Environment in India Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Modern India is blessed with some of the most diverse and rich environmental resources of any nation in the world. It has long had many environmental problems, however, stemming from its long colonial domination by foreign powers and mismanagement of resources after independence.

The oldest known civilization in India, located in the Indus Valley, flourished from 2500 until 1800 B.C.E. The reasons for its collapse is unclear, but environmental change may have been as conclusive factor, along with tectonic shifts in river course, and the onset of floods which ruined a large amount of agricultural land. The rise of a civilization of ethnolinguistic Aryan immigrants in the centuries following decline of the Indus “Harappans” has led to speculation that the alter civilization drove out the earlier one, though there certainly is no evidence of interaction, let alone warfare.

During the period from 1500 B.C.E., with the formation of Hindu India-and the introduction of the caste system-until the creation of colonial India, waves of invasions and wars between the various rulers of the subcontinent caused many problems but also led to rich hybrid cultural interactions and many environmental innovations and management systems, ranging from the use of the Perisan Wheel in agriculture to the magnificent Mughal Gardens, where complex water lifting and distribution systems were used to naturally air condition palaces and provide diverse and productive botanical gardens.

The arrival of the Portuguese, and later the British, Dutch, and French, saw the introduction of European cultures and values, and also the imposition of dramatic new political and economic systems, which stressed local environmental resources and led to dramatic changes in land use and productivity.

In 1827 and again in 1839 there were significant cases of wheat rust in India. There was a large cholera pandemic in India in 1891. The Spanish Influenza Epidemic of 1918-19 affected much of the world but India was the country worst affected. It seems likely that as many as 17 million people died, which represents about 5 percent of the entire population.

Other environmental problems caused regular famines in India-there were problems during the British takeover of India, and also after the Indian Mutiny of 1857, when many of the crops were lost. A major famine took place in 1943 during World War II when India was facing a possible Japanese invasion, and large numbers of men were involved in the British war effort. This saw the deaths of 5 million people, being the most destructive of the famines in India before independence. Since the creation of independent India in 1947, there have not been any famines, with surplus stored in years of plenty and transferred around the country to feed people when harvests fail. Events such as the poison gas emissions at Bhopal have been highlighted as problems with Indian environmental protection legislation.

Weather conditions in India have presented problems since ancient times. There have been many stories set around the lives of people awaiting the monsoons each year. The Green Revolution has seen a huge increase in agricultural production throughout India, with increased rice crops, and this has alleviated problems that had been caused by the weather. Simultaneously, however, the high-input crops have led to soil exhaustion in many places and declining aquifers, raising questions about the sustainability of technology-centered solutions to India’s agrarian development challenges.

Development and government mismanagement has placed a great strain on wildlife in India, with tigers and other wild animals finding their hunting areas significantly encroached upon. This has led to tigers attacking livestock and farm animals, and sometimes humans. At the same time, the value of tiger skin and bone products in adjacent China and elsewhere has led to increased poaching. As agricultural land has expanded, as a result of new irrigation technologies and expansion of export markets, coupled with increasing food demands, wildlife habitat has also been threatened, although a large number of national parks have been established throughout the country.

Reverence for animals in Indian culture means that many animals, wild and domesticated, live in the countryside and often within urban areas, including the ubiquitous cattle population in the streets of cities, towns, and villages, and countless temples dedicated to other animals such as monkeys, bats, and rats, which are free to roam about.

In recent years, with the establishment of national parks in India, there has been an increase in the number of ecotourists visiting the country. Large numbers of World Heritage sites exist throughout the country, ranging from the world-famous Taj Mahal, through to the cities of Jaipur and Jodhpur, the caves of Ajanta, and also many less wellknown sites. These environmental locations draw many international tourists, though the booming indigenous middle class population of the country has become the mainstay of national tourism. The pressure of domestic and foreign visitors on ecotourist destinations raises questions about the sustainability of the industry.

Bibliography:

Frederick F. Cartwright and Michal Biddiss, Diseases and History (Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1972);
H.K. Spate and A.T.A. Learmonth, India and Pakistan: A General and Regional Geography (Methuen & Co Ltd., 1967);
Mortimer Wheeler, The Indus Civilisation (Cambridge University Press, 1968).