Environment

• Environment is defined as the total planetary inheritance and the totality of all resources, including all the biotic and abiotic factors that influence each other.
• The environment performs four vital functions: it supplies resources, it assimilates waste, it sustains life by providing genetic and bio diversity, and it also provides aesthetic services like scenery.
• The environment can continue to support life for millions of years as long as the demand on these functions is within its carrying capacity.
• Human beings, with modern technology, have the capacity to bring about, intentionally or unintentionally, far-reaching and irreversible changes in the environment.
• India is taking efforts to increase the power generation through solar.
• India is naturally endowed with a large quantity of solar energy in the form of sunlight which is used in different ways.
• In Delhi, buses and other public transport vehicles use CNG as fuel instead of petrol or diesel; some vehicles use convertible engines; solar energy is being used to light up the streets.
• Subsidised LPG is being provided to rectify the situation.
• Mini-hydel plants use the energy of such streams to move small turbines, generating electricity which can be used locally.
• Households in rural areas generally use wood, dung cake or other biomass as fuel, which has several adverse implications like deforestation, reduction in green cover, wastage of cattle dung and air pollution.
• In the last few years many other Indian cities also began to use CNG.
• In areas where speed of wind is usually high, wind mills can provide electricity without any adverse impact on the environment.
• Traditionally, Indian people have been close to their environment and have been more a component of the environment and not its controller.
• India is leading an International body called International Solar Alliance (ISA).
• Such power plants are more or less environment-friendly as they do not change the land use pattern in areas where they are located; they generate enough power to meet local demands.
• In mountainous regions, streams can be found almost everywhere.
• LPG is a clean fuel that reduces household pollution to a large extent and minimises energy wastage.
• Wind turbines move with the wind and electricity is generated.
• India is very much privileged to have about 15,000 species of plants which have medicinal properties, about 8,000 of these are in regular use in various systems of treatment including the folk tradition.
• Gobar gas plants are being provided through easy loans and subsidy.
• The initial cost of wind power is high but the benefits are such that the high cost gets easily absorbed.
• In Delhi, the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as fuel in public transport system has significantly lowered air pollution and the air has become cleaner.
• For the gobar gas plant to function, cattle dung is fed to the plant and gas is produced which is used as fuel while the slurry which is left over is a very good organic fertiliser and soil conditioner.
• Delhi also adopted odd/even scheme to restrict the use of vehicles with registration ending with odd/even numbers on alternative days, for specific period in a year.
• Population explosion, affluent consumption and production have placed a huge stress on the environment.
• The environment performs four functions: supplies resources, assimilates wastes, sustains life by providing genetic and bio diversity and provides aesthetic services.
• The threat to India’s environment is of two dimensions — threat of poverty induced environmental degradation and the threat of pollution from affluence and a rapidly growing industrial sector.
• Promotion of natural resources, conservation, preserving regenerative capacity of ecological system and avoiding the imposition of environmental risks on future generations would lead to sustainable development.
• Developmental activities in India have put immense pressure on its finite natural resources, besides creating impact on human health and well-being.
• The government, through various measures, attempts to safeguard the environment, but it is also necessary to adopt a path of sustainable development.
• Rising population, air pollution, water contamination, affluent consumption standards, illiteracy, industrialisation, urbanisation, reduction of forest coverage, poaching, and global warming are factors contributing to the environmental crisis in India.
• Sustainable development is development that meets the need of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs.
• The State of India’s Environment is reported annually by the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi.
• Down to Earth, a journal published by the Centre for Science and Environment, provides updates on the environment in New Delhi.
• The website http://envfor.nic.in provides information on environmental issues in India.
• The website http://www.cseindia.org provides information on the Centre for Science and Environment in India.
• Scientific American, India, has a Special Issue in September 2005 focusing on the environment.
• The problem of ozone depletion is caused by high levels of chlorine and bromine compounds in the stratosphere.
• Absorptive capacity refers to the ability of the environment to absorb degradation.
• Pollution was within the absorptive capacity of the environment in the early days of civilisation.