Environment

Deforestation

According to the World-Wide Fund for Nature, we are losing 130,000 square km of forest cover every day. Another study by the Center for Global Development shows that if the loss of vegetation continues unabated at this rate, forests covering an area nearly the size of India will be destroyed by 2050. Forest goods and services, once thought to be abundant, are now a scarce resource. This affects not only half the world’s land-based species of plants and animals, but also more than a billion people that are dependent on forests for livelihood.

The situation in India is no different. India has been trying to achieve its target of keeping 33 percent of its geographical area under forest cover for decades, but the 2017 State of Forest report shows that it is still struggling to get above 22 percent. India has seen rapid deforestation in recent years, primarily due to its focus on economic development. According to government data, 14,000sq km of forests were cleared to accommodate 23,716 industrial projects across India over the last 30 years.

Filthy Water

Dirty water or filthy water is such a big problem nowadays. Billions of people use a drinking water source contaminated with faces. Contaminated water can transmit diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Containment dirking water is estimated to cause 485000 diarrhea death each year. There are many reasons for water contamination such as naturally occurring chemical and minerals (Arsenic, Radon, Uranium), local land use practices (fertilizer, pesticides, concentrated feeding operation, manufacturing process or wastewater release).

Clean India Mission

‘Clean India mission or Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a national campaign by the govt. of India, covering 4041 towns. It aims to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country. This campaign is India’s biggest ever cleanliness drive and 3 million govt. employees, school and college students participated. All together the amount of waste generated affects the environment in multiple ways, it contributes to the worsening climate crisis, it has negative impact on our natural environment, wildlife and its detriment to our very own public health.

Global Warming

As we all know, with increasing population and deforestation, the earth’s temperature increases which causes imbalances in nature. Due to all these effects the medical condition of human beings is becoming worse day by day. Because of the global warning the earth gets hotter and these heat trappy pollutants specifically, co2, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor and synthetic fluorinated gases are known as greenhouse gases, and their impact is called the greenhouse effect.

Open Defection

Open Defection is the emptying of bowels in the open without the use of properly designed structures built for the handling of human waste such as toilets. Open defecation is particularly associated with rural and poverty-stricken regions of the world.

o Diarrhea and other problems associated with ingesting and exposure to human waste affect children under the age of 5 years the most since they are very susceptible to diseases.
o Apart from waterborne diseases, when human waste collects into heaps, it attracts flies and other insects.
o The saddest fact about disease transmission caused by open defecation is the cyclic nature of problems that then begin to manifest.
o Malnutrition in children is another health problem associated with open defecation. Once a child is a victim of one of the diseases passed on due to the lack of proper sanitation and hygiene, they begin to lose a lot of fluids and lack of appetite for food.

Open defecation and the lack of adequate sanitation hardware have strong and disproportionate gender-based impacts. The lack of access to private latrines and toilets renders girls and young women vulnerable to sexual violence, which frustrates efforts for them to lead a healthy and productive life.