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15Natural Resources

UNIT 2:Natural Resources

2.1 INTRODUCTION 16

2.2 RENEWABLE AND NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES 20

2.2.1 Natural resources and associated problems 20

2.2.2 Non-renewable resources 22

2.2.3 Renewable resources 22

a. Forest Resources: Use and over-exploitation, deforestation, case studies. 23Timber extraction, mining, dams and their effects on forests and tribal people

b. Water Resources: Use and over-utilisation of surface and ground water, 26floods, drought, conflicts over water, dams – benefits and problems.

c. Mineral Resources: Use and exploitation, environmental effects of extracting 30and using mineral resources, case studies.

d. Food Resources: World food problems, Changes in landuse by agriculture and 32grazing, Effects of modern agriculture, Fertilizer/ pesticide problems,Water logging and salinity

e. Energy Resources: Increasing energy needs, Renewable/ non renewable, 35Use of Alternate energy sources, Case studies

f. Land resources: Land as a resource, land degradation, man-induced land-slides, 48soil erosion and desertification.

2.3 ROLE OF AN INDIVIDUAL IN CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 50

2.4 EQUITABLE USE OF RESOURCES FOR SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES 51

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16 Environmental Studies for Undergraduate Courses

2.1 INTRODUCTION

Our environment provides us with a variety ofgoods and services necessary for our day to daylives. These natural resources include, air, wa-ter, soil, minerals, along with the climate andsolar energy, which form the non-living or ‘abi-otic’ part of nature. The ‘biotic’ or living partsof nature consists of plants and animals, includ-ing microbes. Plants and animals can only sur-vive as communities of different organisms, allclosely linked to each in their own habitat, andrequiring specific abiotic conditions. Thus, for-ests, grasslands, deserts, mountains, rivers, lakesand the marine environment all form habitatsfor specialised communities of plants and ani-mals to live in. Interactions between the abioticaspects of nature and specific living organismstogether form ecosystems of various types.Many of these living organisms are used as ourfood resources. Others are linked to our foodless directly, such as pollinators and dispersersof plants, soil animals like worms, which recyclenutrients for plant growth, and fungi and ter-mites that break up dead plant material so thatmicro-organisms can act on the detritus to re-form soil nutrients.

History of our global environment: Aboutten thousand years ago, when mankind changedfrom a hunter-gatherer, living in wilderness ar-eas such as forests and grasslands, into an agri-culturalist and pastoralist, we began to changethe environment to suit our own requirements.As our ability to grow food and use domesticanimals grew, these ‘natural’ ecosystems weredeveloped into agricultural land. Most traditionalagriculturists depended extensively on rain,streams and rivers for water. Later they beganto use wells to tap underground water sourcesand to impound water and created irrigated landby building dams. Recently we began to use fer-tilizers and pesticides to further boost the pro-duction of food from the same amount of land.However we now realize that all this has led toseveral undesirable changes in our environment.Mankind has been overusing and depletingnatural resources. The over-intensive use of landhas been found to exhaust the capability of theecosystem to support the growing demands ofmore and more people, all requiring more in-tensive use of resources. Industrial growth,urbanisation, population growth and the enor-mous increase in the use of consumer goods,have all put further stresses on the environment.They create great quantities of solid waste. Pol-lution of air, water and soil have begun to seri-

ously affect human health.

Changes in land and resource use:During the last 100 years, a betterhealth care delivery system and animproved nutritional status has led to

rapid population growth,especially in the develop-ing countries. This phe-nomenal rise in humannumbers has, in the recentpast, placed great de-

mands on the earth’s natural resources. Largestretches of land such as forests, grasslands andwetlands have been converted into intensive ag-riculture. Land has been taken for industry and

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17Natural Resources

the urban sectors. These changes have broughtabout dramatic alterations in land-use patternsand rapid disappearance of valuable natural eco-systems. The need for more water, more food,more energy, more consumer goods, is not onlythe result of a greater population, but also theresult of over-utilization of resources by peoplefrom the more affluent societies, and the afflu-ent sections of our own.

Industrial development is aimed at meetinggrowing demands for all consumer items. How-ever, these consumer goods also generate wastein ever larger quantities. The growth of indus-trial complexes has led to a shift of people fromtheir traditional, sustainable, rural way of life tourban centers that developed around industry.During the last few decades, several small ur-ban centers have become large cities, some haveeven become giant mega-cities. This has in-creased the disparity between what the sur-rounding land can produce and what the largenumber of increasingly consumer-orientedpeople in these areas of high population den-sity consume. Urban centers cannot exist with-out resources such as water from rivers andlakes, food from agricultural areas, domesticanimals from pasture lands and timber, fuelwood, construction material and other resourcesfrom forests. Rural agricultural systems are de-pendent on forests, wetlands, grasslands, riversand lakes. The result is a movement of naturalresources from the wilderness ecosystems andagricultural sector to the urban user. The mag-nitude of the shift of resources has been increas-ing in parallel with the growth of industry andurbanisation, and has changed natural land-scapes all over the world. In many cases, thishas led to the rapid development of the urbaneconomy, but to a far slower economic devel-opment for rural people and serious impover-ishment of the lives of wilderness dwellers. Theresult is a serious inequality in the distributionof resources among human beings, which is bothunfair and unsustainable.

Earth’s Resources and Man: The resources onwhich mankind is dependent are provided byvarious sources or ‘spheres’.

1) Atmosphere

• Oxygen for human respiration (metabolic re-quirements).

• Oxygen for wild fauna in natural ecosystemsand domestic animals used by man as food.

• Oxygen as a part of carbon dioxide, usedfor the growth of plants (in turn are usedby man).

The atmosphere forms a protective shell overthe earth. The lowest layer, the troposphere,the only part warm enough for us to survive in,is only 12 kilometers thick. The stratosphere is50 kilometers thick and contains a layer ofsulphates which is important for the formationof rain. It also contains a layer of ozone, whichabsorbs ultra-violet light known to cause can-cer and without which, no life could exist onearth. The atmosphere is not uniformly warmedby the sun. This leads to air flows and variationsin climate, temperature and rainfall in differentparts of the earth. It is a complex dynamic sys-tem. If its nature is disrupted it affects all man-kind. Most air pollutants have both global andregional effects.

Living creatures cannot survive without air evenfor a span of a few minutes. To continue to sup-port life, air must be kept clean. Major pollut-ants of air are created by industrial units thatrelease various gases such as carbon dioxide,carbon monoxide and toxic fumes into the air.Air is also polluted by burning fossil fuels. Thebuildup of carbon dioxide which is known as‘greenhouse effect’ in the atmosphere is lead-ing to current global warming. The growingnumber of scooters, motorcycles, cars, buses andtrucks which run on fossil fuel (petrol and die-sel) is a major cause of air pollution in cities andalong highways.

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Air pollution leads to acute and chronic respira-tory diseases such as various lung infections,asthma and even cancer.

2) Hydrosphere

• Clean water for drinking (a metabolic re-quirement for living processes).

• Water for washing and cooking.

• Water used in agriculture and industry.

• Food resources from the sea, including fish,crustacea, sea weed, etc.

• Food from fresh water sources, includingfish, crustacea and aquatic plants.

• Water flowing down from mountain rangesharnessed to generate electricity in hydro-electric projects.

The hydrosphere covers three quarters of theearth’s surface. A major part of the hydrosphereis the marine ecosystem in the ocean, while onlya small part occurs in fresh water. Fresh waterin rivers, lakes and glaciers, is perpetually beingrenewed by a process of evaporation and rain-fall. Some of this fresh water lies in undergroundaquifers. Human activities such as deforestationcreate serious changes in the hydrosphere. Onceland is denuded of vegetation, the rain erodesthe soil which is washed into the sea.

Chemicals from industry and sewage find theirway into rivers and into the sea. Water pollu-tion thus threatens the health of communitiesas all our lives depend on the availability of cleanwater. This once plentiful resource is now be-coming rare and expensive due to pollution.

3) Lithosphere

• Soil, the basis for agriculture to provide uswith food.

• Stone, sand and gravel, used for construc-tion.

• Micronutrients in soil, essential for plantgrowth.

• Microscopic flora, small soil fauna and fungiin soil, important living organisms of thelithosphere, which break down plant litteras well as animal wastes to provide nutri-ents for plants.

• A large number of minerals on which ourindustries are based.

• Oil, coal and gas, extracted from under-ground sources. It provides power for ve-hicles, agricultural machinery, industry, andfor our homes.

The lithosphere began as a hot ball of matterwhich formed the earth about 4.6 billion yearsago. About 3.2 billion years ago, the earthcooled down considerably and a very specialevent took place - life began on our planet. Thecrust of the earth is 6 or 7 kilometers thick andlies under the continents. Of the 92 elements inthe lithosphere only eight are common constitu-ents of crustal rocks. Of these constituents, 47%is oxygen, 28% is silicon, 8% is aluminium, 5%is iron, while sodium, magnesium, potassiumand calcium constitute 4% each. Together,these elements form about 200 common min-eral compounds. Rocks, when broken down,form soil on which man is dependent for hisagriculture. Their minerals are also the raw ma-terial used in various industries.

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4) Biosphere

• Food, from crops and domestic animals,providing human metabolic requirements.

• Food, for all forms of life which live as in-terdependent species in a community andform food chains in nature on which man isdependent.

• Energy needs: Biomass fuel wood collectedfrom forests and plantations, along withother forms of organic matter, used as asource of energy.

• Timber and other construction materials.

This is the relatively thin layer on the earth inwhich life can exist. Within it the air, water, rocksand soil and the living creatures, form structuraland functional ecological units, which togethercan be considered as one giant global living sys-tem, that of our Earth itself. Within this frame-work, those characterised by broadly similargeography and climate, as well as communitiesof plant and animal life can be divided for con-venience into different biogeographical realms.These occur on different continents. Withinthese, smaller biogeographical units can be iden-tified on the basis of structural differences andfunctional aspects into distinctive recognizableecosystems, which give a distinctive characterto a landscape or waterscape. Their easily vis-ible and identifiable characteristics can be de-scribed at different scales such as those of acountry, a state, a district or even an individualvalley, hill range, river or lake.

The simplest of these ecosystems to understandis a pond. It can be used as a model to under-stand the nature of any other ecosystem and toappreciate the changes over time that are seenin any ecosystem. The structural features of apond include its size, depth and the quality ofits water. The periphery, the shallow part andthe deep part of the pond, each provide spe-cific conditions for different plant and animalcommunities. Functionally, a variety of cycles

such as the amount of water within the pond atdifferent times of the year, the quantity of nu-trients flowing into the pond from the surround-ing terrestrial ecosystem, all affect the ‘nature’of the pond.

Natural cycles between the spheres: All fourspheres are closely inter-linked systems and aredependent on the integrity of each other. Dis-turbing one of these spheres in our environmentaffects all the others.

The linkages between them are mainly in theform of cycles. For instance, the atmosphere,hydrosphere and lithosphere are all connectedthrough the hydrological cycle. Water evapo-rated from the hydrosphere (the seas and fresh-water ecosystems), forms clouds in the atmo-sphere. This becomes rain, which provides mois-ture for the lithosphere, on which life depends.The rain also acts on rocks as an agent of ero-sion and over millions of years has created soil,on which plant life grows. Atmospheric move-ments in the form of wind, break down rocksinto soil. The most sensitive and complex link-ages are those between the atmosphere, thehydrosphere and the lithosphere on the onehand, with the millions of living organisms inthe biosphere on the other. All living organismswhich exist on earth live only in the relativelythin layer of the lithosphere and hydrospherethat is present on the surface of land and in thewater. The biosphere which they form hascountless associations with different parts of thethree other ‘spheres’.

It is therefore essential to understand the inter-relationships of the separate entities soil, wa-ter, air and living organisms, and to appreciatethe value of preserving intact ecosystems as awhole.

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Activity 1:

Observe a nearby pond in different sea-sons and document the seasonalchanges in it. One can also observechanges in a river or the seasonalchanges in a forest or grassland.

Activity 2:

Take a simple object in daily use andtrack its components back to each of itsspheres.

Eg: this textbook: paper from wood –biosphere

Water for pulping – hydrosphere

Bleach to whiten paper – a mineralfrom lithosphere

2.2 RENEWABLE AND NON-RENEWABLE RE-SOURCES

Ecosystems act as resource producers and pro-cessors. Solar energy is the main driving forceof ecological systems, providing energy for thegrowth of plants in forests, grasslands andaquatic ecosystems. A forest recycles its plantmaterial slowly by continuously returning itsdead material, leaves, branches, etc. to the soil.Grasslands recycle material much faster thanforests as the grass dries up after the rains areover every year. All the aquatic ecosystems arealso solar energy dependent and have cycles ofgrowth when plant life spreads and aquaticanimals breed. The sun also drives the watercycle.

Our food comes from both natural and agricul-tural ecosystems. Traditional agricultural ecosys-tems that depended on rainfall have been modi-fied in recent times to produce more and morefood by the addition of extra chemicals and

water from irrigation systems but are still de-pendent on solar energy for the growth of crops.Moreover modern agriculture creates a varietyof environmental problems, which ultimatelylead to the formation of unproductive land.These include irrigation, which leads to thedevelopment of saline soil, and the use of artifi-cial fertilizers eventually ruin soil quality, andpesticides, which are a health hazard forhumans as well as destroying components vitalto the long-term health of agricultural ecosys-tems.

To manufacture consumer products, industryrequires raw materials from nature, includingwater, minerals and power. During the manu-facturing process, the gases, chemicals andwaste products pollute our environment, unlessthe industry is carefully managed to clean upthis mess.

2.2.1 Natural resources and associated prob-lems

The unequal consumption of natural re-sources: A major part of natural resources aretoday consumed in the technologically advancedor ‘developed’ world, usually termed ‘the North’.The ‘developing nations’ of ‘the South’, includ-ing India and China, also over use many re-sources because of their greater human popu-lation. However, the consumption of resourcesper capita (per individual) of the developed coun-tries is up to 50 times greater than in most de-veloping countries. Advanced countries produceover 75% of global industrial waste and green-house gases.

Energy from fossil fuels is consumed in relativelymuch greater quantities in developed countries.Their per capita consumption of food too ismuch greater as well as their waste of enor-mous quantities of food and other products,such as packaging material, used in the foodindustry. The USA for example with just 4% of

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the world’s population consumes about 25%of the world’s resources.

Producing animal food for human consumptionrequires more land than growing crops. Thuscountries that are highly dependent on non-veg-etarian diets need much larger areas forpastureland than those where the people aremainly vegetarian.

Planning Landuse: Land itself is a major re-source, needed for food production, animalhusbandry, industry, and for our growing hu-man settlements. These forms of intensive land-use are frequently extended at the cost of ‘wildlands’, our remaining forests, grasslands, wet-lands and deserts. Thus it is essential to evolve arational land-use policy that examines how muchland must be made available for different pur-poses and where it must be situated. For in-stance, there are usually alternate sites at whichindustrial complexes or dams can be built, but anatural wilderness cannot be recreated artifi-cially. Scientists today believe that at least 10percent of land and water bodies of each eco-system must be kept as wilderness for the long-term needs of protecting nature and naturalresources.

Land as a resource is now under serious pres-sure due to an increasing ‘land hunger’ - to pro-duce sufficient quantities of food for an explod-ing human population. It is also affected by deg-radation due to misuse. Land and water re-sources are polluted by industrial waste and ru-ral and urban sewage. They are increasinglybeing diverted for short-term economic gainsto agriculture and industry. Natural wetlands ofgreat value are being drained for agriculture andother purposes. Semi-arid land is being irrigatedand overused.

The most damaging change in landuse is dem-onstrated by the rapidity with which forests havevanished during recent times, both in India andin the rest of the world. Forests provide us witha variety of services. These include processessuch as maintaining oxygen levels in the atmo-sphere, removal of carbon dioxide, control overwater regimes, and slowing down erosion andalso produce products such as food, fuel, tim-ber, fodder, medicinal plants, etc. In the longterm, the loss of these is far greater than theshort-term gains produced by converting for-ested lands to other uses.

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The need for sustainable lifestyles: The qual-ity of human life and the quality of ecosystemson earth are indicators of the sustainable use ofresources. There are clear indicators of sustain-able lifestyles in human life.

• Increased longevity

• An increase in knowledge

• An enhancement of income.

These three together are known as the ‘Humandevelopment index’.

The quality of the ecosystems have indicatorsthat are more difficult to assess.

• A stabilized population.

• The long term conservation of biodiversity.

• The careful long-term use of natural re-sources.

• The prevention of degradation and pollu-tion of the environment.

2.2.2 Non-renewable resources

These are minerals that have been formed inthe lithosphere over millions of years and con-stitute a closed system. These non-renewableresources, once used, remain on earth in a dif-ferent form and, unless recycled, become wastematerial.

Non-renewable resources include fossil fuelssuch as oil and coal, which if extracted at thepresent rate, will soon be totally used up. Theend products of fossil fuels are in the form ofheat and mechanical energy and chemical com-pounds, which cannot be reconstituted as a re-source.

2.2.3 Renewable resources

Though water and biological living resources areconsidered renewable. They are in fact renew-able only within certain limits. They are linkedto natural cycles such as the water cycle.

• Fresh water (even after being used) is evapo-rated by the sun’s energy, forms watervapour and is reformed in clouds and fallsto earth as rain. However, water sourcescan be overused or wasted to such an ex-tent that they locally run dry. Water sourcescan be so heavily polluted by sewage andtoxic substances that it becomes impossibleto use the water.

• Forests, once destroyed take thousands ofyears to regrow into fully developed natu-ral ecosystems with their full complementof species. Forests thus can be said to be-have like non-renewable resources if over-used.

• Fish are today being over-harvested until thecatch has become a fraction of the originalresource and the fish are incapable of breed-ing successfully to replenish the population.

• The output of agricultural land if misman-aged drops drastically.

• When the population of a species of plantor animal is reduced by human activities,until it cannot reproduce fast enough tomaintain a viable number, the species be-comes extinct.

• Many species are probably becoming extinctwithout us even knowing, and other linkedspecies are affected by their loss.

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The Dodo of Madagascar and the Cheetahin India are well known examples of extinctspecies. What is however not generally rec-ognized is that thousands of extinctions ofsmall plants and animals are occurring everyyear due to loss of their habitat. Over har-vesting and poaching threaten the existenceof many others.

Activity 3: Utilisation of resources

The use of a resource begins with its collec-tion, its processing into a useable product,and transport through a delivery system,to the consumer who uses it. It also involvesdisposal of the waste products produced ateach step. Each step in resource use can af-fect the environment for better or worse.The control of these steps is known as en-vironmental management.

Think of a resource you use and track itthrough these steps.

Eg. The cotton in the clothes you are wear-ing. At each step note:

• What other resources are needed at thisstep to move the resource you chose tothe next?

• What waste products are generated atthat step?

• How are they likely to be disposed off?

• What pollutants are generated in theprocess?

a) Forest Resources

Use and overexploitation: Scientists estimatethat India should ideally have 33 percent of itsland under forests. Today we have only about12 percent. Thus we need not only to protectexisting forests but also to increase our forestcover.

People who live in or near forests know the valueof forest resources first hand because their livesand livelihoods depend directly on these re-sources. However, the rest of us also derive greatbenefits from the forests which we are rarelyaware of. The water we use depends on theexistence of forests on the watersheds aroundriver valleys. Our homes, furniture and paper aremade from wood from the forest. We use manymedicines that are based on forest produce. Andwe depend on the oxygen that plants give outand the removal of carbon dioxide we breatheout from the air.

Forests once extended over large tracts of ourcountry. People have used forests in our coun-try for thousands of years. As agriculture spreadthe forests were left in patches which were con-trolled mostly by tribal people. They hunted ani-mals and gathered plants and lived entirely onforest resources. Deforestation became a majorconcern in British times when a large amountof timber was extracted for building their ships.This led the British to develop scientific forestryin India. They however alienated local peopleby creating Reserved and Protected Forestswhich curtailed access to the resources. This ledto a loss of stake in the conservation of the for-ests which led to a gradual degradation andfragmentation of forests across the length andbreadth of the country.

Another period of overutilisation and forest deg-radation occurred in the early period followingindependence as people felt that now that theBritish had gone they had a right to using ourforests in any way we pleased. The following

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FOREST FUNCTIONS

Watershed protection:• Reduce the rate of surface run-off of water.• Prevent flash floods and soil erosion.• Produces prolonged gradual run-off and thus prevent effects of drought.

Atmospheric regulation:• Absorption of solar heat during evapo-transpiration.• Maintaining carbon dioxide levels for plant growth.• Maintaining the local climatic conditions.

Erosion control:• Holding soil (by preventing rain from directly washing soil away).

Land bank:• Maintenance of soil nutrients and structure.

Local use - Consumption of forest produce by local people who collect it for subsistence –(Consumptive use)

• Food - gathering plants, fishing, hunting from the forest.(In the past when wildlife was plentiful, people could hunt and kill animals forfood. Now that populations of most wildlife species have diminished, continuedhunting would lead to extinction.)

• Fodder - for cattle.• Fuel wood and charcoal for cooking, heating.• Poles - building homes especially in rural and wilderness areas.• Timber – household articles and construction.• Fiber - weaving of baskets, ropes, nets, string, etc.• Sericulture – for silk.• Apiculture - bees for honey, forest bees also pollinate crops.• Medicinal plants - traditionally used medicines, investigating them as potential

source for new modern drugs.

Market use - (Productive use)• Most of the above products used for consumptive purposes are also sold as a

source of income for supporting the livelihoods of forest dwelling people.• Minor forest produce - (non-wood products): Fuelwood, fruit, gum, fiber, etc.

which are collected and sold in local markets as a source of income for forestdwellers.

• Major timber extraction - construction, industrial uses, paper pulp, etc. Timberextraction is done in India by the Forest Department, but illegal logging continuesin many of the forests of India and the world.

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years saw India’s residual forest wealth dwindlesharply. Timber extraction continued to remainthe Forest Department’s main concern up to the1970s. The fact that forest degradation anddeforestation was creating a serious loss of theimportant functions of the forest began to over-ride its utilisation as a source of revenue fromtimber.

Deforestation: Where civilizations have lookedafter forests by using forest resources cautiously,they have prospered, where forests were de-stroyed, the people were gradually impover-ished. Today logging and mining are seriouscauses of loss of forests in our country and allover the world. Dams built for hydroelectricpower or irrigation have submerged forests andhave displaced tribal people whose lives areclosely knit to the forest. This has become a se-rious cause of concern in India.

One of India’s serious environmental problemsis forest degradation due to timber extractionand our dependence on fuelwood. A large num-ber of poor rural people are still highly depen-dent on wood to cook their meals and heat theirhomes. We have not been able to plant enoughtrees to support the need for timber andfuelwood.

The National Forest Policy of 1988 now gives anadded importance to JFM. Another resolutionin 1990 provided a formal structure for com-munity participation though the formation ofVillage Forest Committees. Based on these ex-periences, new JFM guidelines were issued in2000. This stipulates that at least 25 per cent ofthe income from the area must go to the com-munity. From the initiation of the program, un-til 2002, there were 63,618 JFM Committeesmanaging over 140,953 sq. km of forest underJFM in 27 States in India.

The States have tried a variety of approaches toJFM. The share for village forest committees

ranges from 25 per cent in Kerala to 100 percent in Andhra Pradesh, 50 per cent in Gujarat,Maharashtra, Orissa and Tripura. In many States25 per cent of the revenue is used for villagedevelopment. In many States non-timber forestproducts (NTFPs) are available for people freeof cost.

Some States have stopped grazing completely;some have rotational grazing schemes whichhave helped in forest regeneration.

Timber extraction, mining and dams are in-variably parts of the needs of a developing coun-try. If timber is overharvested the ecological func-tions of the forest are lost. Unfortunately for-ests are located in areas where there are richmineral resources. Forests also cover the steepembankments of river valleys, which are ideallysuited to develop hydel and irrigation projects.Thus there is a constant conflict of interests be-

CASE STUDY

Joint Forest Management

The need to include local communities inForest Management has become a growingconcern. Local people will only supportgreening an area if they can see some eco-nomic benefit from conservation. An infor-mal arrangement between local communi-ties and the Forest Department began in1972, in Midnapore District of West Bengal.JFM has now evolved into a formal agree-ment which identifies and respects the localcommunity’s rights and benefits that theyneed from forest resources. Under JFMschemes, Forest Protection Committees fromlocal community members are formed. Theyparticipate in restoring green cover and pro-tect the area from being over exploited.

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tween the conservation interests of environmen-tal scientists and the Mining and Irrigation De-partments. What needs to be understood is thatlong-term ecological gains cannot be sacrificedfor short-term economic gains that unfortu-nately lead to deforestation. These forests wheredevelopment projects are planned, can displacethousands of tribal people who lose their homeswhen these plans are executed. This leads tohigh levels of suffering for which there is rarelya satisfactory answer.

b) Water resources

The water cycle, through evaporation and pre-cipitation, maintains hydrological systems whichform rivers and lakes and support in a variety ofaquatic ecosystems. Wetlands are intermediateforms between terrestrial and aquatic ecosys-tems and contain species of plants and animalsthat are highly moisture dependent. All aquaticecosystems are used by a large number of peoplefor their daily needs such as drinking water,washing, cooking, watering animals, and irri-gating fields. The world depends on a limitedquantity of fresh water. Water covers 70% ofthe earth’s surface but only 3% of this is freshwater. Of this, 2% is in polar ice caps and only1% is usable water in rivers, lakes and subsoilaquifers. Only a fraction of this can be actuallyused. At a global level 70% of water is used foragriculture about 25% for industry and only 5%for domestic use. However this varies in differ-ent countries and industrialized countries use agreater percentage for industry. India uses 90%for agriculture, 7% for industry and 3% fordomestic use.

One of the greatest challenges facing the worldin this century is the need to rethink the overallmanagement of water resources. The worldpopulation has passed the 6 billion mark. Basedon the proportion of young people in develop-ing countries, this will continue to increase sig-nificantly during the next few decades. This

places enormous demands on the world’s lim-ited freshwater supply. The total annual fresh-water withdrawals today are estimated at 3800cubic kilometers, twice as much as just 50 yearsago (World Commission on Dams, 2000). Stud-ies indicate that a person needs a minimum of20 to 40 liters of water per day for drinking andsanitation. More than one billion people world-wide have no access to clean water, and to manymore, supplies are unreliable.

Local conflicts are already spreading to states.Eg. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the watersof the Krishna.

India is expected to face critical levels of waterstress by 2025. At the global level 31 countriesare already short of water and by 2025 therewill be 48 countries facing serious water short-ages. The UN has estimated that by the year2050, 4 billion people will be seriously affectedby water shortages. This will lead to multipleconflicts between countries over the sharing ofwater. Around 20 major cities in India facechronic or interrupted water shortages. Thereare 100 countries that share the waters of 13large rivers and lakes. The upstream countriescould starve the downstream nations leading topolitical unstable areas across the world. Ex-amples are Ethopia, which is upstream on theNile and Egypt, which is downstream and highlydependent on the Nile. International accordsthat will look at a fair distribution of water insuch areas will become critical to world peace.India and Bangladesh already have a negotiatedagreement on the water use of the Ganges.

Overutilization and pollution of surface andgroundwater: With the growth of humanpopulation there is an increasing need for largeramounts of water to fulfill a variety of basicneeds. Today in many areas this requirementcannot be met. Overutilization of water occursat various levels. Most people use more waterthan they really need. Most of us waste water

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during a bath by using a shower or during wash-ing of clothes. Many agriculturists use morewater than necessary to grow crops. There aremany ways in which farmers can use less waterwithout reducing yields such as the use of dripirrigation systems.

Agriculture also pollutes surface water and un-derground water stores by the excessive use ofchemical fertilizers and pesticides. Methods suchas the use of biomass as fertilizer and non toxicpesticides such as neem products and using in-tegrated pest management systems reduces theagricultural pollution of surface and groundwater.

Industry tends to maximise short-term economicgains by not bothering about its liquid wasteand releasing it into streams, rivers and the sea.In the longer term, as people become more con-scious of using ‘green products’ made byecosensitive industries, the polluter’s productsmay not be used. The polluting industry thatdoes not care for the environment and pays offbribes to get away from the cost needed to useeffluent treatment plants may eventually becaught, punished and even closed down. Publicawareness may increasingly put pressures onindustry to produce only eco-friendly productswhich are already gaining in popularity.

As people begin to learn about the serious healthhazards caused by pesticides in their food, pub-lic awareness can begin putting pressures onfarmers to reduce the use of chemicals that areinjurious to health.

Global climate change: Changes in climate ata global level caused by increasing air pollutionhave now begun to affect our climate. In someregions global warming and the El Nino windshave created unprecedented storms. In otherareas, they lead to long droughts. Everywherethe ‘greenhouse effect’ due to atmosphericpollution is leading to increasingly erratic andunpredictable climatic effects. This has seriouslyaffected regional hydrological conditions.

Floods: Floods have been a serious environmen-tal hazard for centuries. However, the havocraised by rivers overflowing their banks has be-come progressively more damaging, as peoplehave deforested catchments and intensified useof river flood plains that once acted as safetyvalves. Wetlands in flood plains are nature’sflood control systems into which overfilled riv-ers could spill and act like a temporary spongeholding the water, and preventing fast flowingwater from damaging surrounding land.

Deforestation in the Himalayas causes floodsthat year after year kill people, damage cropsand destroy homes in the Ganges and its tribu-taries and the Bramhaputra. Rivers change theircourse during floods and tons of valuable soil islost to the sea. As the forests are degraded, rain-water no longer percolates slowly into the sub-soil but runs off down the mountainside bear-ing large amounts of topsoil. This blocks riverstemporarily but gives way as the pressuremounts allowing enormous quantities of waterto wash suddenly down into the plains below.There, rivers swell, burst their banks and floodwaters spread to engulf peoples’ farms andhomes.

Drought: In most arid regions of the world therains are unpredictable. This leads to periodswhen there is a serious scarcity of water to drink,use in farms, or provide for urban and industrialuse. Drought prone areas are thus faced with

CASE STUDY

Water pollution - Nepal

The Narayani River of Nepal has been pol-luted by factories located on its bank. Thishas endangered fish, dolphins, crocodiles andother flora and fauna of the region.

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irregular periods of famine. Agriculturists haveno income in these bad years, and as they haveno steady income, they have a constant fear ofdroughts. India has ‘Drought Prone Areas De-velopment Programs’, which are used in suchareas to buffer the effects of droughts. Underthese schemes, people are given wages in badyears to build roads, minor irrigation works andplantation programs.

Drought has been a major problem in our coun-try especially in arid regions. It is an unpredict-able climatic condition and occurs due to thefailure of one or more monsoons. It varies infrequency in different parts of our country.

While it is not feasible to prevent the failure ofthe monsoon, good environmental manage-ment can reduce its ill effects. The scarcity ofwater during drought years affects homes, ag-riculture and industry. It also leads to food short-ages and malnutrition which especially affectschildren.

Several measures can be taken to minimise theserious impacts of a drought. However this mustbe done as a preventive measure so that if themonsoons fail its impact on local people’s livesis minimised.

In years when the monsoon is adequate, we useup the good supply of water without trying toconserve it and use the water judiciously. Thusduring a year when the rains are poor, there isno water even for drinking in the drought area.

One of the factors that worsens the effect ofdrought is deforestation. Once hill slopes aredenuded of forest cover the rainwater rushesdown the rivers and is lost. Forest cover permitswater to be held in the area permitting it toseep into the ground. This charges the under-ground stores of water in natural aquifers. Thiscan be used in drought years if the stores havebeen filled during a good monsoon. If waterfrom the underground stores is overused, the

water table drops and vegetation suffers. Thissoil and water management and afforestationare long-term measures that reduce the impactof droughts.

Water for Agriculture and Power Genera-tion: India’s increasing demand for water forintensive irrigated agriculture, for generatingelectricity, and for consumption in urban andindustrial centers, has been met by creating largedams. Irrigated areas increased from 40 millionha. in 1900 to 100 million ha. in 1950 and to271 million ha. by 1998. Dams support 30 to40% of this area.

Although dams ensure a year round supply ofwater for domestic use, provide extra water foragriculture, industry, hydropower generation,they have several serious environmental prob-lems. They alter river flows, change nature’sflood control mechanisms such as wetlands andflood plains, and destroy the lives of local peopleand the habitats of wild plant and animal spe-cies.

Irrigation to support cash crops like sugarcaneproduces an unequal distribution of water. Largelandholders on the canals get the lion’s share ofwater, while poor, small farmers get less andare seriously affected.

Sustainable water management: ‘Save wa-ter’ campaigns are essential to make peopleeverywhere aware of the dangers of water scar-city. A number of measures need to be takenfor the better management of the world’s wa-ter resources. These include measures such as:

• Building several small reservoirs instead offew mega projects.

• Develop small catchment dams and protectwetlands.

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• Soil management, micro catchment devel-opment and afforestation permits recharg-ing of underground aquifers thus reducingthe need for large dams.

• Treating and recycling municipal wastewater for agricultural use.

• Preventing leakages from dams and canals.

• Preventing loss in Municipal pipes.

• Effective rain water harvesting in urbanenvironments.

• Water conservation measures in agriculturesuch as using drip irrigation.

• Pricing water at its real value makes peopleuse it more responsibly and efficiently andreduces water wasting.

• In deforested areas where land has beendegraded, soil management by bundingalong the hill slopes and making ‘nala’ plugs,can help retain moisture and make it pos-sible to re-vegetate degraded areas.

Managing a river system is best done by leavingits course as undisturbed as possible. Dams andcanals lead to major floods in the monsoon andthe drainage of wetlands seriously affects areasthat get flooded when there is high rainfall.

Dams: Today there are more than 45,000 largedams around the world, which play an impor-tant role in communities and economies thatharness these water resources for their economicdevelopment. Current estimates suggest some30-40% of irrigated land worldwide relies ondams. Hydropower, another contender for theuse of stored water, currently supplies 19% ofthe world’s total electric power supply and isused in over 150 countries. The world’s twomost populous countries – China and India –

have built around 57% of the world’s largedams.

Dams problems

• Fragmentation and physical transformationof rivers.

• Serious impacts on riverine ecosystems.

• Social consequences of large dams due todisplacement of people.

• Water logging and salinisation of surround-ing lands.

• Dislodging animal populations, damagingtheir habitat and cutting off their migrationroutes.

• Fishing and travel by boat disrupted.

• The emission of green house gases fromreservoirs due to rotting vegetation andcarbon inflows from the catchment is a re-cently identified impact.

Large dams have had serious impacts on thelives, livelihoods, cultures and spiritual existenceof indigenous and tribal peoples. They have suf-fered disproportionately from the negative im-pacts of dams and often been excluded fromsharing the benefits. In India, of the 16 to 18million people displaced by dams, 40 to 50%were tribal people, who account for only 8% ofour nation’s one billion people.

Conflicts over dams have heightened in the lasttwo decades because of their social and envi-ronmental impacts and failure to achieve tar-gets for sticking to their costs as well as achiev-ing promised benefits. Recent examples showhow failure to provide a transparent process thatincludes effective participation of local peoplehas prevented affected people from playing an

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active role in debating the pros and cons of theproject and its alternatives. The loss of tradi-tional, local controls over equitable distributionremains a major source of conflict.

In India, a national assessment of damprojects cleared in the 1980s and 90s showsthat in 90% of cases the project authoritieshave not fulfilled the environmental condi-tions under which environmental clearancewas given by the GOI under the EPA of 1986.

Activity 4:

How much water is needed by one person?Several international agencies and expertshave proposed that 50 liters per person perday covers basic human water requirementsfor drinking, sanitation, bathing and foodpreparation. Estimate your average dailyconsumption.

c) Mineral Resources

A mineral is a naturally occurring substance ofdefinite chemical composition and identifiablephysical properties. An ore is a mineral or com-bination of minerals from which a useful sub-stance, such as a metal, can be extracted andused to manufacture a useful product.

Minerals are formed over a period of millions ofyears in the earth’s crust. Iron, aluminum, zinc,manganese and copper are important raw ma-terials for industrial use. Important non-metalresources include coal, salt, clay, cement andsilica. Stone used for building material, such asgranite, marble, limestone, constitute anothercategory of minerals. Minerals with special prop-erties that humans value for their aesthetic andornamental value are gems such as diamonds,emeralds, rubies. The luster of gold, silver andplatinum is used for ornaments. Minerals in theform of oil, gas and coal were formed whenancient plants and animals were converted intounderground fossil fuels.

Minerals and their ores need to be extractedfrom the earth’s interior so that they can beused. This process is known as mining. Miningoperations generally progress through fourstages:

(1) Prospecting: Searching for minerals.

(2) Exploration: Assessing the size, shape, lo-cation, and economic value of the deposit.

CASE STUDY

Sardar Sarovar Project

The World Bank’s withdrawal from theSardar Sarovar Project in India in 1993 wasa result of the demands of local peoplethreatened with the loss of their livelihoodsand homes in the submergence area.

This dam in Gujarat on the Narmada has dis-placed thousands of tribal folk, whose livesand livelihoods were linked to the river, theforests and their agricultural lands. Whilethey and the fishermen at the estuary, havelost their homeland, rich farmers down-stream will get water for agriculture. Thequestion is why should the local tribals bemade homeless, displaced and relocated tobenefit other people? Why should the lessfortunate be made to bear the costs of de-velopment for better off farmers? It is a ques-tion of social and economic equity as well asthe enormous environmental losses, includ-ing loss of the biological diversity of the in-undated forests in the Narmada valley.

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31Natural Resources

(3) Development: Work of preparing access tothe deposit so that the minerals can be ex-tracted from it.

(4) Exploitation: Extracting the minerals fromthe mines.

In the past, mineral deposits were discoveredby prospectors in areas where mineral depositsin the form of veins were exposed on the sur-face. Today, however, prospecting and explo-ration is done by teams of geologists, miningengineers, geophysicists, and geochemists whowork together to discover new deposits. Mod-ern prospecting methods include the use of so-phisticated instruments like GIS to survey andstudy the geology of the area.

The method of mining has to be determineddepending on whether the ore or mineral de-posit is nearer the surface or deep within theearth. The topography of the region and thephysical nature of the ore deposit is studied.

Mines are of two types – surface (open cut orstrip mines) or deep or shaft mines. Coal, met-als and non-metalliferous minerals are all mineddifferently depending on the above criteria. Themethod chosen for mining will ultimately de-pend on how maximum yield may be obtainedunder existing conditions at a minimum cost,with the least danger to the mining personnel.

Most minerals need to be processed before theybecome usable. Thus ‘technology’ is dependenton both the presence of resources and the en-ergy necessary to make them ‘usable’.

Mine safety: Mining is a hazardous occupa-tion, and the safety of mine workers is an im-portant environmental consideration of the in-dustry. Surface mining is less hazardous thanunderground mining. Metal mining is less haz-ardous than coal mining. In all undergroundmines, rock and roof falls, flooding, and inad-

equate ventilation are the greatest hazards.Large explosions have occured in coal mines,killing many miners. More miners have sufferedfrom disasters due to the use of explosives inmetal mines.

Mining poses several long-term occupationalhazards to the miners. Dust produced duringmining operations is injurious to health andcauses a lung disease known as black lung, orpneumoconiosis. Fumes generated by incom-plete dynamite explosions are extremely poison-ous. Methane gas, emanating from coal strata,is hazardous to health although not poisonousin the concentrations usually encountered inmine air. Radiation is a hazard in uraniummines.

Environmental problems: Mining operationsare considered one of the main sources of envi-ronmental degradation. The extraction of allthese products from the lithosphere has a vari-ety of side effects. Depletion of available landdue to mining, waste from industries, conver-sion of land to industry and pollution of land,water and air by industrial wastes, are environ-mental side effects of the use of these non-re-newable resources. Public awareness of this

CASE STUDY

Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan

The Forest Department has leased land formining in the Sariska Tiger Reserve area bydenotifying forest areas. The local peoplehave fought against the mining lobby, andhave filed a Public Interest Litigation in theSupreme Court in 1991. Rajendra Singh, sec-retary of TBS, points out that as many as 70mines operate in close proximity to the for-est.

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problem is of a global nature and governmentactions to stem the damage to the natural envi-ronment have led to numerous internationalagreements and laws directed toward the pre-vention of activities and events that may ad-versely affect the environment.

d) Food resources

Today our food comes almost entirely from ag-riculture, animal husbandry and fishing. Al-though India is self-sufficient in food produc-tion, it is only because of modern patterns ofagriculture that are unsustainable and whichpollute our environment with excessive use offertilizers and pesticides.

The FAO defines sustainable agriculture as thatwhich conserves land, water and plant and ani-mal genetic resources, does not degrade theenvironment and is economically viable and so-cially acceptable. Most of our large farms growsingle crops (monoculture). If this crop is hit bya pest, the entire crop can be devastated, leav-ing the farmer with no income during the year.On the other hand, if the farmer uses traditionalvarieties and grows several different crops, thechance of complete failure is lowered consider-ably. Many studies have shown that one canuse alternatives to inorganic fertilizers and pes-ticides. This is known as Integrated Crop Man-agement.

World food problems: In many developingcountries where populations are expanding rap-idly, the production of food is unable to keeppace with the growing demand. Food produc-tion in 64 of the 105 developing countries islagging behind their population growth levels.These countries are unable to produce morefood, or do not have the financial means to im-port it. India is one of the countries that havebeen able to produce enough food by cultivat-ing a large proportion of its arable land through

irrigation. The Green Revolution of the 60’s re-duced starvation in the country. However manyof the technologies we have used to achievethis are now being questioned.

• Our fertile soils are being exploited fasterthan they can recuperate.

• Forests, grasslands and wetlands have beenconverted to agricultural use, which has ledto serious ecological questions.

• Our fish resources, both marine and inland,show evidence of exhaustion.

• There are great disparities in the availabilityof nutritious food. Some communities suchas tribal people still face serious food prob-lems leading to malnutrition especiallyamong women and children.

These issues bring in new questions as to howdemands will be met in future even with a slow-ing of population growth. Today the world isseeing a changing trend in dietary habits. Asliving standards are improving, people are eat-ing more non-vegetarian food. As peoplechange from eating grain to meat, the world’sdemand for feed for livestock based on agricul-ture increases as well. This uses more land perunit of food produced and the result is that theworld’s poor do not get enough to eat.

Women play an extremely vital role in food pro-duction as well as cooking the meal and feed-ing children. In most rural communities they havethe least exposure to technical training and tohealth workers trained in teaching/learning onissues related to nutritional aspects. Women andgirls frequently receive less food than the men.These disparities need to be corrected.

In India there is a shortage of cultivable produc-tive land. Thus farm sizes are too small to sup-port a family on farm produce alone. With eachgeneration, farms are being subdivided further.

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33Natural Resources

Poor environmental agricultural practices suchas slash and burn, shifting cultivation, or ‘rab’(woodash) cultivation degrade forests.

Globally 5 to 7 million hectares of farmland isdegraded each year. Loss of nutrients and over-use of agricultural chemicals are major factorsin land degradation. Water scarcity is an impor-tant aspect of poor agricultural outputs. Salin-ization and water logging has affected a largeamount of agricultural land worldwide.

Loss of genetic diversity in crop plants is anotherissue that is leading to a fall in agricultural pro-duce. Rice, wheat and corn are the staple foodsof two thirds of the world’s people. As wild rela-tives of crop plants in the world’s grasslands,wetlands and other natural habitats are beinglost, the ability to enhance traits that are resis-tant to diseases, salinity, etc. is lost. Geneticengineering is an untried and risky alternativeto traditional cross breeding.

Food Security: It is estimated that 18 millionpeople worldwide, most of whom are children,die each year due to starvation or malnutrition,and many others suffer a variety of dietary defi-ciencies.

The earth can only supply a limited amount offood. If the world’s carrying capacity to producefood cannot meet the needs of a growing popu-lation, anarchy and conflict will follow. Thus foodsecurity is closely linked with population controlthrough the family welfare program. It is alsolinked to the availability of water for farming.Food security is only possible if food is equitablydistributed to all. Many of us waste a largeamount of food carelessly. This eventually placesgreat stress on our environmental resources.

A major concern is the support needed for smallfarmers so that they remain farmers rather thanshifting to urban centers as unskilled industrialworkers. International trade policies in regard

to an improved flow of food across nationalborders from those who have surplus to thosewho have a deficit in the developing world isanother issue that is a concern for planners whodeal with International trade concerns. ‘Dump-ing’ of underpriced foodstuffs produced in thedeveloped world, onto markets in undevelopedcountries undermines prices and forces farmersthere to adopt unsustainable practices to com-pete.

Fisheries: Fish is an important protein food inmany parts of the world. This includes marineand fresh water fish. While the supply of foodfrom fisheries increased phenomenally between1950 and 1990, in several parts of the worldfish catch has since dropped due to overfishing.In 1995 FAO reported that 44% of the world’sfisheries are fully or heavily exploited, 16% arealready overexploited, 6% are depleted, andonly 3% are gradually recovering. Canada hadto virtually close down cod fishing in the 1990sdue to depletion of fish reserves.

Modern fishing technologies using mechanizedtrawlers and small meshed nets lead directly tooverexploitation, which is not sustainable. It isevident that fish have to breed successfully andneed to have time to grow if the yield has to beused sustainably. The worst hit are the small tra-ditional fishermen who are no match for orga-nized trawlers.

Loss of Genetic diversity: There are 50,000known edible plants documented worldwide.Of these only 15 varieties produce 90% of theworld’s food. Modern agricultural practices haveresulted in a serious loss of genetic variability ofcrops. India’s distinctive traditional varieties ofrice alone are said to have numbered between30 and 50 thousand. Most of these have beenlost to the farmer during the last few decadesas multinational seed companies push a fewcommercial types.

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This creates a risk to our food security, as farm-ers can loose all their produce due to a rapidlyspreading disease. A cereal that has multiplevarieties growing in different locations does notpermit the rapid spread of a disease.

The most effective method to introduce desir-able traits into crops is by using characteristicsfound in the wild relatives of crop plants. As thewilderness shrinks, these varieties are rapidlydisappearing. Once they are lost, their desirablecharacteristics cannot be introduced whenfound necessary in future. Ensuring long-termfood security may depend on conserving wildrelatives of crop plants in National Parks andWildlife Sanctuaries.

If plant genetic losses worldwide are not sloweddown, some estimates show that as many as60,000 plant species, which accounts for 25%of the world’s total, will be lost by the year 2025.The most economical way to prevent this is byexpanding the network and coverage of ourProtected Areas. Collections in germplasm, seedbanks and tissue culture facilities, are other pos-sible ways to prevent extinction but are ex-tremely expensive.

Scientists now believe that the world will soonneed a second green revolution to meet ourfuture demands of food based on a new ethicof land and water management that must bebased on values which include environmentalsensitivity, equity, biodiversity conservation ofcultivars and insitu preservation of wild relativesof crop plants. This must not only provide foodfor all, but also work out more equitable distri-bution of both food and water, reduce agricul-tural dependence on the use of fertilizers andpesticides (which have long term ill effects onhuman wellbeing) and provide an increasingsupport for preserving wild relatives of cropplants in Protected Areas. Pollution of watersources, land degradation and desertificationmust be rapidly reversed. Adopting soil conser-vation measures, using appropriate farming

techniques, especially on hill slopes, enhancingthe soil with organic matter, rotating crops andmanaging watersheds at the micro level are akey to agricultural production to meet futureneeds. Most importantly food supply is closelylinked to the effectiveness of population con-trol programs worldwide. The world needs bet-ter and sustainable methods of food produc-tion which is an important aspect of landusemanagement.

Alternate food sources: Food can beinnovatively produced if we break out of thecurrent agricultural patterns. This includes work-ing on new avenues to produce food, such asusing forests for their multiple non-wood forestproducts, which can be used for food if har-vested sustainably. This includes fruit, mush-rooms, sap, gum, etc. This takes time, as peoplemust develop a taste for these new foods.

CASE STUDY

Israel began using drip irrigation systems asit is short of water. With this technique, farm-ers have been able to improve the efficiencyof irrigation by 95%. Over a 20-year period,Israel’s food production doubled without anincrease in the use of water for agriculture.

In India, some traditional communities inurban and semi urban towns used to growtheir own vegetables in backyards on waste-water from their own homes. Calcutta re-leases its waste water into surrounding la-goons in which fish are reared and the wa-ter is used for growing vegetables.

Medicines, both traditional and modern, can beharvested sustainably from forests.Madagaskar’s Rosy Periwinkle used for child-hood leukemia’s and Taxol from Western Yew

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35Natural Resources

from the American Northwest as an anticancerdrug are examples of forest products used ex-tensively in modern medicine. Without care,commercial exploitation can lead to early extinc-tion of such plants.

Using unfamiliar crops such as Nagli, which aregrown on poor soil on hill slopes is another op-tion. This crop grown in the Western Ghats nowhas no market and is thus rarely grown. Onlylocal people use this nutritious crop themselves.It is thus not as extensively cultivated as in thepast. Popularising this crop could add to foodavailability from marginal lands. Several cropscan be grown in urban settings, including veg-etables and fruit which can be grown on wastehousehold water and fertilizers fromvermicomposting pits.

Several foods can be popularized from yet un-used seafood products such as seaweed as longas this is done at sustainable levels. Educatingwomen about nutrition, who are more closelyinvolved with feeding the family, is an impor-tant aspect of supporting the food needs ofmany developing countries.

Integrated Pest Management includes preserv-ing pest predators, using pest resistant seedvarieties and reducing the use of chemical fer-tilizers.

e) Energy resources

Energy is defined by physicists as the ca-pacity to do work. Energy is found on ourplanet in a variety of forms, some of whichare immediately useful to do work, while oth-ers require a process of transformation.

The sun is the primary energy source in our lives.We use it directly for its warmth and throughvarious natural processes that provide us with

food, water, fueland shelter. Thesun’s rays powerthe growth ofplants, which formour food material,give off oxygenwhich we breathe in and take up carbon diox-ide that we breathe out. Energy from the sunevaporates water from oceans, rivers and lakes,to form clouds that turn into rain. Today’s fossilfuels were once the forests that grew in prehis-toric times due to the energy of the sun.

Chemical energy, contained in chemical com-pounds is released when they are broken downby animals in the presence of oxygen. In India,manual labour is still extensively used to get workdone in agricultural systems, and domestic ani-mals used to pull carts and ploughs. Electricalenergy produced in several ways, powers trans-port, artificial lighting, agriculture and industry.This comes from hydel power based on thewater cycle that is powered by the sun’s energythat supports evaporation, or from thermalpower stations powered by fossil fuels. Nuclearenergy is held in the nucleus of an atom and isnow harnessed to develop electrical energy.

We use energy for household use, agriculture,production of industrial goods and for runningtransport. Modern agriculture uses chemicalfertilizers, which require large amounts of en-ergy dur-ing theirmanufac-ture. In-d u s t r yuses en-ergy top o w e rmanufacturing units and the urban complexesthat support it. Energy-demanding roads andrailway lines are built to transport products fromplace to place and to reach raw materials inmines and forests.

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No energy related technology is completely ‘riskfree’ and unlimited demands on energy increasethis risk factor many fold. All energy use createsheat and contributes to atmospheric tempera-ture. Many forms of energy release carbon di-oxide and lead to global warming. Nuclear en-ergy plants have caused enormous losses to theenvironment due to the leakage of nuclear ma-terial. The inability to effectively manage andsafely dispose of nuclear waste is a seriousglobal concern.

At present almost 2 billion people worldwidehave no access to electricity at all. While morepeople will require electrical energy, those whodo have access to it continue to increase theirindividual requirements. In addition, a large pro-portion of energy from electricity is wasted dur-ing transmission as well as at the user level. It isbroadly accepted that long-term trends in en-ergy use should be towards a cleaner globalenergy system that is less carbon intensive andless reliant on finite non-renewable energysources. It is estimated that the currently usedmethods of using renewable energy and nonrenewable fossil fuel sources together will beinsufficient to meet foreseeable global demandsfor power generation beyond the next 50 to100 years.

Thus when we use energy wastefully, we arecontributing to a major environmental disasterfor our earth. We all need to become respon-sible energy users. An electrical light that is burn-ing unnecessarily is a contributor to environmen-tal degradation.

Growing energy needs: Energy has alwaysbeen closely linked to man’s economic growthand development. Present strategies for devel-opment that have focused on rapid economicgrowth have used energy utilization as an indexof economic development. This index however,does not take into account the long-term ill ef-fects on society of excessive energy utilisation.

In 1998, the World Resources Institute foundthat the average American uses 24 times theenergy used by an Indian.

Between 1950 and 1990, the world’s energyneeds increased four fold. The world’s demandfor electricity has doubled over the last 22 years!The world’s total primary energy consumptionin 2000 was 9096 million tons of oil. A globalaverage per capita that works out to be 1.5 tonsof oil. Electricity is at present the fastest grow-ing form of end-use energy worldwide. By 2005the Asia-Pacific region is expected to surpassNorth America in energy consumption and by2020 is expected to consume some 40% moreenergy than North America.

For almost 200 years, coal was the primary en-ergy source fuelling the industrial revolution inthe 19th century. At the close of the 20th cen-tury, oil accounted for 39% of the world’s com-mercial energy consumption, followed by coal(24%) and natural gas (24%), while nuclear(7%) and hydro/renewables (6%) accounted forthe rest.

Among the commercial energy sources used inIndia, coal is a predominant source accountingfor 55% of energy consumption estimated in2001, followed by oil (31%), natural gas (8%),hydro (5%) and nuclear (1%).

In India, biomass (mainly wood and dung) ac-counts for almost 40% of primary energy sup-ply. While coal continues to remain the domi-nant fuel for electricity generation, nuclearpower has been increasingly used since the1970s and 1980s and the use of natural gashas increased rapidly in the 80s and 90s.

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37Natural Resources

Types of energy: There are three main typesof energy; those classified as non-renewable;those that are said to be renewable; andnuclear energy, which uses such small quanti-ties of raw material (uranium) that supplies areto all effect, limitless. However, this classifica-tion is inaccurate because several of the renew-able sources, if not used ‘sustainably’, can bedepleted more quickly than they can be re-newed.

Non renewable energy

To produce electricity from non-renewable re-sources the material must be ignited. The fuel isplaced in a well contained area and set on fire.The heat generated turns water to steam, whichmoves through pipes, to turn the blades of aturbine. This converts magnetism into electric-ity, which we use in various appliances.

Non-Renewable Energy Sources: These consistof the mineral based hydrocarbon fuels coal, oiland natural gas, that were formed from ancientprehistoric forests. These are called ‘fossil fuels’because they are formed after plant life is fos-silized. At the present rate of extraction there isenough coal for a long time to come. Oil andgas resources however are likely to be used upwithin the next 50 years. When these fuels areburnt, they produce waste products that arereleased into the atmosphere as gases such ascarbon dioxide, oxides of sulphur, nitrogen, andcarbon monoxide, all causes of air pollution.These have led to lung problems in an enor-mous number of people all over the world, andhave also affected buildings like the Taj Mahaland killed many forests and lakes due to acidrain. Many of these gases also act like a greenhouse letting sunlight in and trapping the heatinside. This is leading to global warming, a raisein global temperature, increased drought insome areas, floods in other regions, the meltingof icecaps, and a rise in sea levels, which is slowlysubmerging coastal belts all over the world.

Warming the seas also leads to the death ofsensitive organisms such as coral.

Oil and its environmental impacts: India’s oilreserves which are being used at present lie offthe coast of Mumbai and in Assam. Most of ournatural gas is linked to oil and, because there isno distribution system, it is just burnt off. Thiswastes nearly 40% of available gas. The pro-cesses of oil and natural gas drilling, process-ing, transport and utilisation have serious envi-ronmental consequences, such as leaks in whichair and water are polluted and accidental firesthat may go on burning for days or weeks be-fore the fire can be controlled. During refiningoil, solid waste such as salts and grease are pro-duced which also damage the environment. Oilslicks are caused at sea from offshore oil wells,cleaning of oil tankers and due to shipwrecks.The most well-known disaster occurred whenthe ExxonValdez sankin 1989 andbirds, sea ot-ters, seals,fish andother ma-rine lifealong thecoast ofAlaska wasseriously af-fected.

Oil powered vehicles emit carbon dioxide, sul-phur dioxide, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxideand particulate matter which is a major causeof air pollution especially in cities with heavy traf-fic density. Leaded petrol, leads to neuro dam-age and reduces attention spans. Running petrolvehicles with unleaded fuel has been achievedby adding catalytic converters on all the newcars, but unleaded fuel contains benzene andbutadene which are known to be carcinogeniccompounds. Delhi, which used to have serious

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smog problems due to traffic, has been able toreduce this health hazard by changing a largenumber of its vehicles to CNG, which containsmethane.

Dependence on dwindling fossil fuel resources,especially oil, results in political tension, insta-bility and war. At present 65 percent of theworld’s oil reserves are located in the MiddleEast.

Coal and its environmental impacts: Coal isthe world’s single largest contributor of greenhouse gases and is one of the most importantcauses of global warming.

Many coal-based power generation plants arenot fitted with devices such as electrostatic pre-cipitators to reduce emissions of suspended par-ticulate matter (SPM) which is a major contribu-tor to air pollution. Burning coal also producesoxides of sulphur and nitrogen which, combinedwith water vapour, lead to ‘acid rain’. This killsforest vegetation, and damages architecturalheritage sites, pollutes water and affects humanhealth.

Thermal power stations that use coal producewaste in the form of ‘fly ash’. Large dumps arerequired to dispose off this waste material, whileefforts have been made to use it for makingbricks. The transport of large quantities of flyash and its eventual dumping are costs that haveto be included in calculating the cost-benefitsof thermal power.

CASE STUDY

Oil related disasters

During the Gulf War, oil installations burnedfor weeks polluting the air with poisonousgasses. The fires wasted 5 million barrels ofoil and produced over a million tons of air-borne pollutants, including sulphur dioxide,a major cause of acid rain. The gases movedto a height of 3km and spread as far as In-dia. Oil also polluted coastlines, killing birdsand fish.

CASE STUDY

The Exxon Valdez was wrecked in Prince Wil-liam Sound in Alaska in 1989 and pollutedlarge parts of the surrounding seas.

Renewable energy

Renewable energy systems use resources thatare constantly replaced and are usually less pol-luting. Examples include hydropower, solar,wind, and geothermal (energy from the heatinside the earth). We also get renewable en-ergy from burning trees and even garbage asfuel and processing other plants into biofuels.

One day, all our homes may get their energyfrom the sun or the wind. Your car’s gas tankwill use biofuel. Your garbage might contributeto your city’s energy supply. Renewable energytechnologies will improve the efficiency and costof energy systems. We may reach the pointwhen we may no longer rely mostly on fossilfuel energy.

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39Natural Resources

CASE STUDY

Nearly 50% of the world’s population is de-pendent on fuel wood as a source of en-ergy. This is obvious in our own country,which has lost a large proportion of its for-est cover as our population expands andburns enormous amounts of wood. Ruralwomen, and even women from the lowereconomic strata in towns, still have to spenda large part of their lives collecting fuel wood.To overcome this, various types of fuel-effi-cient stoves (‘chulas’) can burn wood ex-tremely slowly and do not waste the heat,and also produce less smoke and ash thannormal ‘chulas’. There have also been sev-eral efforts to grow fuelwood by involvinglocal people in these efforts. Examples in-clude Social Forestry, Farm Forestry and JointForestry Management.

Hydroelectric Power

This uses water flowing down a natural gradi-ent to turn turbines to generate electricityknown as ‘hydroelectric power’ by constructingdams across rivers. Between 1950 and 1970,Hydropower generation worldwide increased

CASE STUDY

In 1882, the first Hydroelectric power damwas built in Appleton, Wisconsin. In India thefirst hydroelectric power dams were built inthe late 1800s and early 1900s by the Tatasin the Western Ghats of Maharashtra.Jamshedjee Tata, a great visionary who de-veloped industry in India in the 1800s, wishedto have a clean source of energy to run cot-ton and textile mills in Bombay as he foundpeople were getting respiratory infectionsdue to coal driven mills. He thus asked theBritish Government to permit him to developdams in the Western Ghats to generate elec-tricity. The four dams are the Andhra,Shirowata, Valvan and Mulshi hydel dams.An important feature of the Tata powerprojects is that they use the high rainfall inthe hills as storage areas. While the riversflowing eastwards from the Western Ghatsare dammed in the foothills near the Deccanplateau, the water is tunneled through thecrest of the Ghats to drop several hundredmeters to the coastal belt. Large turbines inthe power plants generate electricity forMumbai and its giant industrial belt.

seven times. The longlife of hydropowerplants, the renew-able nature of theenergy source, verylow operating andmaintenance costs,and absence of infla-tionary pressures asin fossil fuels, aresome of its advan-tages.

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Drawbacks: Although hydroelectric power hasled to economic progress around the world, ithas created serious ecological problems.

• To produce hydroelectric power, large ar-eas of forest and agricultural lands are sub-merged. These lands traditionally provideda livelihood for local tribal people and farm-ers. Conflicts over land use are inevitable.

• Silting of the reservoirs (especially as a re-sult of deforestation) reduces the life of thehydroelectric power installations.

• Water is required for many other purposesbesides power generation. These includedomestic requirements, growing agriculturalcrops and for industry. This gives rise toconflicts.

• The use of rivers for navigation and fisher-ies becomes difficult once the water isdammed for generation of electricity.

• Resettlement of displaced persons is a prob-lem for which there is no ready solution.The opposition to many large hydroelectricschemes is growing as most dam projectshave been unable to resettle people thatwere affected and displaced.

• In certain regions large dams can induceseismic activity which will result in earth-quakes. There is a great possibility of thisoccurring around the Tehri dam in the Hi-malayan foothills. Shri Sunderlal Bahuguna,the initiator of the Chipko Movement hasfought against the Tehri Dam for severalyears.

With large dams causing social problems, therehas been a trend to develop small hydroelectricgeneration units. Multiple small dams have lessimpact on the environment. China has the larg-est number of these - 60,000, generating 13,250megawatts, i.e. 30% of China’s electricity. Swe-den, the US, Italy and France also have devel-oped small dams for electrical power genera-tion. The development of small hydroelectricpower units could become a very important re-source in India, which has steeply falling riversand the economic capability and technical re-sources to exploit them.

Solar energy: In one hour, the sun pours asmuch energy onto the earth as we use in a wholeyear. If it were possible to harness this colossalquantum of energy, humanity would need noother source of energy. Today we have devel-oped several methods of collecting this energyfor heating water and generating electricity.

CASE STUDY

Narmada Project

The Narmada Bachao Andolan in India is anexample of a movement against large dams.The gigantic Narmada River Project has af-fected the livelihoods of hundreds of ex-tremely poor forest dwellers. The richlandholders downstream from the SardarSarovar dam will derive the maximum eco-nomic benefit, whereas the poor tribalpeople have lost their homes and traditionalway of life. The dam will also destroy thelivelihood of fishermen at the estuary. Thedisastrous impact that this project has on thelives of the poor, and the way in which theyare being exploited, need to be clearly un-derstood.

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41Natural Resources

Solar heating for homes: Modern housing thatuses air conditioning and/ or heating are ex-tremely energy dependant. A passive solar homeor building is designed to collect the sun’s heatthrough large, south-facing glass windows. Insolar heated buildings, sunspaces are built onthe south side of the structure which act as largeheat absorbers. The floors of sunspaces are usu-ally made of tiles or bricks that absorb heatthroughout the day, then release heat at nightwhen its cold.

In energy efficient architecture the sun, waterand wind are used to heat a building when theweather is cold and to cool it in summer. This isbased on design and building material. Thickwalls of stone or mud were used in traditionalarchitecture as an insulator. Small doors andwindows kept direct sunlight and heat out.Deeply set glass windows in colonial homes, onwhich direct sunlight could not reach, permit-ted the glass from creating a green house ef-fect. Verandahs also served a similar purpose.

Traditional bungalows had high roofs and ven-tilators that permitted hot air to rise and leavethe room. Cross ventilation where wind can drivethe air in and out of a room keeps it cool. Largeoverhangs over windows prevent the glass fromheating the room inside. Double walls are usedto prevent heating. Shady trees around thehouse help reduce temperature.

Solar water heating: Most solar water-heatingsystems have two main parts: the solar collec-tor and the storage tank. The solar energy col-lector heats the water, which then flows to awell insulated storage tank.

A common type of collector is the flat-plate col-lector, a rectangular box with a transparentcover that faces the sun, usually mounted onthe roof. Small tubes run through the box, car-rying the water or other fluid, such as antifreeze,to be heated. The tubes are mounted on a metalabsorber plate, which is painted black to ab-

sorb the sun’s heat. The back and sides of thebox are insulated to hold in the heat. Heat buildsup in the collector, and as the fluid passesthrough the tubes, it too heats up.

Solar water-heating systems cannot heat waterwhen the sun is not shining. Thus homes mustalso have a conventional backup system. About80% of homes in Israel have solar hot waterheaters.

Solar cookers: The heat produced by the suncan be directly used for cooking using solar cook-ers. A solar cooker is a metal box which is blackon the inside to absorb and retain heat. The lidhas a reflective surface to reflect the heat fromthe sun into the box. The box contains blackvessels in which the food to be cooked is placed.

India has the world’s largest solar cooker pro-gram and an estimated 2 lakh families that usesolar cookers. Although solar cookers reduce theneed for fuel wood and pollution from smokywood fires, they have not caught on well in ru-ral areas as they are not suitable to traditionalcooking practices. However, they have greatpotential if marketed well.

Other Solar-Powered Devices: Solar desalinationsystems (for converting saline or brackish waterinto pure distilled water) have been developed.In future, they should become important alter-natives for man’s future economic growth inareas where fresh water is not available.

Photovoltaic energy: The solar technologywhich has the greatest potential for use through-out the world is that of solar photo voltaic cellswhich directly produce electricity from sunlightusing photovoltaic (PV) (also called solar) cells.

Solar cells use the sun’s light, not its heat, tomake electricity. PV cells require little mainte-nance, have no moving parts, and essentiallyno environmental impact. They work cleanly,

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safely and silently. They can be installed quicklyin small modules, anywhere there is sunlight.Solar cells are made up of two separate layersof silicon, each of which contains an electriccharge. When light hits the cells, the chargesbegin to move between the two layers and elec-tricity is produced. PV cells are wired togetherto form a module. A module of about 40 cells isenough to power a light bulb. For more power,PV modules are wired together into an array.PV arrays can produce enough power to meetthe electrical needs of a home. Over the pastfew years, extensive work has been done indecreasing PV technology costs, increasing effi-ciency, and extending cell lifetimes. Many newmaterials, such as amorphous silicon, are beingtested to reduce costs and automate manufac-turing.

PV cells are commonly used today in calculatorsand watches. They also provide power to satel-lites, electric lights, and small electrical appli-ances such as radios and for water pumping,highway lighting, weather stations, and otherelectrical systems located away from power lines.Some electric utility companies are building PVsystems into their power supply networks.

PV cells are environmentally benign, ie. they donot release pollutants or toxic material to theair or water, there is no radioactive substance,and no catastrophic accidents. Some PV cells,however, do contain small quantities of toxicsubstances such as cadmium and these can bereleased to the environment in the event of afire. Solar cells are made of silicon which, al-

Photovoltaic CellsCASE STUDIES

• In 1981, a plane called ‘The Solar Chal-lenger’ flew from Paris to England in 5hours, 20 minutes. It had 16,000 solarcells glued to the wings and tail of theplane and they produced enough powerto drive a small electric motor and pro-peller. Since 1987, every three yearsthere is a World Solar challenge for so-lar operated vehicles in Australia wherethe vehicles cover 3000 kms.

• The world’s first solar-powered hospitalis in Mali in Africa. Being situated at theedge of the Sahara desert, Mali receivesa large amount of sunlight. Panels ofsolar cells supply the power needed torun vital equipment and keep medicalsupplies cool in refrigerators.

• Space technology required solar energyand the space race spurred the devel-opment of solar cells. Only sunlight canprovide power for long periods of timefor a space station or long distancespaceship.

• Japanese farmers are substituting PV op-erated insect killers for toxic pesticides.

• In recent years, the popularity of build-ing integrated photovoltaics (BIPV’s) hasgrown considerably. In this application,PV devices are designed as part of build-ing materials (i.e. roofs and siding) bothto produce electricity and reduce costsby replacing the costs of normal con-struction materials. There are more than3,000 BIPV systems in Germany and Ja-pan has a program that will build 70,000BIPV buildings.

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43Natural Resources

though the second most abundant element inthe earth’s crust, has to be mined. Mining cre-ates environmental problems. PV systems alsoof course only work when the sun is shining,and thus need batteries to store the electricity.

Solar thermal electric power: Solar radiationcan produce high temperatures, which can gen-erate electricity. Areas with low cloud levels ofcover with little scattered radiation as in thedesert are considered most suitable sites. Ac-cording to a UNDP assessment, STE is about 20years behind the wind energy market exploita-tion, but is expected to grow rapidly in the nearfuture.

Mirror energy: During the 1980s, a major solarthermal electrical generation unit was built inCalifornia, containing 700 parabolic mirrors,each with 24 reflectors, 1.5 meters in diameter,which focused the sun’s energy to producesteam to generate electricity.

Biomass energy: When a log is burned we areusing biomass energy. Because plants and treesdepend on sunlight to grow, biomass energy isa form of stored solar energy. Although woodis the largest source of biomass energy, we alsouse agricultural waste, sugarcane wastes, andother farm byproducts to make energy.

There are three ways to use biomass. It can beburned to produce heat and electricity, changedto a gas-like fuel such as methane, or changedto a liquid fuel. Liquid fuels, also called biofuels,include two forms of alcohol: ethanol andmethanol. Because biomass can be changeddirectly into liquid fuel, it could someday supplymuch of our transportation fuel needs for cars,trucks, buses, airplanes and trains with dieselfuel replaced by ‘biodiesel’ made from vegetableoils. In the United States, this fuel is now beingproduced from soybean oil. Researchers are alsodeveloping algae that produce oils, which canbe converted to biodiesel and new ways havebeen found to produce ethanol from grasses,trees, bark, sawdust, paper, and farming wastes.

Organic municipal solid waste includes paper,food wastes, and other organic non-fossil-fuelderived materials such as textiles, natural rub-ber, and leather that are found in the waste ofurban areas. Currently, in the US, approximately31% of organic waste is recovered from mu-nicipal solid waste via recycling and compostingprograms, 62% is deposited in landfills, and 7%is incinerated. Waste material can be convertedinto electricity by combustion boilers or steamturbines.

Note that like any fuel, biomass creates somepollutants, including carbon dioxide, whenburned or converted into energy. In terms of airpollutants, biomass generate less relative to fossilfuels. Biomass is naturally low in sulphur andtherefore, when burned, generates low sulphurdioxide emissions. However, if burned in theopen air, some biomass feedstocks would emitrelatively high levels of nitrous oxides (given the

Mirror Energy

Solar thermal systems change sunlight into elec-tricity, by focusing sunlight to boil water to makesteam.

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high nitrogen content of plan material), carbonmonoxide, and particulates.

Biogas: Biogas is produced from plant materialand animal waste, garbage, waste from house-holds and some types of industrial wastes, suchas fish processing, dairies, and sewage treatmentplants. It is a mixture of gases which includesmethane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphideand water vapour. In this mixture, methaneburns easily. With a ton of food waste, one canproduce 85 Cu. M of biogas. Once used, theresidue is used as an agricultural fertilizer.

Denmark produces a large quantity of biogasfrom waste and produces 15,000 megawattsof electricity from 15 farmers’ cooperatives. Lon-don has a plant which makes 30 megawatts ofelectricity a year from 420,000 tons of munici-pal waste which gives power to 50,000 fami-lies. In Germany, 25% of landfills for garbageproduce power from biogas. Japan uses 85%of its waste and France about 50%.

Biogas plants have become increasingly popu-lar in India in the rural sector. The biogas plantsuse cowdung, which is converted into a gaswhich is used as a fuel. It is also used for run-ning dual fuel engines. The reduction in kitchensmoke by using biogas has reduced lung condi-tions in thousands of homes.

The fibrous waste of the sugar industry is theworld’s largest potential source of biomass en-ergy. Ethanol produced from sugarcane molas-ses is a good automobile fuel and is now usedin a third of the vehicles in Brazil.

The National Project on Biogas Development(NPBD), and Community/ Institutional BiogasPlant Program promote various biogas projects.By 1996 there were already 2.18 million fami-lies in India that used biogas. However Chinahas 20 million households using biogas!

Activity 5:

What you may throw out in your garbagetoday could be used as fuel for someoneelse. Municipal solid waste has the poten-tial to be a large energy source. Garbage isan inexpensive energy resource. Unlikemost other energy resources, someone willcollect garbage, deliver it to the powerplant, and even pay to get rid of it. Thishelps cover the cost of turning garbage intoenergy. Garbage is also a unique resourcebecause we all contribute to it.

Keep a record of all the garbage that youand our family produce in a day. What pro-portion of it is in the form of biomass?Weigh this.

How long would it take you to gatherenough waste biomass to make a tankful(0.85 cu.m.) of biogas? (Remember one tonof biomass produces 85 cu.m. of biogas)

Wind Power: Wind was the earliest energysource used for transportation by sailing ships.Some 2000 years ago, windmills were developed

in China, Afghanistan and Persia to draw waterfor irrigation and grinding grain. Most of theearly work on generating electricity from windwas carried out in Denmark, at the end of thelast century. Today, Denmark and Californiahave large wind turbine cooperatives which sellelectricity to the government grid. In Tamil Nadu,there are large wind farms producing 850 mega-watts of electricity. At present, India is the thirdlargest wind energy producer in the world.

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45Natural Resources

The power in wind is a function of the windspeed and therefore the average wind speed ofan area is an important determinant of economi-cally feasible power. Wind speed increases withheight. At a given turbine site, the power avail-able 30 meters above ground is typically 60 per-cent greater than at 10 meters.

Over the past two decades, a great deal of tech-nical progress has been made in the design, sit-ing, installation, operation, and maintenance ofpower-producing wind mills (turbines). These im-provements have led to higher wind conversionefficiencies and lower electricity productioncosts.

Environmental Impacts: Wind power has few en-vironmental impacts, as there are virtually noair or water emissions, or radiation, or solidwaste production. The principal problems arebird kills, noise, effect on TV reception, and aes-thetic objections to the sheer number of windturbines that are required to meet electricityneeds.

Although large areas of land are required forsetting up wind farms, theamount used by the turbinebases, the foundations andthe access roads is less than1% of the total area coveredby the wind farm. The restof the area can also be usedfor agricultural purposes orfor grazing.

Siting windmills offshore re-duces their demand for landand visual impact.

Wind is an intermittentsource and the intermittencyof wind depends on the geo-graphic distribution of wind.Wind therefore cannot beused as the sole resource for

electricity, and requires some other backup orstand-by electricity source.

Tidal and Wave Power: The earth’s surface is70% water. By warming the water, the sun,creates ocean currents and wind that produceswaves. It is estimated that the solar energy ab-sorbed by the tropical oceans in a week couldequal the entire oil reserves of the world – 1trillion barrels of oil. The energy of waves in thesea that crash on the land of all the continentsis estimated at 2 to 3 million megawatts of en-ergy. From the 1970s several countries havebeen experimenting with technology to harnessthe kinetic energy of the ocean to generate elec-tricity.

Tidal power is tapped by placing a barrage acrossan estuary and forcing the tidal flow to passthrough turbines. In a one-way system the in-coming tide is allowed to fill the basin througha sluice, and the water so collected is used toproduce electricity during the low tide. In a two-way system power is generated from both theincoming as well as the outgoing tide.

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Tidal power stations bring about major ecologi-cal changes in the sensitive ecosystem of coastalregions and can destroy the habitats and nest-ing places of water birds and interfere with fish-eries. A tidal power station at the mouth of ariver blocks the flow of polluted water into thesea, thereby creating health and pollution haz-ards in the estuary. Other drawbacks includeoffshore energy devices posing navigationalhazards. Residual drift current could affectspawning of some fish, whose larvae would becarried away from spawning grounds. They mayalso affect the migration patterns of surfaceswimming fish.

Wave power converts the motion of waves intoelectrical or mechanical energy. For this, an en-ergy extraction device is used to drive turbo-generators. Electricity can be generated at seaand transmitted by cable to land. This energysource has yet to be fully explored. The largestconcentration of potential wave energy on earthis located between latitudes 40 to 60 degreesin both the northern and southern hemispheres,where the winds blow most strongly.

Another developing concept harnesses energydue to the differences in temperature betweenthe warm upper layers of the ocean and thecold deep sea water. These plants are known asOcean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). Thisis a high tech installation which may prove tobe highly valuable in the future.

Geothermal energy: is the energy storedwithin the earth (“geo” for earth and “ther-mal” for heat). Geothermal energy starts withhot, molten rock (called magma) deep inside theearth which surfaces at some parts of the earth’scrust. The heat rising from the magma warmsunderground pools of water known as geother-mal reservoirs. If there is an opening, hot un-derground water comes to the surface andforms hot springs, or it may boil to form gey-sers. With modern technology, wells are drilled

deep below the surface of the earth to tap intogeothermal reservoirs. This is called direct useof geothermal energy, and it provides a steadystream of hot water that is pumped to theearth’s surface.

In the 20th century geothermal energy has beenharnessed on a large scale for space heating,industrial use and electricity production, espe-cially in Iceland, Japan and New Zealand.

Geothermal energy is nearly as cheap as hydro-power and will thus be increasingly utilised infuture. However, water from geothermal reser-voirs often contains minerals that are corrosiveand polluting. Geothermal fluids are a problemwhich must be treated before disposal.

Nuclear Power

In 1938 two German scientists Otto Hahn andFritz Strassman demonstrated nuclear fission.They found they could split the nucleus of a ura-nium atom by bombarding it with neutrons. Asthe nucleus split, some mass was converted toenergy. The nuclear power industry howeverwas born in the late 1950s. The first large-scalenuclear power plant in the world became op-erational in 1957 in Pennsylvania, US.

Dr. Homi Bhabha was the father of NuclearPower development in India. The Bhabha Atomic

Geo-ThermalEnergy

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47Natural Resources

Research Center in Mumbai studies and devel-ops modern nuclear technology. India has 10nuclear reactors at 5 nuclear power stations thatproduce 2% of India’s electricity. These are lo-cated in Maharashtra (Tarapur), Rajasthan, TamilNadu, Uttar Pradesh and Gujrat. India has ura-nium from mines in Bihar. There are deposits ofthorium in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The nuclear reactors use Uranium 235 to pro-duce electricity. Energy released from 1kg ofUranium 235 is equivalent to that produced byburning 3,000 tons of coal. U235 is made intorods which are fitted into a nuclear reactor. Thecontrol rods absorb neutrons and thus adjustthe fission which releases energy due to thechain reaction in a reactor unit. The heat en-ergy produced in the reaction is used to heatwater and produce steam, which drives turbinesthat produce electricity. The drawback is thatthe rods need to be changed periodically. Thishas impacts on the environment due to disposalof nuclear waste. The reaction releases very hotwaste water that damages aquatic ecosystems,even though it is cooled by a water system be-fore it is released.

The disposal of nuclear waste is becoming anincreasingly serious issue. The cost of NuclearPower generation must include the high cost ofdisposal of its waste and the decommissioningof old plants. These have high economic as wellas ecological costs that are not taken into ac-count when developing new nuclear installa-tions. For environmental reasons, Sweden hasdecided to become a Nuclear Free Country by2010.

Although the conventional environmental im-pacts from nuclear power are negligible, whatovershadows all the other types of energysources is that an accident can be devastatingand the effects last for long periods of time.While it does not pollute air or water routinelylike oil or biomass, a single accident can kill thou-sands of people, make many others seriously ill,

and destroy an area for decades by its radioac-tivity which leads to death, cancer and geneticdeformities. Land, water, vegetation are de-stroyed for long periods of time. Management,storage and disposal of radioactive wastes re-sulting from nuclear power generation are thebiggest expenses of the nuclear power indus-try. There have been nuclear accidents atChernobyl in USSR and at the Three Mile Islandin USA. The radioactivity unleashed by such anaccident can affect mankind for generations.

Energy Conservation: Conventional energysources have a variety of impacts on nature andhuman society.

India needs to rapidly move into a policy to re-duce energy needs and use cleaner energy pro-duction technologies. A shift to alternate en-ergy use and renewable energy sources that areused judiciously and equitably would bring aboutenvironmentally friendly and sustainablelifestyles. India must reduce its dependency onimported oil. At present we are under-utilizingour natural gas resources. We could developthousands of mini dams to generate electricity.India wastes great amounts of electricity duringtransmission. Fuel wood plantations need to beenhanced and management through Joint For-estry Management (JFM) has a great promisefor the future.

Energy efficient cooking stoves or ‘chulas’ helpthe movement of air through it so that the woodis burnt more efficiently. They also have a chim-ney to prevent air pollution and thus reduce res-piratory problems. While over 2 lakh improvedchulas have been introduced throughout thecountry, the number in active use is unknownas most rural people find it to be unusable forseveral reasons. TERI in 1995 estimated that inIndia 95% of rural people and 60% of urbanpoor still depend on firewood, cattle dung andcrop residue for cooking and other domesticpurposes. Biomass can be converted into biogas

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or liquid fuels ie. ethanol and methanol. Biogasdigesters convert animal waste or agriculturalresidues into gas. This is 60% methane and 40%CO

2 generated by fermentation. The commonly

used agri waste is dung of domestic animals andrice husk, coconut shells, straw or weeds. Thematerial left after the gas is used acts as a fertil-izer.

Small hydrogeneration units are environment-friendly. They do not displace people, destroyforests or wildlife habitats or kill aquatic andterrestrial biodiversity. They can be placed inseveral hill streams, on canals or rivers. The gen-eration depends on flowing water due to grav-ity. However, this fails if the flow is seasonal.

It is easy to waste energy but cheaper to save itthan generate it. We can conserve energy bypreventing or reducing waste of energy and byusing resources more efficiently. People wasteenergy because government subsidises it. If thereal cost was levied, people would not be ableto afford to waste it carelessly.

Industry and transport are the main grow-ing users of energy in India. Industries thatare known for generating pollution alsowaste the most energy. These include chemi-cal industries, especially petrochemical units,iron and steel, textiles, paper, etc. Unplannedand inefficient public transport systems, es-pecially in cities, waste large amount of en-ergy. Using bicycles is an excellent methodto reduce the use of energy. In agriculture,irrigation pumps to lift water are the mostenergy intensive agricultural use. These areeither electrical or run on fossil fuels.

CASE STUDIES

Indian industries use more energy than nec-essary.

Steel and energy: To produce one tonne ofsteel, India spends 9.5 million kilocalories. InItaly it is 4.3 million kilocalories and for Ja-pan it is only 4.1 million kilocalories.

Cement industry: Over 2 million kilocaloriesare used to produce one tonne of cement inIndia. In Germany it is 0.82 million kilocalo-ries, in USA, 0.92 million kilocalories.

Vehicles: Lighter materials should be usedfor cars. Instead of steel we should use alu-minum, fiber glass or plastics. These lightermaterials can reduce the weight by 15 %and increase the fuel economy by 6 to 8%.

Refrigerators: Better technologies reducedthe annual energy needed by a typical Dan-ish 200 liter refrigerator (with no freezer)from 350 kilo Watt hour (kWh) to 90 kWh.

Lighting: An 18-watt modern, compact fluo-rescent lamp, can replace a standard 75-wattincandescent lamp.

f) Land resources:

Land as a resource: Landforms such as hills,valleys, plains, river basins and wetlands includedifferent resource generating areas that thepeople living in them depend on. Many tradi-tional farming societies had ways of preservingareas from which they used resources. Eg. Inthe ‘sacred groves’ of the Western Ghats, re-quests to the spirit of the Grove for permissionto cut a tree, or extract a resource, were ac-companied by simple rituals. The outcome of achance fall on one side or the other of a stone

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49Natural Resources

balanced on a rock gaveor withheld permission.The request could not berepeated for a specifiedperiod.

If land is utilized carefullyit can be considered arenewable resource.

The roots of trees andgrasses bind the soil. Ifforests are depleted, orgrasslands overgrazed,the land becomes un-productive and wasteland is formed. Intensiveirrigation leads to water logging and salination,on which crops cannot grow. Land is also con-verted into a non-renewable resource whenhighly toxic industrial and nuclear wastes aredumped on it.

Land on earth is as finite as any of our othernatural resources. While mankind has learnt toadapt his lifestyle to various ecosystems worldover, he cannot live comfortably for instance onpolar ice caps, on under the sea, or in space inthe foreseeable future.

Man needs land for building homes, cultivatingfood, maintaining pastures for domestic animals,developing industries to provide goods, and sup-porting the industry by creating towns and cit-ies. Equally importantly, man needs to protectwilderness area in forests, grasslands, wetlands,mountains, coasts, etc. to protect our vitallyvaluable biodiversity.

Thus a rational use of land needs careful plan-ning. One can develop most of these differenttypes of land uses almost anywhere, but Pro-tected Areas (National Park’s and Wildlife Sanc-tuaries) can only be situated where some of thenatural ecosystems are still undisturbed. TheseProtected Areas are important aspects of goodlanduse planning.

Land Degradation: Farmland is under threatdue to more and more intense utilisation. Everyyear, between 5 to 7 million hectares of landworldwide is added to the existing degradedfarmland. When soil is used more intensively byfarming, it is eroded more rapidly by wind andrain. Over irrigating farmland leads tosalinisation, as evaporation of water brings thesalts to the surface of the soil on which cropscannot grow. Over irrigation also creates waterlogging of the topsoil so that crop roots are af-fected and the crop deteriorates. The use ofmore and more chemical fertilizers poisons thesoil so that eventually the land becomes unpro-ductive.

As urban centers grow and industrial expansionoccurs, the agricultural land and forests shrink.This is a serious loss and has long term ill effectson human civilisation.

Soil erosion: The characteristics of natural eco-systems such as forests and grasslands dependon the type of soil. Soils of various types sup-port a wide variety of crops. The misuse of anecosystem leads to loss of valuable soil througherosion by the monsoon rains and, to a smallerextent, by wind. The roots of the trees in theforest hold the soil. Deforestation thus leads to

Changes in land use

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rapid soil erosion. Soil is washed into streamsand is transported into rivers and finally lost tothe sea. The process is more evident in areaswhere deforestation has led to erosion on steephill slopes as in the Himalayas and in the West-ern Ghats. These areas are called ‘ecologicallysensitive areas’ or ESAs. To prevent the loss ofmillions of tons of valuable soil every year, it isessential to preserve what remains of our natu-ral forest cover. It is equally important to refor-est denuded areas. The linkage between theexistence of forests and the presence of soil isgreater than the forest’s physical soil binding

2.3 ROLE OF AN INDIVIDUAL IN CONSERVA-TION OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Until fairly recently mankind acted as if he couldgo on for ever exploiting the ecosystems andnatural resources such as soil, water, forests andgrasslands on the Earth’s surface and extract-ing minerals and fossil fuels from underground.But, in the last few decades, it has become in-creasingly evident that the global ecosystem hasthe capacity to sustain only a limited level ofutilization. Biological systems cannot go on re-plenishing resources if they are overused or mis-used. At a critical point, increasing pressure de-stabilizes their natural balance. Even biologicalresources traditionally classified as ‘renewable’- such as those from our oceans, forests, grass-lands and wetlands, are being degraded by over-use and may be permanently destroyed. Andno natural resource is limitless. ‘Non-renewable’resources will be rapidly exhausted if we con-tinue to use them as intensively as at present.

The two most damaging factors leading to thecurrent rapid depletion of all forms of naturalresources are increasing ‘consumerism’ on thepart of the affluent sections of society, and rapidpopulation growth. Both factors are the resultsof choices we make as individuals. As individu-als we need to decide;

• What will we leave to our children? (Arewe thinking of short-term or long-termgain?)

• Is my material gain someone else’s loss?

Greed for material goods has become a way oflife for a majority of people in the developedworld. Population growth and the resultingshortage of resources most severely affectspeople in the developing countries. In nationssuch as ours, which are both developing rap-idly, and suffering from a population explosion,both factors are responsible for environmentaldegradation. We must ask ourselves if we have

CASE STUDY

Selenium – Punjab

In 1981-82, farmers from Hoshirapur andNawanshehar Districts approached scientistsof the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU),Ludhiana, as wheat crops had turned white.Soil analysis indicated selenium (Se) levels inthe area were above toxic limits. Se is a natu-rally occurring trace element, essential foranimal and human health, but the gap be-tween requirement and excess is narrow.Soils containing 0.5 microgrammes (ug) ofSe per kg or more are injurious to health. Insome areas of Punjab, Se levels ranges from0.31 ug/kg to 4.55ug/kg. Rice cultivationrequires the presence of standing water.Being highly soluble, Se dissolves and comesto the surface. The water then evaporatesleaving the Se behind.

function alone. The soil is enriched by the leaf-litter of the forest. This detritus is broken downby soil micro-organisms, fungi, worms and in-sects, which help to recycle nutrients in the sys-tem. Further losses of our soil wealth will im-poverish our country and reduce its capacity togrow enough food in future.

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51Natural Resources

perhaps reached a critical flash point, at whicheconomic ‘development’ affects the lives ofpeople more adversely than the benefits it pro-vides.

What can you do to save electricity?

• Turn off lights and fans as soon as you leavethe room.

• Use tube lights and energy efficient bulbsthat save energy rather than bulbs. A 40-watt tube light gives as much light as a 100watt bulb.

• Keep the bulbs and tubes clean. Dust ontubes and bulbs decreases lighting levels by20 to 30 percent.

• Switch off the television or radio as soon asthe program of interest is over.

• A pressure cooker can save up to 75 per-cent of energy required for cooking. It isalso faster.

• Keeping the vessel covered with a lid dur-ing cooking, helps to cook faster, thus sav-ing energy.

2.4 EQUITABLE USE OF RESOURCES FORSUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES

Reduction of the unsustainable and unequal useof resources, and control of our populationgrowth are essential for the survival of our na-tion and indeed of human kind everywhere. Ourenvironment provides us with a variety of goodsand services necessary for our day-to-day lives,but the soil, water, climate and solar energywhich form the ‘abiotic’ support that we derivefrom nature, are in themselves not distributedevenly throughout the world or within countries.A new economic order at the global and at na-

tional levels must be based on the ability to dis-tribute benefits of natural resources by sharingthem more equally among the countries as wellas among communities within countries suchas our own. It is at the local level where peoplesubsist by the sale of locally collected resources,that the disparity is greatest. ‘Development’ hasnot reached them and they are often unjustlyaccused of ‘exploiting’ natural resources. Theymust be adequately compensated for the re-moval of the sources to distant regions and thusdevelop a greater stake in protecting naturalresources.

There are several principles that each of us canadopt to bring about sustainable lifestyles. Thisprimarily comes from caring for our MotherEarth in all respects. A love and respect for Na-ture is the greatest sentiment that helps bringabout a feeling for looking at how we use natu-ral resources in a new and sensitive way. Thinkof the beauty of a wilderness, a natural forestin all its magnificence, the expanse of a greengrassland, the clean water of a lake that sup-ports so much life, the crystal clear water of ahill stream, or the magnificent power of theoceans, and we cannot help but support theconservation of nature’s wealth. If we respectthis we cannot commit acts that will depleteour life supporting systems.

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