamental control

on the basic process of photosynthesis in the sea as it does on the land. The
amount of light reaching the surface varies with latitude and with season;
much is lost by reflection from the water surface in high latitudes and when
the sea is rough.
Marine plants are confined to the euphotic zone by the light

factor. They are far less diverse than land plants, being dominated by algae,
with only a few angiosperms present, most of which are found in the near-
shore zone. The most obvious and visible types of marine algae are
seaweeds, but about 99 per cent of marine vegetation is made up of
microscopic floating algae (phytoplankton). These are one-celled organisms
containing chlorophyll, and include diatoms and dinoflagellates.
Near-shore areas additionally receive nutrients from rivers.

Coastal and estuarine areas therefore have a high productivity and great
diversity of plant life, making them among the most fertile parts of the
marine ecosystem.
Biodiversity of the marine ecosystems is very high as compared

to terrestrial ecosystems. Almost every major group of animals occurs in the
sea. Insects and vascular plant are completely absent in marine ecosystem.
Maximum diversity of marine organisms is found in the tidal zone that is
near the shore. Diatoms, algae, dinoflagellates and jelly fishes are some of
the free floating life forms in oceans. Large crustaceans, molluscs, turtles

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and mammals like seals, porpoises, dolphins and whales are free swimming
animals that can navigate. Bottom dwellers are generally sessile (fixed)
organisms like sponges, corals, crabs and starfish.
Adaptations:
 Light weight animals and plants float in water and move with the
water currents.
 Animals and plants in ocean are tolerant to high concentration of salts
(Osmoregulation).Osmoregulation is the process by which a constant
osmotic pressure is maintained in blood.
 Swimming animals have streamlined body. Their body is laterally
compressed.
 Deep sea forms show bioluminescence (they emit light).
 They are dependent for their food on the upper sea zones.
Human Ecological Adaptations:

Human Ecology is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary
study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and
built environments. In order to survive, all societies have to adapt to the
opportunities and constraints that their environment presents for them,
given their current culture. Successful adaptation can be said to have
occurred when all of a society's important values are able to be achieved
over the long term.
Because of the fact that humans live in a greater variety of

habitats than any other species, it‘s natural to ask how humans adapt to
these varied environments. Human adaption involves both biological and
behavioural mechanisms. Human behavioural ability to modify the
environment is the major factor that has allowed us to occupy the diverse
ecosystems that we do. In fact many of the biological adaptations that we
see in humans are adaptations to environmental conditions we ourselves
have produced.
Adaptations can occur at a variety of levels.
Genetic adaptations are the changes in the genetic makeup of populations

that come about over generations as a result of natural selection. Genetic
adaptations are fairly permanent adaptations.
There are also less permanent types of adaptations.

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Acclimatization’s are changes that come about during the life time of the
individual in response to particular environmental stresses. Although the
ability to undergo acclimatization has a genetic basis, the actual response
does not occur unless the individual experiences the environmental stress.
Tanning in response to ultraviolet radiation is a good example of
acclimatization.
Developmental adaptations (or Developmental acclimatization) are changes

that occur in response to an environmental stress during the period of
growth. Because the developmental adaptations usually change the way that
some part of the body grows or develops, they are generally more permanent
than acclimatization. Adaptation to high latitude involves the developmental
adaptation.
Humans exhibit a number of biological adaptations to the great

variety of environments they occupy. The best example of human genetic
adaptation to climate is skin color, which likely evolved as an adaptation to
ultraviolet radiation. Variation among populations in body size and shape
also may at least partially relate to adaptation to climate.
One of the most important influences on human adaptation is

our ability to modify the environment. This modification both reduces our
exposure to physical environment and creates a new environmental
condition to which we must adapt. Human modification of the environment
has altered our diet and the diseases we get. We see genetic adaptation to
the changes, but also failure to adapt. Several of the chronic diseases that
are so frequent in industrialized countries may result from the fact that we
are consuming diets to which we are not biologically adapted. Our
behavioural flexibility and our ability to modify the environment lessen our
need for biological adaptations.
Many of the biological characteristics of living organisms evolved

during time periods when our technology was much less sophisticated than
it is today. Biological characteristics that were limitations under past
condition are frequently not limitations today. Conversely, traits that were
advantageous in past environments may be detrimental today.

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Influence of Man on Ecology and Environment:

Man's relation with his natural environment is a complex one. While
he is subject to certain natural controls and events, he also acts as the
dominant force in many of the Earth's physical and biological systems. The
relationship has changed with time. Increasingly, man has become capable
of altering his physical environment to suit himself.
Although the scale of man's impact on the environment has

accelerated rapidly since the Industrial Revolution, man has been a factor in
environmental change for at least 40,000 years, since the late stages of the
Pleistocene ice age. Although the object of these alterations was to improve
his living conditions, in some cases they have created major long-term
problems, and in still others they have been catastrophic, both for the
natural environment and for him. We shall consider some of the ways in
which climate, landforms, soils and ecosystems have been inadvertently
altered by man.
Modification of Landforms
Mining and quarrying, deforestation, the introduction of exotic

plants and animals, the use of agricultural machinery, the building and use
of tracks and roads, and the overgrazing of pastures, have all, singly and in
combination, profoundly altered landforms and caused accelerated erosion
and deposition to occur. Where man excavates or piles up material himself,
he can be regarded as a direct agent of change; where he causes natural
landform processes, such as wind and water action, to accelerate or
diminish, he is acting in an indirect manner. Indirect effects are by far the
most widespread. Much of this influence occurs accidentally or secondarily
to some other purpose; conscious attempts to influence landform
processes—for example, by building coastal groynes or by re-afforestation—
are inevitably expensive and limited in extent.
Direct Alteration of Landforms:
Man has a direct effect on the shape of landforms by excavating

and piling up earth, reclaiming land from the sea and causing subsidence
through mining. These activities have greatly increased since the Industrial
Revolution with the development of enormous machine power and explosives
for moving material. Land scarification is sometimes used as a general term
for disturbances created by the extraction of mineral resources; open-pit
mines, quarries, sand and gravel pits are among the forms of scarification.
Strip-mining is one of the most devastating examples of landform alteration
of this kind.

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Equally obvious as man-created landforms are coal tips and

other waste heaps from mining and quarrying. Many of these features are
geomorphologically unstable, allowing various forms of mass movement to
generate. When saturated by heavy rain, spoil tips are frequently subject to
sliding and flowage, supplying sediment that clogs stream channels.
Indirect Effects: Slopes and Rivers:
By far the most important of all man's effects on landforms are

those connected with his interference with the natural vegetation, in
particular with the clearing of forest for agricultural purposes. There is a
close relationship between the amount of vegetation cover and erosion rates
on hill slopes, and hence with the amount of sediment in streams. A stable
vegetation cover acts as an effective regulator of natural erosion, protecting
the ground from direct raindrop impact, absorbing some of the run-off, and
making the slope more cohesive. With the removal of the vegetation, the
surface loses its plant litter, causing a loss of soil structure, cohesion and
porosity. Multiple shoe-string rills and gullies on hillsides are often a typical
manifestation of man's indirect effect on slopes.
The alteration of infiltration and run-off on slopes by modifying

the vegetation inevitably has a profound effect on adjacent rivers in at least
two respects: by increasing both the discharge and also the sediment
supply.
Wind Deflation:
The phenomenon of the dustbowl in the Great Plains region of

America in the 1930s is a well-known example of man-induced land erosion.
The area was former grassland underlain by rich brown and chestnut soils,
but both overgrazing and ploughing contributed to the catastrophe which
caused the widespread abandonment of farms. A great expansion in wheat
cultivation in the early years of the decade was followed by a series of
droughts; the soil, largely exhausted of its natural fertility, was subject to
deflation and particle drifting of disastrous proportions. The dustbowl
situation is by no means unique. In the marginal areas around today's hot
deserts, such as the Thar desert of Pakistan and India, and the Egyptian
desert, a great deal of deflation is initiated by grazing animals.
Coastal Erosion and Deposition:
Man can have relatively little impact on the forces that govern
waves, tides and currents, but he has had some effect on coastal erosion
and deposition at the shoreline by building various structures and by
removing beach material for ballast or construction.

36
Hence various engineering structures such as groynes,

breakwaters and seawalls have had to be built to check marine erosion.
However, these are not only extremely expensive to build and maintain, but
often defeat the object of the exercise, since by checking erosion in one place
they may lead to its increase elsewhere.
Modification of the Atmosphere
The global heat balance has changed over the last few decades,
and we might ask ourselves how much of this a result of man polluting the
atmosphere is. It is certainly evident that pollution has marked local effects
on the atmosphere.
Atmospheric changes induced by man may be grouped into three

categories:
1. The introduction of solids and gases not normally found in the

atmosphere (pollutants);
2. changes in proportions of the natural component gases of the
atmosphere;
3. And alterations of the Earth's surface in such a way as to affect
the atmosphere.
Pollutants in the Atmosphere:
To city-dwellers the most obvious way in which man has

affected the atmosphere is through pollution. Pollutants include particulate
matter, both solid and liquid particles, and gaseous substances such as
sulphur dioxide (S02), oxides of nitrogen (NO, N02, N03), carbon monoxide
(CO) and hydrocarbon compounds. But not all man-made pollution comes
from cities. Isolated industrial activities frequently create a footprint of
atmospheric pollution in areas of countryside downwind from the industrial
site.
Mining and quarrying activities also send large amounts of

mineral dust into the air. Even man-induced forest and grass fires as well as
bonfires, can greatly add to particulate pollution at certain times of year.
Once in the atmosphere, the primary pollutants undergo a

number of chemical reactions, generating a secondary group of pollutants.
For example, sulphur dioxide (S02) combines with oxygen and suspended
water droplets to produce sulphuric acid. This acid is harmful to organic
tissues and is also very corrosive. Photochemical reactions are brought
about by the action of sunlight: for example, sunlight acting on nitrogen
oxides and organic compounds produces ozone (03). Another toxic chemical
produced by photochemical action is ethylene.

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The harmful effects of atmospheric pollution on plant and

animal life are manifold. For humans, many pollutants are irritant to the
eyes and dangerous to the respiratory system.
Changes in Atmospheric Gas Levels:
Of the main natural constituent gases in the atmosphere,

carbon dioxide (C02) and oxygen (02) are the most critical from an
environmental viewpoint, for both are inextricably involved in the
biochemical cycles between atmosphere and the surface of the Earth.
Although nitrogen comprises four fifths of the atmosphere, its inert chemical
nature relegates it to a minor role in this respect. Oxygen and carbon
dioxide are naturally added to the atmosphere by 'out gassing' from the
Earth's interior. The work of plants has been essential in removing carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it as coal and other fossil organic
substances.
Before the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels appear to

have been about 290 parts per million in the atmosphere. But in the last
hundred years or so, this amount has increased by about 40 per cent to 400
ppm, largely because of man's use of fossil fuels. It has been suggested that,
in contrast to the effect of solid particles, an increased level in carbon
dioxide content will increase the temperature of the atmosphere, since the
gas is an absorber of long-wave radiation.
It has been pointed out also that man's large-scale combustion

of hydrocarbon fuels requires a large quantity of oxygen to be withdrawn
from the atmosphere and converted into carbon dioxide and water vapour.
There is therefore the possibility of a lowering of the oxygen content of the
atmosphere to levels which might have a detrimental effect on animal life.
Changes in water vapour levels brought about by man through

combustion and alterations to the vegetation cover could in theory markedly
affect global radiation and heat balances in the same manner as changes in
carbon dioxide levels. But water vapour content varies greatly from place to
place and it is difficult to measure global changes.
Alterations to the Earth's Surface:
Meteorological processes close to the ground are extremely

sensitive to the character of the Earth's surface and man's alteration of this
through deforestation, agricultural practice and urbanisation has had
several important effects. One result of these activities is to alter the rate of
evapotranspiration. The complete removal of a forest cover will sharply

38
reduce transpiration and thus the amount of water returning to the

atmosphere in vapour form.
Another important consequence of surface change is to alter the

temperature characteristics of the atmosphere nearest the ground; closely
built urban areas develop their own heat island on calm nights in summer.
A third climatic element that may be modified when man alters

the ground surface is the wind. Trees and hedges effectively break the wind,
causing a simultaneous diminution in evaporation and in the carbon dioxide
exchange close to the ground.
Modification of Ecosystems
With the beginnings of agriculture, far-reaching effects, both

obvious and subtle, were introduced into ecosystems. Man gradually became
more sophisticated in knowing just how much to modify an ecosystem in
order to harvest the crop he wanted. In achieving this end, he has inevitably
simplified ecosystems, disrupted nutrient cycling, introduced alien species
and eliminated others, and caused pollution. Only in recent years has there
been an awareness of some of the consequences of ecosystem modification.
Simplification:
The most general effect of man on ecosystems is that he tends

to simplify them. This comes about because man's prime concern is to direct
energy and material cycling in the system towards him so that he can easily
crop them. Species other than the ones he wants to crop are regarded as
weeds or pests, and he attempts to eliminate them. Hence, reduction in
species diversity, often to a single species population, is a notable
characteristic of man's impact on ecosystems.
The degree of simplification varies enormously. In remote areas

still only inhabited by hunters and gatherers, man may in fact add another
trophic level to the rest of the food web. Primitive shifting agriculture in
tropical rainforests represents only a temporary simplification and cropping
of the natural system as the plot is only cultivated for a few years and then
abandoned. On the other hand, grazing economies exhibit a much greater
degree of ecosystem simplification.
Ecosystem simplification of this type often results in disastrous

side-effects. A single species population, such as a field of wheat or a herd of
cows, offers great opportunity for the development and spread of disease,
pests and parasites.

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Eutrophication:
When chemical fertilizers are applied to the land, many of the

elements contained in them are retained by the soil, adding to the clay-
humus complex. However, certain ions are not retained, and among them is
nitrate, an important constituent of most fertilizers. Nitrate is being added to
the soil from fertilizers and nitrogen-fixing plants at a much faster rate than
it can be broken down by denitrifying agents in the soil. Being soluble, it is
rapidly leached out into rivers and lakes. Here, the increased nitrogen input
permits the accelerated growth of plants, algae and other phytoplankton:
this chemical enrichment resulting in increased productivity is called
eutrophication.
Unfortunately, in extreme form the outcome is ultimately

harmful, since the plants and organisms die and decompose at such a rapid
rate that oxygen levels fall until aquatic life becomes impossible. A severe
example of eutrophication has occurred in recent years in Lake Erie, North
America, where deep layers of decaying organic matter have covered large
stretches of the shoreline.
Effect on Individual Species:
The extinction or reduction in numbers of plant and animal

populations is a well-known consequence of man's impact on the
environment. Often the species become endangered not so much by hunting
or conscious elimination, but by the disruption and fragmentation of
habitats. Some species, particularly large predators, require an extensive
area of specialised habitat in which to breed and hunt, and fragmentation of
this by man's interference has frequently had disastrous effects. The marsh
harrier {Circus aeruginosus} a large raptorial bird of reed beds and fens, is a
prime example of this.
A contrary but equally far-reaching effect has been the

accidental or purposeful introduction of alien species into ecosystems. Some
animals and plants, because of their greater genetic adaptability and high
reproductive rates have often made places for themselves at the expense of
native species.
Under natural conditions, ecosystems have been in a state of

ecological equilibrium. With the increasing impact of man, their essential
characteristics are altered, so that now signs of severe imbalance or a
declining efficiency are beginning to be observed in many of them. This is
shown, for example, by the progressive devastation of formerly good fertile
agricultural or grazing land through over-intensive use; in the reduction of

40
species when secondary forest replaces primary forest; in a general loss of

biological productivity; and in an increasing amount of pollution.
Positive Effects of Human Activities
Not all the ways that humans affect the ecosystem are negative.
Every time you recycle used paper, plastic or metal, or pick up a piece of
trash from the sidewalk, you have a positive impact on the environment.
Others are committing their time and energy to large projects to positively
change the ecosystem. In 2011, for example, a 16-year old inventor named
Boyan Slat, created a device that can sweep the plastic from the ocean. He
later founded The Ocean Cleanup project to begin putting that technology to
use. It could clean up half the plastic currently in the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch in five years.
Global and Regional Ecological changes and Imbalances:

We live in a world where humans are having profound impacts
on the global environment. Climate is warming, the populations of many
species are in decline, pollution is affecting ecosystems and human health,
and human societies now face new risks in terms of sea level changes,
disease, food security, and climate extremes.
Scientists who study global environmental change are interested

in learning how drivers of environmental change (including human
population growth and consumption, energy use, land use changes, and
pollution) impact biological systems across many scales — from the level of
the individual organism, to populations, communities, and ecosystems
(Vitousek 1994). Global environmental change science is therefore a highly
multidisciplinary effort, involving physical scientists who study climate, the
oceans, the atmosphere, and geology, as well as biologists investigating
physiology, evolution, and ecology.
Drivers of Global Change
Human Population and Consumption
Almost 7 billion people now live on Earth. Rapid growth of the

human population, especially over the last 300 years, is one of the most
remarkable trends in population change ever observed. Demographers
project that world population will rise to 9 billion by 2050 and level off
somewhere between 9–12 billion people by the end of the century. In many
modern societies, more people require more resources, such as crops,
seafood, forest products, energy, and minerals and increasingly larger
economies to support economic development and rising standards of living.

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Population growth and the increased demand for natural resources is

therefore a major factor driving global environmental change.
The population story is more complex, however, because there

is not a simple relationship between the number of people and the amount
of resources consumed. Affluence, or the wealth per person, and the social
norms of consumption are also important. For example, the populations of
China and India are roughly 1.32 and 1.14 billion people, respectively —
about four times that of the US. However, the energy consumption per
person in the US is six times larger than that of a person in China, and 15
times that of a person in India. Because the demand for resources like
energy is often greater in wealthy, developed nations like the US, this means
that countries with smaller populations can actually have a greater overall
environmental impact. Over much of the past century, the US was the
largest greenhouse gas emitter because of high levels of affluence and energy
consumption. In 2007, China overtook the US in terms of overall
CO2 emissions as a result of economic development, increasing personal
wealth, and the demand for consumer goods, including automobiles.
Energy Use/Climate Change
Worldwide, fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) dominate our
energy consumption, accounting for 85% of all energy used. As mentioned
previously, the rapid rise of fossil fuels is a relatively recent phenomenon,
developing in the nineteenth century with the discovery of oil and the
industrialization of economies, and expanding rapidly in the twentieth
century with increased economic development and rising populations and
affluence. From 1860–1991, energy use per person rose more than 93 fold
compared to a world population increase of four fold, indicating that rising
affluence and consumption are driving energy demand (Cohen 1995).
Burning fossil fuels releases about 8.5 billion tons of carbon (as
CO2) into the atmosphere each year, causing its concentration to increase
and Earth‘s greenhouse warming to strengthen, which leads to rising global
air temperatures. Since 1880, average global air temperature has risen
approximately 0.9°C. The top five CO2-emitting countries/regions are China,
US, EU, Russia, and India, which together account for two thirds of global
emissions.
Global change scientists use climate models to determine how

added greenhouse gases affect changes in air temperature and precipitation.
If fossil fuel burning continues at current rates, global temperatures may
rise by as much as 4°C by the year 2100 (IPCC 2007). Precipitation
changes are expected to lead to increased rainfall in mid-to-high latitude

42
regions, but increased droughts are projected for subtropical regions (IPCC
2007).
Land Use Changes
Landscapes are changing worldwide, as natural land covers like

forests, grasslands, and deserts are being converted to human-dominated
ecosystems, including cities, agriculture, and forestry (Figure 2). Between
2000– 2010, approximately 13 million hectares of land (an area the size of
Greece) were converted each year to other land cover types (FAO 2010).
Developed regions like the US and Europe experienced significant losses of
forest and grassland cover over the past few centuries during phases of
economic growth and expansion. More recently, developing nations have
experienced similar losses over the past 60 years, with significant forest
losses in biologically diverse regions like Southeast Asia, South America,
and Western Africa.
Land use changes affect the biosphere in several ways. They often reduce
native habitat, making it increasingly difficult for species to survive. Some
land use changes, such as deforestation and agriculture, remove native
vegetation and diminish carbon uptake by photosynthesis as well as hasten
soil decomposition, leading to additional greenhouse gas release. Almost
20% of the global CO2 released to the atmosphere (1.5–2 billion tons of
carbon) is thought to come from deforestation.
Pollution
One of the by-products of economic development has been the

production of pollution — products and waste materials that are harmful to
human and ecological health. The rise of pollution corresponds to the
increased use of petroleum in the twentieth century, as new synthetic
products such as plastics, pesticides, solvents, and other chemicals, were
developed and became central to our lives. Many air pollutants, including
nitrogen and sulphur oxides, fine particulates, lead, carbon monoxide, and
ground-level ozone come from coal and oil consumption by power plants and
automobiles. Heavy metals, such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic,
are produced from mining, the burning of fossil fuels, and the manufacture
of certain products like metals, paints, and batteries.
Aquatic ecosystems such as rivers, lakes, and coastal oceans

have traditionally been used for pollution disposal from industry and sewage
treatment plants, but they have also been subject to unintentional runoff
from upland watersheds, such as nitrogen and phosphorus loss from
agricultural soils and home septic systems as well as plastics washed into
rivers and oceans from storm sewer systems. We often don‘t think of

43
nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus as pollutants. However, humans

now add more nitrogen to the biosphere through fertilizers than is added
naturally each year by all of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria on the planet
(Vitousek 1994). The Pacific and Atlantic oceans now have garbage patches
full of plastic that are possibly as large as the continental US. These are
strong indicators of global change — humanity now dominates the global
movement of nitrogen and other materials on Earth.
Environmental degradation affects mankind at a global scale

regardless of any particular country, region or race. Few examples of
environmental issues of global significance are: Ozone layer depletion,
Global warming and Loss of biodiversity. During last three decades
man‘s physical and biological environment, is witnessing rapid changes.
Lack of proper judgment in massive use and misuse of technology has
created global environmental problems.
Ozone layer depletion:
Earth's atmosphere is divided into three regions, namely

troposphere; stratosphere and mesosphere. The ozone layer, in the
stratosphere acts as an efficient filter for harmful solar Ultraviolet rays. In
recent years, scientists have measured a seasonal thinning of the ozone
layer primarily at the South Pole. This phenomenon is being called the ozone
hole. Increased penetration of solar UV-B radiation is likely to have high
impact on human health, forests and grasslands, etc. The ozone layer,
therefore, is highly beneficial to plant and animal life on earth filtering out
the dangerous part of sun's radiation and allowing only the beneficial part to
reach earth. Any disturbance or depletion of this layer would result in an
increase of harmful radiation reaching the earth's surface leading to
dangerous consequences.
Causes of ozone layer depletion Ozone (O3) layer can be destroyed both by
natural and man-made causes-
i. Natural causes: A number of naturally occurring substances destroy

stratospheric ozone. Most important of these compounds are:
Hydrogen oxide (HOx), Methane (CH4), Hydrogen gas (H2), Nitrogen
oxides (NOx). Chlorine monoxide (ClO); during volcanic eruptions,
significant amount of chlorine may be released in the stratosphere.
Tiny particulate matter in the stratosphere, known as stratospheric
aerosols, may also lead to ozone destruction.
ii. Human activity related causes: Any event, which release chlorine
atoms into the atmospheric, can cause severe ozone destruction,
because chlorine atoms in the stratosphere can destroy ozone very
efficiently. Most damaging among such agents are human made

44
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which is widely used as refrigerants and

to pressurize sprays cans. In stratosphere, chlorine atoms from CFCs
react with ozone to form chlorine monoxide and oxygen molecule.
Effect of O3-layer depletion
Measures to prevent ozone (O3) layer depletion
Global awareness and action on the part of world community in the

form of Helsinki (1989), Montreal (1990‘s) conventions and protocol have
had some important success on this front. A complete ban on the use of
CFCs and other ozone destroying chemicals is recommended. Further, use
of HCFCs (Hydrochloric fluorocarbons) as a substitute for CFCs is being
recommended on temporary basis because HCFCs are relatively less
damaging to ozone layer as compared to CFCs, but they are not completely
ozone safe.
Global warming:
Over the years, it was found out that the earth is relatively
getting warmer and warmer. The key greenhouse gas (GHG) causing global
warming is carbon dioxide. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), even though they
exist in very small quantities, too contribute to global warming, significantly.

45
Effect on living beings:
• Increased CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere may increase

photosynthetic productivity of plants. This in turn produces more
organic matter. It may seem a positive effect. But, then-
• Weeds may proliferate rapidly and that too at the expense of useful
plants.
• Insects and other pests that feed on plants may also increase in
number.
• Survival of other organisms gets affected
Strategies to cope with greenhouse effect
We must take immediate steps to minimize global warming by

reducing emission of greenhouse gases especially carbon dioxides.
Following steps would be useful in reducing emission/release of greenhouse
gases into the atmosphere:

46
• Increased fuel efficiency of power plants and vehicles;

• Development/implementation of solar energy/non-fossil fuel
alternatives;
• Halting deforestation;
• Supporting and undertaking tree-planting (afforestation);
• Reduce air-pollution.
Loss of biodiversity:
Biodiversity refers to the variety of life on earth, and its

biological diversity. It actually boosts ecosystem productivity where each
species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play and that it
is in this combination that enables the ecosystem to possess the ability to
prevent and recover from a variety of disasters. But nowadays human
activity is changing biodiversity and causing massive extinctions. Rapid
global warming can affect ecosystem‘s chances to adapt naturally.
The reasons for ecological imbalance are associated with the

increasing industrialization, irrational waste of natural resources,
deforestation, water pollution — all this because of what ecological disaster
is happening. Harming nature, man jeopardizes its existence. This also
creates a lot of trouble for mankind: a demographic crisis, hunger, lack of
natural resources and destruction of the environment. Unjustified
deforestation leads to the disappearance of animals and birds. This leads to
changes in the ecological balance.
Impact of Eco-imbalance
Some important impacts of polluted environment and imbalanced

ecosystems are as follows:
Effects on Human Health
Polluted air, water and land generate many harmful chemical

and biological agents that have a negative impact on human health. A wide
range of communicable diseases can be spread through the elements of
environment polluted by human and animal waste products. This is clearly
evidenced by the plagues of the middle ages, when the disease spread
through rats that were fed on contaminated human waste. Although major
diseases transmitted via the environment have been almost eliminated in
developed countries through immunization and sanitation programmes, no
country is totally immune from outbreaks of environmentally transmitted
diseases, as the outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in
2003 in many countries clearly proved.

47
Soil Degradation
The protection of soil against the hazards of degradation is

essential if the productivity of soil has to be sustained. Soil degradation has
many causes, but the immediate concerns are improper land use, soil
erosion, and acidification, and salinisation, water-logging and chemical
degradation. Soil erosion is the washing or blowing away of the surface soil.
Erosion may take place under natural conditions, but it is greatly increased
when human activities cause disappearance of the protective cover of
natural vegetation. Acidification and salinisation directly reduce soil fertility.
They may be caused by acid rain and accumulation of water soluble salts in
the soil. Chemical degradation of soil may occur if the nutrients in the soil
are leached out or harmful chemicals like DDT and radioactive substances.
Soil erosion is a global problem.
Desertification
The term "desert" encompasses a wide range of
environmental complexes:
1. Rainless deserts, where rainfall is not an annually recurring event.

2. Run-off deserts, where the annual rainfall is low (less than 100 mm)
and variable.
3. Rainfall deserts, where the rainfall is insufficient for crop production
(100-200 mm).
4. Man-made deserts, parts of the semi-arid areas (rainfall 200-350 mm)
that have been transformed into deserts due to man's over-
exploitation of the land.
Desertification results from the combined effect of two factors;

severe recurrent droughts and human over-exploitation of drylands. The
cures for desertification have been known for a long time. They consist of
the reverse processes, i.e., biological recovery of environmental conditions,
naturally or artificially induced. Considerable experience in combating
desertification has been acquired by the US, Australia and Israel but
corrective measures are expensive though net benefits would certainly
exceed the costs.
Genetic Resource Depletion
The genetic material contained in the domesticated varieties of

crop plants, trees, livestock, aquatic animals and microorganisms is
essential for the breeding programmes in which continued improvements in
yields, nutritional quality, flavour, durability, pest and disease resistance,
responsiveness to different soils and many other qualities are achieved.
Because of intensive selection for high performance and uniformity, the

48
genetic base of much food production in modern times has grown

dangerously narrow.
Contamination of Food
Chemical contaminants reach food and livestock feed from

many sources. Pesticides used in farming often find their way into crops. In
addition, veterinary drugs and animal growth promoting chemicals may
pass into meat and dairy products like milk and butter. Some food
preservatives like sodium nitrite, chemicals and materials contained in food
packaging may also enter the packaged food. Crops may be chemically
contaminated by the airborne deposition of industrial emissions or by
industrial effluents. The current trend to centralize food processing,
handling and distribution of food and the greater reliance on large storage
facilities may aggravate some of the above problems.
Whole world is the stakeholder in creating awareness for

protection of environment and combating the environmental degradation.
Environmental degradation is a social problem and considering its impact
on society, law courts need to take a pro-active action in regard to
environmental protection by implementing the laws that have come up to
combat the environmental degradation. More so, as environmental
degradation has social implications because it impacts the socio-economic
progress of the nation. Failure on the part of the governmental agencies to
effectively enforce environmental laws and non-compliance with statutory
norms by polluters resulted in an accelerated degradation of environment.
Environmental problems are not confined only to a particular nation, but
have become the problems of international community.
It has been realized by mankind that living and nonliving

elements in the environment keep interacting with one another to maintain
a mutual balance called ―ecological balance‖. But regrettably, man in his
journey to civilization started polluting his own environment. And it has, of
late, dawned upon him to resort to ―sustainable development‖ as a part of
distributive justice- think of future generations too and make the planet
earth fit for the coming generations.
Ecological Imbalance in India

The following points highlight the five main factors responsible for ecological
imbalance in India. The factors are:
1. Degradation of Land and Soil Erosion

2. Deforestation
3. Faulty Utilisation of Water Resources

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4. Environmental Problems from Faulty Mining Practices

5. Industrial and Atmospheric Pollution.
Degradation of Land and Soil Erosion:
The Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India has reported

about the serious problem of land degradation and soil erosion as given in
Table.
Table reveals that about 174 million hectares (i.e., 53 per cent of
the total land area) of land in India is facing the serious problem of land
degradation out of which 144 million hectares is subjected to soil erosion
through water and wind and the rest 30 million hectares is subjected to
other problems. Moreover, heavy population pressure has led to conversion
of forest and permanent pastures into crop lands leading to indiscriminate
grazing.
Deforestation:
Large scale deforestation has been continuing since

independence due to overexploitation and mismanagement of forest
resources. During the first two decades of planning (i.e., from 1951 to 1972)
India lost about 3.4 million hectares of forestland out of which about 70 per
cent of that area was lost to river valley projects, roads and communications
and industries. Deforestation is still continuing at a rapid scale and the
problem has reached to such a proportion that it has totally disturbed the
ecological balance of the country.
The National Committee on Environmental Planning has

remarked that total land surface having adequate tree cover is not more
than 12 per cent of the total geographical area of the country, although the
official statistics show it as 22 per cent of the total geographical area.
The degree of deforestation in Himalayan ranges from Kashmir

to North-East India is very high. All these have led to an ecological collapse
in the country.

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Faulty Utilisation of Water Resources:
Being one of the wettest countries of the world India is still

suffering from flood and droughts due to faulty utilisation of water
resources. Since independence, too much importance was laid on the
development of big dams.
But these gigantic dams have displaced crores of tribal people,

drowned million hectares of rich forest areas, failed to prevent and control
floods and often created destructive flash flood in the downstream valley. As
per one recent estimate, it is found that area affected by floods in India has
increased from 20 million hectares in 1971 to 40 million hectares at present.
Moreover, these huge dams and multi-purpose projects have created an
environmental impact in the form of degradation of soil in the command
areas due to continuous water logging and increasing soil salinity.
The major portion of increasing salinity affected areas lies in the

Indo-Gangetic plains of U.P., Punjab and Haryana.
Environmental Problems from Faulty Mining Practices:
In India large scale extraction of minerals are creating serious

environmental problems, ruining the country‘s land, water, forest and air.
Large scale mining has resulted in conversion of agricultural and forest land
into stockyards townships, roads, railway lines etc. and removed vegetation
and top soil.
The disposal of mining waste, mineral dust from mines are

constantly polluting air and also reducing agricultural productivity.
Underground mines are often creating subsidence of land due to it‘s over
exploitation. Mining activity is also polluting water resources as the rain
waters, passing through mineral wastes, are flowing into rivers and streams.
Mining operation has also resulted large scale deforestation, soil

erosion and is also responsible for various health hazards to human beings
in the form of respiratory problem and other illness. Thus in the new
Mineral Policy, 1993, attempts have been made to check this environmental
pollution arising out of mining operations and to follow some reclamation
measures.
Industrial and Atmospheric Pollution:
In India, unplanned and uncontrolled growth of industries and

ill-maintained automobiles are creating huge atmospheric pollution
regularly leading to huge environmental problems. The main atmospheric

51
pollutants include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen,

sulphur dioxide, hydrocarbon and metallic traces.
Besides some specific pollutants are also being mixed with

atmosphere which include lead from automobile emission, urea dust from
fertilizer factory, cement and lime dust from cement factories, increasing
radiation of nuclear power stations etc.
Moreover, industrial wastes coming out of fertiliser factories,

paper mills, leather factories are constantly being discharged in rivers, lakes
and seas, creating huge health hazards for the population of the country.
Thus under this present situation, environmental problems of

India are being added in increasing proportion. Thus it is high time that
planners and policy makers of the country should take necessary steps to
reduce the degree of environmental pollution in the country and should
preserve proper environment at any cost.
Ecosystem Management and Conservation

The widespread current concern over the status of ecosystems
is the product of a movement that has slowly been gathering momentum
over the last hundred years or so. Currently, of course, conservation has
become a much wider issue than the maintenance of natural biological
systems.
Ecosystem management is a process that aims to conserve

major ecological services and restore natural resources while meeting the
socioeconomic, political and cultural and needs of current and future
generations. The principal objective of ecosystem management is the
efficient maintenance and ethical use of natural resources. It is a
multifaceted and holistic approach which requires a significant change in
how the natural and human environments are identified.
Many people and organizations have defined ecosystem

management. The following examples represent a cross-section of
definitions. There are two themes common to most of these definitions of
ecosystem management: (1) management should maintain or improve
ecosystems; and (2) ecosystems should provide a range of goods and
services to current and future generations.
―Regulating internal ecosystem structure and function, plus inputs and

outputs, to achieve socially desirable conditions‖ (Agee and Johnson 1987)

52
―The strategy by which, in aggregate, the full array of forest values and
functions is maintained at the landscape level. Coordinated management at
the landscape level, including across ownerships, is an essential
component.‖ (Society of American Foresters 1993)
―A strategy or plan to manage ecosystems for all associated organisms, as

opposed to a strategy or plan for managing individual species‖ (Forest
Ecosystem Management Assessment Team, 1993)
―a resource management system designed to maintain or enhance ecosystem

health and productivity while producing essential commodities and other
values to meet human needs and desires within the limits of socially,
biologically and economically acceptable risk‖ (American Forest Paper
Association Forest Resources Board, 1993)
―Integrating scientific knowledge of ecological relationships within a complex

socio-political and values framework toward the general goal of protecting
native ecosystem integrity over the long term‖ (Grumbine, 1994)
―Management driven by explicit goals, executed by policies, protocols, and

practices, and made adaptable by monitoring and research based on our
best understanding of the ecological interactions and processes necessary to
sustain ecosystem structure and function‖ (Christensen et al. 1996)
Components of ecosystem management are:
Consideration of the connections between different levels of

biodiversity (genes, species, populations, ecosystems, landscapes).
Inclusion of appropriate spatial scales to include the relevant

ecological processes; definition of ecological boundaries rather than
administrative boundaries.
Acceptance of human society as part of the ecosystem; consideration

of current requirements for maintenance of environment in order to
meet future needs.
Emulation of natural disturbance regimes in order to maintain

biodiversity.
Maintenance of ecological integrity through the protection of viable

populations, patterns and processes of all native species.
Consideration of appropriate time scales: Adoption of long-term

planning.

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Introduction of management experiments with experimental design,

including adequate monitoring and documentation of the effects of the
management, in order to learn.
Promotion of interagency coordination and communication with

society.
One aspect of ecosystem management is the preservation and

protection of wild life or of natural habitats from modification and depletion
by man. This may be carried out for a combination of ethical, scientific or
aesthetic reasons. To this end, nature reserves, wildlife refuges and similar
controlled areas have been set up all over the world, designed to protect a
particular habitat and its communities. These have not always been entirely
successful. A classic example of the lack of understanding of ecological
principles occurred with the establishment of National Parks in East Africa:
these were designed originally to protect game animals, man being excluded
except as a sightseer. But as a result, animals such as elephant, hippo and
buffalo, whose populations had formerly been kept in check by hunting,
increased to an extent that widespread devastation of their habitat resulted.
What has been often overlooked in the past in environmental management
is, first, that ecosystems cannot simply be 'preserved', but are dynamic in
character, and second, man is an important habitat factor in many cases:
the ecological niche occupied by him cannot suddenly be left vacant.
A second element of ecosystem management, one which has

come much more to the fore in recent years, is that of maintaining sustained
yield from organic resources. This idea was first applied to the maintenance
of the breeding stocks of marine animals and to forestry practice. It is also
implicit in the principles of soil conservation, the aim of which is to sustain
agricultural fertility. Many authorities would maintain that this is by far the
most important aspect of ecosystem maintenance, and that in the face of
growing pressure on food resources, the protection of wild life for non-
productive reasons is a luxury we can ill afford.
In summary, there clearly is a need to ensure that

environmental management permits the maximum use of biological
resources consistent with the maintenance of the greatest diversity of
organic life.

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“Ecosystem Management: The Need to Adopt a Different Approach

under a Changing Climate- By Musonda Mumba, Richard Munang and Mike
Rivington, United Nations Environment Programme/Macaulay Land Use
Research Institute”
The authors argue the need for a fundamental shift in the way
ecosystems are valued and managed due to the threats posed by intensifying
multiple pressures from a changing climate and unsustainable demands for
ecosystem services. They point out that complex political arenas make it hard to
achieve consensus on viable solutions and that ecosystems are an undervalued
commodity in the current economic model and political decision making process.
Describing ecosystems as the "win-win-win" link between mitigation, adaptation and
sustainability, they propose four strategies for prioritizing ecosystem protection.
In reality "˜ecosystems' exist as complex socio-ecological systems, due

to the intervention by society through management, resource use and pollution.
However, our current economic models have led to the worst form of market failure,
where the resources underpinning human society are being degraded. Whilst there
will be a continuing need for developing existing practices of incorporating
ecosystems "˜thinking' into decision making, it is likely that the current level of
urgency is insufficient to deal with the substantial threats posed. There is therefore
a need for a more radical change where human society places the conservation and
sustainable management of ecosystems and the services they provide at the heart
of decision making. Ecosystems are an undervalued commodity in the current
economic model and process of political decision making. In this article it is argued
that ecosystem management must be given a primary priority to protect the vital
ecosystem services we all depend on.
Defining the problem
Whilst human caused greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the

global capacity to absorb them is declining due to ecosystem degradation.
Continuation of this imbalance will lead to climate instability and reduce essential
ecosystem services. Appropriate valuation, protection and management of the
world's ecosystems will achieve two vital objectives:
6. Cost effective mitigation and adaptation for climate stabilisation

through use of natural carbon sequestration processes.
7. Secured delivery of essential ecosystem services, such as clean air,
food and water security.
Climate stabilisation can only be achieved by balancing emissions

sources (human and natural) and the global ecosystems' sink capacity. The
protection and management of the world's ecosystems offers a highly cost effective
multiple "˜win' mechanism for mitigation by enhancing sink capacity and protects
the essential life supporting ecosystem services that will enable societal adaptation
to climate change. Even if there were no human activities on Earth, carbon would
flow through the atmosphere because of natural biological and geological activity.

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Our planet is a dynamic geological and biological system. It produces and absorbs
carbon and other greenhouse gases through a range of natural cycles and across a
wide variety of ecosystems, which has resulted in past climate patterns in
conjunctions with planetary variations (i.e. the Milankovitch Cycles and solar
activity).
Human activity has intervened in these natural carbon cycles in two main ways:
By creating major new sources of carbon emissions from the use of fossil
fuels;
By degrading natural sinks of carbon by polluting or transforming natural
ecosystems.
The combined result of these human interventions has been to

change the planetary balance between the sources, sinks and storage pools of
carbon. Put crudely, Earth is now emitting more carbon to the atmosphere than it
can absorb. This changing imbalance is reflected in a progressive increase in CO2
concentrations in the atmosphere which has led to climate change. Putting these
things together, it can be seen that there are three main components to the global
carbon cycle.
 Those emissions due to human activity.
 Those emissions from ecosystems.
 There is only one assured sink: the capacity of global ecosystems to absorb
carbon.
Figure: Imbalance of components for climate stabilisation

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The key observation here is that global and regional ecosystems

function as the main climate regulators, both in releasing greenhouse gases
(sources) and sequestrating them (sinks) and in other direct and indirect
interactions with the climate.
 Ecosystems currently absorb about half of anthropogenic CO2 emissions

(oceans about 24% and land about 30%). The remaining amount is the
addition to the atmospheric pool.
 But ecosystem absorptive capacity is declining by about 1% per decade and

is likely to decline more rapidly due to climate change and human impacts.
At the present time emissions due to human activity are increasing:
 Current estimates put the annual global emissions of CO2 due to human
activities at about 10 gigatons, of which about 1.5 Gt is from land use
change (mainly deforestation).
The net effect is an increasing imbalance between emissions and absorption

capacity. Therefore to achieve climate stabilisation there is need to manage all three
components of the global carbon cycle, not just those resulting from fossil fuels and
other human activities. The key problem is that only one component of the three-way
balance is concentrated on as part of the post-2012 negotiations. The current policy is
too focused on human based emissions. The risk of this situation is that regulating
human based emissions will be insufficient to achieve climate stabilisation.
Climate stabilisation: the need for balance
Examining the global carbon cycle suggests that whilst reducing emissions
from human activity must form the basis of our stabilisation strategy it should not
be the only part. Indeed there is no guarantee that significant reductions of
anthropogenic emissions would on their own result in stabilisation.
As a simplified representation, a three way balance describes the global climate

stabilisation problem:
Climate stability = Global ecosystems' capacity to absorb GHGs - (natural

emissions from ecosystems + human induced emissions)
The evolution of this will determine to a large extent the speed and magnitude of
human induced climate change and the mitigation requirements to stabilise CO2
(and other GHG) concentrations at any given level. Currently the equation is set so
as to lead towards climate instability (see Figure).
The dangerous paradox is that if emissions due to human activity

increase as they are doing, emissions from ecosystems are likely to increase as well
(due to positive feedback mechanisms), whilst the capacity of ecosystems to absorb
emissions decreases. Such an imbalance poses substantial risks of irreversible
climate destabilisation. As can be seen from Figure, ecosystems function in two of
the three components of the stabilisation balance.

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Again, the danger of not fully recognising and accounting for the role
ecosystems play in climate regulation, and looking solely at human based
emissions risks addressing only one side of the three way balance. To achieve
stabilisation (or climate resilience), there is need to balance the three components
in ways that:
 Maximise the global ecosystem capacity to absorb GHGs,
 Minimise emissions from ecosystems (or at least be able to quantify what

they are and understand how the processes work) and crucially,
 Reduce emissions due to human activity.
Therefore ecosystems play an unequivocal and increasingly important

role in both ecosystem-based mitigation (carbon sequestration and storage) and
ecosystem-based adaptation (i.e. foundation to societal adaptation to climate
change impacts).
Ecosystems: the "˜Win-Win-Win' link between mitigation, adaptation and

sustainability
An ecosystems approach can fulfil objectives for both mitigation of,

and adaptation to, climate change as well as being the foundation for long term
sustainability. Protecting ecosystems provides multiple benefits, both directly
through sustainable management of biological resources and, indirectly through
protection of ecosystem services:
 Social - Secure livelihoods, particularly for the poor; public health benefits;
cultural and aesthetic values; community support.
 Economic - Resilient ecosystems secure service provision to support all

forms of economic activity.
 Climate regulation - ecosystems function as tools for mitigation, through

appropriate management to reduce natural sources of emissions or increase
absorption capacity.
 Environmental - Resilient healthy ecosystems have the capacity to support

long-term sustainability.
These together provide countless streams of cost effective benefits and

opportunities to human societies (economic, cultural, health and many more).
Indeed, a fourth 'win' can be added in that profitable outcomes can be generated by
utilising the benefits of healthy ecosystems. It is important to emphasise that the
solutions are attainable. Some are relatively straightforward and could be
developed immediately and at low cost, whilst others will need careful planning,
development and larger investments.

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Ecosystems as a 'safety net'
The adoption of an ecosystems management approach at a global

scale will serve as a "˜safety net' against possible failures in the efforts to reduce
emissions from human activity. However, it must not be seen as an alternative to
reducing human emissions, but rather as a complementary mitigation and adaptation
approach.
Whilst it is vital to achieve agreement on emissions reduction, there is

no absolute guarantee that the targets set will be either correct for climate
stabilisation or met. It therefore follows, using the precautionary principle, that
ecosystems are protected and promoted as the primary mechanism for climate
regulation, as well as the foundation for supporting an adapting human society.
The risk is that traditional approaches to combined economic and environmental
issues (cost benefit analysis and risk assessments), are unable to deal with the
inherent uncertainty in ecosystem responses to climate change, and additional
pressures from a rapidly growing society. Without being able to define the resilience
capabilities of ecosystems, the security of them acting as a safety net is unknown.
Thus the argument goes that a considerably greater effort is needed to ensure the
health of ecosystems and that we do not exceed the tolerance limits. Hence there is
a much greater need for scientific understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem
processes so as to identify their vulnerability and risk of exceeding resilience. There
is a corresponding need to monitor the health of ecosystems and so better
recognise emerging threats.
People in the balance
There is need to balance many opposing demands and trade-offs

within the socio-ecological systems. Human population is expanding and the
expectation of an increasing number of people is for living standard improvement
and material gain, placing additional demands on resource use. To achieve a
balance there needs to be a shift in human expectations, aspirations and behaviour
and immediate resource use. At the same time it must be recognised that poverty
alleviation is a primary objective. The aspirations of the poor need to be respected
and support given to realise them, whilst on the other hand excessive resource
consumption needs to be reduced in order to achieve suitable levels of equity and
sustainability. Ecosystems provide the essential basics for livelihood provision,
particularly for the poor, whilst excessive resource demands from the wealthy
cause ecosystem degradation.
The key to many of the solutions in terms of practical application is through

behavioural change. Fundamentally, people adopt new ways of doing things if:
a. There is an economic benefit; and

b. There is a clear rationale as to why change is needed.
Thus in making effective change there is need for new economic systems, societal
level ethics and an ethos of collective responsibility, supported by an investment in
education.

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The Economics of Ecosystems
The publication of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity

final report at the Convention on Biological Diversity 10th Conference of the Parties
meeting in Nagoya, Japan, marks a turning point in the way ecosystems are valued
and therefore how they can be utilised. It sets out the basis on which there is a
need for valuation, and ways in which this can be achieved. The challenge is in
making these approaches part of the mainstream methods within economics. A key
question is also unanswered: "˜how long will it take to make the approaches
mainstream?' and therefore effective enough to halt the decline in ecosystem health
under the uncertainties of climate change and ecosystem resilience. A key factor in
determining this will be how much resistance there is from entrenched existing
economic thinking and vested interests in the current economic models.
The emphasis in this article is to support the aims of placing

ecosystem protection and valuation at the heart of economic and political decision
making. To facilitate the uptake of these aims, it is necessary to foster a society
wide understanding and appreciation of the importance biodiversity and
ecosystems have in providing the essential '˜life support systems' we depend on.
Once this is achieved, new policies and economic models will become easier to
develop and introduce. Providing evidence of the economic benefit of ecosystems is
a vital part in this process, but may be insufficient by itself. Without a fundamental
acceptance by all sections of society of the essential role biodiversity and ecosystem
have, there is a risk that market driven mechanisms aimed at protecting them will
only partially succeed. At worst, the market failures seen in the past that have
resulted in ecosystem degradation may be repeated. Engagement with politicians
and business leaders is thus essential in order to find the balance between
ecosystem protection and continued use of natural capital. So are integrated moves
towards low carbon economies, such as the Green Economy Initiative.
In order to provide a secure foundation for the transformational

change needed to develop sustainable resource use, using the precautionary
principle, there is need for a given level of predetermined essential conservation
and protection of ecosystems which economic activity cannot degrade. This would
maintain a fundamental level of ecosystem health and resilience in case of market
failures and uncertainty in climate change impacts.
Four complementary strategies
1. Political commitment. There must be a sense of urgency to raise the profile of

ecosystems in climate change and sustainability policy settings at local, national
and international levels.
2. Investment. There must be explicit inclusion of investments related to

ecosystem management and ecosystem protection, especially as part of a Global
Climate Change Fund. The scale of investment must be commensurate with the
value of the ecosystems services.

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3. Incentives. There must be a deliberate focus on introducing incentives to reduce

emissions, ease existing pressures on ecosystems and support changes that
increase environmental resilience and resource sustainability, including incentives
for increased land and water protection.
4. Information. There must be a solid commitment to establish comprehensive

information, and foster closer links, between ecosystem management, climate-
change adaptation and disaster risk reduction communities, as well as between
science, economics, politics and policy. In addition, there must be increased
information sharing between countries, including North-South and South-South
exchanges. Monitoring of crucial environmental variables and processes related to
ecosystem-based climate change mitigation and adaptation must be expanded and
supported over the long term.
The following are recommended to policy makers:
 Ensure ecosystem-based adaptation is an integral component of climate

change at international, national and regional scales.
 Governments recognize, acknowledge and fully value the role of healthy

ecosystems in climate change mitigation and adaptation and long term
sustainability.
 Emissions from ecosystems and the GHG stocks they store are included in
the sectors reported by the UNFCCC (adding to the human induced sectors).
 Existing stocks of carbon in ecosystems (such as soils and vegetation) must

be protected and prevented where possible from causing further emissions.
 Enhance ecosystem sink potential and avoid source risk (i.e. reduce
deforestation).
 Recognise the global "˜public good' of ecosystem interactions and ecosystem

services which transcend national boundaries.
 Align climate change policies with other relevant conventions, including

habitat, water and biodiversity conventions (such as the Convention on
Biological Diversity).
 Incorporate ecosystem-based mitigation within Nationally Appropriate

Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) and ecosystem-based adaptation into National
Adaptation Plans of Action (NAPAs).
 Encourage funding for national and local level projects that strengthen
ecosystem resilience and help build adaptation capacity in human systems.
 Develop education, training and communication capabilities.
 Emphasize strategies that promote: a) Legally-designated and effectively

managed protected areas, and b) Integrated sustainable resource use from
ecosystems.

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 Support research and action on: a) Climate-ecosystems interactions and

feedbacks. b) Ecosystem processes and functions. c) Increasing our
understanding of the complex inter-relationships between society and
ecosystems, and d) Development of climate modelling that includes
ecosystem feedbacks.
Conclusions
Developing policies and economic strategies that place ecosystems

and the services they provide at the centre of future economic development and
climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts will result in positive benefits to
all people of the world. An ecosystems approach is an essential, cost effective part
of the '˜tool kit' to tackle climate change and progress towards long-term
sustainability. Multiple cost-effective benefits include:
 Enhanced climate regulation through re-balancing of the carbon cycle.
 Protection of essential ecosystem services including enhanced food and

water security, public health and societal wellbeing.
 Reduction of risks of further ecosystem degradation and subsequent societal

disruption.
Fundamentally, the Ecosystems Approach ensures that the essential

systems for life support on Earth are correctly valued, protected and managed.
Given the vital role ecosystems play in sustaining human society,

their current rate of degradation and the emerging threats due to climate change, it
is doubtful that existing approaches to integrating environmental concerns with
economic policy development will be sufficient by themselves to tackle the problems
we face. The threats posed by climate change and other sources of environmental
degradation place a high premium on the precautionary principle. Whilst command
and control, incentives, voluntary actions and other policy instruments, if properly
developed and resourced, can achieve substantial desirable changes, there is a
substantial risk that reliance on existing forms of intervention alone will be too
little and too slow. Therefore we need a wider societal level change towards
appreciating and valuing ecosystems and the services they provide. There is a need
both to combine the best mix of approaches currently available and for a
fundamental change in individual and societal level attitudes and methods of
evaluation of ecosystems so as to centralise their role and place them at the heart
of our economic models. Such a coupling of emerging interventions with a
wholesale shift in the role ecosystems thinking has in all aspects of societal
attitudes, policies and economics can serve to form the foundations of a secure and
sustainable balance between society and our environment.

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Environmental degradation, management and conservation

Environmental Degradation
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of

the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil;
the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife;
and pollution. It is defined as any change or disturbance to the environment
perceived to be deleterious or undesirable.
Environmental degradation is one of the ten threats officially

cautioned by the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change of
the United Nations. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction defines environmental degradation as "The reduction of the
capacity of the environment to meet social and ecological objectives, and
needs". Environmental degradation is of many types. When natural habitats
are destroyed or natural resources are depleted, the environment is
degraded.
Causes of Environmental Degradation
Some environmental life species require substantial areas to

help provide food, living space, and other different assets. These creatures
are called area specific. At the point when the biome is divided, the vast
patches of living space don‘t exist anymore. It gets to be more troublesome
for the wildlife to get the assets they need in order to survive. The
environment goes on, even though the animals and plant life are not there to
help sustain it properly.
 Land Disturbance: A more basic cause of environmental degradation

is land damage. Numerous weedy plant species, for example, garlic
mustard, are both foreign and obtrusive. A rupture in
the environmental surroundings provides for them a chance to start
growing and spreading. These plants can assume control over nature,
eliminating the local greenery. The result is territory with a solitary
predominant plant which doesn‘t give satisfactory food assets to all
the environmental life. Whole environments can be destroyed because
of these invasive species.
 Pollution: Pollution, in whatever form, whether it is air, water, land or

noise is harmful for the environment. Air pollution pollutes the air
that we breathe which causes health issues. Water pollution degrades
the quality of water that we use for drinking purposes. Land
pollution results in degradation of earth‘s surface as a result of
human activities. Noise pollution can cause irreparable damage to our

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ears when exposed to continuous large sounds like honking of

vehicles on a busy road or machines producing large noise in a factory
or a mill.
 Overpopulation: Rapid population growth puts strain on natural

resources which results in degradation of our environment. Mortality
rate has gone down due to better medical facilities which have
resulted in increased lifespan. More population simple means more
demand for food, clothes and shelter. You need more space to grow
food and provide homes to millions of people. This results in
deforestation which is another factor of environmental degradation.
 Landfills: Landfills pollute the environment and destroy the beauty of

the city. Landfills come within the city due the large amount of waste
that gets generated by households, industries, factories and
hospitals. Landfills pose a great risk to the health of the environment
and the people who live there. Landfills produce foul smell when
burned and cause huge environmental degradation.
 Deforestation: Deforestation is the cutting down of trees to make way

for more homes and industries. Rapid growth in population and urban
sprawl are two of the major causes of deforestation. Apart from that,
use of forest land for agriculture, animal grazing, harvest for fuel wood
and logging are some of the other causes of deforestation.
Deforestation contributes to global warming as decreased forest size
puts carbon back into the environment.
 Natural Causes: Things like avalanches, quakes, tidal waves, storms,

and wildfires can totally crush nearby animal and plant groups to the
point where they can no longer survive in those areas. This can either
come to fruition through physical demolition as the result of a specific
disaster, or by the long term degradation of assets by the presentation
of an obtrusive foreign species to the environment. The latter
frequently happens after tidal waves, when reptiles and bugs are
washed ashore.
Of course, humans aren‘t totally to blame for this whole thing.

Earth itself causes ecological issues, as well. While environmental
degradation is most normally connected with the things that people do, the
truth of the matter is that the environment is always changing. With or
without the effect of human exercises, a few biological systems degrade to
the point where they can‘t help the life that is supposed to live there.

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Effects of Environmental Degradation
 Impact on Human Health: Human health might be at the

receiving end as a result of the environmental degradation.
Areas exposed to toxic air pollutants can cause respiratory
problems like pneumonia and asthma. Millions of people are
known to have died of due to indirect effects of air pollution.
 Loss of Biodiversity: Biodiversity is important for maintaining

balance of the ecosystem in the form of combating pollution,
restoring nutrients, protecting water sources and stabilizing
climate. Deforestation, global warming, overpopulation and
pollution are few of the major causes for loss of biodiversity.
 Ozone Layer Depletion: Ozone layer is responsible for

protecting earth from harmful ultraviolet rays. The presence of
chlorofluorocarbons, hydro chlorofluorocarbons in the
atmosphere is causing the ozone layer to deplete. As it will
deplete, it will emit harmful radiations back to the earth.
 Loss for Tourism Industry: The deterioration of environment

can be a huge setback for tourism industry that relies on
tourists for their daily livelihood. Environmental damage in the
form of loss of green cover, loss of biodiversity, huge landfills,
increased air and water pollution can be a big turn off for most
of the tourists.
 Economic Impact: The huge cost that a country may have to

borne due to environmental degradation can have big economic
impact in terms of restoration of green cover, cleaning up of
landfills and protection of endangered species. The economic
impact can also be in terms of loss of tourism industry.
As you can see, there are a lot of things that can have an effect
on the environment. If we are not careful, we can contribute to the
environmental degradation that is occurring all around the world. We can,
however, take action to stop it and take care of the world that we live in by
providing environmental education to the people which will help them pick
familiarity with their surroundings that will enable to take care
of environmental concerns thus making it more useful and protected for our
children and other future generations.

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Environmental Management
Environmental management involves the management of all
components of the bio-physical environment, both living (biotic) and non-
living (abiotic). This is due to the interconnected and network of
relationships amongst all living species and their habitats. The environment
also involves the relationships of the human environment, such as the
social, cultural and economic environment with the bio-physical
environment.
Environmental management is the process of allocating natural

and man-made resources so as to make optimum use of the environment in
satisfying not only the present basic human needs but of the coming
generations also. This management implies an element of conscious choice
from a variety of alternative proposals and furthermore that such a choice
involves purposeful commitment to recognised and desired objectives.
Environmental management is not merely a management of

environment but it is essentially the management of various activities with
intolerable constraints imposed by the environment itself and with full
consideration of ecological factors. Thus, it involves environmental planning,
conservation of resources, environmental status evaluation, and
environmental legislation and administration. The focus of environmental
management is on implementation, monitoring and auditing; on practice
and coping with real-world issues, rather than theoretical planning. A close
integration with environmental planning is desirable.
Thus, as stated earlier, environmental management is a field of

study dedicated to understanding human-environment interactions and the
application of science and common-sense to solving problems.
The characteristic features of the environmental management are:
1. It deals with a world affected by humans;

2. It supports sustainable development;
3. It demands a multidisciplinary approach;
4. It has to integrate different development viewpoints;
5. It concerns with short-term and long-term planning as well as
from local to global scale; and
6. It seeks to integrate natural and social science, policy making
and planning.
During the last three decades too much awareness has been
developed regarding environmental protection and quality of life. The
dictionary of environment is renewed regularly with new terminologies like

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clean technology, environmental auditing, environment-friendly products,

environmental impact assessment, environmental resource conservation,
etc., added.
But all these aspects have been converged when the wider
concept of environmental management has been emerged and also accepted
as a tool for sustainable development. Environmental management, as
defined in Goudie (1994), ―provides resources from the bioenvironmental
systems of the planet but simultaneously tries to retain sanative, life-
supporting ecosystems. It is therefore an attempt to harmonise and balance
the various enterprises for his own benefit.‖
Time has now come when our policy makers as well as society
should aim to protect, conserve and regulate the development in such a way
that it will not create any adverse effect on ecosystem and needs of the
people can also be fulfilled. Throughout the world, particularly in developing
countries, these are an urgent need for the management of the total
environment.
Its main objectives include:
1. To prevent and solve environmental problems;

2. To establish limits;
3. To develop research institutions and monitoring systems;
4. To warn threats and identify opportunities;
5. To suggest measures for resource conservation;
6. To develop a strategy for the improvement of quality of life;
7. To suggest long-term and short-term policies for sustainable
development; and
8. To identify new technology for sustainable development.
In brief, environmental management is necessary for environ-

mental planning which implies the optimal utilisation of the earth‘s
resources and preservation of the quality of environment for the healthy
growth of society.
Approaches to Environmental Management
The best approach to environmental management is an

integrated approach in which all the components of the environment are
taken into consideration and its proper management, as a whole, is done.
While doing so, the following aspects should be taken into account:
1. Perception and awareness of environment:
(a) Source of perception and awareness,

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(b) Level of perception, and

(c) Role of perception in environmental planning.
2. Environmental education and training:
(a) At school, college and university levels,

(b) Through media, and
(c) At research and training institutes.
3. Resource management:
(a) Classification of natural resources,

(b) Survey and evaluation of eco-resources,
(c) Conservation of energy, mineral, forest, soil and water resources, and
(d) Proper utilisation of human resources.
4. Environmental impact assessment:
(a) Assessment of present conditions,

(b) Assessment of the impact of industrial and technological
developments,
(c) Assessment of the efforts done for eco-balance, and
(d) Development of eco-friendly techniques.
5. Control over environmental degradation and pollution:
(a) Purification of degraded environment,

(b) Pollution control,
(c) Monitoring, and
(d) Forecasting of natural hazards and to minimise the losses.
There are two approaches of managing the environment, viz.:
(i) Preservative approach, and
(ii) Conservative approach.
According to the first approach, man should not disturb the

natural system and should adapt to it. But this is not possible because for
all types of developmental activities he will have to use nature and its
components, resulting in eco-imbalance of varied intensity.
The conservative approach is that there should not be

overexploitation of nature and conservation of natural resources is essential
for sustainable development.
In fact, proper utilisation and conservation of resources is the

prime objective of environmental management. In the World Conservation

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Strategy (1980), the three main objectives stated were: the maintenance of
essential ecological processes, the preservation of genetic diversity, and the
sustainable utilisation of natural resources.
In recent years, several approaches have been developed for the

management of environment. Regional planners often adopt a human
ecology approach, while other planners suggest a system analysis or an
ecosystem approach. Doxiadis (1977) has developed a science of planning
settlement in balance with nature and termed it as ekistics.
The various approaches developed for the environmental management

are:
(i) Ad hoc approach-, developed in reaction to a specific situation.
(ii) Problem-solving approach: for identification of problems and needs and

implement solutions.
(iii) Systems approach: such as ecosystem, agro-ecosystem, etc. Regional

approach: based on ecological zones such as watershed, river basin, coastal
zone, command area development, island, etc.
(iv) Specialist discipline approach, often adopted by professionals for air,

water and land management, urban management, tourism management,
and environmental health.
(v) Voluntary sector approach encouraged and supported by NGOs.
(vi) Commercial approach: for environmental management for business.
(vii) Human ecology approach-, for study of relations between humans or

society and nature.
(viii) Political ecology approach-, to develop policies and laws.
Ecosystem Approach:
The ecosystem concept has become a widely used

conceptual tool for research after 1945. Nowadays, ecologists often adopt an
ecosystem approach when seeking to understand and monitor a given
situation. The ecosystem concept allows the environmental managers to look
at portions of complex nature as an integrated system. It may be applied to
cities or agriculture (urban ecosystems and agro-ecosystems respectively).
The ecosystem approach allows a holistic view of how

components work together, in other words, it can incorporate human
dimensions into biosphere functioning. It also helps define the temporal and

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spatial scale of management, and thus, is a multidisciplinary approach in

order to deal with complexities of ecosystem function and usage.
Human Ecology Approach:
Human ecology is the study of relations between humans or

society and nature, through a multidisciplinary approach. Similar to that of
ecosystem approach, the main emphasis in this approach is on social
relationship with environment which is a primary aspect of any
management for planning and development. The scale of approach may be
local to global, and it supports holistic study.
The concept of ‗Social Impact Assessment‘ (SIA) seeks to assess

whether a proposed development alters quality of life and sense of well-being
and how individuals, groups and communities will adopt to change caused
by development.
The socio-economic and biophysical aspects of the environment

are interconnected, therefore, for environmental management; human
ecology approach should be adopted along with political ecology approach.
Political Ecology Approach:
Political ecology also studies relationships between society and

nature. It holds that radical changes in human habits are required in order
to counter environmental degradation and achieve sustainable development.
These are likely to be different perceptions of environmental

needs and problems between planners, policy makers, ministers, various
departments of government, etc. All this can be effectively done by adopting
political ecological approach of environment management.
Commercial Approach:
Nowadays, there has been an increasing emphasis on environ-

mental management for business as well as role of business houses in
environmental protection.
The emphasis is on:
1. green corporate environmental management;

2. green business ethics;
3. eco-auditing;
4. impact assessment, hazard and risk assessment;
5. green marketing, labelling;
6. recycling and waste disposal;
7. environmentally sound investment and funding; and

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8. Total quality management.
The commercial approach involves corporate priority, employee education,

customer advice, transfer of technology, prior assessment, facilities and
operations, research and compliance and reporting.
Environmental Conservation
Environmental conservation is the protection, preservation,
management, or restoration of natural environments and the ecological
communities that inhabit them. Conservation is generally held to include
the management of human use of natural resources for current public
benefit and sustainable social and economic utilization.
Environmental awareness has increased enormously in recent

years. Environmental conservation and protection is now a familiar and
important issue for us all. Environmental issues require us to take a
broader perspective, since they cannot be resolved by one region or one
country alone. The cumulative effects of individual efforts can have a big
impact on environmental conservation and protection. It is vital that each of
us adopts a sincere attitude toward environmental laws.
1. Efforts to reduce environmental impact
Always remembering to take the global environment into

consideration, we actively promote efforts to reduce the environmental
impact of our business activities, including taking various measures to
prevent global warming.
2. Regulations governing waste
In order to reduce the environmental impact of our corporate

activities, we comply with all laws and ordinances relating to the proper
disposal of industrial waste as well as those relating to recycling and the
conservation and effective use of resources.
3. Regulations governing chemicals
In order to ensure chemical safety, when using chemical

substances anywhere in the course of our corporate activities we comply
with national laws and regulations as well as international law and
internationally accepted chemical substance control standards.
4. Pollution prevention: In order to conserve and protect the environment,

we comply with all laws and regulations aimed at preventing pollution,
including air, water and soil pollution, as well as noise, vibration, odors and
dioxins.

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Public Awareness for Conservation of Environment
Public awareness about environment is meant to help social

groups and individuals to acquire a basic understanding of environment and
its associated problems. Educationists and environmental specialists have
repeatedly pointed out that any solution to the environmental crisis will
require environmental awareness and understanding to be deeply rooted in
the education system at all levels.
(a) Environmental awareness at primary school level to impart

elementary knowledge about environmental issues and problems.
(b) Relevance of real-life situations of environment at secondary school
level for understanding of environmental problems.
(c) Management of natural resources at senior secondary school level to
develop skills to tackle the management problems of natural
resources.
(d) Environmental issues and sustainable development at college and
university levels for experimentation and solution to environmental
problems and methods for conservation of natural resources.
Environmental Awareness through Adult Education:
The aim of adult education should be to create a collective

action in solving the environmental problems. The new types of complex
environmental problems require understanding and hence a new approach
to adult education. A new approach should be relevant with regard to being
able to fulfill established environmental objectives. For effective adult
education, functionaries have to build rapport with the support
organizations.
They require doing the following:
(i) Build capacities in technical, social and institutional aspects of

environmental management in village.
(ii) Reorient teachers and instructors with regard to natural resources
management.
(iii) Find ways to sustain people‘s interest on environmental issues and
identify systems for conveying knowledge and skill.
(iv) Educating people for environment presupposes a policy for
environmental training. This policy should be comprehensively
covering a number of elements. These may include:
 Identifying training objectives;
 Determining environmental training practices;
 Matching training programmes to local demand for
environmental knowledge and skills;

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 Identifying the best modes and methods of training; and

 Ensuring the financing of training activities.
(v) The participation of rural women in environmental awareness
programmes is very essential. The reason being, she spends a great
part of her life in arranging fuel, fodder, water for her family, and
actively involved in sustainable use of common resources. Thus,
women‘s involvement in decision making, especially for natural
resources management and development activities should
constitute an essential case for building a solid framework for
environmental awareness programmes.
For general information, following may form the subject contents for
educating adults to become environmentally literate:
(1) Every house in the village should have a soak pit and water should
not be allowed to spread in front of the houses.
(2) The water of wells, ponds and rivers should not be polluted by
bathing animals or dumping garbage in them.
(3) Environmental issues may be linked with health, explaining things
like stagnant water breeds mosquitoes for malaria etc.
(4) Water conservation techniques should be taught.
(5) Tree plantation should be encouraged in and around villages.
(6) Pesticides and fertilizers should be used in appropriate quantities to
avoid their bad effects on the soil.
(7) Bio-gas plant should be encouraged to minimise the use of wood fuel.
(8) Solar energy should be encouraged for light and cooking purposes.
(9) The flourmills, brick kilns or other small-scale industries should be
established away from residential areas to avoid noise and air
pollution.
(10) Training in handling of waste materials and methods of
recycling should be taught.
(11) Lessons on environmental hazards and disaster should be
taught.
There is an urgent need to safeguard the environment to save

the future generation. It requires understanding the immediate and real
needs of UDCs by initiating a local process through adult education
programmes. It means environmental awareness by promoting low-cost
resources conservation, regeneration of eco-system of villages and
stimulation of environmentally sound surroundings.
Environment Awareness through Mass-Media:
Mass-media can play a vital role in creating peoples‘ awareness

about environment and conservation of natural resources. It can serve this

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purpose by means of its multi-channel regional and network service

comprising programmes such as talks, interviews, plays and documentaries
etc.
The electronic media can identify and bring to a halt forces

affecting the natural and even the man-made environment. It matters much
how the public mind can be mobilized to reduce pollution and promote
environmental quality.
For instance, the prevention of wastage of oil, gas, coal and

other sources of energy is not the solitary goal. The goal should be to focus
certain relative aspects leading to environmental protection through
conservation emphasizing the protection of good earth. What we need is
canvassing different methodologies of oil conservation since the electronic
media are a potential mobilizer of public opinion. It is genuinely expected
that the twin media play quite a significant role in influencing mass-
awareness against the excessive use of energy.
Media research and media planning in the field of

environmental protection and conservation of natural resources can be
accelerated keeping in view the attitude of the people. These could steer
campaign objectives, measure the effectiveness of advertising campaign,
provide the information most relevant to the efficient use of media and
transmit programmes on conservation of resources and maintenance of
environmental quality.
Establishment of Eco-Clubs:
National Green Corps, a movement of eco-friendly children, has

been spreading awareness about environmental protection among children.
Under this programme, more than 70,000 eco-clubs are setup all over India
covering about 150 schools district wise. Young students not only learn
about environment but participate in field activities in and around their
schools.
Establishment of Greenbelts:
Under this programme, tree plantation is done along public utilities such as
roads, railways, canals and private housing complexes, especially in July
under the Van Mahotsava programme (mass tree plantation festival) in
India.

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Campaign through State Transport:
Under this programme, state transport department propagates

the environment awareness message through slogans and pictures displayed
in their buses.
Importance of Public Awareness for Conservation of Environment in

India
Environmental sensitivity in our country can only grow through

a major public awareness campaign. This has several tools —the electronic
media, the press, school and college education, adult education, which are
all essentially complementary to each other.
Green movements can grow out of small local initiatives to

become major players in advocating environmental protection to the
Government. Policy makers will only work towards environmental
preservation if there is a sufficiently large bank of voters that insist on
protecting the environment.
Orienting the media to project pro-environmental issues is an

important aspect. Several advertising campaigns frequently have messages
that are negative to environmental preservation. The increasing awareness
of environmental issues has generated great activity in recent years.
It has also brought to the knowledge of common citizens of India

that for sustaining agriculture and maintaining the quality of environment
at least one-third of the country‘s land should be under forest. This public
awareness has helped government as well as voluntary organizations to take
up the issue of environmental protection. People and activists agitation in
connection with Chipko Movement, Appiko Movement, Silent Valley (Kerala)
and Sardar Sarovar Project on Narmada are some illustrations to show how
to clean and pollution free.
There has been several tools, the electronic media, the press,
school and college education, adult education, which are all essentially
complementary to each other. Green movements can grow out of small local
initiatives to become major players in advocating environmental protection
to the government.
Merging the ideas and philosophy of environmentalism with the

structure of formal education systems, it strives to increase awareness of
environmental problems as well as to foster the skills and strategies for
solving those problems.

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Nature education expanded the teaching of biology, botany and

other natural sciences out into the natural world, whose students learned
through direct observation. Both governmental and citizen entities included
an educational component to spread their message to the general public.
Many states required their schools and colleges to adopt

environmental observation education as part of their curriculum so that
they are prepared to deal with environmental problems in the real world.
Teaching training programs were developed to meet the increasing demand.
Publications of environment related resources material in the

form of pamphlets or booklets published by Ministry of Environment &
Forests can also help in keeping this section abreast of the latest
developments in the field. Before we can all take up the task of
environmental protection and conservation, we have to be environmentally
educated and aware. It is aptly said ―if you want to act green, first think
green‖.
Biodiversity and sustainable development

BIODIVERSITY
In our biosphere immense diversity (or heterogeneity) exists not

only at the species level but at all levels of biological organisation ranging
from macromolecules within cells to biomes. Biodiversity is the term
popularized by the sociobiologist Edward Wilson to describe the combined
diversity at all the levels of biological organisation.
The most important of them are–
(i) Genetic diversity: A single species might show high diversity at the
genetic level over its distributional range. India has more than 50,000
genetically different strains of rice, and 1,000 varieties of mango.
(ii) Species diversity: The diversity at the species level. For example, the
Western Ghats have greater amphibian species diversity than the Eastern
Ghats.
(iii) Ecological diversity: At the ecosystem level, India, for instance, with its
deserts, rain forests, mangroves, coral reefs, wetlands, estuaries, and alpine
meadows has greater ecosystem diversity than a Scandinavian country like
Norway.
It has taken millions of years of evolution, to accumulate this

rich diversity in nature, but we could lose all that wealth in less than two

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centuries if the present rates of species losses continue. Biodiversity and its
conservation are now vital environmental issues of international concern as
more and more people around the world begin to realise the critical
importance of biodiversity for our survival and well- being on this planet.
The importance of Species Diversity to the Ecosystem
For many decades, ecologists believed that communities with

more species, generally, tend to be more stable than those with less species.
A stable community should not show too much variation in productivity
from year to year; it must be either resistant or resilient to occasional
disturbances (natural or man-made), and it must also be resistant to
invasions by alien species.
Although, we may not understand completely how species

richness contributes to the well-being of an ecosystem, we know enough to
realise that rich biodiversity is not only essential for ecosystem health but
imperative for the very survival of the human race on this planet.
Loss of Biodiversity
The biological wealth of our planet has been declining rapidly

and the accusing finger is clearly pointing to human activities. The last
twenty years alone have witnessed the disappearance of 27 species.
Presently, 12 per cent of all bird species, 23 per cent of all mammal species,
32 per cent of all amphibian species and 31per cent of all gymnosperm
species in the world face the threat of extinction.
In general, loss of biodiversity in a region may lead to (a) decline

in plant production, (b) lowered resistance to environmental perturbations
such as drought and (c) increased variability in certain ecosystem processes
such as plant productivity, water use, and pest and disease cycles.
Causes of biodiversity losses:
a. Habitat loss and fragmentation: This is the most important cause

driving animals and plants to extinction. The most dramatic examples
of habitat loss come from tropical rain forests. Once covering more
than 14 per cent of the earth‘s land surface, these rain forests now
cover no more than 6 per cent. When large habitats are broken up
into small fragments due to various human activities, mammals and
birds requiring large territories and certain animals with migratory
habits are badly affected, leading to population declines.
b. Over-exploitation: Humans have always depended on nature for food

and shelter, but when ‗need‘ turns to ‗greed‘, it leads to over-

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exploitation of natural resources. Many species extinctions in the last

500 years (Steller‘s sea cow, passenger pigeon) were due to
overexploitation by humans.
c. Alien species invasions: When alien species are introduced

unintentionally or deliberately for whatever purpose, some of them
turn invasive, and cause decline or extinction of indigenous species.
The Nile perch introduced into Lake Victoria in east Africa led
eventually to the extinction of an ecologically unique assemblage of
more than 200 species of cichlid fish in the lake.
d. Co-extinctions: When a species becomes extinct, the plant and

animal species associated with it in an obligatory way also become
extinct. When a host fish species becomes extinct, its unique
assemblage of parasites also meets the same fate.
Biodiversity Conservation:
Earth‘s rich biodiversity is vital for the very survival of mankind.

Besides the direct benefits (food, fibre, firewood, pharmaceuticals, etc.),
there are many indirect benefits we receive through ecosystem services such
as pollination, pest control, climate moderation and flood control. We also
have a moral responsibility to take good care of earth‘s biodiversity and pass
it on in good order to our next generation.
Conservation of Biodiversity in the World

People make the use of term preservation and conservation as
synonyms but there is a difference of hemisphere in the meaning of both the
term. In ecological context preservation means upkeep of rare and
endangered species of plants and animals in specially protected areas so
that their population may increase to optimum level. No use of such
resources is permitted. On the other hand conservation is a process which
aim at proper use preservation and management of natural resources in
such a way that they are always available for judicious use by humans as
well as ecological balance is maintained.
Conservation is thus defined as the establishment and

observation of economically, socially and politically acceptable norms,
standards, patterns or models of behaviours in the use of natural resources
by a given society. Conservation is the planned management of natural
resources, to retain the balance in nature and retain the diversity. It also
includes wise use of natural resources in such a way that the needs of
present generation are met and at the same time leaving enough for the
future generations. The conservation of biodiversity is important to prevent

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the loss of genetic diversity of a species, save a species from becoming

extinct and protect ecosystems damage and degradation. Thus the
conservation efforts can be grouped into the following two categories:
1. In-situ (on-site) Conservation: In-Situ conservation includes the

protection of plants and animals within their natural habitats or in
protected areas. Protected areas are land or sea dedicated to protect and
maintain biodiversity. The in-situ strategy emphasizes protection of total
ecosystems for the conservation of overall biodiversity of genes, populations,
species, communities and the ecological processes. The in-situ approach
includes protection of a group of typical ecosystems through a network of
protected areas as recognised by the UNEP and the World Conservation
Union (IUCN). In situ conservation of biodiversity is advantageous in that it
is a cheap and convenient method that requires people‘s our supportive role.
It maintains all organisms at different trophic levels from producers to top
consumers such as carnivores. In natural environment, organisms not only
live and multiply but also evolve and continue to maintain their ability to
resist various environmental tresses such as drought storm, snow,
temperature fluctuations, excessive rains, flood, fires, pathogens etc. In situ
conservation requires only elimination of factors detrimental to the existence
of the species and allows the larger number of species to grow
simultaneously and flourish in their natural environment in which they were
growing since a long time. The only disadvantage of in situ conservation is
that it requires larger areas and minimizes the space for inhibiting human
population which is increasing tremendously. The following areas may be
set aside for in situ conservation:
 National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries (terrestrial protected

areas): the earliest national parks, the Yellowstone in USA
(established in 1872) and the Royal near Sydney, Australia, were
chosen because of their scenic beauty and recreational values. Many
similar areas throughout the world now protect rare species or
wilderness areas. The United Nations has recognised 102102
protected areas covering more than 18.8 million km2 covering 11.5
per cent of the earth‘s land surface and 12.65 per cent including the
marine areas during 2003. There are 41997 protected areas around
the world which fulfils the norms of IUCN categories.
 Marine Protected Area: since 1986 the IUCN has been promoting
establishment of global system of marine protected areas. These are
the areas of inter-tidal and sub-tidal region taken together with their
overlying water and associated flora and fauna which have been
reserved by law or other effective means to protect it. The main
objective of marine protected areas are protection and restoration of

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depleted population of marine organisms, protection of endangered

species and critical habitats, conserving and restoring marine
ecosystem health for effective fishing management, to maintain
biodiversity and ecological processes of marine and coastal
ecosystems to use marine resources in sustainable and equitable way.
According to World Database on Protected Areas records, 4116
protected areas in the UN list contain marine and coastal elements,
covering 4.3 million km2.
 Biosphere Reserves: biosphere reserves are a special category of
protected areas of land or coastal environments where people are an
integral component of the system. These are representative examples
of natural biomes and contain unique biological communities. The
concept of biosphere reserve was launched in 1975 as a part of the
UNESCO‘s man and Biosphere Programme dealing with the
conservation of ecosystems and the genetic resources contained
therein.
2. Ex-situ (off-site) Conservation: conservation of plants and animals

outside their natural habitats. These include botanical gardens, zoo, and
gene banks; seed bank, tissue culture and cryopreservation.
 Seed Gene Bank: the crop species diversity have declined with the
onset of modern agricultural techniques, which will have severe
implications on food security of the planet given environmental
degradation, pests, epidemics and climate change. Seed gene banks
are the easiest way to store germplasm of wild and cultivated plants at
low temperature in cold rooms. Preservation of genetic resources is
carried out in the field gene banks under normal growing conditions
in the case of plants which do not produce seeds for example banana
and plantains.
 In-vitro Gene Bank: these are short and medium term storage for a
range of crops woody species, fruit trees and horticultural species
using tissue culture techniques. Tissue culture systems allow the
propagation of plants with high multiplication rates in an aseptic
environment. The cells are grown on a gel and fed with suitable
nutrients and hormones to give rise to entire plants.
 DNA Bank Network: this is a worldwide unique concept. DNA band
databases of all partners are linked and are accessible via a central
web portal, providing DNA samples of complementary collections
(microorganisms, protists, plants, algae, fungi and animals).

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Conservation of Biodiversity in India

The country has taken significant steps for biodiversity
conservation. Apart from establishing protected areas, a National
Biodiversity Act was passed in 2002 which got the assent of President on 5
Feb 2003 and Biodiversity Rules were framed in 2004. A National
Biodiversity Action Plan 2008 was released on 24 Feb 2009. India is the
second most populous country, and therefore any plan attempting at
conservation must consider socioeconomic development as the mounting
human pressure threatens the biotic resources of the country. Furthermore,
ours is predominantly an agriculture country, and hence, policy makers
should realize that conservation and sustainable utilization of biodiversity is
the key to all developmental planning projects.
In-situ (on site)
 Protected Area: The protected areas are biogeographical areas where

biological diversity along with natural and cultural resources are
protected, maintained and managed through legal and administrative
measures. The demarcation of biodiversity in each area is determined
on the basis of climatic and physiological conditions. In these areas,
hunting, firewood collection, timber harvesting etc. are prohibited so
that the wild plants and animals can grow and multiply freely without
any hindrance. Some protected areas are: Cold desert (Ladakh and
Spiti), Hot desert (Thar), Saline Swampy area (Sunderban and Rann of
Kutch), Tropical moist deciduous forest (Western Ghats and north
East) etc. Protected areas include national parks, sanctuaries and
biosphere reserves. There are 37,000 protected areas throughout the
world. As per World Conservation Monitoring Centre, India has 581
protected areas, national parks and sanctuaries.
 National Parks of India: A National Park is an area of land set aside
to conserve the scenery (or environment) and natural objects and the
wildlife therein. Under sec. 35 of the wildlife Protection Act (1972),
whenever it appears to the State Government that an area, whether
within a sanctuary or not, is by reason of its ecological, faunal, floral,
geo-morphological or zoological importance, needed to be constituted
as a National park for the purpose of propagating or developing
wildlife therein or its environment, it may, by notification, declare its
intention to constitute such as a National Park. All kinds of
destruction, exploitation and removal of wildlife and damage to the
habitat of any animal are strictly prohibited inside a National park.
Grazing of domestic animals is also prohibited. However, the Chief
Wildlife Warden may, after prior approval of the state government,
permit destruction, exploitation and removal of wildlife from the NP if

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necessary for the improvement and better management of wildlife

therein. As of July 2018, there were 104 national parks encompassing
an area of 40,501 km2 (15,638 sq. mi), comprising 1.23% of India's
total surface area. Some of the important national parks of India are
namely; Biological Park, Nandankanan (Odisha), Corbett national
Park, Nainital (U.P.), Kaziranga National Park (Assam), Hazaribagh
National Park, (Hazaribagh, Jharkhand), Bandhavgarh National Park
(M.P), Bandipur National Park (Karnataka), Kanha National Park
(M.P), Keibul Lamjao National Park (Manipur) and Nawgaon National
Park (Maharashtra).
 Sanctuaries: Similar to the National park, a wildlife sanctuary is
dedicated to protect wildlife, but it considers the conservation of
species only and also the boundary of it is not limited by state
legislation. These are the areas where only wild animals (fauna) are
present. The activities like harvesting of timbers, collection of forest
products, cultivation of lands etc. are permitted as long as these do
not interfere with the project. That is, controlled biotic interference is
permitted in sanctuaries, which allows visiting of tourists for
recreation. The area under a sanctuary remains in between 0.61 to
7818 km. India has 543 wildlife sanctuaries referred to as wildlife
sanctuaries category IV protected areas. Among these, the 50 tiger
reserves are governed by Project Tiger, and are of special significance
in the conservation of the tiger. Some important sanctuaries of India
are as follows; Nandankanan Zoological Park, Chilika (Nalaban)
Sanctuary, Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary, Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary,
Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary, Darrah Wildlife Sanctuary etc.
 Biosphere Reserves: the Ministry of Environment and Forest has
notified 18 biosphere reserves in India which are also notified as
National Parks. Eleven of the eighteen biosphere reserves are a part of
the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, based on the UNESCO Man
and the Biosphere Programme list. Biosphere reserves or natural
reserves are multipurpose protected areas with boundaries
circumscribed by legislation. The main aim of biosphere reserve is to
preserve genetic diversity in representative ecosystems by protecting
wild animals, traditional life style of inhabitant and domesticated
plant/ animal genetic resources. These are scientifically managed
allowing only the tourists to visit. Some of the important biosphere
reserves in India are located at Nanda Devi, Manas, Dehang Debang,
Gulf of Mannar, Nilgiri, Sunderbans, Pachmarhi, Great Nicobar,
Khanghendzonga etc.
 Community Reserves can be declared by the State Government in
any private or community land, not comprised within a National Park,
Sanctuary or a Conservation Reserve, where an individual or a

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community has volunteered to conserve wildlife and its habitat.

Community Reserves are declared for the purpose of protecting fauna,
flora and traditional or cultural conservation values and practices. As
in the case of a Conservation Reserve, the rights of people living inside
a Community Reserve are not affected.
Ex-situ (off-site)
 Botanical Gardens and Zoos: to complement in-situ conservation, ex-
situ conservation is being undertaken through setting up botanical
gardens, zoos, medicinal plants parks etc by various agencies The
Indian Botanical Garden in Howrah (West Bengal) is over 200 years
old. Other important botanical gardens are in Ooty, Bangalore and
Lucknow. The most recent one is The Botanical Garden of Indian
Republic established at NOIDA, near Delhi in April, 2002.
 Gene Banks: ex-situ collection and preservation of genetic resources
is done through gene banks and seed banks. The National Bureau of
Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi preserves seeds of wild
relatives of crop plants as well as cultivated varieties the National
Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources at Karnal; Haryana maintains
the genetic material for domesticated animals, and the National
Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow for fishes.
 Cryopreservation: (―freeze preservation‖) is particularly useful for
conserving vegetative propagated crops. Cryopreservation is the
storage of material at ultra-low temperature of liquid nitrogen (-
1960C) and essentially involves suspension of all metabolic processes
and activities. Cryopreservation has been successfully applied to
meristems, zygotic and somatic embryos, pollen, protoplasts cells and
suspension cultures of a number of plant species.
Biodiversity Conservation Council of India (BiCCI)

Biodiversity Conservation Council of India is a non-profitable
public charitable trust formed with an intention to conserve and manage the
biodiversity of India. One of its primary objectives is to document all
traditional farming, pastoralist systems and livestock practices and create
bio-cultural protocols for communities and ecosystems on the lines of
established practices. The objectives of BiCCI include documenting the
indigenous bio-diversity of flora and fauna, raising awareness on the bio-
diversity wealth and its importance in ecological balance. BiCCI aims to
protect and promote traditional knowledge being practiced in farming,
medicine, livestock keeping, food etc., impart training in the same, protect
our ecosystem from invasion of non-native species of plants or animals and
to work on eradication of the invasive alien species. BiCCI endeavours to
support in-situ conservation, ex-situ and crypto preservation of native

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livestock, promote research in the indispensability of native livestock/plants

in farming, food security of the country, economical freedom of rural
households, and empowerment of women through sustainable means.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Humans have made a very impressive economic progress,

especially during the past two centuries, in creating material and luxuries of
life style. This progress has been achieved at a tremendous cost to the
environment. Ever increasing exploitation of natural resources coupled with
environmental degradation has reached a point that now threatens the well-
being and future of mankind. Human greed must be controlled and human
wants and needs must be restricted. We must treat our environment and
resources with respect and stop their reckless exploitation of natural
resources.
Sustainable development emphasizes that rate of consumption and

use of natural resources must balance. The World Commission on
Environment and development defined sustainable development as
“Development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own
needs.”
This definition emphasizes two important points. One, the natural

resources are important for our present day survival as for the survival of
our future generations. Two, any present developmental activity or
programme must take into account, its future consequences.
The main cause of unsustainability is in ever increasing human

population and over exploitation of resources. Mahatma Gandhi’s principle
of ―enoughness‖ in his saying “the earth provides enough to satisfy every
persons need but not for every person’s greed” is perhaps more relevant
at present time than when it was said.
The damage and destruction of the environment is so clearly

visible now as never before. In short we have damaged and destroyed our
environment in the name of development. There is very little time left for
talking and discussing the matter, we have to do and act now to recover the
lost environment and conserve the natural resources.
Some steps in that direction are:
adoption of energy and resource saving methods;
new technology for minimization of wastes and toxins;

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biodegradable, renewable and recyclable products;
Education and awareness about environment in people.
Dimensions of Sustainable Development
 Environmental Sustainability – The basic functions of the

environment that defines the capacity to preserve over time are such
as wisely use of resources, complying by the laws, minimizing the
facilities impact by operating efficiently and responsibly thus reducing
the adverse impact of the products in use. Here recalling the first
principle of from the Rio Declaration "Human beings [...] are entitled
to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature". This
principle entails that in an area the environmental sustainability
assures the protection of environment and the renewal of natural
resources by the means to increase the capacity and bring value to
the environment and it peculiarities.
 Economic Sustainability – This concept of sustainability focuses
mainly on the living environment, i.e. local / global natural and non-
renewable resources which are necessary for our well- being without
compromising the quality of life. Further reducing the financial
burden and reversing the nuisances produced by the economic
activity, potentially eliminating through a better management thus
generating the constant growth capacity of the economic indicators.
Hence in a territory, the Economic Sustainability represents the
ability to maintain the highest added value by the efficient mix of
resources and enhancing the product/service range capacity to
generate employment and incomes for the populations to sustain.
 Social Sustainability – The ability to give assurance for the welfare of
the masses (security, health, education), and equitably distributing it
among the social classes and gender. Hence in a territory, Social
Sustainability entails the capacity of the different social stakeholders
to interact efficiently, aiming towards the same goals and encouraged
by the close interaction of the Institutions at all levels.
In September 2015, all the 193 Member nations of the UN

adopted an action plan for the next 15 years, achieving better future for the
people, environment and our planet earth to eradicate extreme poverty, fight
inequality and injustice, tackle climate change and protect our planet.

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The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and169 targets

comprise the AGENDA 2030 that defines the world we want – while ensuring
no one is left behind. This AGENDA 2030 came into force officially on 1
January 2016.These 17 SDGs and 169 targets are indivisible and can be
integrated balancing the three dimensions of the sustainable development
that underlines a global commitment to achieving them.
Sustainable Development Goals and Interlinkages
Three basic interlinkages strengthen this cohesiveness, and can

be used as a "filter" to assess the completeness and robustness of the future
goals, targets and indicators are:
 To Leave no one behind and providing dignity of life for all:

Creating and ensuring sustainable opportunities such as livelihoods,
basic standard of living and social / environmental protection, for
those who are affected by extreme poverty and chronic
unemployment, by lack of access to services (water, sanitation,
energy, markets, health, education, shelter), by racial discrimination,
by lack of law, and unable to live in a clean and healthy environment.
Making this as the focus of the future sustainable development
agenda, we need affordable solutions for break through the poverty
trap and assuring basic livelihoods without further degrade the
environment. Thus simultaneously increasing employment
opportunities, upscaling provision of basic services, fostering better

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use of science and traditional knowledge, protecting the environment

through Innovative and green technologies.
 To achieve greater prosperity in an inclusive manner within the
capacity of the earth's life support system: Future prosperity
requires that economic growth no longer degrades the environment for
continued well-being of humanity, smooth functioning of the economy,
managing natural resources as well as protection of social and
cultural heritage. We need to move towards a universal transition of
inclusive green economy and sustainable consumption & production.
Sustainable consumption is not necessarily about consuming less,
but about how we are consuming better to live sustainably intelligent
and environmentally safe way. It can yield a variety of interlinked
economic, social, health benefits and civil society empowerment.
Improved and wise use of the global life support system is needed in
order to check reversing of development gains not crossing ecological
or social thresholds.
 To increase capital to achieve greater resilience and secure future
generations' livelihoods: Sustaining long-term development and
improvement capacity of our planet from present degrading state
requires efficient investment in natural, social and economic
infrastructure capital of any nation. Thus enlarging our life support
systems in order to achieve living aspirations of leaving no one behind,
achieving greater well-being, prosperity for all and securing our future
generations. Managing effectively the disruptive changes along with
achieving human resilience to social, economic and environmental
shocks will enhance our ability to adaptation. Sustainably managing
the natural resources that can be the drivers for promoting peace and
economic well-being. However the targets and indicators in achieving
the above should be scientifically reliable, verifiable, and measurable
based on the best available information and evidence.

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Environmental Policy
Environmental policy is the commitment of an organization to
the laws, regulations, and other policy mechanisms concerning
environmental issues. These issues generally include air and water
pollution, waste management, ecosystem management, maintenance of
biodiversity, the protection of natural resources, wildlife and endangered
species.
Concerning environmental policy, the importance of

implementation of an eco-energy-oriented policy at a global level to address
the issues of global warming and climate changes should be accentuated.
Policies concerning energy or regulation of toxic substances including
pesticides and many types of industrial waste are part of the topic of
environmental policy. This policy can be deliberately taken to direct and
oversee human activities and thereby prevent harmful effects on the
biophysical environment and natural resources, as well as to make sure that
changes in the environment do not have harmful effects on humans.
It is useful to consider that environmental policy comprises two

major terms: environment and policy. Environment refers to the physical
ecosystems, but can also take into consideration the social dimension
(quality of life, health) and an economic dimension (resource management,
biodiversity). Policy can be defined as a "course of action or principle
adopted or proposed by a government, party, business or individual". Thus,
environmental policy focuses on problems arising from human impact on
the environment, which retroacts onto human society by having a (negative)
impact on human values such as good health or the 'clean and green'
environment.
Environmental policy refers to any course of actions that is

deliberately take (or refrained from) to manage human activities to prevent
or mitigate harmful effects on natural resources, the ecosystem or nature. In
general, environmental policy aims to ensure that man-made changes to the
environment do not carry harmful effects on human beings or animal
species.
The rationale for governmental involvement in the environment

is market failure in the form of forces beyond the control of one person,
including the free rider problem and the tragedy of the commons. An
example of an externality is when a factory produces waste pollution which
may be dumped into a river, ultimately contaminating water. The cost of
such action is paid by society-at-large, when they must clean the water
before drinking it and is external to the costs of the factory. The free rider

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problem is when the private marginal cost of taking action to protect the
environment is greater than the private marginal benefit, but the social
marginal cost is less than the social marginal benefit. The tragedy of the
commons is the problem that, because no one person owns the commons,
each individual has an incentive to utilize common resources as much as
possible. Without governmental involvement, the commons is overused.
Examples of tragedies of the commons are overfishing and overgrazing.
Environmental policy instruments are tools used by

governments to implement their environmental policies. Governments may
use a number of different types of instruments. For example, economic
incentives and market-based instruments such as taxes and tax
exemptions, tradable permits, and fees can be very effective to encourage
compliance with environmental policy. Bilateral agreements between the
government and private firms and commitments made by firms independent
of government requirement are examples of voluntary environmental
measures. Another instrument is the implementation of greener public
purchasing programs.
Several instruments are sometimes combined in a policy mix to

address a certain environmental problem. Since environmental issues have
many aspects, several policy instruments may be needed to adequately
address each one. Furthermore, a combination of different policies may give
firms greater flexibility in policy compliance and reduce uncertainty as to
the cost of such compliance.
Government policies must be carefully formulated so that the

individual measures do not undermine one another, or create a rigid and
cost-ineffective framework. Overlapping policies result in unnecessary
administrative costs, increasing the cost of implementation. To help
governments realize their policy goals, the OECD Environment Directorate
collects data on the efficiency and consequences of environmental policies
implemented by the national governments. The website,
www.economicinstruments.com, provides database detailing countries'
experiences with their environmental policies. The United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe, through UNECE Environmental Performance
Reviews, evaluates progress made by its member countries in improving
their environmental policies.
Policy Principles for Environmental Protection
(A) The Polluter Pays Principle (PPP):
For the last two decades, many economists have suggested that
firms discharging polluting effluents to the environment should somehow be

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made to pay a price for such discharges related to the amount of

environmental damage caused. OECD has suggested the Polluter Pays
Principle (PPP) as a general basis for the environmental policy. It states that
if measures are adopted to reduce pollution, the costs should be borne by
the polluters.
The OECD Council defines the Polluter Pays Principle thus.

―The principle to be used for allocating costs of pollution prevention and
control measures to encourage rational use of scarce environmental
resources and to avoid distortions in international trade and investment is
the so-called Polluter Pays Principle.‖ The essential concern of this principle
is that polluters should bear the costs of abatement without subsidy.
The Polluter Pays Principle, as interpreted by the Supreme

Court of India, means that the absolute liability for harm to the environment
extends not only to compensate the victims of pollution but also the cost of
restoring the environmental degradation. Thus, it includes environmental
costs as well as direct costs to people or property.
Remediation of the damaged environment is part of the process

of sustainable development and as such the polluter is liable to pay the cost
to the individual sufferers as well as the costs of reversing the damaged
ecology. The application of this principle depends upon the interpretations,
particular cases and situations. This principle has brought more
controversial discussions during the Rio Earth Summit 1992.
The South has demanded more financial assistance from the

North in combating the environmental degradation in the South. There are
practical an implication on the allocation of economic obligations in relation
to environmentally damaging activities, particularly in relation to liability
and the use of economic instruments.
(B) The User Pays Principle—(UPP):
It is considered as a part of the PPP. The principle states that all

resource users should pay for the full long run marginal cost of the use of a
resource and related services, including any associated treatment costs. It is
applied when resources are being used and consumed.
(C) The Precautionary Principle (PP):
The main objective of the precautionary principle is to ensure

that a substance or activity posing a threat to the environment is prevented
from adversely affecting the environment, even if there is no conclusive
scientific proof of linking that particular substance or activity to

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environmental damage. The words ‗substance‘ and ‗activity‘ are the result of
human intervention.
The Rio Declaration in its Principle 15 emphasizes on this

principle wherein it is provided that where there are threats of serious or
irreversible damage. Lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a
reason for postponing cost effective measures to prevent environmental
degradation.
International Policy Instruments to Tackle Global Environmental

Externalities
The use of available policy instruments will only lead to a cost-

effective global outcome if certain conditions are met.
First, unless individual countries undertake cost-effective

domestic greenhouse policy measures that are compatible with the goal of
global efficiency, the policy instruments adopted internationally will not lead
to that goal.
Second, each individual country is free to choose its own

instrument or combination of instruments to meet its international
obligations. But the choice of international instruments will, to some extent,
dictate the choice of policy instruments at the domestic level.
Some of the international policy instruments are:
(i) International Carbon Tax,

(ii) Tradable Quotas, and
(iii) Tradable Pollution Permits:
(i) International Carbon Tax:
If countries agree to apply the same level of domestic

greenhouse or carbon taxes (harmonized domestic taxes), marginal
abatement costs would tend to be equalized among countries. Such an
agreement may have to include side payments from rich to poor countries, if
the latter are to be encouraged to participate.
In the case of a domestic carbon tax imposed by international

agreement, the national commitment to impose the tax will also vary
because perspectives on global warming vary from one country to another. If
a country has signed such an agreement under international pressure, that
country can make the carbon tax ineffective by reducing existing energy
taxes, by taxing substitutes for fossil fuels like hydroelectricity, by providing
subsidies to products that are fossil-fuel-energy intensive, and by lax
enforcement of the tax. A global carbon tax imposed by an international
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agency, on the other hand, will impinge on national sovereignty and will
therefore be difficult to negotiate.
If global carbon taxes are levied as producer taxes instead of

consumer taxes, tax revenue can be collected in fossil fuel producer
countries instead of consumer countries. This will shift the burden between
the two types of countries. The distributional effects of such taxes may be
unacceptable to many countries and if used, can give rise to retaliatory
trade policy measures.
An alternative type of international policy to reduce emission

can be an agreement to levy a uniform international tax on greenhouse or
carbon emissions in each of the participating countries. The total
international tax revenue can be shared among the participating countries
according to rules established in the agreement.
One possibility is that a carbon tax can be imposed on nation

states themselves by an international agency. In this case, the agreement
can specify not only tax rate but also a formula for reallocating the revenues
from the tax. Cost-effectiveness will demand that the tax rate be uniform
across all countries but the reallocation of revenue will not have a direct
bearing on cost-effectiveness.
As an alternative, the agreement can stipulate that all countries

should levy the same domestic carbon tax, called harmonized domestic
carbon tax. In both cases, the tax rate that achieves the agreement emission
target can only be struck through trial and error. The tax rate will also need
to be adjusted over time as economic conditions change and as more
scientific information becomes available.
Uniform tax rates are required for reasons of cost-effectiveness.

But the resulting distribution of costs may not conform to principles of
equity and justice. For this reason, transfer of resources may be required. In
principle, the two versions of an international tax agreement can involve the
same actual financial transfers, although the transfer principles may differ.
Under the harmonized tax system, the agreement can involve fixed lamp-
sum payments from rich to poor countries.
(ii) Tradable Quotas:
Under an international tradable emission quota scheme, all

coalition countries will be allocated a quota for emission. A quota can be
either a right to repeated emissions i.e., one tonne of carbon per year, or a
right to emit a given volume once only. Thus a quota system can comprise
either quotas forever or quotas for a specified period of, say five-year or

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some combination of both. In the case of either type of quota, any unused
right to emit during a given year can be kept and used at a later time.
In each period, countries will be free to buy and sell quotas on

an international exchange on the spot or forward market. Time-limiting the
quotas will probably be necessary not only to account for uncertainty about
the extent of the enhanced greenhouse problem but also to give credibility to
the system. This will also reduce the risk of large countries gaining market
power on the quota trade market.
An efficient international tradable quota system presupposes a

market organization for quota trade. In the case of a system for the control
of emission of CO2, quotas will have to be dominated according to the
carbon content of the fossil fuel used. If quotas are to be established for the
full range of greenhouse gases, it would be necessary to weigh gases
according to their estimated and agreed global warming potential.
(iii) Tradable Pollution Permits:
An international tradable quota scheme can co-exist with

domestic permit schemes within each country. Some countries may choose
to meet their emission targets by some other means, such as taxes or
regulatory systems. In the case of a domestic tradable permit scheme, a
national government will issue emission permits to wholesale dealers in
fossil fuels or producers and importers of fossil fuels and allow them to
trade on a domestic permit market.
The government can also allow permit holders to trade directly

in an existing international market. Alternatively, to the extent that both
international quota and domestic permit markets exist for a particular
country, the government can trade in the international market and set a
definite domestic limit on the volume of domestic permits for some future
period.
The government can choose either of the two ways to distribute

permits to individual firms. In the first case, firms will be given shares of the
total permit volume based on some historical record (‗grandfathering‘) such
as their recent fossil fuel sales. The second alternative will be for the
government to auction permits. Some combination of these two approaches
may also be feasible.
The two approaches differ primarily in two respects. First,

‗grandfathering‘ implies a ‗transfer‘ of wealth equal to the value of the
permits to existing firms, whereas when permits are auctioned by the
government, this wealth is transferred to the government. The government

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will collect revenue similar to that from a domestic tax on firms producing
the same volume of emissions.
As with tax receipts, auction revenues can be used to reduce

pre-existing distorting taxes. Second, since grandfathering improves the
wealth of such firms, it may keep them in business longer than otherwise.
This allocation approach may reduce the rate of entry of new firms and slow
technological change.
To date most tradable permit systems have made use of forever

(or eternal) permits. However, there are several reasons for preferring a
system of time- limited permits in the case of climate change applications.
First, to the extent that permits may be initially grandfathered, the negative
effects mentioned above will be mitigated.
If emitters are given sufficient time to adjust, subsequent

allocations of permits can be made by auction. Second, potential future
policy changes about emission targets in response to new information can
cause significant problems for permit price formation if eternal permits are
used. An alternative approach would be for the government to retain
ownership of the permits and lease them to firms for a fixed period.
The schemes under international tradable quota systems, which

have so far been applied on a small scale only under the Montreal Protocol
for the international CFC production quota trade and for the CFC
consumption quota trade within the European Union, there is considerable
experience with the use of tradable permit schemes within countries.
Sustainable Policy Approach to Check Environmental Degradation
Economic growth always brings risk of environmental damage,

as it puts increased pressure on environmental resources. But the policy
makers guided by the concept of sustainable development will necessarily
work to assure that developing economies remain firmly attached to their
ecological roots and these roots are protected so that they may support
growth over the long run.
Environmental protection is thus inherent in the concept of

sustainable development. It describes a process in which natural resource
base is not allowed to deteriorate. It emphasizes the role of environmental
quality and environmental inputs in the process of raising real income and
the quality of life. Thus sustainable development is closely linked to
economic development. Sustainable development includes the various policy
measures to check the environmental degradation and reduce the costs of
economic growth.

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1. Reducing Poverty:
Such development projects should be started which provide

greater employment opportunities to the poor. The government should
expand health and family planning services and education so as to reach the
poor that will help reduce population growth. Further, making investments
in providing civic amenities like the supply of drinking water, sanitation
facilities, alternate habitats in place of slums, etc. will not only improve
welfare but also environment.
2. Removing Subsidies:
To reduce environmental degradation at no net financial cost to

the government, subsidies for resource use by the private and public sectors
should be removed. Subsidies on the use of electricity, fertilisers, pesticides,
diesel, petrol, gas, irrigation water, etc. lead to their wasteful use and
environmental problems. Subsidies to capital intensive and highly polluting
private and public industries lead to environmental degradation. Removing
or reducing subsidies will bring both economic and environmental benefits
to the country.
3. Clarifying and Extending Property Rights:
Lack of property rights over excessive use of resources leads to

degradation of environment. This leads to overgrazing on common or public
lands, deforestation, and over exploitation of minerals, fish, etc. Clarifying
and assigning ownership titles and tenure rights to private owners will solve
environmental problems.
Places where the use of common lands, forests, irrigation

systems, fisheries, etc. are regulated and rules for their proper use are laid
down by the community, the ownership rights should be clearly specified in
the administrative records.
4. Market Based Approaches:
Besides regulatory measures, there is urgent need for adopting

market based approaches for the protection of environment. They aim at
pointing to consumers and industries about the costs of using natural
resources on environment. These costs are reflected in the prices paid for
goods and services so that industries and ultimately the consumers are
guided by them to reduce air and water pollution.
The Market Based Instruments (MBIs) approach is used in both

developed and developing countries. MBIs are of two types: quantity based
and piece based. They are in the form of environmental taxes that include

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―pollution charges (emission tax/pollution taxes), marketable permits,

depositor fund system, input taxes/product charges, differential tax rate
and user administrative charges and subsidies for pollution abatement
equipment for air and water resources.‖
5. Regulatory Policies:
Regulatory policies also help in reducing environmental

degradation. Regulators have to take decisions regarding price, quantity and
technology. In making decisions, they have to choose between the quantity
or the price of pollution or resources use or technologies.
The regulating authority has also to decide whether policies

should target the environmental problem directly or indirectly. It lays down
technical standards and regulations and charges on air, water and land
pollutants. Regulators should be impartial in applying environmental
standards to both public and private sector polluters or resources users.
6. Economic Incentives:
Like regulatory policies, economic incentives relate to price,

quantity and technology. Incentives are usually in the form of variable fees
to resources users for the quantity of pollutants in air, water and land use.
They are given rebates if less waste or pollution is generated than the
emission standards laid down.
7. Trade Policy:
Trade policy in relation to environment has two implications:

first, concerning domestic policy reforms, and second, relating to
international trade policy. Domestic trade policy emphasises on the
establishment of less polluting industries away from the cities and the use
of environmental friendly processes for polluting industries by adopting
cleaner technologies.
As regards the relation between international trade and

environmental quality is concerned, controversy has been going on as to
whether liberalised trade causes environmental degradation. The
controversy leads to the conclusion that ―overall trade liberalisation is likely
to produce negative environmental externalities, but also some
environmental gains.‖
The former does not imply that free trade should be stopped.
Rather, such cost-effective policies should be adopted that optimize
externalities. Environmental degradation from free trade should be reduced
by strict domestic policy measures based on the ―polluter pays principle‖. It

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is better to insist on the foreign company to transfer clear technology and

assist in cleaning the environment for existing industries.
8. Public Participation:
Public awareness and participation are highly effective to

improve environmental conditions. Conducting of formal and informal
education programmes relating to environment management and
environmental awareness programmes can go a long way in controlling
environmental degradation and keeping the environment clean. For
instance, the scheme of eco-labelling of products helps consumers to
identify products that are environment friendly.
In Japan, there are consumer co-operatives that popularise

green products which are recyclable, biodegradable, rechargeable, ozone
friendly and unleaded. As a further step, firms, industries and other
establishments in some countries have to disclose in their Annual Reports
the extent to which they are adopting environmental friendly measures.
Public participation can also render costless and useful

assistance in Afforestation, conservation of wildlife, management of parks,
improvements of sanitation and drainage systems and flood control. Use of
indigenous institutions and local voluntary organisations can render much
help in educating the masses about the harmful effects of environmental
degradation and the benefits of keeping the environment clean.
9. Participation in Global Environmental Efforts:
There are many international conventions and agreements on

environmental protection and conservation which every country is expected
to follow. They include the Montreal Protocol regarding the phasing out of
ozone-depleting chemicals.
The Basel Convention which relates to the control of the trans--

boundary movement and disposal of hazardous wastes. Among others, there
is the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the Agenda 21
which is the operational programme for sustainable development.
Then, there are the GATT Clauses on Environment. Not all

countries are signatories to the various agreements and conventions. There
is the threat of trade sanctions against countries that do not honour
agreements relating to biodiversity protection or greenhouse gas emissions
but many countries do not adhere to them.

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Environmental Policy of India
Environment policies of the Government of India includes

legislations related to environment.
In the Directive Principles of State Policy, Article 48 says "the

state shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to
safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country"; Article 51-A states that "it
shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural
environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have
compassion for living creatures."
India is one of the parties of the Convention on Biological

Diversity (CBD) treaty. Prior to the CBD, India had different laws to govern
the environment. The Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972 protected the
biodiversity. It was amended later multiple times. The 1988 National Forest
Policy had conservation as its fundamental principle. In addition to these
acts, the government passed the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and
Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 for control of
biodiversity.
Objectives and Strategies of National Environment Policy (2006) of

India
There are different policies for forests, water and environmental

pollution. But the experience in implementing these policies over the years
has brought out the need for a comprehensive policy approach to the
management of the environment in the country. Therefore, a new national
environment policy was announced in 2006.
Objectives of National Environment Policy (2006):
The following are the objectives of the national environment policy:
1. Conservation of Critical Environmental Resources: To

protect and conserve critical environmental resources and
invaluable natural and man- made heritage which are essential
for life-supporting livelihoods and welfare of the society.
2. Inter-generational Equity: To ensure judicious use of
environmental resources to meet the needs and aspirations of
present and future generations.
3. Efficiency in Environmental Resources Use: To ensure
efficient use of environmental resources in the sense of
reduction in their use per unit of economic output and to
minimize adverse environmental impacts on society.

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4. Environmental Governance in the Management of

Resources: To apply the principles of resources. To apply the
principles of good governance (i.e. transparency, rationality,
accountability, reduction in costs and time, and public
participation) to the management of environmental resources.
5. Enhancement of Resources: Appropriate technology and
traditional knowledge, managerial skills, and social capital will
be used for conservation and enhancement of resources.
6. Livelihood Security for the Poor: To ensure equitable access
to environmental resources for poor tribal community, which
are most dependent on environmental resources for their
livelihood.
7. Integration of Environmental Concerns for Socio-economic
Development; to integrate environmental concerns into policies,
plans, programmes and projects for socio-economic
development.
Strategy for Conservation of Environmental Resources
The following strategy will be adopted for conservation of environmental

resources in India:
1. Land Degradation:
The following steps will be taken to reduce land degradation:
(i) Encourage adoption of science based and traditional sustainable

land use practices through research and development.
(ii) Pilot scale demonstrations and farmers‘ training.
(iii) Promote reclamation of wasteland and degraded forest land
through formulation and adoption of multi-stakeholder
partnerships involving the land owning agency, local communities
and investors.
(iv) To reduce desertification through action plans.
2. Forests:
To formulate an innovative strategy for increase of forest and

tree cover from the present level of 23 percent of the country‘s land area, to
33 percent in 2012 through afforestation of degraded forest land, wasteland
and tree cover on private or revenue land.
Key elements of the strategy would include:
(a) The implementation of multi-stakeholder partnerships involving the

forest department, local communities and investors, with clearly

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defined obligations and entitlements for each partner, following good

governance principles, to derive environmental livelihood, and
financial benefits.
(b) Rationalisation of restrictions on cultivation of forest species outside
notified forest areas.
(c) Enabling farmers to undertake social and farm forestry where their
returns are more favourable than cropping.
(d) Universalization of the Joint Forestry Management System
throughout the country.
(e) Formulating an appropriate methodology for reckoning and restoring
the environmental values of forests which are unavoidably diverted to
other uses.
(f) Giving legal recognition of the traditional rights of forest dwelling
tribes and provide long-term incentives to the tribals to conserve the
forests.
3. Wildlife:
In respect of wildlife conservation, the following steps would be

pursued:
(i) Expanding the Protected Area Network of the country. It must be

ensured that the overall area of the network in each biogeographic
zone would increase in the process.
(ii) Paralleling multi-stakeholder partnerships for afforestation.
Further, formulating and implementing similar partnerships for
enhancement of wildlife habit in conservation and community
reserves.
(iii) Encouraging eco-tourism at wildlife sites.
(iv) Implementing measures for captive breeding and release into the
wild identified endangered species.
4. Biodiversity:
According to the National Environment Policy, a large- scale

exercise has been already completed for providing inputs towards a National
Biodiversity Action Plan. However, following measures would be taken to
protect biodiversity at national level.
(i) Strengthen the protection of biodiversity hot spots.

(ii) Pay attention to the potential impacts of development projects on
biodiversity resources and natural heritage.
(iii) Genetic material of threatened species of flora and fauna must be
conserved on priority.
(iv) Conferring intellectual property rights for traditional knowledge.

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5. Wetlands:
Wetlands, natural and man-made, freshwater or brackish,

provide numerous ecological services. They provide habitat to aquatic flora
and fauna. But now wetlands are under threat from drainage and
conversion for agriculture and human settlements, besides pollution.
The key strategy for action will include the following steps:
(i) To set up a legally enforceable regulatory mechanism for identified

valuable wetlands to prevent their degradation and enhance their
conservation.
(ii) To formulate and implement sustainable tourism strategies for
identified wetlands thorough multi-stakeholder partnerships
involving public agencies, and local communities.
(iii) To take explicit account of impacts on wetlands of significant
development projects during environmental appraisal of such
projects.
6. Conservation of Man-made Heritage:
Man-made heritage reflects the pre-history, ways of living and

culture of people. In the case of India, such heritage is at the core of our
national identity. At the same time, considerable economic value, and
livelihoods may be derived from conservation of man- made heritage and
their sustainable use.
The following action plans would be required for their sustainable use.
(i) In setting ambient environmental standards, especially for air

quality, the potential impacts on designated heritage sites must be
taken into account.
(ii) Integrated regional development plans should be drawn up with
participation of the local community with respect to shifting
polluting activities and waste far away from sites.
(iii) Impacts on designated heritage sites must be considered at the
stage of developing the terms of reference for environmental impact
assessments of the projects.
7. Environmentally Sensitive Zones:
Environmentally sensitive zones may be defined as areas with

identified environmental resources with incomparable values, which require
special attention for their conservation. In order to conserve and enhance
these resources, without impeding legitimate socio-economic development of
these areas, the following actions will be taken.

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(i) Identify and give legal status to Environmentally Sensitive Zones in

the country.
(ii) Formulate area development plans for these zones on a scientific
basis with adequate participation by the local communities.
(iii) Create local institutions for the environmental management of
such areas.
8. Strategy for Sustainable Mountain Development:
Mountain ecosystems play a key role in providing forest cover,

feeding perennial river systems, conserving genetic diversity and providing
an immense resources base for livelihoods through sustainable tourism.
There has been significant adverse impact on mountain

ecosystems by way of deforestation, submergence of river valleys, pollution
of freshwater resources, despoiling of landscapes, degradation of human
habitat, loss of genetic diversity, retreat of glaciers, and pollution.
Keeping in view, the following action plan for sustainable mountain

development would be taken up:
(i) Adopting best practice norms for infrastructure construction in

mountain regions to avoid or minimize damage to sensitive
ecosystems and despoiling of landscapes.
(ii) Encouraging cultivation of traditional varieties of crops and
horticulture by promotion of organic farming and enabling farmers
to realize a price premium.
(iii) Promoting sustainable tourism through adoption of best practice
norms for tourism facilities and access to ecological resources.
(iv) Developing strategies for particular unique mountains capes.
9. Strategy for Sustainable Coastal Resources:
Coastal environmental resources provide habitats for marine

species, which in turn comprise the resource base for large numbers of
fisher folk, protection from extreme weather events, a resource base for
sustainable tourism, agricultural and urban livelihoods.
In recent years, there has been significant degradation of

coastal resources, for which the proximate causes include poorly planned
human settlements, improper location of industries and infrastructure,
pollution from industries, and settlements, and over exploitation of living
natural resources.
In keeping with these adverse effects on coastal resources, the

following measures would be taken:

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(i) To mainstream the sustainable management of mangroves into the

forestry sector regulatory regime, ensuring that they continue to
provide livelihoods to local communities.
(ii) To disseminate available techniques for regeneration of coral reefs,
and support activities based on application of such techniques.
(iii) To embody considerations of sea-level rise in coastal management
plans.
(iv) India has passed Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification in
February 1991 and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) to
ensure protection to coastal environmental in India. Their rules
and regulations are firmly founded on scientific principles. Specific
projects should be consistent with the approval of ICZM plans.
10. Strategy for Conservation of Freshwater Resources:
The fresh water resources comprise the river systems,

groundwater and wetlands. Each of these has a unique role and
characteristic linkage to other environmental entities.
River Management:
The following comprise elements of an action plan for river

management:
(i) Promoting integrated approaches to management of river basins by

the concerned river authorities, considering upstream and
downstream inflows and withdrawals by reason.
(ii) Monitoring authorities will check pollution loads and natural
regeneration capacities to ensure adequate flows and adherence to
water quality standards.
(iii) To consider and mitigate the impacts on river flora and fauna.
(iv) To consider mandating the installation of water saving closets and
taps in the building byelaws of urban centres.
Groundwater:
Groundwater is present in underground aquifers in many parts

of the country. The water table has been falling rapidly in many areas of the
country in recent years. This is largely due to withdrawal for agricultural,
industrial and urban use in excess of annual recharge.
In urban areas, apart from withdrawals for domestic and

industrial use, housing and infrastructure such as roads prevent sufficient
recharge. In addition, some pollution of groundwater occurs due to leaching
of stored hazardous waste and use of agricultural chemicals in particular
pesticides.

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The following action plans are required in this direction:
(i) The efficient use of groundwater would accordingly, require that

the practice of non-metering of electricity supply to farmers be
discontinued.
(ii) To promote efficient water use techniques such as sprinkler or drip
irrigation among farmers.
(iii) To support practices of contour bunding and revival of traditional
methods for enhancing groundwater recharge.
(iv) To mandate water (rainwater) harvesting in all new constructions
in relevant urban areas to enhance groundwater recharge.
(v) To support research and development in cost effective techniques
suitable for rural drinking water projects.
Policy for Pollution Abatement:
The following measures will be adopted to control the pollution at local

and national level:
1. Water Pollution:
The following measures will be adopted to control water pollution:
(i) To enhance reuse of treated sewage and industrial waste water

before final discharge to water bodies.
(ii) To set up common effluent treatment plants on cost recovery basis.
(iii) To take explicit account of groundwater pollution in pricing policies
of pesticides and fertilizers.
(iv) To develop a strategy for strengthening regulation regarding the
impact of ship breaking on marine resources.
(v) To promote research and development in the field of low cost
technologies for sewage treatment.
(vi) To develop public-private partnership for setting up effluent and
sewage treatment plants.
2. Air Pollution:
The following are elements of an action plan for air pollution:
 To accelerate the national programmes of dissemination of improved

fuel wood stoves, and solar cookers for rural women. To provide
incentive based instruments for controlling air pollution
 To provide adequate investments in low pollution mass transport
systems with the help of public and private partnership. To give greater
legal standing to local community and NGOs to undertake monitoring of

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environmental compliance, to promote reclamation of wastelands by

energy plantations.
3. Noise Pollution:
The following would comprise elements of an action plan on abatement

of Noise Pollution:
(i) Make appropriate distinctions between different environments in

terms of setting ambient noise standards, e.g. rural versus urban ,
educational and hospital establishments versus other areas,
daytime versus night time in residential areas; areas in the vicinity
of rail, road and airport infrastructure etc.
(ii) Distinguish between noise standards and protection measures the
context of occupational exposure, and environmental exposure to
third parties.
(iii) Formulate noise emissions norms i.e. loudspeakers, automobile
horns and fireworks ratings appropriate to various activities о
ensure that exposure levels to third parties who are not
participants in the activity do not exceed prescribed ambient
standards.
Encourage dialogue between state/local authorities and

religious/ community representatives on the adoption of enforceable specific
durations, timings for use of loudspeakers or fireworks.
4. Soil Pollution:
The following are elements of an action plan on soil pollution:
(i) Develop and implement strategies for clean-up of pre-existing toxic

and hazardous waste dumps, in particular, in industrial area and
reclamation of such lands for sustainable use.
(ii) Strengthen the capacities of local bodies for segregation, recycling
and reuse of municipal solid wastes.
(iii) Develop and implement strategies for recycle, reuse and final
environmentally benign disposal of plastics wastes, including
through promotion of relevant technologies, and use of incentive
based instruments.
(iv) Promote organic farming of traditional crop varieties through
research.
(v) Develop transparent, voluntary and science-based eco-labelling
schemes.
(vi) Give legal recognition to, and strengthen the informal sector
systems of collection and recycling of various materials.

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(vii) Develop public-private partnerships for setting up and operating

secure landfills and incinerators for toxic and hazardous wastes,
both industrial and biomedical.
Legal Framework:
There are already many laws to deal with the problems of

environmental pollution in India. These are Environment Protection Act
1986, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974, the Water
Cess Act 1977 and The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981.
The law in respect of management and conservation of forests and
biodiversity is contained in the Indian Forest Act 1927, the Forest
(Conservation) Act 1980, the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972 and the
Biodiversity Act 2003.
Environmental Legislations
In the recent past, numerous environmental problems have
become threatening for human welfare. An important aspect of
environmental problems is that their impact is not confined to the source
area but spills over far and wide area.
Effective legislation is needed in order to prevent misuse and

degradation of the environment. To curb the destructive practices of
unscrupulous people, forest mafia groups, poachers, polluters and over
exploitation of environmental resources, effective legislation is necessary.
Pollution is an important factor and it does not observe political territories
or legislative jurisdictions. Thus environmental problems are intrinsically
global in nature. Therefore, to prevent such problems environmental
legislation is not needed only at the national level but also at the
international level.
International Legislations
There is no international legislation body with authority to pass

legislation similar to national legislations, nor are there international
agencies with power to regulate resources at a global scale. As a result,
international legislation must depend on the agreement of the
parties concerned. Certain issues of multinational concern are addressed by
collection of policies, agreements, and treaties that are loosely called
International Environmental Legislations. Most of the international
legislations are international agreements to which nations adhere
voluntarily. These agreements are generally finalized through international

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conventions or treaties. Nations that have agreed to be bound by the

convention are known as Parties. Convention provides a framework to be
respected by each party, which has to adopt its own national legislations to
make sure that convention is implemented at national level. To support the
conventions, sometime protocols are also to be framed. A protocol is an
international agreement that stands on its own but is linked to an
existing convention. This means that the climate protocol shares the
concerns and principles set out in the climate convention. It then builds on
these by adding new commitments-which are stronger and far more complex
and detailed than those in the convention.
Wetland Convention (Ramsar Convention)
It is an international convention came in force in 1975. The

convention provides the framework for international cooperation for the
conservation and wise use of wetland habitats. The United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) serves as the
Depositary for the Convention, and its secretariat, the Ramsar Bureau, is in
Gland, Switzerland. India became signatory to this convention on in 1981.
The Convention aims to halt the loss of wetlands and to ensure

the conservation of fauna and flora and their ecological processes.
Obligations of parties include:
 Designating one or more wetlands for inclusion in the list of

Wetlands of International Importance (e.g. six Ramsar wetlands
in India).
 Promoting wise judicious use of wetlands, including mangroves.
 Promoting conservation of wetlands through establishment of
nature reserves.
 Irrespective of their listing under the Convention and managing
wetlands for the benefit of water fowl.
 Promoting training in the field of wetland research, managing
and warding.
 Consulting with other parties about implementation of the
convention, especially with regard to trans frontier wetlands,
shared water systems, shared species, and development of
wetland projects.
Montreal Protocol
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been

addressing this issue since 1977. Under the auspices of UNEP, the nations
of the world arrived at The Convention for the Protection of the Ozone
Layer in Vienna in 1985. Through this convention, nations committed

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themselves to protecting the ozone layer and to co-operate with each other
in scientific research to improve understanding of the atmospheric
processes and serious consequences of ozone depletion. The convention
provides for future protocols and specified procedures for amendment and
dispute settlement.
To pursue the objectives of convention for the protection of

ozone layer the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone
layer was agreed to by nations in 1987 and has since been amended five
times so far. Its control provisions were strengthened through five
amendments to the Protocol adopted in London (1990), Copenhagen (1992),
Vienna (1995), Montreal (1997), Beijing (1999) and 2016 (Kigali, adopted,
but not in force). The Protocol aims to reduce and eventually eliminate the
emission of man-made ozone depleting substances. The Vienna Convention
and Montreal Protocol are considered as highly effective regime
for reducing and possibly, in the future, eliminating emissions of ozone
depleting chemicals into the atmosphere.
Climate Conventions
Global warming (greenhouse effect) is probably the greatest

threat to the future of the planet. It is mainly caused by gases (gases like
carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, CFCs, water vapors) emitted by
industrialized countries on the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) for
electricity, heating and transport. Because of gases that have been emitted
in the past, and are still pouring into the atmosphere it is already too late to
prevent some climate change. However, if we start reducing emissions now,
we may be able to avoid some of the worst effects.
Today, action occurs at every level to produce, to avoid, and to

understand the risks associated with climate change. Many nations have
prepared national plans and are actively pursuing programmes and policies
that will result in green gas emission reduction. At the global level,
countries, around the world have expressed a firm commitment stop climate
change and strengthen international action and broader participation under
the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC).
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the

landmark international treaty unveiled at the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. The
UNFCCC commits signatory countries to limit anthropogenic (i.e., human
induced) greenhouse gas emissions to levels that would prevent dangerous
anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Such a level should be
achieved within a time frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt

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naturally to climate change, to ensure the food production is not threatened

and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.
In pursuance with the objectives of the Convention on Climate

Change the Kyoto Protocol was agreed upon in December 1997 in Kyoto,
Japan.
The Protocol calls on all parties – developed nations and

developing nations to take a number of steps to formulate national and
regional programmes to improve ―local emission factors‖, activity data,
models, and national inventories of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks
that remove these gases from the atmosphere. All parties are also committed
to formulate, publish and update climate change mitigation and adoption
measures, and to cooperate in promotion and transfer of environmentally
sound techniques and in scientific and technical research on the climate
system.
The Protocol's first commitment period started in 2008 and

ended in 2012. A second commitment period was agreed on in 2012, known
as the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol. Negotiations were held in the
framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures
to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020. This resulted
in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement, which is a separate
instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto
Protocol.
The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), dealing with
greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, starting in
the year 2020. The agreement's language was negotiated by representatives
of 196 state parties at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in
Le Bourget, near Paris, France, and adopted by consensus on 12 December
2015. As of November 2018, 195 UNFCCC members have signed the
agreement, and 184 have become party to it. The Paris Agreement's long-
term goal is to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below
2 °C above pre-industrial levels; and to limit the increase to 1.5 °C, since
this would substantially reduce the risks and effects of climate change.
Under the Paris Agreement, each country must determine, plan, and
regularly report on the contribution that it undertakes to mitigate global
warming.
The aim of the agreement is described in its Article 2, "enhancing the

implementation" of the UNFCCC through:

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(a) Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below
2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the
temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing
that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate
change;
(b) Increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate
change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas
emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food
production;
(c) Making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low
greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.
Countries furthermore aim to reach "global peaking of

greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible". The agreement has been
described as an incentive for and driver of fossil fuel divestment. The Paris
deal is the world's first comprehensive climate agreement.
Biological Diversity Convention
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was adopted

during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED - or the ―Earth Summit‖) in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992. CBD
has been instrumental in highlighting conservation of biodiversity on the
international agenda and its implementation on national level. More than
150 states have signed the Convention, and it entered into force on 29
December 1993. India ratified the Convention in 1994. The CBD places
emphasis on decision making at the national level.
Environmental Legislations in India

At national level serious efforts have been made for the
improvement and protection of environment by incorporating changes in the
constitution of India. Our constitution, originally, did not contain any direct
provision regarding the protection of natural environment. However, after
the United Nations Conference on Human Environment, held in Stockholm
in 1972, Indian constitution was amended to include protection of the
environment as a constitutional mandate.
The forty second amendment Clause (g) to Article 51Aof the

Indian constitution made it a fundamental duty to protect and improve the
natural environment. “It shall to be duty of every citizen of India to protect
and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild
life and have compassion for living creatures.”

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There is a directive, given to the State as one of the Directive

Principles of State Policy regarding the protection and improvement of the
environment. Article 48A states “The State shall endeavour to protect
and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife
of the country”.
The department of Environment was established in India in 1980 to ensure

a healthy environment for the country. This later became the Ministry of
Environment and Forests in 1985. This Ministry has overall responsibility
for administering and enforcing environmental legislations and policies. The
constitutional provisions are backed by a number of legislations – Acts and
rules. Most of our environmental legislations are Acts of the Parliament or
the State Legislatures. These Acts generally delegate powers to regulating
agencies, to make rules for the purpose of their implementation. The
Environment Protection Act of 1986 (EPA) came into force soon after the
Bhopal Gas Tragedy and is considered umbrella legislation as it fills many
lacunae in the existing legislations. Thereafter, a large number of
environmental legislations have been passed to deal with specific
environmental problems. For example in the recent past the use of CNG for
public transport vehicles has been made mandatory in Delhi. This has
reduced air pollution in Delhi at that time.
Pollution Related Acts
Among all the components of the environment air and water are
necessary to fulfill the basic survival needs of all organisms. So, to protect
them from degradation the following acts have been passed.
 Water Acts
 Air Acts
 Environment Act
The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974
The main objective of this act is to provide prevention and

control of water pollution and maintaining or restoring of wholesomeness
and purity of water (in the streams or wells or on land). Some important
provisions of this Act are given below:
 The Act vests regulatory authority in State Pollution Control Boards

and empowers these Boards to establish and enforce effluent
standards for factories discharging pollutants into water bodies. A
Central Pollution Control Board performs the same functions for
Union Territories and formulates policies and coordinates activities
of different State Boards.

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 The State Pollution Control Boards control sewage and industrial

effluent discharges by approving, rejecting or impose conditions
while granting consent to discharge.
 The Act grants power to the Board to ensure compliance with the
Act by including the power of entry for examination, testing of
equipment and other purposes and power to take the sample for the
purpose of analysis of water from any stream or well or sample of
any sewage or trade effluents.
 Prior to its amendment in 1988, enforcement under the Water Act
was achieved through criminal prosecutions initiated by the Boards,
and through applications to magistrates for injunctions to restrain
polluters. The 1988 amendment strengthened the Act‘s
implementation the pollution provisions. Board may close a
defaulting industrial plant or withdraw its supply of power or water
by an administrative order; the penalties are more stringent, and a
citizen‘s suit provision supports the enforcement machinery.
The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution)Act of 1981
To implement the decisions taken at the United Nations

Conference on the Human Environment held at Stockholm in June 1972,
Parliament enacted the nationwide Air Act.
The main objectives of this Act are to improve the quality of air
and to prevent, control and abate air pollution in the country. Important
provisions of this Act are given below:
 The Air Act‘s framework is similar to that of the Water Act of 1974.
To enable an integrated approach to environmental problems, the
Air Act expanded the authority of the central and state boards
established under the Water Act, to include air pollution control.
 States not having water pollution boards were required to set up air
pollution boards.
 Under the Air Act, all industries operating within designated air
pollution control areas must obtain ―consent‖ (permit) from the State
Boards.
 The states are required to prescribe emission standards for industry
and automobiles after consulting the central board and noting its
ambient air quality standards.
 Act granted power to the Board to ensure compliance with the Act
including the power of entry for examination, testing of equipment
and other purposes and power to take the sample for the purpose of
analysis of air or emission from any chimney, fly ash or dust or any
other outlet in such a manner as may be prescribed.

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 Prior to its amendment in 1987, the Air Act was enforced through
mild court administered penalties on violations. The 1987
amendment strengthened the enforcement machinery and
introduced stiffer penalties. Now, the boards may close down a
defaulting industrial plant or may stop its supply of electricity or
water. A board may also apply to the court to restrain emissions that
exceed prescribed limits.
Notably, the 1987 amendment introduced a citizen‘s suit provision into the
Air Act and extended the Act to include noise pollution.
Environment Acts
The most important legislation in this category is The

Environment (Protection) Act of 1986. Through this Act Central Government
gets full power for the purpose of protecting and improving the quality of the
environment and preventing, controlling and abating pollution.
The Environment (Protection) Act of 1986
In the wake of the Bhopal tragedy, the government of India

enacted the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986. The purpose of the Act is
to implement the decisions of the United Nations Conference on the Human
Environment of 1972, in so far as they relate to the protection and
improvement of the human environment and the prevention of hazards
to human beings, other living creatures, plants and property. The Act is an
―umbrella‖ for legislations designed to provide a framework for Central
Government, coordination of the activities of various central and state
authorities established under previous Acts, such as the Water Act and the
Air Act.
In this Act, main emphasis is given to ―Environment‖, defined to include

water, air and land and the inter-relationships which exist among water, air
and land and human beings and other living creatures, plants, micro-
organisms and property. ―Environmental pollution‖ is the presence of
pollutant, defined as any solid, liquid or gaseous substance present in such
a concentration as may be or may tend to be injurious to the environment.
―Hazardous substances‖ include any substance or preparation,

which may cause harm to human beings, other living creatures, plants,
microorganisms, property or the environment.
The main provisions of this Act are given below:
Section 3 (1) of the Act empowers the centre to ―take all such
measures as it deems necessary or expedient for the purpose of protecting

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and improving the quality of the environment and preventing, controlling

and abating environmental pollution‖. Specifically, the Central Government
is authorized to set new national standards for the quality of the
environment (ambient standards) as well as standards for controlling
emissions and effluent discharges; to regulate industrial locations, to
prescribe procedures for managing hazardous substances; to establish
safeguards preventing accidents, and to collect and dismantle information
regarding environmental pollution.
 By virtue of this Act, Central Government has armed itself with

considerable powers which include coordination of action by state,
planning and execution of nationwide programmes, laying down
environmental quality standards, especially those governing
emission or discharge of environmental pollutants, placing
restriction on the location of industries and so on.
 The coverage of powers include handling of hazardous substances,
prevention of environmental accidents, inspection of polluting units,
research, establishment of laboratories, dissemination of
information, etc.
 The Environment (Protection)Act was the first environmental
legislation to give the Central Government authority to issue direct
orders, included orders to close, prohibit or regulate any industry,
operation or process or to stop or regulate the supply of electricity,
water or any other service to an industry, operation and process.
Another power granted to the Central Government was to ensure
compliance with the Act which included the power of entry for
examination, testing of equipment and other purposes and power to
analyze the sample of air, water, soil or any other substance from
any place.
 The Act explicitly prohibits discharges of environmental pollutants
in excess of prescribed regulatory standards. There is also a specific
prohibition against handling hazardous substances except those in
compliance with regulatory procedures and standards. Persons
responsible for discharge of pollutants in excess of prescribed
standards must prevent or mitigate the pollution and must also to
report the governmental authorities.
 The Act provides provision for penalties. Any person who fails to
comply with any of the provisions of the Act, or the rules, orders, or
directions issued under the Act shall be punished. For each failure
or contravention the punishment included a prison term up to five
years or fine up to Rs. 1 lakh, or both. The Act imposed an
additional fine of up to Rs. 5,000 for every day of continuing
violation. If a failure or contravention occurs for more than one year

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after the date of conviction, an offender may punished with

imprisonment term, which may be extend to seven years.
 The Environment (Protection) Act contains significant innovations
for its enforcement, not contained in any other pollution control
legislation at the time of the Act‘s adoption. Section 19 provides that
any person, in addition to authorized government officials, may file a
complaint with a court alleging an offence under the Act. This
―Citizens‘ Suit‖ provision requires that the person has to give notice
of not less than 60 days of the alleged offence of pollution to the
Central Government or the competent authority. Under the Act, the
Central Government may, by notification in the office Gazette, make
rules for the enforcement of the Act.
BIODIVERSITY RELATED ACTS
India is one of the few countries, which had a forest policy since
1984. To protect forest and wild life following legislations have been enacted.
The Wild Life (Protection) Act of 1972
In 1972, Parliament enacted the Wild Life Act (Protection) Act.

The Wild Life Act provides for state wildlife advisory boards, regulations for
hunting wild animals and birds, establishment of sanctuaries and national
parks, regulations for trade in wild animals, animal products and trophies,
and judicially imposed penalties for violating the Act. Harming
endangered species listed in Schedule 1 of the Act is prohibited throughout
India. Hunting species, like those requiring special protection (Schedule II),
big game (Schedule III), and small game (Schedule IV), is regulated through
licensing. A few species classified as vermin (Schedule V), may be hunted
without restrictions. Wildlife wardens and their staff administer the act.
An amendment to the Act in 1982, introduced a provision

permitting the capture and transportation of wild animals for the scientific
management of animal population.
India is a signatory to the Convention of International Trade in

Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES 1976). Under this
convention, export or import of endangered species and their products are
governed by the conditions and stipulations laid down therein. Indian
government has also started some conservation projects for individual
endangered species like Hungal (1970), Lion (1972), Tiger (1973), Crocodiles
(1974), Brown-antlered Deer (1981) and Elephant (1991-92).

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The Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980
First Forest Act was enacted in 1927.This is one of the many

surviving colonial legislations. It was enacted to consolidate the law related
to forest, the transit of forest produce and the duty livable on timber and
other forest produce. Subsequently, the Forest (Conservation) Act was
promulgated in 1980 to make certain reforms over the preceding Act of
1927.The 1927Act deals with the four categories of the forests, namely
reserved forests, village forests, protected forests and private forests.
A state may declare forestlands or waste lands as reserved

forest and may sell the produce from these forests. Any unauthorized felling
of trees quarrying, grazing and hunting in reserved forests is punishable
with a fine or imprisonment, or both reserved forests assigned to a village
community are called village forests.
The state governments are empowered to designate protected

forests and may prohibit the felling of trees, quarrying and the removal of
forest produce from these forests. The preservation of protected forests is
enforces through rules, licenses and criminal prosecutions. Forest officers
and their staff administer the Forest Act. Alarmed at India‘s rapid
deforestation and resulting environmental degradation, Centre Government
enacted the Forest (Conservation) Act in1980. Under the provisions of this
Act, prior approval of the Central Government is required for diversion of
forestlands for non-forest purposes. An Advisory Committee constituted
under the Act advises the Centre on these approvals.
Biodiversity Act 2000
India‘s richness in biological resources and indigenous

knowledge relating to them is well recognized. One of the major challenges is
in adopting an instrument which helps realize the objectives of equitable
benefit sharing enshrined in the Convention. Towards this, legislation on
biodiversity was developed following an extensive consultative process. The
legislation aims at regulating access to biological resources so as to ensure
equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use.
The Biological Diversity Bill 2002 has been passed by the Lok
Sabha on 2ndDecember, 2002 and by the Rajya Sabha on 11th December,
2002.
Salient features of the biodiversity legislation
The main intent of this legislation is to protect India‘s rich

biodiversity and associated knowledge against their use by foreign
individuals and organizations without sharing the benefits arising out of

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such use, and to check bio-piracy. The Act provides for setting up of a
National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs)
and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) in local bodies. NBA
and SBB are required to consult BMCs in decisions relating to use of
biological resources or related knowledge within their jurisdiction and BMCs
are to promote conservation, sustainable use and documentation of
biodiversity.
All foreign nationals or organizations require prior approval of

NBA for obtaining biological resources and associated knowledge for any
use. Indian individuals /entities require approval of NBA for transferring
results of research with respect to any biological resources to foreign
nationals/organizations. Collaborative research projects and exchange of
knowledge and resources under these projects are exempted provided they
are drawn as per the policy guidelines of the Central Government and have
its approval the objectives of conservation, sustainable use and benefit
sharing. However, Indian citizens/entities/local people including vaids and
hakims to have free access to use biological resources within the country for
their own use, medicinal purposes and research purposes.
While granting approvals, NBA will impose terms and conditions

to secure equitable sharing of benefits. Before applying for any form of IPRs
(Intellectual Property Rights) in or outside India for an invention based on
research or information on a biological resource obtained from India, prior
approval of NBA will be required. There is an enabling provision for setting
up a framework for protecting traditional knowledge. The monetary benefits,
fees, royalties as a result of approvals by NBA to be deposited in National
Biodiversity Fund, which will be used for conservation and development of
areas from where resource has been accessed, in consultation with the local
self-government concerned.
There is provision for notifying National Heritage Sites

important from standpoint of biodiversity by State Governments in
consultation with local self-government. There also exists provision for
notifying items, and areas for exemption provided such exclusion does not
violate other provisions. This is to exempt normally traded commodities so
as not to adversely affect trade.

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Environmental Education
Environmental education is concerned with those aspects of
human behaviour which are more directly related to man‘s interaction with
bio-physical environment and his ability to understand this interaction.
One of the most glaring problems which the world faces today is
the environmental pollution. Man has exploited nature excessively at the
cost of the environment. There is an immediate need to make people aware
about environmental degradation. Education and public participation may
change and improve the quality of environment.
According to UNESCO, ―Environmental education is a way of

implementing the goals of environmental protection. It is not a
separate branch of science but lifelong interdisciplinary field of
study.‖ It means education towards protection and enhancement of the
environment and education as an instrument of development for improving
the quality of life of human communities.
Objectives of Environmental Education:
The following are the objectives of environmental education:
1. Awareness: To help the social groups and individuals to acquire

knowledge of pollution and environmental degradation.
2. Knowledge: To help social groups and individuals to acquire
knowledge of the environment beyond the immediate
environment including distant environment.
3. Attitudes: To help social groups and individuals to acquire a
set of values for environmental protection.
4. Skills and Capacity Building: To help social groups and
individuals to develop skills required for making discriminations
in form, shape, sound, touch, habits and habitats. Further, to
develop ability to draw unbiased inferences and conclusions.
5. Participation: To provide social groups and individuals with an
opportunity to be actively involved at all levels in environmental
decision making.
There are four areas of decision making:
(a) The types of environmental issues on which decisions might be made;

(b) The physical setting of the prospective environmental decision, including
its spatial scale;
(c) The types of social groups and individuals who might interact in a
process leading up to an environmental decision; and
(d) The time frame within which the decision must be made.

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Aims of Environmental Education
UNESCO has highlighted the following aims of environmental education:
The aim of environmental education is clearly to show the economic,

social, political and ecological interdependence of the modern world, in
which decisions and actions by different countries can have international
repercussions. Environmental education should, in this regard, help to
develop a sense of responsibility and solidarity among countries and regions
as the foundation for a new international order which will guarantee the
conservation and improvement of the environment.
The main aim of environmental education at the grass root level is to

succeed in making individuals and communities understand the complex
nature of the natural and the built environments. Further, to acquire the
knowledge, values, attitudes, and practical skills to participate in a
responsible and effective way in anticipating and solving social problems,
and in the management of the quality of the environment.
Therefore, necessary steps for environmental education are:
(a) Awareness;
(b) Knowledge;
(c) Attitude building for motivating to protect environment;
(d) Evaluation of environmental measures; and
(e) Skill and capacity building!
According to D.H. Meadows‘, environmental educators on every

continent develop materials and methods as varied as the different cultures
and ecosystems on earth. He lists some key concepts which underlie all
environmental education. These are food for thought, levels of being,
complex systems, population growth and carrying capacity, ecologically
sustainable development, socially sustainable development, knowledge,
uncertainty and sacredness.
Guiding Principles of Environmental Education:
1. Resource Principles:
(a) Resource use demands long-term planning if we are to achieve truly

sustainable development.
(b) Rationale utilization of a renewable source is a sensible way of
preserving the resources while obtaining maximum benefits from it.
(c) A mode of life heavily dependent upon rapidly diminishing non-
renewable energy sources (i.e. fossil fuel) is unstable.

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2. Soil Principles:
(a) The protection of soils and the maintenance of sustainable agriculture

are essential factors into the survival of civilizations and settlements.
(b) Soil erosion is the irreversible loss of essential resources and must be
prevented.
(c) A vegetation cover (grass, forest) is important for the balance of
nature and for the conservation of soil, besides being exploitable
natural resources.
3. Wildlife Protection Principles:
(a) Wildlife population is important aesthetically, biologically and

economically.
(b) Nature reserves and other protected wilderness areas are of value in
protecting endangered species because they preserve their habitats.
(c) The survival of humanity is closely linked to the survival of wildlife
both being dependent on the same life-supporting systems.
4. Environmental Management Principles:
(a) Sound environmental management is beneficial to both man and

environment.
(b) Management of natural resources should be done in a rational
manner.
(c) Elimination of wastes through recycling and the development of
clean.
(d) Human activities and technologies influence considerably the natural
environment and may affect its capacity to sustain life, including
human life.
5. Other Principles:
(a) The relations between humans and their environment are mediated
by their culture i.e.
(b) Cultural, historical and architectural heritage are much in need of
protection.
Organizing Environmental Education System (Formal and Non-Formal

Education)
Some of the major ways to organize environmental education system

are as follows: (b) Formal Education (b) Non formal Education.
(a) Formal Education:

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Formal education is given in schools, colleges and a university

etc., limited to a specific period, and has a well-defined and systematic
curriculum. The best approach in any awareness programme is to propagate
through children and youth as they quickly take to new ideas and are the
future activists. Formal environmental education should begin at the
primary school level.
Curriculum should be constructed taking into account the class

and age of the students. The content at the primary stage must be easily
accessible to the young minds and so the emphasis should be on building
up the environmental awareness in the child.
By lower secondary level, the child is conscious about the

physical, social and aesthetic aspects of environment. At this stage and
beyond, inter-disciplinary approach must be adopted and so the emphasis
must be on increasing the knowledge about environmental problems,
conservation and sustainable development.
The medium of imparting environmental education is not only

through books but also through first hand experiences in field activities and
eco-development camps etc. The activities in environmental educational
system vary from place to place as the environmental conditions and needs
vary from place to place.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training

(NCERT) have developed a curriculum framework based on which many
good text books, charts and other teaching aids have been designed.
University Grants Commission (UGC) has the main responsibility of
environmental education at post graduate level. Environment is a part of the
curriculum of mainly the biology courses in Universities and is taught as
environmental engineering in many engineering colleges, polytechnic
colleges and most Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT‘s).
Environmental engineering includes subjects like civil

engineering, town and country planning, environment improvement of
urban slums, human settlements, landscaping, industrial design, designing
environmental friendly technologies and environmental impact assessment
for sustainable development.
Environmental management includes subjects like land-use,

agriculture, waste management, wildlife management, conservation of
natural resources, forestry, national parks, water-resources management,
biosphere reserves etc. Besides these main subjects there are topics dealing
with the health and welfare of human beings, for instance, hygiene,
toxicology, occupational health, nutrition, chemical engineering etc.

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At post graduate level, environmental education also includes

social ecology i.e. human ecology, sociology, psychology, counselling, cost-
benefit aspects, environmental ethics etc. Case studies must be constructed
at identified areas as dissertation and field work reports and research must
be conducted on specific environmental problems related to the local
environment. Environmental legislation is also a part of the curriculum and
it includes environmental policies and environmental protection laws etc.
Present situation of formal Environmental Education in India:
There are nearly two hundred departments of environmental

studies in the universities and colleges all over India. They offer degree or
diploma programmes covering all aspects of environmental sciences and
engineering.
There are also diplomas, bachelor‘s degree, M.Sc., M.Phil. and

Ph.D. programmes in environmental sciences or environmental studies.
Besides these, M.E., M.Tech and Ph.D. programmes in environmental
engineering are offered by Civil Engineering and Chemical Engineering
departments.
Post graduate degree programmes in environmental

management and courses, which lead to M.Sc. in environmental
chemistry/biology/geology or environmental toxicology, are also available.
Environmental education at doctoral level is also available in a

large number of autonomous Research and Development (R & D)
institutions founded by central government, state governments and agencies
such as CSIR, ICAR and ICMR i.e. formal education in environmental sci-
ence or engineering is available in India up to the highest possible level.
What needs to be done is restructuring of environmental studies

programmes so as to produce instead of generalists, professionals whose
forte is Environmental Botany or Environmental
Zoology/Chemistry/Economics/Sociology etc. These courses should have
relatively specific curricula having provisions for training students in
specialisations such as forest ecology, Limnology, marine ecology,
environmental analysis, pollution studies, environmental toxicology etc.
(b) Non-formal Education:
For a majority of the population that still does not have

adequate access to formal education, environmental education and
awareness can be acquired by programmes that fall outside the formal
education system. Environmental education needs to be a lifelong affair
rather than a matter of formal schooling. This realization has resulted in an

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increase in non-formal education which includes activities outside the

framework of the established formal education system. The process of non-
formal environment education is experience based involving exercises of
solving environmental problems.
This gives the students an out-of-school exposure which

involves the students in natural processes of enquiring, exploring,
conjecturing, comparing, inferring, evaluating and decision making
regarding environmental problems in their surroundings. Flexibility of
approach is the most fundamental characteristic of non-formal
environmental education programmes.
Non formal education includes organisation of extra-curricular

activities like eco development camps, posters and essay-writing
competitions, exhibitions, seminars, nature camps, nature-club activities,
audio visual slides, mobile exhibitions etc.
Eco-development camps aim at creating awareness about basic

ecological principles and solving environmental problems after identifying
the causes of the ecological problems. Tree-plantation, trenching, fencing,
seed-banks, cleaning water-bodies, hygiene and promoting the use of non-
conventional energy sources are the activities included in these camps.
The Vikram Sarabhai Community Centre, Ahmedabad, involved

children in carrying out experiments and surveys, and, the centre for
environment education has evolved a water monitoring kit for secondary
school students under the Ganga Pollution Control Programme. Arts and
Crafts, folk dances, ballet and street plays are also used to impart informal
environmental education by many organisations such as Bal Bhawan
Society, Shantiniketan.
How is environmental education important in the attainment of

sustainability?
The environmental education is the mechanism and a tool for

the development of sustainability. The environmental education helps
environment in a number of ways. Added to that, it helps the society by
providing a critical likeness of the world. This is specifically its failings and
awful injustices, and by the way of endorsing greater consciousness and
awareness, analyzing new terms and vision and discovering fresh techniques
and tools. It is that the environmental education is the superior expectation
of humanity and the most efficient means to accomplish sustainable
development. It is that the environmental education might not be associated
with the schooling education or formal environmental education alone. This
includes the non–formal and informal medium of instruction and learning

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and also comprises of the conventional knowledge that are obtained in the
home and community.
Importance of Environmental Education in India
India is a highly diverse country in terms of its climate,

geography, geology, ethnicity, flora and fauna, society and economy.
Therefore, environmental education in the country has to be location-
specific.
Education in schools relating to ‗environmental‘ science studies‘

aims at improving the quality of environment and creating an awareness
regarding environmental problems and conservation. At the level of the
university, environmental education is looked after by the University Grants
Commission. A high-powered committee has been set up to suggest areas of
environmental education to be taught at postgraduate level. Ten universities
currently teach courses in environmental areas.
There are other research institutes and professional institutions

like the premier Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and engineering colleges
and schools of planning and architecture which have courses in
environmental engineering. The post-graduate courses include
environmental engineering, conservation and management, environmental
health and social ecology.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests launched the

Environment Education, Awareness and Training Scheme in 1983-84 to
enhance people‘s understanding regarding the human- environment
relationship and to enhance skills and capabilities to protect the
environment and improve it. It gives importance to promotion of non-formal
environmental education and creating environmental awareness among the
people through seminars, workshops, symposia, training programmes, the
National Green Corps and eco- clubs.
The National Museum of Natural History, New Delhi, set up in

1978, promotes non-formal education in various aspects of environment
through exhibitions and educational programmes and activities for children
and people in general.
The Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education is the

focal point of forestry education and extension development in India. The
Forest Survey of India, the Wildlife Institute of India and others offer
training on various aspects of environmental education and conservation.

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The Ministry of Environment and Forests has set up nine

centres of excellence to increase‘ awareness, research and training in areas
of environmental science and management.
In the context of environmental education, it needs to be

pointed out that environmental education opens up many Career
opportunities. With increasing awareness and stress on study of
environment and on its impact at various levels, there is a growing need for
environmental educators and professionals.
Professionals to deal with hazardous waste problems, lawyers

and other specialists to develop government and industry policy, laws and
regulations to protect the environment, engineers to develop technologies
and products to prevent environmental degradation are the need of the
hour.
Increasingly, economists, geographers and social scientists

would be required to evaluate the costs of environmental pollution and
depletion and come up with solutions that are socially, economically and in
other ways suitable for the world.
Business too needs a new class of environmentally literate and

responsible leaders who can study how products and services affect our
environment. Environment-related jobs would occupy a prominent place in
the years to come. So environmental education, as a discipline and as an
aspect linked to all other disciplines, is not only vital in it but also has a
tremendous scope in terms of job creation.
What are the flaws existing in the current environmental education

patterns adapted at present in Indian educational institutions:
It was seen that in the educational institutions, a lot of time is

not allocated for the teaching of sustainable environment as a subject to
students. The management of the educational institutions finds it difficult to
avail funds for offering high quality sustainable environmental education
and they also find it difficult to access resources necessary for offering high
quality sustainable environmental education. Some of the other challenges
that exist in the current environmental education patterns present in the
Indian educational institutions are that the teachers / lecturers are not at
all offered with adequate resources by the management to impart
sustainable environmental education and also most of the teachers /
lecturers lack sufficient knowledge to impart sustainable environmental
education. Added to that, students also do not give importance in learning
environment as a subject since they consider it to add no academic value to
them.

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The following are some of the suggestions that are recommended to improve
the environmental education in India.
Content of environmental education should be modified: At present, the

content of the Indian environmental education is not much attractive and
informative for the students. It should be enhanced in such a way that it
expresses a clear association to the environment and the environmental
concerns. The content must help highlight an incorporated thematic or an
interdisciplinary approach in which the ideas are uttered through big ideas
and unifying themes rather than the isolated segments. The content should
associate the learning with the actual world. Personally it has to be
applicable to the learners and include issues that are significant to the
society and also it should equip the learners with the adequate skills in
order to continue learning all through the life.
Design of the course material: The course material should be intended so

that it is practical by nature, specific to the locale and endorses a holistic
understanding of the particular area‘s environment. Also the material
should establish an association among the day – to – day life and actions of
the students and that of their environment.
Development of sustainability: The sustainability of the program depends

on the recognition by the teachers and their capability to provide the course
efficiently. The training of the teachers should be considered as a main
concern within the proposal. Camps should be arranged in order to train the
teachers from time to time. Also a manual should be offered to teachers in
order to enable them to guide the students in their practical work and also
the self - contained and self–explanatory workbooks should be provided.

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Environmental Hazards and remedial measures

An environmental hazard is a substance, a state or an event
which has the potential to threaten the surrounding natural environment /
or adversely affect people's health, including pollution and natural disasters
such as storms and earthquakes.
Environmental hazards may be defined as those extreme events

either natural or anthropogenic which exceed the tolerable magnitude within
or beyond certain time limits, make adjustment difficult, resulting
catastrophic losses of property, income and lives.
The term environmental hazard may be distinguished from

environmental disaster as follows. Hazards are the processes which cause
an accident or extreme event or danger whereas disaster is a sudden
adverse or unfortunate extreme event which causes great damage to human
beings as well as plants and animals, i.e., disasters occur rapidly,
instantaneously and indiscriminately. Thus, environmental hazards are the
processes whereas environmental disasters are the results or responses of
environmental hazards.
Environmental hazards directly affect people, businesses and

wildlife. The dependence of society on agricultural production, energy
supply, chemical use and transport and communication infrastructures,
highlights the need for increased resilience to environmental hazards as a
high priority.
Hazards include floods, droughts, emerging diseases and

invasive species, and pollution of soil, water and air. Scientific data are
crucial for characterising natural and anthropogenic hazards. This forms
the objective evidence-base needed to assess the threats posed and how they
can be mitigated. The severity of impacts from environmental hazards
depends on the hazards themselves and also on exposure and vulnerability.
Quantifying the current and likely future risks from

environmental hazards is an urgent and significant need. A greater
challenge is understanding how hazards interact with one another and other
key environmental components, such as land-use, climate change and the
growing human population.
By assessing the risk of natural environmental hazards, and

those caused by humankind, we will be better able to predict and develop
strategies to address the threats they pose to society, the economy and our
environment.

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On the basis of main causative factors, the environmental hazards and

disaster are of two types:
(1) Natural hazards and disaster and

(2) Anthropogenic hazards and disaster.
Natural hazards are further subdivided into two categories:
(i) Planetary hazards and

(ii) Extra planetary hazards and disasters.
Planetary hazards and disasters are of two types:
(a) Terrestrial or endogenous hazards, (volcanic eruption, Earthquake)

and
(b) Atmospheric or exogenous hazard (Cyclone, Flood, drought)
Anthropogenic hazards and disasters are of three types:
(i) Physical hazards (landslides, soil erosion, Earthquakes)

(ii) Chemical hazards and disasters (sudden outbreak of lethal
poisonous gases from industries, nuclear explosion, leakage of
radioactive elements,
(iii) Biological hazards and disaster (sudden rise in population of
species in a given habited).
Earthquake and its management
An earthquake is a sudden motion of the ground surface,

ranging from a faint tremor to a wild motion capable of shaking buildings
apart and causing gaping fissures to open in the ground. It is caused by an
abrupt release of slowly accumulating stress.
In other words, earthquake is a form of energy of wave motion

transmitted through the surface layer of the earth in widening circles from a
point of sudden release the focus. The intensity of energy released by an
earthquake is measured by the Richter scale, after the name of the scientist
C.F. Richter (1935). Although the scale ranges between 0 and 9, it has no
upper limit of number because it is a logarithmic scale. Another scale of the
measurement of intensity of earthquakes is mercalli scale.
The intensity of earthquake depends on a variety of factors e.g.

magnitude, distance from the epicenter, acceleration, dura-tion, amplitude
of wave, type of surface, water table, nature of the geometrical of the
concerned region and nature and type of constructions. A comparison in
between Mercalli intensity and Richter magnitude scale and corresponding
effects is shown in table.

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Earthquakes are caused due to disequilibrium in any part of the

crust of the earth. The disequilibrium is due to volcanic eruption, faulting
and folding, up warping and down warping, hydrostatic pressure of
manmade water bodies like reservoirs and lakes, and plate movement
Recently, Plate tectonic theory has been suggested to explain the occurrence
of earthquake.
According to this theory, earth is composed of solid and moving

plates having either continental, crust or oceanic crust or both, the earth‘s
crust is consisted of six major plates (Eurasian plate, Indian plate, American
plate, African plate. Pacific plate and Ataractic and twenty minor plates
Antarctic plate) and twenty minor plates. These plates are moving in relation
to each other due to thermal convective currents originating deep within the
earth. Thus, all the tectonic events take place along the margins of the plate.
Earthquakes cannot be prevented from occurring but their

impacts can be minimised by taking effective steps to reduce their severity,
frequency and possible size. Some effective earthquake management steps
are as follows:

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 Earthquake resistant buildings should be constructed in

earthquake prone zones. This is done either by keeping weak
spots in the house to absorb vibration or by keeping pads or
floats beneath the buildings.
 The earthquake zones should be avoided for settlement and
construction of developmental structures.
 Wooden houses should be preferred in earthquake prone
seismic areas.
 Reinforce concrete columns should support the long walls.
 There should be reinforced concreted footing for each structure.
 The earthquake prediction should be made long before its
occurrence in order to save life and properties.
Flood and its management:
The overflowing of a river over its banks and submerging the

surrounding areas is known as flood. Flood is caused not only due to high
precipitation but also due to increased deforestation, poor management of
agricultural field, poor drainage system, unplanned urbanization etc.
Flood results in a number of detrimental effects like damaging

of houses, buildings, industries etc., damaging of standing crops, lowering of
soil fertility, outbreak of epidemics etc. Every year thousands of living
organism and huge quantity of properties are lost due to flood in different
rivers. Therefore, some preventive measures should be undertaken in order
to reduce the severity of flood.
India being a country of many rivers and with tropical climate is

one of the most flood-prone countries of the world. Floods are frequent
because most of the rivers are full of water during monsoons. Flooding is
caused by the inadequate capacity within the banks of the rivers to contain
the high flow of water due to heavy rainfall. Areas having poor drainage get
flooded by accumulation of water.
Almost all Indian states have been affected by serious floods.

Apart from loss of lives of humans and cattle, on an average, every year 75
lakh hectares of land area is affected by the floods annually, accompanied
by damage to the crops, houses and public utilities. Interestingly, while on
one hand floods cause large scale losses on the other hand it helps
agriculture by improving the soil quality.
Some important abatement steps may be outlined as follows:
 Dams and barrages should be constructed on river beds.

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 Steps should be taken for the restoration of wet lands and

implementation of water shed management programmes.
 Flood walls embankment and dikes should be constructed as
physical barrier.
 The rivers should be interconnected.
 There should be massive afforestation over denude areas.
 There should be proper warning regarding the anticipated flood
through different mass media.
 The Govt. should take emergency flood control measures with
active participation of NGOs and local community.
 Flood water in low lying areas should be diverted through
artificially constructed channels bordered by dikes.
Cyclone and its management:
A cyclone is a powerful circular or oval shaped swinkling storm

with diameter of about 650 km, capable of causing large scale destruction.
The tropical cyclones become highly disastrous because of their high wind
speed of 180 to 400 km per hour, high tidal surges, high rainfall intensity,
very low atmospheric pressures causing unusual rise in sea level, and their
persistence for a longer period of time. The cumulative effects of high
velocities of wind, torrential rainfall and transgression of sea water on
coastal land create havoc in the affected areas, causing tremendous loss of
lives and proper-ties.
The cyclones are called differently in different parts world as

Hurricanes in North Atlantic Ocean, Typhoons in the North Pacific Ocean
and Willy in sea around. Australia. A super cyclone hit the coastal belt of
Orissa on 29th October 1999 which claimed more than 10,000 deaths and
loss of more than 2000 crores of rupees.
According to Environmental Scientists, tropical cyclones are the

consequences of globed climatic changes and the frequency of cyclones will
go on increasing.
India has a long coastline, which is vulnerable to the tropical

cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. The Bay of Bengal region
is frequently battered by storms and cyclones. Cyclones are intense low-
pressure areas in the form of depressions or cyclone storms. Severe cyclones
are associated with hurricane, winds etc.
There are two cyclone seasons in India, the pre-monsoon season

(April-May) and the post-monsoon season (October-December). The states of
Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are the most affected
states due to cyclones.

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So in order to minimise the loss of life and property due to cyclones, the
following preventive measures should be undertaken by the present society:
 There should be massive plantation on the coastal belt.

 There should be proper warning regarding the
anticipated cyclone through different mass media.
 There should be temporary evacuation of population
from affected or to be affected areas to safer places.
 Efforts should be made to preserve, maintain and
replace coastal sand dune.
 Efforts should be made to maintain and preserve barrier
islands and coastal islands.
 Cyclone proof structures and shelters should be
constructed in the areas vulnerable to cyclone hit.
 The dams, embankments, wind breakers etc. should be
constructed in order to prevent the locality from severity
of cyclone.
 Government should take immediate steps to provide
relief and rehabilitation measures to the cyclone affected
peoples.
Landslides:
The rapid sliding of large mass of rocks, soil and mud along the
slope of hill, mountain and highlands is termed as landslides. The landslides
may occur due to heavy rainfall on the mountain slopes having loose soil
and debris, due to excavation or due to deposition of loose ash after volcanic
eruption. Sometimes, landslides may occur due to earthquakes and sudden
rock failures.
Landslides can result from water saturation, slope

modifications, and earthquakes. Techniques for reducing landslide and
mudslide risks to structures include selecting flat land or stable slopes;
constructing channels, drainage systems, retention structures, and walls;
planting groundcover; and soil reinforcement using geo-synthetic materials,
and avoiding cut and fill building sites. Redirecting water that might affect
steep slopes would greatly decrease landslides. Water loosens soil that might
be necessary for sustaining land. Some areas that are at a high risk of
landslides are:
 Areas where wildfires or human modification of the land have

destroyed vegetation;
 Areas where landslides have occurred before;
 Steep slopes and areas at the bottom of slopes or canyons;
 Slopes that have been altered for construction of buildings and roads;

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 Channels along a stream or river; and

 Areas where surface runoff is directed.
It would help to build structures away from these areas. There are also
some precautions that can be taken before intense storms and rainfalls
such as:
(i) Assume that steep slopes and areas burned by wildfires are
vulnerable to landslides and debris flows.
(ii) Learn whether landslides or debris flows have occurred previously
in your area by contacting local authorities, a county geologist or
the county planning department, state geological surveys or
departments of natural resources, or university departments of
geology.
(iii) Contact local authorities about emergency and evacuation plans.
(iv) Develop emergency and evacuation plans for your family and
business.
(v) Develop an emergency communication plan in case family
members are separated.
(vi) These are all precautions that can be taken to prevent or stay away
from landslides.
Drought and its management
The literary meaning of drought is an extended period of dry

weather which is especially injurious to crops. However, different disciplines
have different perceptions about drought. Meteorologists define it as rainless
or rain-deficit period.
Agronomists consider drought as a condition of shortage of

moisture for crop production. Economists view it as shortage of rainfall,
which adversely affects agricultural production. A farmer considers drought
as shortage of rainfall for critical operations and stages of crop growth.
Drought, if not managed properly and continued for more than

two to three consecutive years, might lead to famine like situation. Drought
adversely affects the economic and social life of the people. It aggravates
poverty, water scarcity, and famine, the internal displacement of people,
migration and social breakdown. Further, reduction in crop production
increases the prices of those commodities and also affects the relative prices.
At the household level, a large drop in production translates

into huge reduction in farm employment and income. The drop in income,
coupled with rapidly increasing food prices result in severe and widespread
decline in purchasing power. This also leads to migration and people become

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environmental refugees. Moreover, low income and less food production

leads to malnutrition among the children. This has enormous social costs
and causes a huge drain of economic resources.
According to Prof. Amartya Sen, malnutrition and famine could

occur on a massive scale despite considerable food availability. It is shortage
in food grain production which leads to a prolonged fall in food grain intake
that starvation on a massive scale leads to excessive rise in death rates.
Drought Control Measures:
It is not very easy to forecast drought. Now a days, computer based studies
help to get some ideas about it.
Some of the measures to mitigate drought are:
(i) Efficient use of rain water and rain harvesting

(ii) Introduction of dry farming techniques
(iii) Lining of canals to prevent water loss
(iv) Avoidance of over cropping
(v) Limiting settlements in drought prone areas
(vi) Introduction of horticulture plantation and
(vii) Checking of desert migration.
Environmental Pollution
Environmental pollution is one of the main threats for our
planet. Environmental Pollution is any discharge of material or energy into
water, land, or air that causes or may cause acute (short-term) or chronic
(long-term) detriment to the earth's ecological balance or that lowers the
quality of life. In simple words, Environmental Pollution is a process of
contaminating the environment in a way that it becomes unsafe to use.
Environmental pollution is the effect of undesirable changes in our
surroundings that have harmful effects on plants, animals and human
beings. A substance, which causes pollution, is known as pollutant.
Pollutants can be solid, liquid or gaseous substances present in greater
concentration than in natural abundance and are produced due to human
activities or due to natural happenings. Pollutants may cause primary
damage, with direct identifiable impact on the environment, or secondary
damage in the form of minor perturbations in the delicate balance of the
biological food web that are detectable only over long time periods. The
industrialization of our society, the introduction of motorized vehicles, rapid
urbanization, the explosion of the human population, harnessing of the
natural resources as well as unplanned sewage and waste disposal from
industries and cities has been causing a tremendous increase in waste

134
byproducts. Thus, environmental pollution usually occurs as a result of

energy conversions and the use of resources which leaves their by-products
behind in water, soil or air.
The natural resources which are freely available as a gift of nature are highly
polluted. Depending upon the area or the part of environment affected,
pollution may be broadly divided into following types:
1. Air pollution
2. Water pollution
3. Land pollution
4. Noise pollution
5. Radiation Pollution
6. Thermal pollution
Air Pollution
Air pollution is one of the biggest challenges of present
humanity. Air pollution means the presence of any abnormal material or
property in the air that reduce the usefulness of the air resources. The term
pollution may be referred in context with outdoor open atmospheric
conditions, localized air condition, and enclosed space conditions. Air
pollution occurs due to the presence of undesirable solid, liquid or gaseous
particles in the air in quantities that are harmful to human health and the
environment. Air may get polluted by natural causes such as volcanoes,
which release ash, dust, sulphur and other gases, or by human activities.
However, unlike pollutants from human activity, naturally occurring
pollutants tend to remain in the atmosphere for a short time and do not lead
to permanent atmospheric change.
Sources of Air Pollution
Among the major sources of pollution are power and heat

generation, the burning of solid wastes, industrial processes, and,
especially, transportation. The common pollutant gases emitted during the
domestic burning of coal, kerosene oil, firewood, cow dung cakes, smoke
from cigarettes etc. are carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2),
sulphur dioxide (SO2), etc. About 90% of global air pollution is constituted
by the following pollutants.
(i) Carbon dioxide: It is one of the major gases which contribute

towards air pollution. It is mainly produced during the combustion
of fuel in factories, power stations, household etc.
(ii) Carbon monoxide: It is produced as a result of incomplete
combustion of fossil fuels like coal, petroleum and wood charcoal.

135
Automobiles using diesel and petroleum are the major sources of

carbon monoxide.
(iii) Sulphur dioxide: It accounts for about 18% of all air pollution. It
is produced by chemical industries, metals meltings, pulp and
paper mills, oil refineries etc.
(iv) Oxides of nitrogen: A few oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are produced by
natural processes as well as from thermal power stations, factories,
automobiles and aircrafts. They account for about 6% of air
pollution.
(v) Hydrocarbons: Hydrocarbons are a group of compounds consisting
of carbon and hydrogen atoms. They either evaporate from fuel
supplies or are remnants of fuel that did not burn completely.
(vi) Particulate matter: Particulates are small pieces of solid material
(for example, smoke particles from fires, bits of asbestos, dust
particles and ash from industries) dispersed into the atmosphere.
Effects of Air Pollution
(i) Effects on Human Health: Exposure to air pollution is associated

with numerous effects on human health, including pulmonary,
cardiac, vascular, and neurological impairments. The health effects
vary greatly from person to person. High-risk groups such as the
elderly, infants, pregnant women, and sufferers from chronic heart
and lung diseases are more susceptible to air pollution. Children
are at greater risk because they are generally more active outdoors
and their lungs are still developing. Exposure to air pollution can
cause both acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) health
effects.
(ii) Effects on plants: When some gaseous pollutants enter leaf pores
they damage the leaves of crop plants. Chronic exposure of the
leaves to air pollutants can break down the waxy coating that helps
prevent excessive water loss and leads to damage from diseases,
pests, drought and frost. Such exposure interferes with
photosynthesis and plant growth, reduces nutrient uptake and
causes leaves to turn yellow, brown or drop off altogether.
(iii) Effects of air pollution on materials: Every year air pollutants
damage materials worth billions of rupees. Air pollutants break
down exterior paint on cars and houses. All around the world air
pollutants have discoloured irreplaceable monuments, historic
buildings, marble statues, etc.
(iv) Effect on climate: Atmospheric changes induced by pollution
contribute to global warming, a phenomenon which is caused due
to the increase in concentration of certain gases like carbon

136
dioxide, nitrogen oxides, methane and CFCs. There could be

several adverse effects of global warming. With a warmer earth the
polar ice caps will melt causing a rise in ocean levels and flooding
of coastal areas. In countries like Bangladesh or the Maldives this
would be catastrophic. If the sea level rises by 3m., Maldives will
disappear completely beneath the waves.
Control measures for air pollution
Air pollution can be controlled by two fundamental approaches:

preventive techniques and effluent control. One of the effective means of
controlling air pollution is to have proper equipment in place. This includes
devices for removal of pollutants from the flue gases though scrubbers,
closed collection recovery systems through which it is possible to collect the
pollutants before they escape, use of dry and wet collectors, filters,
electrostatic precipitators, etc. Providing a greater height to the stacks can
help in facilitating the discharge of pollutants as far away from the ground
as possible. Industries should be located in places so as to minimize the
effects of pollution after considering the topography and the wind directions.
Substitution of raw material that causes more pollution with those that
cause less pollution can be done.
Water Pollution
Water is one of the most important biological components that
sustain life. However, nowadays water is highly polluted and is one of the
pivotal issues in the world. The water is said to be polluted when it has more
―negative‖ qualities than ―positive‖ ones. Water quality refers to the physical,
chemical and biological characteristics of water. Thus, in simple words, we
can that polluted water is that water which has been abused, defiled in
some way, so that it is no longer fit for use. Water pollution can be defined
as ―the presence of too much of undesirable substances in water which tend
to degrade the quality of water‘s physical, chemical and biological
characteristics, making it unsuitable for beneficial use‖.
Sources of Water Pollution
Water pollution is one of the most serious environmental

problems. Water pollution is caused by a variety of human activities such
as,
• Domestic sewage discharged into rivers from areas located on its

banks.
• Excretory wastes of humans and animals in water bodies.
• Disposal of urban and industrial waste matter into water bodies.

137
• Industrial wastes effluents from urban areas containing high

concentration of oil, heavy metals and detergents.
• Minerals, organic wastes and crop dusting from agricultural fields
with phosphate and nitrogen fertilizers that reach lakes, rivers and
sea (water becomes deoxygenated and poisonous, thus, cannot
support aquatic life).
• Chemical fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and plant
remains.
• Industrial waste water containing several chemical pollutants, such as
calcium, magnesium, chlorides, sulphide, carbonates, nitrates,
nitrites, heavy metals and radioactive waste from nuclear reactor.
• Natural sources of pollution of water are soil erosion, leaching of
minerals from rocks and decaying of organic matter.
Water pollutants are categorized as point source pollution and non-point

source pollution.
1. Point source pollution: When pollutants are discharged from a specific

location such as a drain pipe carrying industrial effluents discharged
directly into water body it represents point source pollution. In other words,
point source pollution is defined as any single identifiable source of
pollution from which pollutants are discharged.
2. Non-Point source pollution: Those sources which do not have any

specific location for discharging pollutants, in the water body are known as
non-point sources of water pollution. For example, run off from agricultural
fields, grazing lands, construction sites, abandoned mines and pits etc.
Effects of Water Pollution
Water pollution is the second major source of waterborne

diseases and health problems after air pollution.
(i) Effects on humans
On consuming polluted water, humans can suffer from diseases

like amoebic dysentery, skin cancers, cholera, typhoid fever, damage of
nervous system, genetic mutations/ birth defects, hepatitis, malaria. Metals
like lead, zinc, arsenic, copper, mercury and cadmium in industrial waste
waters adversely affect humans and other animals. Consumption of arsenic
polluted water leads to skin lesions, rough skin, dry and thickening of skin
and ultimately skin cancer. Pollution of water bodies by mercury causes
Minamata disease in humans and dropsy in fishes. Lead causes displexia;
cadmium poisoning causes Itai – Itai disease etc.

138
(ii) Effects on plants and animals
Water pollution results in lower crop yields, excess growth of

algae can kill aquatic life, reduce photosynthesis, disrupts food chain and
food web. Oil spills are a major problem in near coastal waters and can kill
or adversely affect fish, other aquatic organisms and birds and mammals.
Spills can kill or reduce populations of organisms living in coastal sands
and rocks, and may kill the worms and insects that serve as food to birds
and other animals.
Fertilizers and pesticides are widely used in agriculture. Their

excessive use to increase agricultural yield has led to the phenomenon of
eutrophication and biomagnifications, which are serious consequences of
water pollution.
Eutrophication: With the use of high-yielding varieties of crops

application of fertilizers and pesticides has increased. Excess
fertilizers may mix with surface water bodies (surface runoff). The
enrichment of water with nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates
that triggers the growth of green algae is called eutrophication. This
fast growth of algae followed by their decomposition depletes the water
body of the dissolved oxygen. As a result, aquatic animals die of
oxygen shortage.
Biomagnification: Entry of harmful, non-biodegradable chemicals in
small concentration and their accumulation in greater concentration
in the various levels of a food chain is called biomagnification. Non-
biodegradable pesticides, such as DDT are widely used for crop
protection. Once they enter the food chain, their concentration keeps
on increasing with each trophic level (steps of a food chain). As a
result, accumulation of these compounds takes place in the body of
top consumers over a period of time.
Control measures for preventing water pollution
Setting up effluent treatment plans to treat waste.

Industrial wastes must be treated before discharge.
Educate Public for preventing water pollution and the
consequences of water pollution
Strict enforcement of Water Pollution Control Act.
Continuous monitoring of water pollution at different places.
Developing economical method of water treatment.

139
Land Pollution
Land pollution is the degradation of the earth's land surface
through misuse of the soil by poor agricultural practices, mineral
exploitation, industrial waste dumping, and indiscriminate disposal of
urban and toxic wastes. In simple terms, land pollution is the degradation of
the earth's surface caused by a misuse of resources and improper disposal
of waste. Land pollution is responsible for damage done to natural habitat of
animals, deforestation and damage done to natural resources, and the
general uglying up of our communities. Polluting the land by harmful
chemicals can lead to entry of pollutants into food chain. This is commonly
caused by excess use of fertilizers in agriculture, irresponsible disposable of
industrial wastes etc. Even defecating in the open spaces also causes
pollution.
Sources of Land Pollution
The major sources of land pollution are highlighted below:
(i) Soil erosion: Soil erosion can be defined as the movement of

topsoil from one place to another. Soil erosion removes rich humus
topsoil developed over many years through vegetative decay and
microbial degradation and thus strips the land of valuable
nutrients for crop growth. Strip mining for minerals and coal lays
waste thousands of acres of land each year, denuding the earth
and subjecting the mined area to widespread erosion problems.
The increase in urbanization due to population pressure presents
additional soil-erosion problems; sediment loads in nearby streams
may increase as much as 500 to 1,000 times.
(ii) Industrial Waste: Large number of industrial chemicals, dyes,
acids, fertilizer companies, pharmaceutical companies etc. find
their way into the soil and are known to create many health
hazards including cancer.
(iii) Urban Wastes: Because of modem life style and eating habits the
urban wastes are becoming very dangerous to the human beings.
Urban wastes include both which is a nondegradable material and
harmful to the society in long run.
(iv) Agricultural sources: Agricultural chemicals especially fertilizers
and pesticides pollute the soil. Fertilizers in the runoff water from
these fields can cause eutrophication in water bodies. Pesticides
are highly toxic chemicals which affect humans and other animals
adversely causing respiratory problems, cancer and death.
(v) Plastic bags: Plastic bags made from low density polyethylene, is
virtually indestructible, create colossal environmental hazard like

140
land pollution. The discarded bags block drains and sewage

systems.
Effects of land pollution
 Toxic compounds affect plant growth and human life also.

 Water logging and salinity makes soil infertile.
 Hazardous chemicals enter into food chain from soil disturbing the
biochemical process.
 Nervous disorders, gastrointestinal disorder, joint pain, respiratory
problems are the effects seen on human beings.
Control measures for preventing soil pollution
1. Soil erosion must be prevented or controlled by proper tree

plantation.
2. All the wastes from industry, domestic, must be dumped with
proper treatment.
3. Use of synthetic fertilizers must be avoided instead natural
fertilizers must be preferred.
4. Educate people regarding consequences of soil pollution and to
prevent soil pollution.
5. Toxic and non-degradable materials must be totally banned.
6. Recycling and reuse of industrial and domestic wastes can
minimize soil pollution considerably
Noise Pollution
Noise pollution has a relatively recent origin and is one of the
least discussed problems. Noise is one of the most pervasive pollutant.
People tend to underestimate this problem because it is not possible to
smell, see or touch it. Noise Pollution is any loud sounds that are either
harmful or annoying to humans and animals. To be more precise, noise by
definition is ―sound without value‖ or ―any noise that is unwanted by the
recipient‖. Noise like other pollutants is a byproduct of industrialization,
urbanization and modern civilization. Noise level is measured in terms of
decibels (dB). W.H.O. has prescribed optimum noise level as 45 dB by day
and 35 dB by night. Anything above 80 dB is hazardous.
Sources of Noise Pollution
Noise pollution is a growing problem. It is a composite of sounds

generated by human activities ranging from blasting stereo systems to the
roar of supersonic transport jets. All human activities contribute to noise
pollution to varying extent. Noise pollution is more intense in the work

141
environment than in the general environment. Sources of noise pollution are

many and may be located indoors or outdoors.
(a) Indoor sources include noise produced by household gadgets like radio,
television, generators, electric fans, washing machine, vacuum cleaners, air
coolers, air conditioners and family conflict. The average background noise
in a typical home today is between 40 and 50 decibels. Noise pollution is
more in cities due to a higher concentration of population and industries
and activities such as transportation.
(b) Outdoor sources of noise pollution include indiscriminate use of

loudspeakers, industrial activities, automobiles, rail traffic, aeroplanes and
activities such as those at market place, religious, social, and cultural
functions, sports and political rallies. During festivals, marriage and many
other occasions, use of fire crackers contribute to noise pollution.
Effects of Noise Pollution
The research shows that many illnesses are connected to noise

pollution, such as hearing loss, high blood pressure, coronary heart
diseases, loss of temper, and decrease in work efficiency, sleeplessness,
anxiety and speech interference. The effect is variable, depending upon
individual susceptibility, duration of exposure, nature of noise, and time
distribution of exposure. On the average an individual will experience a
threshold shift (a shift in an individual's upper limit of sound detectability)
when exposed to noise levels of 75 to 80 dB for several hours. This shift will
last only several hours once the source of noise pollution is removed. A
second physiologically important level is the threshold of pain, at which even
short-term exposure will cause physical pain (130 to 140 dB). Any noise
sustained at this level will cause a permanent threshold shift or permanent
partial hearing loss. At the uppermost level of noise (greater than 150 dB),
even a single short-term blast may cause traumatic hearing loss and
physical damage inside the ear. The industrial noises also affect the lives of
animals. For example, whales‘ navigation system breaks down due to the
sounds of ships.
Preventive Measures
Noise is everywhere, it is not as easy to control as other

pollutions. Reducing noise pollution by muffling the sounds at the source is
one of the best methods in industry and for urban living. Using earplugs
where abnormal noise is produced. Banning noise polluting vehicles,
controlling vibration of machines by proper lubricating machine, plantation
of trees on road sides and near building can absorb noise, constructing
sound proof rooms, enforcing noise pollution control act and educating

142
people about noise pollution and its consequences. Creation of green cover
adjacent to municipal roads and in mines is the way to mitigate noise
pollution. It has been observed that noise level reduces by 10 decibels per
every 10m wide green belt development.
Radiation Pollution
Radiation pollution is one of the serious types of pollution and
also neglected one. This is the pollution due to abnormal radiation in the
environment. Radiation pollution is any form of ionizing or non-ionizing
radiation that results from human activities. The radiations emanating from
the decay of radioactive nuclides are major sources of radiation pollution.
The most well-known radiation results from the detonation of nuclear
devices and the controlled release of energy by nuclear-power generating
plants, from cell and mobile towers, by use of wireless Internet access
modems etc. Other sources of radiation include spent-fuel reprocessing
plants, byproducts of mining operations, and experimental research
laboratories. Increased exposure to medical X-rays and to radiation
emissions from microwave ovens and other household appliances, although
of considerably less magnitude, all constitute sources of environmental
radiation.
Effects of Radiation Pollution
Public concern over the release of radiation into the

environment greatly increased following the disclosure of possible harmful
effects to the public from nuclear weapons testing, the accident (1979) at the
Three Mile Island nuclear-power generating plant near Harrisburg, and the
catastrophic 1986 explosion at Chernobyl, A Soviet nuclear power plant. In
the late 1980s, revelations of major pollution problems at U.S. nuclear
weapons reactors raised apprehensions even higher. The environmental
effects of exposure to high-level ionizing radiation have been extensively
documented through post-war studies on individuals who were exposed to
nuclear radiation in Japan. Some forms of cancer show up immediately.
Preventive Measures
Radioactive nuclear wastes cannot be treated by conventional

chemical methods and must be stored in heavily shielded containers in
areas remote from biological habitats. The safest of storage sites currently
used are impervious deep caves or abandoned salt mines. Most radioactive
wastes, however, have half-lives of hundreds to thousands of years, and to
date no storage method has been found that is absolutely infallible.

143
Thermal Pollution
Thermal pollution is the discharge of waste heat via energy
dissipation into cooling water and subsequently into nearby waterways. In
simple words, this pollution arises due to release of excess heat from
thermal power plants, industries involved in metals molding etc. The heat is
released into the surrounding air rising the temperature of the locality
drastically. The major sources of thermal pollution are fossil-fuel and
nuclear electric-power generating facilities and, to a lesser degree, cooling
operations associated with industrial manufacturing, such as steel
foundries, other primary metal manufacturers, and chemical and
petrochemical producers.
Power plants- thermal and nuclear, chemical and other

industries use lot of water (about 30 % of all abstracted water and 90 % of
all water consumption excluding agricultural uses) for cooling purposes and
the used hot water is discharged into rivers, streams or oceans. Discharge of
hot water may increase the temperature of the receiving water by 5 to 11 °C
above the ambient water temperature. The discharge of heated water into a
waterway often causes ecological imbalance, sometimes resulting in major
fish kills near the discharge source. The increased temperature accelerates
chemical-biological processes and decreases the ability of the water to hold
dissolved oxygen. Unlike terrestrial ecosystems, the temperature of water
bodies remains steady and does not change very much. Accordingly, aquatic
organisms are adapted to a uniform steady temperature of environment and
any fluctuation in water temperature severely affects aquatic plants and
animals. Hence discharge of hot water from power plants adversely affects
aquatic organisms. Aquatic plants and animals in the warm tropical water
live dangerously close to their upper limit of temperature, particularly
during the warm summer months. It requires only a slight deviation from
this limit to cause a thermal stress to these organisms. Discharge of hot
water in water body affects feeding in fishes, increases their metabolism and
affects their growth. Their swimming efficiency declines. Running away from
predators or chasing prey becomes difficult. Their resistance to diseases and
parasites decreases. Due to thermal pollution biological diversity is reduced.
Thus rapid and dramatic changes in biologic communities often occur in the
vicinity of heated discharges.
One of the best methods of reducing thermal pollution is to

store the hot water in cooling ponds, allow the water to cool before releasing
into any receiving water body.

144

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Geography with Sandeep Sir

Organisms and the Environment

Organisms are individual living things. Despite their

1. Abiotic factors are the nonliving aspects of the environment. They

One of the most important concepts associated with the

Another aspect of a species‘ niche is its habitat. The habitat is

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Competitive Exclusion Principle

A given habitat may contain many different species, but each

An ecosystem is a unit of nature and the focus of study in

When it comes to energy, ecosystems are not closed. They need

The term ‗ecosystem‘ was coined by A.G. Tansley in 1935.

Many ecologists regard the entire biosphere as a global ecosystem, as

In nature two major categories of ecosystems exist: terrestrial and aquatic.

 Forests, deserts and grasslands are examples of terrestrial

The interaction between the living organisms and their

ocean. Irrespective of their sizes all ecosystems share many common

Types of ecosystems: Ecosystems are classified as follows: (i) Natural

(i) Natural ecosystems

(a) Totally dependent on solar radiation e.g. forests, grasslands,

(b) Ecosystems dependent on solar radiation and energy subsidies

(ii) Manmade ecosystems

(a) Dependent on solar energy-e.g. agricultural fields and aquaculture

(b) Dependent on fossil fuel e.g. urban and industrial ecosystems.

They are broadly grouped into:-

(b) Biotic components

(a) Abiotic components (Nonliving): The abiotic component can be grouped

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(i) Physical factors: Sun light, temperature, rainfall, humidity and

(b) Biotic components (Living)

Ecosystem – Structure and Function

Interaction of biotic and abiotic components results in a

The important structural features are species composition

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Some of these aspects are: Productivity, energy flow, nutrient cycle

A community is an assemblage of many populations that are

Each ecosystem has its own species composition depending

The vertical and horizontal distribution of plants in the

Ecosystems are complex dynamic system. They perform certain functions.

 Energy flow through food chain

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Energy Flow through Ecosystem:

Food chains and energy flow are the functional properties of

During this process of transfer of energy some energy is lost into

There are two types of food chains:

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Trophic levels in an ecosystem are not linear rather they are

The flow of energy in an ecosystem is always linear or one way.

Ecological pyramids are the graphic representations of trophic

 Pyramid of number: This represents the number of organisms at

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The Carbon Cycle

The global carbon cycle consists of following steps-

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decomposers etc.). Thus CO2 is released into of the atmosphere

Nitrogen is an essential component of protein and required by

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Our atmosphere contains nearly 79% of nitrogen but it cannot

(a) Nitrogen fixation: This process involves conversion of gaseous nitrogen

 Atmospheric fixation: Lightening, combustion and volcanic activity

(b) Nitrification: It is a process by which ammonia is converted into nitrates

(c) Assimilation: In this process nitrogen fixed by plants is converted into

(d) Ammonification: Living organisms produce nitrogenous waste products