Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Environmental Issues
With well over a billion people, ever-expanding industrial and urban centres, and growth in
chemical-intensive farming, India's environment is under tremendous pressure. An estim-
ated 65% of the land is degraded in some way. Many current problems are a direct result of
the Green Revolution of the 1960s, when chemical fertilisers and pesticides enabled huge
growth in agricultural output, at enormous cost to the environment.
Despite numerous environmental laws, corruption continues to exacerbate environmental
degradation - exemplified by the flagrant flouting of laws by companies involved in hydro-
electricity and mining. Usually, the people most affected are low-caste rural farmers and
Adivasis (tribal people).
Agricultural production has been reduced by soil degradation from overfarming, rising
soil salinity, loss of tree cover and poor irrigation. The human cost is heart-rending, and
lurking behind all these problems is a basic Malthusian truth: there are far too many people
for India to support.
Air pollution in many Indian cities has been measured at more than double the maximum safe level recom-
mended by the World Health Organization.
Climate Change
Changing climate patterns - linked to global carbon emissions - have been creating dan-
gerous extremes of weather in India. While India's per-capita carbon emissions still rank
far behind that of the USA, Australia and Europe, its sheer size of population makes it a
major polluter.
It has been estimated that by 2030 India will see a 30% increase in the severity of its
floods and droughts. Islands in the Lakshadweep group as well as the low-lying plains of
the Ganges delta are being inundated by rising sea levels.
Deforestation
Since Independence, over 50,000 sq km of India's forests have been cleared for logging
and farming, or destroyed by urban expansion, mining, industrialisation and river dams.
Even in the well-funded, highly protected Project Tiger parks, the amount of forest cover
classified as 'degraded' has tripled due to illegal logging. The number of mangrove forests
