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| World Environment Day | | | Dr. Parveen Kumar, Dr. R. K. Arora | 6/4/2018 10:59:57 PM |
| All across the globe 'World Environment Day' is celebrated every year on fifth day of sixth month of the year (June 5). The main objective of celebrating this day at the international level is to raise awareness among the common masses regarding our environment and also to redouble our efforts towards creating a more sustainable environment. 'Sustainable' means an environment that would provide the present generation with all the basic necessities required for their survival without compromising with the generations to come.
One of the important components of environment is the land which we put to different uses. This land represent s a natural ecosystem composed of many elements those exhibit diverse bio physical characteristics that are interlinked and interdependent. It also supports a number of economic activities and influences health and nutrition of man and animals. Agriculture is the prominent of the economic activities that land sustains. Worldwide agriculture occupies only 12 per cent of the 13 billion hectare of global land mass, but is several developing countries the proportion of area under agriculture goes well beyond 50 per cent. In our country of the total land area of 342 million hectare; 142 million hectare is under agriculture.
With the population increasing and the area and agriculture more or less static; the pressure on this natural resource has been on the rise to extract more from this. All this is being done to meet the demand of ever increasing population. Consequently this has led to depletion of our natural resources and disturbing our natural environment. Due to poor soil and water management practices about 40 to 50 per cent of the land area suffers from degradation of one or the other kind. Erosion is another dominating factor which annually robes the Indian soils of about 2 M tons of nutrients every year which at moderate rates of crop loss equals 20 M tons of food grains. The Rio+20 document also reports that 'every year 12 million hectares of land becomes unproductive through desertification and drought alone. This 12 million hectares of land lost through degradation annually has the potential to produce 20 million tons of food grains in the same period. Similarly on an annual basis about 11 million hectare forest area disappears from the globe. Consequently with all this life of about 1.5 billion people are directly affected by land degradation globally. The indiscriminate use of plant protection chemicals during green revolution and thereafter in states like Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh to increase the crop yields has led to water pollution. Such is the extent that drinking such polluted water has resulted in many deadly diseases among peoples in the states like Punjab and Haryana. The water has been contaminated with many poisonous elements. In certain districts in Punjab like Bathinda such is the condition that almost in each family, one can find a cancer patient. A train runs especially from the Bathinda to Ganga Nagar in Rajasthan for their treatment. This train is given the name of 'Cancer Train'.
Our faulty ways has also led to the increase in global warming. Temperature is on the rise. Sea levels are increasing. Floods and droughts are on the rise. Coastal areas are now unsafe for human settlements. Crop failures accompanied with decrease in productivity of crops as well as livestock is adding to the food insecurity of the region. Another important issue is the burning of crop residues. This problem has assumed alarming proportions. Farmers in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh usually burn the crop stubbles and residues of the previous crop (Paddy) to prepare their fields for the next crop (Wheat). The burning emits gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, Carbon monoxide, Nitrous oxide, Sulphur oxide and particulate matter. The smoke leads to the formation of smog which besides reducing the visibility is also a major health hazard severely affecting the respiratory system of the peoples. The air pollution is on the rise in the country. The quantity of harmful gases in the atmosphere has already crossed the threshold level. It is very difficult to breathe in this polluted air. Such was the intensity of pollution due to stubble burning that it attracted international attention. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) showed satellite images of stubble burning on lakhs of hectares in northwest India. In Punjab alone 12 million tonnes of paddy stubble is burnt annually. A study by International Crops Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) reveals that by this Punjab farmers loose $18 million worth of Urea and $30-35 million worth of all the nutrients.
The problem of stubble burning can be overcome by making compost from the crop residues. The Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) and ICRISAT together have developed a simple method of compost making which produces compost from crop residues within 45 days. This compost contains about 2 per cent nitrogen, 1.5 per cent Phosphorous and 1.5 per cent potassium besides increasing the yield by about 4-9 percent. This method requires labour. To overcome this Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has also developed a method which makes compost from crop residues with the help of micro organisms with in 75-90 days.
A developing country like India is projected to feed at least 15 million more peoples after every year. This tremendous pressure on the land without the knowledge of appropriate know how of using inputs as well as managing resources is bound to further accelerate the deterioration of environment. As agriculture sector consumes about 85 per cent of the available water resources, much attention should be paid to the judicious use of this natural resource. Water harvesting practices like farm ponds, Water sheds, Roof top water harvesting, drip and sprinkler methods of irrigation should be promoted. These reduce a lot of conveyance losses ultimately reducing the wastage of water. Similarly good agriculture practices like zero tillage, organic farming, integrated techniques; laser land leveling, Precision farming and others should be practiced to maintain a healthy environment in which all of us can live healthier |
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