Population growth

Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the
number of individuals of any species in a population per unit time.

Factors of population change

Population growth is determined by four factors:
(a) Births (b) Deaths (c) Immigrants (d) Emigrants per year using a formula expressed as
P = (B-D) + (I-E)
Population growth of a period can be calculated in two parts, Natural growth of population (B-D) and
Mechanical growth of population (I-E), in which Mechanical growth of population is mainly affected by
social factors, eg. The advanced economics are growing faster while the backward economics are growing
slowly even with the negative growth.

Natality, is the scientific term for birth rate. It is used to calculate the dynamics of a population.
Natility is the greatest influence on the population’s increase. Mortality rate are the number of deaths per
thousand in a year. Mortality causes population to decrease.

J and S Shaped Growth Curve

The growth of population is measured as increase in its
size over a period of time and populations show
characteristic patterns of growth with time. These patterns
are known as population growth forms.

There are two basic population growth forms.

i) J - shaped population growth form.

ii) S - shaped population growth form.

In J-shaped population growth form, the population grows exponentially and after attaining the peak
value, the population will crash abruptly. This type of population growth is termed ‘density-independent’ as
the growth rate is not tied to the population density until the
final crash.

In S - shaped or sigmoid growth the population show an

initial gradual increase in population size, followed by an
exponential increase and then a gradual decline to near constant
level. This type of population growth is termed ‘density-
dependant’ since growth rate depends on the numbers present in
the population.
Sigmoid growth curve is formed of five phases.
a) Lag phase
b) Positive acceleration phase
c) Logarithmic or exponential phase
d) Negative acceleration phase
e) Stationary phase.
a) Lag phase - Period where individuals adapt to the new
environment.
b) Positive acceleration phase - Period of slow increase in the population
c) Logarithmic or exponential phase - Period of rapid rise in population due to availability of food and
requirements in plenty and no competition.
d) Negative acceleration phase - Period in which these is a slow rise in population as the environmental
resistance increases.
e) Stationary phase - Finally, growth rate becomes stable because mortality and natality rates become
equal.
Effects of overpopulation
When increase in human population reaches to an undesirable condition where an organism’s number
exceeds the current carrying capacity of its habitat is known as Overpopulation.

Overpopulation has a definite effect on the country’s economy. First of all, when countries are
overpopulated, they hardly have enough food to support themselves. Overpopulation does not just affect
the standard of living, but also environment. Other effects of overpopulation are:

• People struggling to live under poor conditions;

• Low birth rate due to the inability of mothers to get enough resource to sustain a baby from
fertilization to birth;
• Low life expectancy;
• Low level of literacy;
• High rate of unemployment in urban areas;
• Insufficient arable land;
• Little surplus food;
• Poor diet with ill health and diet-deficiency diseases;
• Unhygienic living conditions foe many;
• Economically stretched government;
• High crime from people who steal resource to survive;
• Decreasing human population towards equilibrium;
• Increasing in the dependency burden due to the greater number of younger people in the population.

Control of Population and Population Stabilization

Population explosion is the main obstacle to the smooth development of the Indian economy. Since this
problem is getting intense day by day, it is obvious to take appropriate measures to keep it under control by
lowering the birth rate. The effective control measures can be:

1. Rise in per-capita income,

2. Urbanization and industrialization,
3. Late marriage,
4. Lowering infant mortality rate,
5. Spread of education
6. Woman education and employment
7. Family planning
8. Incentives
9. Publicity
10. Legislation.

When population of any country or habitat reaches to a situation where annual birth rate becomes equal to
annual death rate and the habitat attained zero population growth, known as Population Stabilization.
Population Characteristics and Variation among Nations
• Exponential Growth: Population growth geometrically (1,2,4,8….), rather than arithmetically
(1,2,3,4….), that is why the numbers can increase so quickly. When a quantity increases by a fixed
percentage is known as exponential growth, eg., 10,102,103,104………or 3,6,12,24…...etc.
Population growth takes place exponentially and that explains the dramatic increase in global
population in the last 150 years.
• Doubling Time: The number of years required for the population of an area to double its present
size, given the current rate of population growth is known as doubling time. Population doubling
time is useful to demonstrate the long-term effect of a growth rate, but should not be used to project
population size.
The growth rate can be used to determine a country or region or even the planet’s “doubling
time”, which tells how long it will take for a country’s population to double. Many undeveloped
countries have high growth rates and it is determined by dividing the growth rate into 70. The
number 70 comes from the natural log of 2, which is 0.70.

Td = 70/r where Td = the doubling time in years and r= the annual percentage growth rate.

• Total Fertility Rate (TFR): TFR is the average number of children each woman would have in her
life time, assuming that current age-specific birth rates remain constant throughout her child bearing
years. In a population with equal amount of in and out migration, a total fertility rate of 2.1 or less
can achieve zero population growth in about two generation. The current fertility rate worldwide is
2.58. In India TFR is 2.55 children born/ woman(2013est.).
• Infant Mortality rate (IMR): IMR is the number of infants age 0 to 12 months who die per 1000
live births in the given population. IMR provides a quick measure of the quality of the food and
water available, the quality of housing and clothing, the quality of the health care, and quality of the
education in the whole population. For India the IMR data are: Total IMR: 46.07 deaths/1000 live
births
Male IMR: 44.71 deaths/1000 live births
Female IMR: 47.59 deaths/1000 live births

• Age structure: Age structure of population of a nation can be represented by age pyramids based
upon people belonging to different age classes. The reproductive status of the population depends on
proportion of individuals of pre-reproductive (0-14yr), reproductive (15 - 44 yr) and post reproductive
(45 yr and above) stages.
Three types of age pyramids are formed. These are:
1. Expanding Age Pyramid: population pyramids have this classic triangular/pyramid shape. The
wide base of this population pyramid indicates a high birth rate & the narrow top indicates a
high death rate. Since more individuals of pre-reproductive & reproductive ages than of the
post reproductive age are found in an expanding age pyramid. Ex- India, Nigeria etc.

2. Stable Age Pyramid: The stable age pyramid is bell- shaped, because the proportion of
different age groups is more or less the same. Ex- France, USA etc.
 3. Diminishing Age Pyramid: The age of the pyramid of the diminishing population is urn-
shaped because the proportion of the post reproductive age group is less than that of the others.
Ex- Germany, Japan etc.

• Zero Population Growth (ZPG): ZPG is the absence of the population growth in which equal
birth abd death rate create a stable human population.

• Demographic Transition: The term demographic transition is used to describe the devlopment
from the high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates that occour as a part of the econimic
devlopment of a country.Usually it is described through the ‘Demographic Transitional Model’ that
tells the population changes over time. Population growth is usaully related to economic devlopment.
There occures a typical fall in death rates and birth rate due to improved living condition leading to low
population growth. The different phase includes:
▪ Pre-indrustrial phase, which have high birth rate as well as high death rate.
▪ Trasitional phase, which have high birth rate but controlled death rate.
▪ Indrustrial phase, which have controlled birth rate as well as controlled death rate.
▪ Post-indrustrial phase, in which the country attain zero population growth.

Human Activities on Environment

In a natural state, the earth’s life forms live in equilibrium with their environment. Humans alone have the
potential to gather resources from beyond their immediate surroundings and the processes them into
different and more versatile forms. As a result of which the anthropogenic (man-induced) pollutants have
overloaded the system, and the natural equilibrium is disturbed.

Primitive humans used natural resources to satisfy their basis needs of air, water, food and shelter.
Use of the fire becomes common; the relatively small amounts of smoke generated were easily and rapidly
dispersed and assimilated by the atmosphere. As these things were so few in numbers (quantity), no
significant impact was felt on the environment.

With the drawn of the industrial revolutions, humans were better able them ever to satisfy these
needs for air, water, food and shelter. As acquired needs increase so will the complexity of the production
chain and mass and complexity of the pollutants generated.

Thus, the impact of modern humans upon the environment is of a major concern. The effect on
environment due to human activities in various sectors such as agriculture, housing, industry, mining and
transportation.

Effect of Agriculture on Environment

Agriculture was started almost 10, 000 years ago. Undoubtedly, agriculture is the world’s oldest and
largest industry; more than half of all the peoples in the world still live on the forms. The changes in
environment caused by man through his agro-pastoral activities can be divided into two types:

• Changes brought about by traditional agriculture.

• Changes brought about by modern agriculture.
Impact of traditional Agriculture:

Traditional agriculture usually involves small plot, simple tools, naturally available water, organic
fertilizers and a mixture of crops. The practice agriculture has caused deforestation, soil erosion and
depletion of macronutrients.

1. Deforestation: The slashing and burning of trees in forest to clear land for cultivation and frequent
shifting results in loss of forest cover.
2. Soil erosion: Erosion affects productivity because it removes the surface soils, containing most of
the organic matter, plant nutrients and fine soil particles which help to retain water and nutrient in
the root zone where they are available to plants.
3. Depletion of nutrients: The elements which are used by plants for their growth and development
are called nutrients.
• Plants are unable to complete its life cycle without the elements.
• Deficiency of essential nutrients producers symptoms which cannot be alleviated by any
other element.
• Restoration of the nutrient in physiological quantities should restore the health of the same
plant.
Modern Agriculture and its impact

Modern Agriculture makes use of hybrid seeds of selected and single crop variety, high-tec equipments and
lost of energy subsides in the form of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation water. However, it also gave rise
to several problematic off-shoots.

Impact of High Yield Varieties (HYV): Application of HYV seeds gave rise to monoculture i.e., the same
species (genotype) grown over vast areas. Such monoculture is vulnerable to attack by pathogens, which
spread like wild fire and destruct crops over large areas.

Fertilizers: Fertilizers are two types: Natural and Chemical or synthetic fertilizers

Fertilizers

Natural fertilizers Chemical or synthetic fertilizers

Inorganic fertilizers Organic fertilizers

1. Gypsum Manure
2. Crushed limestone Animal excreta
3. Sulphur rock phosphate Plant wastes
Humus

Fertilizers Related Problems

(a) Micronutrient Imbalance: Most of the chemicals fertilizers used in modern agriculture have
nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium which are essential macronutrients. Farmers usually use these
fertilizers indiscriminately to increase the yield. Excessive use of fertilizers causes micronutrient
imbalance.
(b) Nitrate pollution: Nitrogenous fertilizers applied in the fields often leach deep into the soil and
ultimately contaminate the ground water. The nitrates get concentrated in the water and when their
 concentration exceeds, they become the cause of a serious health hazards called “Blue baby
Syndrome”. This disease affects the infants to the maximum extent causing even death.
(c) Eutrophication: Excessive use of N and P fertilizers in the agricultural fields lead other problems,
which is not related to the soil, but relates to water bodies like lakes. A large proportion of N and P
used in crop fields is washed off and along with runoff water reach the water bodies causing over
nourishment of the lakes, a process known as Eutrophication.

Pesticides related Problems

Toxic chemicals like insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides are generally used to kill insects,
weeds, fungi and rodents respectively to protect crop plant or their harvested parts against their attack.
These chemicals collectively called ‘biocides’, tends to remain active, long after destroying the target i.e.
pest, weeds, fungi. It is this property, which makes these chemicals dangerous to the environment.
In India alone, over 80,000 tonnes of pesticides were used in 1985 as against 2000 tonnes in mid
fifties annually. Some of the harmful effects of the continued use of these chemicals are:

(a) Creating resistance in pets and producing new pest: Some individuals of the pest species
usually survive even after pesticide spray. The survivors give rise to highly resistant
generations. About 20 species of pests are known which have become immune to all types
of pesticides and are known as ‘Superpests’.
(b) Death of Non target organism: plant protection chemicals are broad spectrum poisons
which not only kill the target species but sometimes they kill even the useful species of
insects which apart from serving as alternate food for bird, play an important role in the
pollution and dispersal of wild plants and forest trees.
(c) Biological Magnification: Many of the pesticides are non-biodegradable and keep on
accumulating I the food chain, a process called biological magnification. Since human
beings occupy a high trophic level I the food chain, hence they get the pesticides in a
biomagnified from which is very harmful.
(d) Contamination of food items: Biocides are sprayed upon food grains, fruits, vegetables and
oilseeds; to protect them prolonged storage conditions. Since these chemicals are non-
biodegradable they persist long after their entry into the food chain. The poisoned
agricultural products are either consumed by human beings directly or reach man through
meat, fish, milk, eggs or water.

Water logging:

Over irrigation of croplands by farmers for good growth of their crop usually leads to water logging.
Inadequate drainage causes excess water to accumulate underground and gradually forms a continuous
column with water table. Under ware-logged conditions, pore-spaces in the soil get fully drenched with
water and the soil-air gets depleted. The water table rises while the roots of plants do not get adequate air
for respiration. Mechanical strength of the soil declines, the crop plants get logged and crop yield falls.

• Salinity problem: At present one third of the total cultivable land area of the world is affected by
salts. In India about 7 million hectares of land are estimated to be salt-affected which may be saline
or sodic. Saline sols are characterized by the accumulation of soluble salts like NaCl, sodium
sulfate, calcium chloride etc. in the soil profile. Sodic soils have carbonates and bicarbonates of
sodium, the pH usually exceeds 8.0and the exchangeable sodium percentage is more than 15%.
• Causes: A major cause of salinization of the soil is excessive irrigation. About 20% of the world’s
cropland receives irrigation with canal water or ground water which unlike rain water often contains
dissolved salts. Under dry climates, the water evaporates leaving behind salts in the upper soil
profile.
 • Remedy: The most common method for renewable of salts is to flush them out by applying more
good quality water to such soils. Another method is laying underground water of perforated
drainage pipes for flushing out the salts slowly.

Overgrazing

Overgrazing of land is defined as the practice of grazing by a large number of animals (livestock) for an
extended period of time on its vegetation without giving sufficient recovery period to the land. The
following important effects of overgrazing on environment are observed:

• Overgrazing leads to the elimination of sensitive, patable plant species. This is generally followed
by the dominance of spiny, non-palatable and alien species.
• Overgrazing accelerates soil erosion and damages soil fertility.
• As a result of Overgrazing, a large quality of accumulated animal wastes is added to the
downstream water bodies causing problems of water pollution and eutrophication.
• Grazing animals that have been added from outside some times bring seeds of weeds and
pathogenic organisms which may often become harmful to other animals.
• Overgrazing increased reflectivity of land surfaces which in turn, lowers surface temperature and
reduces the quality of rain, thereby increasing the chances of drought.

Impact of Industries
The next major change in human society was the industrialization revolution which began in England. With
in a few decades the agricultural based rural societies were transformed into more urbanized early
industrialized societies.
Along with the industrialization, the population also grew. Once set in motion, industrial growth
was rapid everywhere. The development of more efficient machines and techniques for mass production
and advances in science and technology led to the level of industrialization.

Impact on Environment:
Industrialization has made positive contribution to health. However, these are two exceptions to the general
correlation between industrialization and human health. One exception is in some developing countries
where there has been remarkable success in reducing mortality and improving the health of the poor. The
second exception is where the industrialization has itself led to significant adverse effects through failure to
properly plan for, and prevent the release of chemical, physical or biological pollutants into the
environment. A number of major accidents in developing countries due to the release of chemicals or to
explosions have caused adverse health effects.
Effects of industrial activities are listed below:

• Depleted natural resources: Industries require large amount of raw materials that depleted the
natural resources very rapidly.
• Climate change: Industries release harmful pollutants in environment that causes climate change.
• Deforestation: Establishment of various projects for the development needs large areas of land,
which leads to deforestation.
• Pressure of land: Establishment of Industries in agriculture areas is causing increased pressure on
land.
• Noise pollution: Industries activities cause lots of noise pollution in surrounding areas.
• Air and Water Pollution: They pollute air, water and soil by discharging various gases, effluents
and slugs. Industries effluents exterminate the biological purification mechanism of sewage waste,
when discharge through the sewage system and also causes several soil and water born diseases.
The development and adoption of clean and green techniques by industry that reduce harmful environment
impacts in a key to prevent environmental degradation.

Environmental Effects of Extracting and using Mineral Resources:

India is a producer of about 84 minerals worth rupees 50,000 crore annually. Some examples of serve
problems caused by the mining of different minerals:

1. Jaduguda uranium mine in Jharkhand exposes the local people to radiation.

2. Kudremukh iron ore mine in Karnataka causes river pollution and threat to biodiversity
3. North-Eastern coal fields in Assam caused ground water contamination with sulphur.
4. Jharia coal mines in Jharkhand: Underground fire leading to land subsidence and forced
displacement of people
5. Sukinda Chromate mines Orissa: Seepage of Cr(VI) into river. Chromium is highly toxic and
carcinogenic.
6. East Coast Bauxite mines, Orissa: Land encroachment and issue of rehabilitation unsettled.

Mining:
Mining is done to extract minerals from deposits in soil. Generally deep deposits of minerals are extracted
by sub-surface mining and shallow deposits by surface mining. The sub-surface mining is more destructive,
dangerous and expensive. Mining activities damages the environment in number of ways is:
1. Removal of vegetation and surface soil: The topsoil as well as the vegetation is removed from the
mining area which leads to ecological imbalance.
2. Land subsidence: Underground mining causes subsidence of land which may ultimately results in
cracks in house, bending of rail tracks and cracking in underground pipes.
3. Pollution of underground water: Sulphur, which is usually present as an impurity in many ores,
makes the underground water acidic.
4. Air pollution: Smelting (to separate and purify the metals from other impurities in the ore), emits
enormous quantities of air pollutants. The particulate matter, arsenic, cadmium etc go to the
atmosphere and the public suffers from the several health problems upon their inhalation.
5. Occupational health hazards: Most of the peoples working in mines suffer from various
respiratory and skin diseases due to constant exposure to the suspended matter and toxic substance.
6. Soil Erosion: Mining removes top layer of the soil which causes soil erosion.
7. Deforestation: Mining results in extensive cutting of trees which causes deforestation.

Remedial Measures:

Safety of mine workers is usually not a priority subject of industries. It is estimated that these are 70
disabling (non-fatal) accidents and one death per 2.5 tonns of mineral produced. Therefore, it is essential
provide the safety measure to minimize the adverse effect of mining. It is desirable, if possible, to adopt
eco-friendly mining technology.

The bacterium Thibacillus ferroxidans has been successfully and economically used for extracting
gold embedded in iron sulphide ore. Impacts of mining on environment should be minimized by obeying
the standards of pollution control Board for air emission.

Effect of Transportation on Environment:

Transport generates a number of adverse environment effects from both transport infrastructure and
vehicles. The effects can be direct, indirect and cumulative. These effects are:
 1. Road accidents have a significant impact on health, and the form of the transport system can be
deterrent to exercise by walking and cycling.
2. The development of automobiles dependant environments imposes higher average living cost on
families and can also restrict mobility for the elderly, children, the poor, the disabled and those who
do not wish to own a motor vehicle.
3. Vehicle exhausts emissions causes air pollution and affect human health. The air pollutants include
carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), benzene, and the particulate matter. Vehicles also
emit CO2, which is a green house gas.
4. Expansion of transport infrastructure covers 25-30% of land in most modern cities. Habitat
fragmentation by roads or rail tracks not only leads to biodiversity losses, but also provides
corridors for the spread of pest and weeds.
5. Used tyres, oil and air conditioning systems cause pollution, as well as add ozone depleting CFCs
and green house gases to the atmosphere.
6. Transport can increase biosecurity risks. International travels and trade can allow new organisms or
diseases to enter a country or region.
7. Noise and vibrations can affect of people who live or work near busy roads, rail facilities, ports and
airports. This can cause stress, exacerbate existing medical conditions and interfere with daily
activities such as sleeping or communicating.
8. Photochemical smog: It is a oxidizing smog having a high concentration of oxidants.
Photochemical smog is, in fact, a mixture of reactants and products that results from the interaction
between volatile organic compounds and oxidants (such as NOx, O3, CO etc). The primary
pollutants in photochemical smog are nitric oxide and hydrocarbons. These primary pollutants
convert rapidly to the secondary pollutants like ozone, organic nitrates oxidized hydrocarbons and
photochemical aerosols in the presence of sunlight.
The first noticed incidence of photochemical smog was in Los Angeles in USA, thus
sometimes referred as Los Angeles smog. It is characterized by brown and hazy fumes,
which reduce visibility cause eye and lungs irritation, damage crops etc.

Effect of housing on Environment

Housing activities refer to the construction of houses, multi-storied buildings, office buildings etc.
Construction of houses generally involves materials eg. Soil, cement, sand, steel, marble, aluminum etc.
Buildings accounts for a large amount of land use, energy and water consumption.

The quality of house construction, ventilation, light, materials and surrounding environmental
factors etc. have various effects on the human health both physically and mentally. The modern airtight
buildings impact significant contribution to indoor air pollution.

Different sources of pollution due to housing

There are more than hundred sources of pollution in modern homes and offices. These include:

• Building material used in construction.

• Materials used for furnishing the house viz. plastic carpets, rubber floorings etc.
• Equipments used for heating and cooling of the buildings.
• Indoor decoration materials such as laminated / plywood doors and surfaces, paints varnishes.
• Chemicals such as formaldehyde which is found in smokes, building material, gas stoves, kerosene
based space heaters, and many household products.
• Benzene as a solvent used in commercial and industrial purpose such as petrol, oil, rubber, inks,
dry-cleaning solvents etc.
• Toxic components such as fiber-glass insulation, fire proofing materials.
Major Effects of Housing Activities on Environment

• Extraction of construction material,

• Cutting of forest,
• Energy utilization
• Stress on water resources,
• Increase urbanization impose heavy burden on the environment.

Effects of Human Health

• Closed room and overcrowding: Feeling of suffocation due to lack of O2 and excess of CO2.
• Chemical pollutants: Irritation of eyes, nose throat and skin.
• Exposure of CO in rural areas: Shortness of breath at low concentration and extreme toxicity and
death at higher concentration.
• Benzene: Diseases such as cancer.
• Asbestos: Causing lung cancer
• Tobacco smoke: Heart disease and lung cancer

Concept of Sustainable Development

Sustainable developments are those which fulfil the present needs of the mankind without curtailing the
needs of the future generations. This can be made possible by maintaining the ecological processes,
preserving the biodiversity and controlled consumption of natural resources.

Objectives of Sustainable development:

1. It should protect our biodiversity
2. It should prevent soil erosion
3. It should slow increase forest cover
4. It should slow down the population growth
5. It should cut off the emission of CFC, SOx, NOx and CO2.
6. It should reduce waste generation
7. It should eliminate poverty
8. It should bring benefits to all.

There are few measures by adopting we can convert a unsustainable development to sustainable
development. They are as follows:

1. By using appropriate technology which is locally adoptable, eco-friendly, resource

efficient and culturally suitable.
2. By adopting reduce, reuse and recycle approach
3. By promoting environmental education awareness
4. The demand should be reduced up to the systems carrying capacity that a system can
sustain on a long-term basis. Consumption should not exceed regeneration and changes
should not be allowed to occur beyond the tolerance capacity of the system.
5. The economic system should be restructured. (for ex- water, food, clothing, shelter,
education, health care).
6. Because the industrialized countries consume the vast proportion of the world’s natural
resources and create the majority of the global pollution, they must bear the primary
responsibility for restoring the natural environment.
7. The use of energy especially fossil fuels, most be reduced significantly
 8. Renewable sources which are less environmentally damaging should be promoted.
9. Due to their destructive social and environmental impacts, production and use of military
goods and weapons are not acceptable part of an equitable and environmentally
sustainable society.
10. Reduction in consumption should have priority over reuse or recycling of products.
11. Goods should be produced to have the least impact on the environment, with long
durability, high efficiency and simple reparability.
12. Industries and Government must take full responsibility for proper treatment through out
the life cycle of the production processes.

Urban Problems Related to Energy

As the population and industrialization is increasing, it results in migration of rural population to the urban
cities and the demand for energy has undergone a sharp rise. Whereas on one hand the energy demand is
increasing at the fast rate, while the convectional energy sources are getting exhausted. Apart from that the
energy requirement of urban population are much more higher than that of rural ones because of higher
standard of life and their lifestyle demands more energy inputs in every sphere of life. The energy
demanding activities include:

1. Residential and commercial lighting.

2. Transportation means for moving from one place to other
3. Electrical gadget in daily life
4. Industrial plants are using a big proportion of energy
5. A large amount of waste generated which has to be dispersed off properly using energy based
techniques
6. For the control and prevention of air and water pollution, we have energy dependant technologies.

WATER CONSERVATION
“Water conservation is the management technique which eliminates the wastage of water or maximizes
efficiency of its use.” The most important step in the direction of finding solutions to issues of water and
environmental conservation is to change people’s attitude and habitats. We can follow some of the simple
things that have been listed below and contribute to water conservation.

• Run-off losses can be reduced by using contour cultivation, terrace farming, water spreading,
chemical treatment or improver water storage.
• Reducing evaporation losses:
• Reducing irrigation losses:
1. Using of lined or covered canals to reduce seepage
2. Irrigating early morning and late evening
3. Using sprinkling irrigation and drip irrigation.
4. Growing hybrid crop varieties with less water requirement and tolerance to saline water.
• Storing water in soil.
• Reuse of water:
1. Treated water can be used for ferti-irrigation.
2. By using gray water.
3. Preventing wastage of water.
4. By closing water taps when not in use.
5. Repairing any leakage from pipeline.
RAINWATER HARVESTING
“Rainwater harvesting is a method of utilizing rainwater for domestic and agricultural use by capturing
and storing the rainwater above the ground or recharge the underground for its later use.” This happens
mainly in open rural areas.

It is a method which has been used since ancient times and is increasingly being accepted as a practical
method of providing potable water in development projects throughout the world.

Rainwater harvesting is essential because:

(i) Surface water is inadequate to meet our demand and we have to depend on ground water.
(ii) Due to rapid urbanization, infiltration of rainwater into the subsoil has decreased drastically
and recharging of groundwater has diminished.

Objectives of Rainwater Harvesting:

Rainwater harvesting has the following objectives:

(1) To reduce run-off losses
(2) To avoid flooding of roads
(3) To meet the increasing demand of water
(4) Prevent soil erosion and flooding especially in urban areas.

Rainwater can be mainly harvested by any other of the following methods by adopting modern or
traditional harvesting:

(i) Storage of rainwater on surface for future use by constructing pits, dug well, lagoons, trench or check
dams on small rivulets.
(ii) Recharge to ground water.

WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
Watershed management is defined as, “Planning, guiding and organizing land use so that desired goods
and services are produced from a watershed (A catchment or drainage basin which is the total area of land
that drains into a water body) without harming soil productivity and water resources.”

Goods and services produced from watersheds include food, forage for livestock and wildlife, wood and
other forest products, outdoor recreation, wildlife habitat, scenic beauty and water. Essential to watershed
management is the recognition that production must be accompanied by environmental protection.

The area of watershed has been decreased due to natural or artificial (manmade) activities. These activities
include overgrazing, deforestation, mining activity, industrialization, shifting cultivation, natural and
artificial fires and soil erosion etc. Whenever there is any change occurs in hydrological cycle, it causes
degradation in watershed.

Therefore in other words watershed management is defined as the rotational utilization of land and water
resources for optimum production that causes minimum damage to the natural resources. The watershed
management is required because it:
(i) Increases the productivity of soil as it reduces the rate of soil erosion, soil degradation and moisture
retention.

(ii) Increase the rural development as the stored water can be utilized for beneficial development activities
like domestic water supply, irrigation, hydropower generation.

(iii) Reduces the rate of occurrence of natural disasters like floods, droughts and landslides.

Methods of watershed management

There are various methods which are developed to increase the watershed area considering benefit to local
population and sustainability. These are:

(1) Water harvesting: (2) Mechanical measures: (3) Scientific mining: (4) By increasing afforestation
and agro-forestation (crop planting) (5) Public participation

Urban Problems Related to Waste Management

A rising quality of life and high rates of resource consumption patterns have had a negative impact
on the urban environment–generation of wastes far beyond the handling capacities of urban governments
and agencies.

Human and animal activities generate many wastes that are discarded as useless or unwanted. These
wastes are normally solid and result in landscape pollution. Daily life in industrialized nations can generate
several pounds of solid waste per consumer, not only directly in the home, but indirectly in factories that
manufacture goods purchased by consumers. Solid waste management is a system for handling all of this
garbage; municipal waste collection is solid waste management, as are recycling programs, dumps, and
incinerators.

Solid wastes are of the various types:

a. Garbage of food wastes: These are the meat, fruit or vegetable residues which decompose rapidly
especially in warm weather. For example vegetable and fruit peels, leftovers, meat pieces, bones,
spoiled food items.

b. Rubbish: These do not decompose rapidly.

c. Agricultural wastes: These wastes include crop residues from agricultural fields, farms, manure
etc. For example; Jute, cotton, tea, coffee, rubber, coconut, sugarcane, wastes, rice straw etc.

c. Industrial wastes: These arise from industrial activities. For example; sewage, chemicals, sludge,
paints, toxic metals etc.

d. Hazardous wastes: Those wastes which adversely effect human, plant, or animal life. For
example; radioactive wastes, toxic chemicals, flammable wastes, explosives, hazardous biological
wastes from hospitals.

e. Pathological wastes: Carcass of animals, slaughter house wastes (pieces of meat, hair, bone
chippings, skin excretions etc.).
 f. Demolition and construction wastes: Demolition, construction and repair of residential,
commercial and industrial buildings generate plenty of solid wastes. For example; stones, bricks,
concrete, dust, plaster, electrical wiring, plumbing etc.

g. Miscellaneous wastes: Wastes not included in any of above categories are called miscellaneous
waste. For example; street sweepings, roadside litter, dead stray animals etc.

The accumulation of solid wastes results in various health and environmental hazards. Main effects are as
follows:
a. Due to solid wastes the rats may multiply in numbers and may cause plague etc.
b. Spreading of Diseases:
i. Diseases caused by bacterial infections such as typhoid fever, cholera, paratyphoid fever etc.
ii. Diseases caused by vital infections such as hepatitis (i.e. infectious jaundice), Polio myelitis
etc.
iii. Diseases caused by protozoan infections such as amoebic dysentery.
iv. Solid wastes may also choke the drains and gully pits resulting in water logging. This may
result in breeding of mosquitoes and thus danger of malaria and dengue.
c. Obnoxious odours also pollute the air due to decomposition of organic solid wastes.
d. Percolation of decomposed garbage dumped on the soil may result into pollution of
underground water and land.
e. The crops and water supply may also get contaminated and may result in large scale epidemic of
cholera, jaundice, gastrointestinal diseases, hepatitis etc.
f. Improper handling of solid wastes causes damage to the environment. The environmental
damage caused by solid waste is mostly unaesthetic in nature. Uncontrolled dumping of urban
waste destroys the beauty of the country site.

Control on urban solid wastes can be accomplished in following way:

i. By minimizing generation of domestic garbage and other wastes.

ii. By throwing out the rubbish and other unwanted materials at a proper place, from where they
may be easily taken for disposal.
iii. By adopting reduction in use of materials, reuse of waste materials and recycling of waste
materials.
iv. By enforcing law in this regard.

Various methods of solid waste disposal are as follows:

a. Pulverization:In this method, the solid waste collected from different places is converted
into powder form by grinding process. It thus becomes almost odourless and unattractive
to insects and its volume is also reduced. After this treatment, the waste may be used as
manure or utilized for land filling.

b. Disposal by land filling: In this method, solid wastes are dumped into low lying areas. The refuse
i.e. solid waste is dumped in layers of 1.8 m and each layer is covered by atleast 25 cm thick soil
surface. Each layer is then left out for seven days and compaction is carried for its settlement,
before starting filling the next layer. Insecticides like DDT are sprayed on top to prevent breeding of
mosquitoes and flies. Generally the refuse gets stabilized within two to twelve months and settles
down by 25 to 38% of its original height by decomposition of the organic matter and subsequent
conversion into stable compounds.

c. Compositing: In this method the organic material in solid wastes is digested an-aerobically and
converted into humus and stable mineral compounds. Its volume is also considerably reduced and is
 made free of most of the pathogenic organisms so that it can be easily and safely handled.
Compositing process needs about 30 percent moisture content and carbon to nitrogen ratio 30:1 in
the waste matter. The pre-requisite for compositing for this method is the removal of non-
biodegradable materials like plastics, metals, glass from solid wastes. It is a hygienic method which
by using an-aerobic bacterial action converts the solid wastes into valuable organic manure and
methane that can be used as fuel for power generation.

c. Incineration: Burning of combustible solid waste in hearth furnaces is the safest process. This
method is generally used when suitable land areas are not available. Solid waste is collected from
different places. Before burning the collected solid wastes, the non-combustible and inert materials
like earth broken glass chinaware, metals pieces, aluminum cans etc., are separated from it, to
reduce the load on the hearth of the furnace. The combustible garbage, rubbish and dead animals are
burnt. The minimum temperature in combustion chamber is kept greater than 670 0C to oxidize the
foul smelling gases and incinerate all the organic matters. By this method the volume of
combustible solid waste is reduced by about 80 to 90%.The final products turn to ashes and clinkers
which can be used as aggregate for low grade concrete or as road materials.

d. Pyrolysis: In this method the chemical constituents and chemical energy of some organic wastes is
recovered by destructive distillation of solid waste. For that, the combustible constituents of solid
waste are heated in a specially designed chamber, known as pyrolysis reactor at 700 to 1000 0C in
an oxygen free (or low-oxygen) environment.

Resettlement and Rehabilitation: Its Problem and Concern

Resettlement is transportion of prople to a new settlement. Rehabilitation is the restoration of someone to
a useful place in society.The devlopment projects (construction of dams, mining operations etc) and
indrustriliazation causes the displacement of human population from the native place.There are various
activities that causes the displacements of the native peoples:

• Displacement due to construction of dams

• Displacement due to mining operation.
• Displacement due to creation of National Park and wild life Sanctuaries.
• Displacement due to natural and man-made disasters.

Problems Concerning Displacement

• The displacement prople lose their identity and intimate link with environment
• There is loss of social and cultural activities of tribal people due to displacement.
• The tribal communities and joint families often face the disintegration problem due to resettlement
in different places.
• Displaced people lose their land, jobs,homes and properties, which leads to social isolation and
increase poverty.
• Due to insufficient knowledge of local people about plants and animals, displaced people face
prolems in adjustment in anew place.

Resettlement Objectives: Objectives of resettlement and rehabilitation is to ensure that the affected
production base will be restored, the affected labour force will be reemployed, and income and livelihood
of the affted poepole will be improved or at least restored to their privious levels before resettlement.
The target of resettlement and rehabilitation is set as follows

• The rasettler’s gain production level will be self sufficient after resettlement.
• The income per capita shall be recovered to the standared before resettlement.
• The affted public infrastructures, school, hospitals, soacial welfare levels, natural environment anf
trafic condition etc., shall be improved after resettlement.

Resettlement Principle: A number of resettlement and rehabilitation principles have been devloped for
thye project.

1. The resettlement plan will be based on detailed inventory for land acquisition and house demolition
and adopted compensation standards and subsidies.
2. Considering the local conditions, a practical anf feasible resettlement plan should be devloped to
restore or improve their economicproduction and creat basic conditions for a long term.
3. The resettlement plan should be based on the principle” Benificial to the production and convinient
for living”.
4. The restructured standards and scale shall be bsaed with the principle of recovery to the original
standard and original scale.
5. Making all over plans and taking all the factors into consideration, correctly handling the relations
betwwen the state, collective and individual.

Environmental Ethics
Environmental Ethics considers the relationship between human being and the natural environment. It
exerts influence on the large range of disiplines including law, sociology, economics and geography. There
are many ethical dicisions that human being make with respect to the environment.

Some important guidelines known as environmental ethics are as follows:

• The Earth should exist the benefit of humanity and we should love and respect the earth.
• Humans should have any ethical obligations with respect to the natural world.We shold celebrate
the changes of its seasons.
• We should not have the right to take all Earth’s resources for our own use.
• We shouls believe on various religions and shoild follow what they say about humainity
relationship to the rest of the world.
• We should be grateful to the plants and animals which nourishes us by giving us food.
• We should consume the material goods in moderate amount so that all may share the earth’s
precious treasure of resources. We should not waste our resource on destruction weapons.
• We should not steal from future genration their rights to live in a clean and safe planet by polluting
it.