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| Environmental Changes & Society ISBN: 978-93-93166-39-5 For verification of this chapter, please visit on http://www.socialresearchfoundation.com/books.php#8 |
Increasing Population and its Impact on Environment |
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Dr. Sarika Singh
Assistant Professor
Sociology
Raja Harpal Singh Mahavidyalay
Singramau, Jaunpur Uttar Pradesh, India
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DOI: Chapter ID: 17981 |
| This is an open-access book section/chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Environment has
become one of the major challenges in today’s scenario. Environmental
challenges cannot be ignored because we all as human beings are affected the
most. Each living species on this planet is being affected by change in
environment but human beings are the one who is not only affected by
environment but human being through their activity also affect the environment.
Human beings through their activity may either positively or negatively affect
the environment. Human beings are active agents. We can say that human beings
are the key players. Human mind is progressive in nature and development
oriented. It always tries to search for new things which can make life more
easy and convenient. But development has its own adverse effect. Development at
the cost of ecology and environment can raise question about survival of human
being to itself. The chapter
basically deals about increasing human population and its consequent impact on
environment. But before we proceed further we should understand that what is
environment.The word environment is derived from ‘Environner’ which is a French
word which means to surround or to encircle from all sides. So, Environment is
something which surrounds us all from sides. It includes all the biological and
non-biological components. “Environment is the sum total of water, air and
land, interrelationships among themselves and also with the human beings, other
living organism and property.” In order to understand environment one should
get knowledge inputs from various other disciplines like Botany, Biochemistry,
Biology, Microbiology, genetics which help us in understanding the biotic
component. Sociology,
Education and Economics gives us the knowledge of socio-economic aspect of
development activities. Environmental
laws help us in better management and protection of environment. Civil
engineering, Chemical engineering and Environmental engineering when combined
together can lead to better management of environment related issues and
develop cleaner technologies. In this way we
can say that Environmental study is a multi disciplinary subject. Population
Growth Theory Malthus Theory
of Population Thomas R.
Malthus in his study “Essay on Population” (1798) focused on the point that
human population increases at compound rate but on the other hand food
production remains stable or increases at a slow rate. Therefore many social
problems like poverty, crime, diseases arises. Malthus gave suggestion about
population control. He talked about “positive checks” by which nature tries to
control the population through famines, droughts and diseases outbreak. He also
talked about “Preventive checks” under which human being tries to control the
population by adopting methods like birth control pills, no marriage, late
marriage etc. Theory of
Optimum Population Edwin Cannan in
his book “Wealth” ( 1924) gave this theory and it was supported by Dalton,
Robbins and Carr Saunders of London School of Economics.
According to
this theory that population is the ideal population which is in proper
proportion to the available natural resources. Any variation in population
ratio will lead to decline in income per head. If the country is under
populated then it can increase its population size in order to get maximum
income per head. On the other hand if the country is over populated so it can
control its population in order to get maximum gain.
In the above
figure vertical line represents per capita income and horizontal line indicates
size of population. When the country is under populated, its per capita income
is low as indicated by BA. The maximum per capita income is NM which is
achieved when the country has its optimum population. As the country becomes
over populated its per capita income also shrinks to DC as shown in the
figure. Karl Marx
Theory of Population This theory was
given by Karl Marx in 1867 AD. This theory is influenced by communist
philosophy based on socio-economic concept. According to this theory, society
is divided into two classes rich and poor. The poor section of the society
plays an active role in increasing population. It tries to increase the number
of children in the family because each member in the family is army of workers
to increase their income. On the other hand, the rich class emphasis on the
collection of wealth. The surplus labour force available in the country makes
labour force cheaper. Neo Malthus Theory
of Population This theory was
given by supporter of Malthus. This theory believes that there is a need to
control population by avoiding new births. The theory advocates the use of
artificial means of birth control, like contraceptive pills, condoms etc. Men
and Women should freely enjoy the cohabitation and have a healthy marital life
without worrying about new birth.
Population
Explosion in India
India ranks
second in the world after china with 1,425,887,337 (142 crore)
population in 2022.The above figure clearly indicates that the population
percentage of India in terms of total world population is 17.9%
which is second highest in the world after China. If the population continues
to grow at this rate then by 2050 India will surpass china in terms of
population. By looking at the growth rate of population we can say that just
after 35 years of independence we added “another India in terms of population”
But at the same time question arises that why population in India is increasing
at such a fast rate. We should discuss some of these reasons. Cause of
Increasing Population in India Population
increases at that point when the birth rate is more than death rate. In India
the population increased considerably during Pre Industrial and Industrial Era. After
Independence of India due to improved medical health facilities the death rate
declined to a great extentbut birth rate remained high.This situation lead to
population explosion in India. Now, we shall
discuss in detail the main reason of increasing population. Some of these are
listed below- Increase in
Life Expectancy Due to
advancement of science and technologies, the medical facilities also improved
considerably leading to control of many disease like tuberculosis, chicken pox,
plague and other viral infection diseases. Due to Green Revolution the
production of food grains increased and India was able to win over situation
like starvation, drought and famine. Due to all these factors the
life expectancy increased to 70 years which was 30 years during pre modern age. The Decrease in
Infant Mortality Rate As stated in
the above point that due to advancement of science and technology the medical
facility improved. As a result of which the number of newborn death has been
curtailed with the help of vaccines. Many infectious disease like polio,
tuberculosis, chicken pox, diphtheria, whooping cough etc has been stopped from
spreading. According to Sample Registration System (SRS) the infant mortality
rate has in 2015 reduced from 37 per 1000 live births to 30 per 1000 live birth
in 2019. In 2021 the infant mortality rate is 28.771 deaths per 1000 live
births. Uneducation Education plays
a key role in either the backwardness or advancement of any society. It has
been seen that people in underdeveloped societies are highly uneducated due to
which they fail to understand the negative impact of overpopulation. Not only
this, due to lack of education, people are not aware about family planning and
they don’t adopt any preventive measure to control the birth of a new child. In
India, due to lack of education, people are still superstitious and they
believe that preventive measures should not be adopted to control pregnancy.
The preference of a male child is the most important factor responsible for
high number of child birth in a family. Poverty In
underdeveloped country, poverty is most prevalent. Poverty is not only the
reason for underdevelopment of any country but also the main cause of
overpopulation. Due to poverty a person tries to increase the number of family
members in his house, because he sees every newborn member in the family as
extra number of hands to earn income and run the house . But he fails to
understand that every new member in the house is not only born with two hands
but also with one mouth to feed. He is not only an asset to run the family but
also an liability. With this thinking in mind, the population of any country
keeps on adding in geometric way. Overpopulation
and its Adverse Impact on Environment Overpopulation
is not only a burden on Earth but also on its natural resources which are
limited in availability. Overpopulation also negatively affects the
environment. We shall now discuss in detail the adverse impact of
overpopulation on environment. Deforestation Due to
increasing population, there is need for more houses , offices, building,
complex, roads etc. With increasing industrialization, many new factories and
companies occupying acres of land has been established. Urbanization is also
increasing at a fast rate in developing countries like India, due to
which,again many forest has been destroyed and trees chopped down in order to
establish big cities. In order to feed such an enormous population many forest
has been converted into agricultural land to grow crops, which is also one of
the main reason for deforestation. In short, it can be said that in the name of
urbanization, modernization and industrialization, the whole ecological system
has been made to suffer. Climate Change
and Global Warming Due to
industrialization, automation and mechanization, not only the number of
factories, but also the level of pollution has also increased. Smoke, dust
particles, industrial affluents is significantly contributing every year to
increase in pollution level. The Earth is getting heated up more and more by
every passing year. According to reports Earth’s temperature has risen by 0.080celcius
since 1880 per decade. But since 1981, the rate of warming is twice i.e. 0.180c.
According to NOAA’s temperature data 2021 was the sixth warmest year. Global
warming is also causing the melting of glaciers due to which there is a rise in
sea level. According to report published in April 19, 2022, the rate of rise in
sea level has doubled. In 2020, the the global sea level was 91.3 mm. Depletion of
Natural Resources Natural
resources are limited in number but as the size of population expands to a
great extent, the burden on the limited supply of natural resources also
increase which may in near future lead to depletion of natural resources. Some
natural resources have already started showing sign of depletion like water,
fossil fuel etc. Central Ground water board data in India from 2017 shows that
256 out of 700 districts in India have reported “Critical” groundwater levels
and three fourths of India’s rural families don’t have access to piped,
drinkable water. Impact on
Farming When the
population of any country increases up to the maximum level and beyond than
there are more mouth to feed in comparison to the availability of food. In
order to meet the demand of food of increasing population. Many forest are
converted into agricultural land. This leads to loss of forest area and causing
further damage to flora and fauna and ecological misbalance. Loss of fresh
water Due to
overpopulation the waste material of industries and factories are dumped
straight away into rivers and oceans which not only adversely affect flora and
fauna of these water bodies but it also harms human beings. According to world
wild life organization by 2025, two-third of world populations will face water
shortage and 2.4 billion people are facing water-borne disease like jaundice,
typhoid and Cholera and nearly 2 million people who die from diarrhea disease
are mostly children. Extinction of
Species Global warming
and climate change is not only affecting human being but also animals, bird and
other species. Many species are not able to adapt themselves to the existing
level of pollution, global warming and change in climate.Many species have lost
their natural habitat and are not able to survive in the new habitat.Species
like Dodo, Passenger, Pigeon, Irish elk, Cave lion, Wollymammoth, White dolphin
are in the top ten list of Extinct animal, while animals like Tiger, Snow
Leopard,Gorrilas,turtles,snow leopard Turtles, Polar Bear, Giant
Panda are in the list of Endangered species. The given figure clearly shows
that the number of endangered species has risen fron7851 in 2007 to 16900 in
2022. Increase in
social problems
Excess
population not only leads to depletion of natural resources and overcrowding in
a given country but it also causes many disturbance like increasing poverty,
low level of literacy rate, problem of malnutrition among women and children,
unemployment etc. Not only there is an increase in social problems but also
increasing crime rate like increase in organized crime, crime against women and
children, White Collar crime, corruption etc.
Suggestions to
overcome the problem of overpopulation Making women
empowered Ensuring gender
equality is the main aim of every society. However by attaining gender equality
not only a society achieves development but also the problem
of overpopulation can be solved by providingrights to women take
social, economical and financial decision of herlife. Thepopulation of any
society can be controlled as the women is having power to decide whether she
wants to make her career or she wants to marry and have children. Educating
people about family planning In order to
curb population growth, it is very essential that people should be educated
about measures to adopt to control population. People should be educated
through cinemas, nukkad- natak, seminars, webinars, advertisements etc. Providing
incentive to peoples In order to
control population, it is very essential that government should promote people
who adopt family planning measures and provide those with certain incentives.
By this step , many other people will be motivated to adopt family planning
method. Conclusion Healthy Ecology
and environment is the key for survival of any species on this planet, afterall
we human beings can't survive without fresh air,water and food grains. Natural
resources are essential for survival of human being. Population playsa key role
in the development of any society and also population play an important role in
exploitation of natural resources. However population should be in proportion
to available natural resources. Any extra population is going to put an extra
pressure on the environment and harm Ecology. Therefore there is an argent need
to check population growth, otherwise the existence of humanity will be in
danger. References 1. Sethi,D.K.and Mrs U.Andrews.2005.Frank
ISC Economics.New Delhi:Frank Brothers Publishers.
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