Introduction – Environmental Studies

By:
Dr. Parveen Kumar
Asst. Professor
School of Basic & Applied Sciences, G D Goenka University
 Contents

 Course Objectives
 Environmental Studies?
 Scope and Importance
 Need for Public Awareness
 Institutions in Environment
 People in Environment
 Environmental Calendar
 Course Objectives
 This course on the environment
not only provide information
about the environment but also
tell about the way we all should
live.

 It will lead to developing a

concern for your own
environment.

 When you develop this concern,

you will begin to act at your own
level to protect the environment
we all live in.
 Environmental Studies?

 It deals with every issue that affects

an organism.
 A multidisciplinary approach - to
appreciate natural world and
understand human impacts on it.
 An applied science – aim to make
human civilization sustainable on
the earth’s finite resources.
 Its components include biology,
geology, chemistry, physics,
engineering, sociology, health,
anthropology, management, mass
communication, economics,
statistics, computers and
philosophy.
 Scope & Importance
 Our daily lives are linked with our
surroundings and inevitably affects them.

 Environment - everything around us

forms our environment and our lives
depend on different resources and
community of living plants and animals
as part of environment.

 Environment as ‘Mother Nature’ -

most traditional societies have learned
that respecting nature is vital for their
livelihoods.

 Respect for nature and all living

creatures is not new to India. Emperor
Ashoka said that ‘all forms of life are
important for our well being’ in 4th
 Continued……….
 Modern societies – economic growth
by environmental degradation
 Fertilizers and pesticides.
 Mega dams for irrigation.
 Industrialization and urbanization
 Environmental pollution
 Overexploitation of natural resources.
 Renewable resources – Timber/ water
- too will deplete if overexploited.
 Sustainable utilization or
development.
 Deforestation leads to floods in the
monsoon and dry rivers once the rains
are over.

Understanding and making ourselves more aware of our environmental assets

and problems is not enough. We, each one of us, must become increasingly
concerned about our environment and change the way in which we use every
 Continued……….
 We live in a world in which natural resources are
limited. Without them, life itself would be impossible.
 We waste or pollute large amounts of nature’s clean
water.
 We create more and more plastic that we discard after a
single use.
 We waste food, which is discarded as garbage.
 Solid waste and chemicals pollute water, and gases
pollute the air.
 Increasing amounts of waste cannot be managed by
natural processes and accumulate in environment,
causing diseases and affecting all our lives.
 Air pollution leads to respiratory diseases, water
pollution to gastro-intestinal diseases, and many
pollutants are known to cause cancer.
 The actions at individual level are needed in our daily
lives to preserve our environmental resources and handle
above problems.

We cannot expect Governments alone to safeguard

the environment, nor other people to prevent
environmental damage. We need to do it ourselves.
 Need For Public Awareness?
 As earth’s natural resources are dwindling and
environment is being degraded by human activities,
something needs to be done.
 To prevent environment degradation by our actions, is
economically more viable than cleaning up the
environment once it is damaged.
 Individually we can play a major role in environment
management.
 We can reduce wasting natural resources and can act as
watchdogs to inform Government about degradation of
environment.
 Mass public awareness – media i.e. newspapers, radio,
television, strongly influence public opinion.
 Politicians respond positively to strong publicly
supported movement. This will make green policies.
 Suggested Further Activities For Concerned Students:
 Join group to study nature – WWFI, BNHS
etc.
 Read newspaper articles and periodicals i.e.
‘Down to Earth’, WWF-I etc.
 Lobby for conserving resources during
discussions.
 Save paper, water, reduce plastics use, 3Rs
principle, and proper waste disposal.
 Join local movements e.g. saving trees in
your area.
 Nature treks, buy eco-friendly products.
 Practice no spitting/tobacco
chewing/throwing
garbage/smoking/urinating or defecating in
public places.
 Participate in World Environment Day,
Wildlife Week etc.
 Visit a National Park or Sanctuary, or spend
 Institutions in Environment
 Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS),
Mumbai:
 Oldest wildlife conservation research based
NGO.
 Publications - Hornbill and Journal on Natural
History.
 Dr. Salim Ali - associated.
 Helped to frame wildlife related laws.
‘Save the
 World Silent
Wide Valley’
Fund forcampaign.
Nature (WWF-I),
New Delhi (1969):
 Wildlife education and awareness.
 Conduct programs including the Nature
Clubs of India for school children.
 Center for Science and Environment
(CSE), New Delhi:
 Campaigns, workshops and conferences.
 ‘State of India’s Environment’.
 Popular magazine, ‘Down to Earth’
 Salim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural
History (SACON), Coimbatore (1990):
 Dr. Salim Ali’s dream that became a reality
only after his demise.
 Biodiversity conservation
 Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun
(1982):
 Training and Research in Wildlife
Management.
 Publication ‘Planning A Wildlife Protected
Area Network for India’ (Rodgers and
Panwar, 1988).
 Information on India’s biological wealth.
 Trains in eco-development, wildlife biology,
and habitat management.
 Botanical Survey of India (BSI) (1890):
 It carries out surveys of plant resources in
different regions.
 Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) (1916):
 Its mandate was to do a systematic survey of
fauna in India.
 People in Environment
Rachel Carson published (1960) several
articles that caused immediate worldwide
concern on the effects of pesticides on
nature and mankind. She wrote a well
known book called ‘Silent Spring’ which
eventually led to a change in Government
policy and public awareness.

Rachel Carson
Salim Ali’s name is associated with
Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
He wrote great books ‘Book of Indian
Birds’. He is known as ‘Birdman of
India’.

Salim Ali
 Indira Gandhi as PM has - preservation of
India’s wildlife. Protected Areas grew from 65
to 298 during her time. Wildlife Protection
Act (1972) was formulated. India gained a
name for itself by being a major player in
CITES and other International Environmental
Treaties.

M S Swaminathan - India’s foremost

Indira Gandhi
agricultural scientists and biodiversity
conservation. He has founded MS
Swaminathan Research Foundation in
Chennai, which does work on the
conservation of biological diversity.

M S Swaminathan
 M C Mehta - environmental lawyer.
Since 1984, filed several PILs for
environmental conservation. Fought
for Taj Mahal, cleaning up the
Ganges River, initiating Government
to implement environmental
education in schools and colleges etc.
M C Mehta

 Medha Patkar is known as one of

India’s champions who has supported
the cause of downtrodden tribal
people whose environment is being
affected by the dams on the Narmada
river.
Medha Patkar
 Sunderlal Bahugna - Chipko
Movement - efforts of local people
to save forest resources. He also
fought to prevent construction of
Tehri Dam in a earthquake prone
setting.

Sunderlal Bahugna
 Gaura Devi was elected to lead the
Mahila Mangal Dal (Women's
Welfare Association) in the wake of
the Chipko movement. The
organization worked on the
protection of community forests

Gaura Devi
 Sustainable Development, Democracy And Peace
Wangari Maathai is first African woman to receive the Nobel
Peace Prize.

She started Green Belt Movement (1977) countering the

deforestation (Kenya) that was threatening subsistence of the
agricultural population.

She contributed to the planting of over thirty million trees.

Maathai's mobilisation of African women was not limited to work
for sustainable development; but included democracy, women's
rights, and international solidarity.

In the words of the Nobel Committee: "She thinks globally and
acts locally."
Wangari Maathai
The Nobel Peace Prize 2004 was awarded to Wangari Muta Maathai
"for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy
and peace."
 Climate Change Mitigation

 The human caused climate change is

threatening human health and natural
ecosystems.

 The Nobel Peace Prize 2007 was

awarded jointly to Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and
Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. "for their
efforts to build up and disseminate
greater knowledge about man-made
climate change, and to lay the
foundations for the measures that are
needed to counteract such change."
 Environmental Sustainability, Women & Farmers Rights

 Physicist and environmentalist Vandana Shiva

has been awarded the prestigious Sydney Peace
Prize (2010) in recognition of her works in social
justice.

 She has won the award for her work on women

empowerment in developing countries,
advocacy of the human rights of small farming
communities, and scientific analysis of
environmental sustainability.

 She is the founder of Navdanya, an

environmental NGO that promotes organic
farming. Dr. Vandana Shiva
India (2010)
 Environmental Protection
 He helped villagers fight a large coal mine.
 "With a small internet cafe as his headquarters, Ramesh
Agrawal organised villagers to demand their right to
information about industrial development projects
and succeeded in shutting down one of the largest
proposed coal mines in Chhattisgarh,”.
 Mr Agrawal's work earned him powerful enemies and
gunmen shot him in the leg, shattering his bones.
 "Despite his limited mobility, Mr Agrawal is helping
villagers to assert their rights.

Ramesh Agrawal
India (2014)
 Water Conservation

 Water is the elixir of life. It sustains

the growth and development of
various organisms.

 Rajendra Singh won Magsaysay

Award (2001) and Stockholm Water
Prize (2015) for his water
conservation activities.

 He bagged title of ‘Waterman of

India’ for his inspirational efforts.
Rajendra Singh
Rajasthan (Alwar)
 UN’s Green Award (Champions of The Earth) for Modi

 Narendra Modi, Indian prime minister

received UN’s Highest Environmental
Award (2018) along with French President
Emmanuel Macron as joint ‘Champions of
the Earth’ in the policy leadership category.

 Modi and Macron were awarded

for “Championing the International Solar
Alliance and promoting new areas of levels
of cooperation on environmental action,
including Macron’s work on the Global Pact
for the Environment and Modi’s
unprecedented pledge to Eliminate all single-
use plastic in India by 2022.”
 Forest Conservation

 Awarded Padma Shri (2019) for planting

8000 Trees in 80 Yrs, 106-Yr-Old
Environmentalist 'Blesses' President.
 Popularly known as ‘Vriksha Mathe’
(mother of trees) was awarded with
country’s fourth highest civilian award for
‘her tireless effort to make the planet
green’.
 She lives an ordinary life, but she is no
ordinary woman.
 She planted and nurtured 384 banyan
trees lined in a five-km stretch some 80km
from Bangalore.

Saalumarada Thimmakka – Blessing Sh.

Ram Nath Kovind, President, India
 Economic Value Of Our Natural Environment

 Environmental economist and UNEP Goodwill

Ambassador Pavan Sukhdev has won prestigious Tyler
Prize (2020) along with conservation biologist Gretchen
C. Daily for illuminating and quantifying the economic
value of our natural environment.
Pavan Sukhdev
 “His work, particularly with UNEP’s TEEB and the Green
Economy Initiative has led to extraordinary improvements
in our understanding of the economics of ecosystems and
biodiversity,” said Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Tyler Prize
Chair.

Gretchen C. Daily
 Forest Conservation

 Tulasi Gowda (72-year-old) received

‘The Padma Shri’ Award (2020) for
Planting Over One Lakh Trees.
 She is known as 'Encyclopedia of forest'
for her vast knowledge of diverse species
of plants and herbs.
 She has worked to raise awareness about
forest conservation.
 She is also actively involved in
afforestation programmes and nurtures
saplings she plants until they can stand on
their own.
Tulasi Gowda
 Single-handedly she tackled poachers, Karnatake
stopped forest fires, and contributed in
conservation of Western Ghat forest.