it is necessary that al the nations should cooperate in order to fins remedies on environmental degradations
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Heyaa...☺☺
It is not necessary that all the nations should cooperate in order to find remedies on environmental degradations but it is humanity
We all should cooperate for our nation. Its a work for humanity and nature so all nations must cooperate for it.
Thanks..☺☺
The term, ‘environment’, has many connotations. In this paper, by ‘environment’,
we mean the natural environment, which encompasses all the biotic and abiotic
elements that form our surroundings, that is, the air, the land, the water, the forests,
the seas, the animals, and all other living and non-living elements of this planet
Earth. Without the environment, none of us can survive. The environment performs
the following four functions, which are essential for our survival and well being: (i)
provision of ‘natural goods’ like air, solar energy, lakes, landscape, and wildlife; (ii)
supplying natural resources such as land, water, forests, and minerals, which are
used to create economic goods; (iii) functioning as a ‘sink’ into which the byproducts of economic activities are dumped/discarded; and (iv) providing
environmental services and amenities such as the maintenance of a habitable
biosphere, including the stratospheric ozone layer, climate stability and genetic
diversity, and recreation and aesthetic appreciation.
In India, more than three-fourths of its population depends directly for their
livelihoods on activities based on natural resources and the remainder of the
population relies on these resources indirectly for food, fuel, industrial output and
recreation. Their economic well-being is inextricably tied to the productivity of
natural resources and quality of environment. Sadly, most of the natural resources
including environment in India are in a serious state of degradation. For example,
agricultural lands suffer from soil erosion, water-logging, salinity and general loss of
fertility, making them less productive. Similarly, groundwater aquifers are overexploited in many arid and semi-arid areas, surface water sources are highly polluted
and consequently water for drinking and irrigation is increasingly getting scarce and
polluted. Fishery yields are declining, and air quality is deteriorating. Increasing
levels of air, water and land pollution pose a serious threat to human health and
longevity. Good management of natural resources and environment is essential to
*Revised version of the Keynote paper presented at the 68th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of
Agricultural Economics held at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam on November 28 - 30, 2008.
†Formerly Director, Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), Anand and presently Honorary Chairman, India
Natural Resource Economics and Management (INREM) Foundation, Anand - 388 001.
The paper is largely based on Singh and Shishodia (2007).
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AND MEASURES FOR ITS MITIGATION 41
attain and sustain economic growth and development. It is not, as is sometimes
mistakenly asserted, just a luxury for wealthy countries concerned with aesthetics. It
is imperative for sustainable livelihoods of the poor to enhance and sustain the
productivity of natural resources, arrest environmental degradation, and protect the
integrity of eco-systems.
In this paper, we first present an overview of the type and extent of degradation
of environment as it affects India’s agricultural sector, then identify the underlying
causes of degradation and finally discuss the measures that could be used for
mitigating the problem of environmental degradation.
II
TYPE AND EXTENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
Environment keeps changing over time naturally and it is also amenable to
changes by human beings. Thanks to scientific and technological developments, our
ability to alter the environment has increased tremendously, whereas the capacity of
environment to cope with those alterations is limited. The nature's bounty and
abundance are disappearing at a rapid rate now in many regions of the world
including India due to the human alterations of the environment. All this has brought
to the fore the need for protection and preservation of environment and the urgency of
developing sound environmental policies and programmes. Without them,
development would not only be unsustainable but would be tantamount to
retrogression. The challenge of creating and maintaining a sustainable environment is
probably the single most pressing issue confronting us today and will remain so in the
foreseeable future (Raven et al., 1998).
Now we briefly present an overview of the type and extent of environmental
degradation in India with special reference to land, water, fisheries, biodiversity, and
climate change.
2.1 Land Degradation
The Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, and
Government of India has identified different types of degraded wastelands and have
prepared a Wasteland Atlas of India for the year 2000, with the help of Indian
Remote Sensing Satellites. According to their estimates, the degraded wastelands