What is Environmental Degradation?

Environmental degradation is the disintegration of the earth or deterioration of the

environment through the consumption of assets, for example, air, water and soil; the
destruction of environments and the eradication of wildlife. It is characterized as any change
or aggravation to nature’s turf seen to be pernicious or undesirable.

Ecological effect or degradation is created by the consolidation of an effectively substantial

and expanding human populace, constantly expanding monetary development or per capita
fortune and the application of asset exhausting and polluting technology.

It occurs when the earth’s natural resources are depleted, and the environment is
compromised in the form of extinction of species, pollution in the air, water and soil, and
rapid growth in population.

Environmental degradation is one of the largest threats that are being looked at in the world
today. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction characterizes
environmental degradation as the lessening of the limit of the earth to meet social and
environmental destinations and needs.

Types of Environmental Degradation

Land and soil degradation: Degradation of soil quality from poor farming practices,
excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides, leakage from landfills etc.

Water degradation: Pollution of water from trash dumped in oceans, illegal dumping,
disposal of large amounts of industrial waste into nearby rivers or lakes etc.

Atmospheric degradation: This includes air degradation, particle pollution and the depletion
of the ozone layer.

Several other kinds of pollution: Apart from land, water and atmospheric degradation,
many other kinds of pollution such as noise pollution, light pollution that are part of
environmental degradation.

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 becomes 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.

1. 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 a territory with a solitary predominant plant which doesn’t give satisfactory
food assets to all the environmental life. Thus the whole environment can be destroyed
because of these invasive species.

2. Pollution
Pollution, in whatever form, whether it is air, water, land or noise is harmful to 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 the degradation of the earth’s surface as a result of human activities.
Noise pollution can cause irreparable damage to our 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.

3. Overpopulation
Rapid population growth puts strain on natural resources, which results in the degradation
of our environment. Mortality rate has gone down due to better medical facilities, which has
resulted in an increased lifespan.
More population simply 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 in environmental degradation.

4. Landfills
Landfills pollute the environment and destroy the beauty of the city. Landfills come within
the city due to 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 a foul smell when burned and cause substantial environmental
degradation.

5. 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, the use of forest land for agriculture, animal grazing, harvest for fuelwood
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.

6. 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.

Effects of Environmental Degradation

1. Impact on Human Health
Human health might be at the receiving end as a result of environmental degradation. Areas
exposed to toxic air pollutants can cause respiratory problems like pneumonia and asthma.
Millions of people are known to have died due to the indirect effects of air pollution.

A number of public health catastrophes are staring the people of India in the face due to
environmental factors. “This means we need to be smart. It means that we must focus on
prevention and not treatment. We need to improve the environment, reduce the disease
burden and save money in private or public healthcare,” says Sunita Narain, Director
General at Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

2. Loss of Biodiversity
Biodiversity is important for maintaining the 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 a few of the major causes
of loss of biodiversity.

Behaviour of people to mitigate environmental degradation

People and social institutions may respond to environmental change as it is experienced
(post facto) or as it is anticipated.1 In the past, people responded mainly to experienced
environmental change; only in very recent history, because of increasing scientific
knowledge, has there been any rational basis for anticipatory responses. Policy makers and
others are now faced with a variety of options, some of which involve anticipatory action
and some of which depend on awaiting the experience of global change.
Interactions between human and environmental systems and the role of various types of
human response. Lightly shaded boxes repeat the relationships
 Over the years, India has taken several measures to control pollution, maintain ecological
balance, increase forest area and keep its rivers clean. In this article, we take a look at some
of these initiatives.

Compensatory Afforestation Bill, 2016

The enactment of the Compensatory Afforestation Act, 2016 is aimed at ending adhocism
and helping the central and state governments to utilise funds in a planned manner. It will
make available more than Rs. 6,000 crore per annum to the states and union territories
(UTs) for conservation, protection, improvement and expansion of forest and wildlife
resources.

According to the government, availability of these funds will not only help the states and
UTs and local communities to ensure better management of their forest resources but will
also result in creation of more than 15 crore man days of direct employment. A major part
of these amounts will be used to restock and improve quality of degraded forests, which
constitutes more than 40% of the total forest cover of the country.

The Act provides for establishment of a permanent institutional framework to ensure

utilisation of these funds in an effective and transparent manner. It provides for transfer of
90% of the accumulated amounts, which presently is of the order of `49,000 crore to the
states for creation and maintenance of compensatory afforestation and execution of other
activities for conservation, protection, improvement and expansion of forest and wildlife
resources. The remaining 10% retained at the national level, will be used for monitoring and
evaluation of activities undertaken by the states and UTs.

River and Water Conservation

The Water Resources Information System (WRIS) database developed by the Central Water
Commission along with the Indian Space Research Organisation includes 15,615 identified
rivers/streams in the country. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in association with
the respective state pollution control boards is monitoring the water quality of rivers in the
country on a regular basis. According to a report published by CPCB in February, 2015, 302
polluted river stretches have been identified on 275 rivers based on Bio-chemical Oxygen
Demand (BOD) level in rivers which is a key indicator of organic pollution.

Various rivers have been identified under the programmes of National River Conservation
Plan (NRCP) and the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) for implementation of
projects on cost sharing basis between central and state governments. Currently, the NRCP
(excluding Ganga and its tributaries) has covered polluted stretches of 31 rivers in 75 towns
spread over 14 states involving a sanctioned cost of Rs. 4,517.82 crore. As of November
2016, an amount of Rs. 2,056.58 crore has been released to various state governments for
implementation of various pollution abatement schemes and a treatment capacity of 2373
million litres per day has been created under the NRCP (excluding Ganga and its tributaries).

The government is also looking to process every litre of water that comes out of mines. For
thermal power plants, the government has made it mandatory for any waste water
 processing unit in the 50 km radius of the plant to compulsorily use the waste water
discharged from the plant and the recycled water would have to be compulsorily used by
the thermal power plant so that the clean water is available to serve the people living
around the plant.

Forest Conservation

The National Afforestation Programme (NAP) is the flagship scheme under the Ministry of
Environment, Forest and Climate Change. According to the India State of Forest Report-
2013, the total forest cover in the country was 697,898 square kilometres, which is 21.23%
of the total geographical area of the country. India is one of the few countries in the world,
where the forest cover is on the rise. The total forest and tree cover of the country as per
2015 assessment in the state of Forest Report is 794,245 sq. km (79.42 million ha) which is
24.16% of the geographical area of the country. There is an increase of 3,775 sq. km in the
forest cover of the country as compared to the previous 2013 assessment. Increase in forest
and tree cover is significant in view of the fact that forests continue to meet around 30% of
the total requirement of fuel wood which is the primary source of energy and 40% of fodder
consuming livestock’s are dependent on fodder completely or partially which comes from
forests.

In order to increase the forest and tree cover and improve the quality of existing forest
lands, afforestation is being taken up under various centrally sponsored schemes such as
NAP, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS),
Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP), National Bamboo Mission (NBM)
and under Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA)
among others.

The National Afforestation Programme (NAP) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests is a
100% centrally sponsored scheme for afforestation and tree plantation and eco-restoration
of degraded forests and adjoining areas in the country.

National Green Tribunal

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) was established on October 18, 2010 under the National
Green Tribunal Act 2010. It has been set up for effective and expeditious disposal of cases
relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural
resources including enforcement of any legal right relating to environment and giving relief
and compensation for damages to persons and property connected with the environment. It
is a specialised body equipped with the necessary expertise to handle environmental
disputes involving multi-disciplinary issues.

Solar and Renewable Energy

The government has launched the LED project, where the government is replacing the
lighting load of the country with LEDs. It will reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by 80
million tonnes per annum and the economically prudent project will help the consumer save
around Rs. 40,000 crore in electricity bills annually. India is trying to move from its present
status of being a highly thermal power generation dependent economy towards renewable
energy. The solar power programme has been scaled up from a 20 GW target to 100 GW by
2022 and putting together all the renewable energy sources, including the large hydro
projects, India may have 225 GW of renewable and clean energy sources by 2022.

Conversion of India’s vehicles to electrical vehicles has a potential to save fossil fuels worth
about $100 billion annually, which in turn would save the country precious foreign
exchange, prevent the dependence on imported petroleum products and reduce the
pollution in cities by 80%-90%.

National clean air programme

Air pollution has increasingly become a serious concern. The impact of air pollution is not
limited to health, but it gets extended to agriculture and general well-being of human, floral
and faunal population. The government has formulated National Clean Air Program (NCAP)
as a long-term, time bound national level strategy to tackle the increasing air pollution
problem across the country in a comprehensive manner at a total tentative cost of around
`637 crore. The overall objective of the NCAP is comprehensive management plan for
prevention, control and abatement of air pollution besides augmenting the air quality-
monitoring network across the country.

Green Skill Development Programme (GSDP)

The Green Skill Development Programme (GSDP) developed by the Ministry of Environment,
Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC) under the ENVIS Scheme is a new initiative to skill
youth in environment, forest and wildlife sectors and enabling them to be employed or be
self-employed. The scope of the programme is being extended to an all India level covering
other green skills, which include areas such as Pollution Monitoring (Air/ Water/ Noise/
Soil), ETP Operation, Waste Management, Forest Management, Water Budgeting & Auditing
and Conservation of River Dolphins among many more.