OUR ENVIRONMENT (हमारा पर्यावरण)
The word 'environment' in general means our immediate surroundings which include the areas of air, water, plants, animals and other natural features.
The two basic components of environment are : biotic and ibiotic. Biotie component includes living things such as plants and animals, while abiotic component includes air, water, soil and other non-living things.
The study of environmeni involves the study of biosphere. It means the place where life forms are found. They are found from the depıh of oceans to summits of mountains. Roughly life exists between six hundred feet below and twenty thousand feet above the sea level. People share the Earth's space with an enormous variety of other living things, both planis and animals. Survival of human beings depends on survival of hundreds and thousands of species of plants and animals. Earlier the human beings like animals, adjusted themselves to their environment. Later they did much to change it. Humankind's interventions began changing the face of the Earth; slowly and steadily the elements of nature were controlled. This brought changes in the human life and made it better and richer.
However, progress has produced problems for environment. The efforts which helped to bring people above the poverty line put greater pressure on the natural resources of the country. The irrigation facilities which provided the much needed water to the parched fields, soinetimes provided salinity in the land. The industrial technology. based on the old models of the developed countries. provided products but also polluted water and air. The roads provided heller communication facilities but resulted in cutting of forests.
Environmental problems have attracted ihe attention of people all over the world. No nation in the world is free from ihe adverse effects of environment, India is no exception to this global phenomenon. There are number of factors which affect our environment.
Land Degradation
Land is the basic resource, which provides for the needs of the people. But its degradation is causing great environmental problem for us today. Owing 10 salinity, alkalinity and wind erosion nearly 100 million hectares of land is suffering from degradation. This is in addition to the 30 million hectares of land classified as forests which have degraded without sufficient tree covers. Deforestation
The forests of India occupy an area of about 75 million hectares. They have been treated as a source of revenue. Nearly 100 million poor people including tribals make their living by collecting and selling timber, fuel wood and minor
forests products. Apart from pressure on forest exercised by the tribals. industrialization has brought about increase in demand for wood, particularly from the paper and newspaper industry. As a result of all this, the forest cover has been greatly reduced.
Water Pollution
Industrialization has posed a threat to the quality of water with constant inflow of human wastes and industrial effluents . Most of the rivers and water bodies have become polluted. Pollution of Ganga waters from Barauni Refinery.is a well known fact. Nearly 70% of water available in India is polluted. Besides the industrial wastes, pollution of water arises from the lack of drains and, lack of sewage treatment. Two-thirds of diseases in India are water-borne.
Air Pollution
The problem of air pollution can be seen in almost every major metropolitan area. It is mostly the direct result of combustion. As nations become industrialized an increase in burning of fuels takes place. The combustion of both coal and oil results in emission of sulphur dioxide. The pollution caused by automobiles in cities like Delhi and Bombay has become a great menace.
Hazardous Substances
Modern industrial development has brought dangers from hazardous chemicals and nuclear radiations through the nuclear power industry. If these substances are not handled carefully, they can lead to terrible accidents. Disasters, at Union Carbide, Bhopal in 1984 and Chernobyl in 1987 are pointers to the fact. Further, the problem of acid rain is also there, though it does not trouble us in India. In Scandinavian countries, acid rains are not only affecting fauna but also lakes, killing fish. As a result, both fish consuming population and fishing industry have been affected.
How to Meet the Challenges ?
For meeting the environmental challenges the government has made important legislations. They are meant for preventing and controlling pollution of. water and air.
The Pollution Control Boards have been formed for systematic monitoring of water and air quality. The water and air acts have been framed which enable the Pollution Control Boards to close down industries or refuse essential services such as water and electricity to the polluting industries. To tackle the problem of pollution caused by vehicles, standards for emission have been fixed. The Central Government offers financial incentives to the industrial for pollution control.
The Government of India has taken up the Ganga Action Plan. The objective of the plan is to restore water quality of the river. It flows for more than 2000 kilometres on the Himalayan ranges and in the plains before joining the Bay of Bengal . Thus it accounts for 40% of irrigated areas and sustains 37% of the population of the country. Over the decades, domestic and industrial waste's ferittzer and pesticide residues from the agricultural fields, and overus
greatly polluted the river. The plan of action is to intercept, divert and treat the waste water generated along the river. It is planned to recover resources in the sewage and return them to land and agricultural crops.
The programmes of environmental protection are supported by necessar legislation and rules. The legislation covers all the aspects of environment. , continuous review is also made to assess the gaps.
From : Indian Science in the Service of Ganga (Ministry of Environmen and Forests, Govt. of India) other books.
हिन्दी सारांश - इस पाठ में पर्यावरण के चेतना सम्बन्धी विचारों को बतलाया गया है पर्यावरण का सामान्य अर्थ हमारे चारों ओर की परिस्थितियों से होता है जिसमें हवा, पानी, पेड़-पौध जानवर तथा अन्य प्राकृतिक वस्तुएँ समाहित होती हैं | पर्यावरण के दो अंतरंग भाग हैं । एक जी सम्बन्धी है, जिसका जीवित प्राणियों से सम्बन्ध है तथा दूसरा अजीव सम्बन्धी है, जिसका वस्तुओं सम्बन्ध रहता है, जैसे – वायु, पानी, भूमि तथा अन्य अजीवकारी वस्तुएँ ।
> पर्यावरण के अध्ययन में सम्पूर्ण ब्रह्माण्ड का अध्ययन किया जाता है जिसमें पृथ्वी, नदियों जल तथा अंतरिक्ष भी आ जाते हैं। अतः विस्तृत रूप में पर्यावरण का एक वृहत् अर्थ है जिसका हमा जीवन पर प्रभाव पड़ता है। अतः पर्यावरण सम्बन्धी समस्याएँ हमारे लिए बहुत महत्वपूर्ण हैं तथ उनका अध्ययन हमारे लिए अत्यन्त आवश्यक है । इतना ही नहीं, हमें पर्यावरण के विषय में सदै जागरूक भी रहना चाहिए तथा उसे उन्नत करने के विषय में भी विचार करना चाहिए क्योंकि पर्यावरण से ही हमारे जीवन की अनेक समस्याएँ जुड़ी हुई हैं । अतः एक प्रकार से पर्यावरण की रक्ष ही मनुष्य मात्र की रक्षा है।
पर्यावरण की समस्याओं ने विश्व के लोगों का ध्यान आकर्षित किया है क्योंकि विश्व के कोई जाति या राष्ट्र इससे प्रभावित हुए बिना नहीं रह सकता है । भारत के लिए भी इसका बड
महत्व है।
पर्यावरण को प्रभावित करने वाले प्रमुख कारक निम्नलिखित हैं,
(i) भूमि का स्तर गिरना,
(ii) जंगलों का अन्धाधुन्ध कटाव
(iii) जल प्रदूषण,
(iv) वायु प्रदूषण,
(v) कठिनाई पैदा करने वाली वस्तुएँ, जैसे - वायु विकिरण या आण्विक शक्ति का विकास । इन चुनौतियों का मुकाबला करने के लिए सरकार ने महत्वपूर्ण नियम (कानून) पारित कि हैं ताकि वायु तथा जल प्रदूषण को रोका जा सके । राज्यों में प्रदूषण रोकथाम मण्डलों को स्थापि किया गया है। इनका मुख्य कार्य कारखानों से फैले प्रदूषण तथा वाहनों से पैदा होने वाले प्रदूषण रोक लगाना है। भारत सरकार ने इसी के अन्तर्गत गंगा को स्वच्छ करने का अभियान हाथ में लि है। इसका मुख्य उद्देश्य गंगा के जल का पूर्व का गुणात्मक स्तर बनाये रखना है। गंगा एक बेह बड़ी नदी है जो लगभग 2000 किलोमीटर की यात्रा करती है तथा हिमालय से निकलकर बंगाल खाड़ी में गिरती है। वर्षों से इसमें गंदगी को फेंका जा रहा है । प्रयत्न किया जा रहा है कि इसके जा को प्रदूषण मुक्त कर खेती बाड़ी के काम में प्रयोग किया जाए । प्रदूषण कार्यवाही का समय-समय पनरावलोकन भी किया जाता है ताकि कार्य