What are the Demerits of Over Population?

What are the Demerits of Over Population?

In order to cope with the increasing requirements of the rapidly growing population natural resources are being exploited irrationally. As a result, the natural resources are exhausted and the physical environment has become polluted. These adverse effects can be seen in the following manner:

(i) The fast deterioration of forests:

In order to meet the increasing demand of food grains for the rapidly growing population, the forests are being cut and used as agricultural fields. Nowadays forest area is only 19.3% of the total area. It has disturbed the balanced growth of our economy.

(ii) At present, only 4% of the total land is under the meadows, pastures and grasslands. This has created problem for developing the cattle resources of the country. The forest lands are used for cattle grazing. To check this problem, separate land is being ear-marked for the meadows, during the process of consolidation of holdings.

(iii) Decreasing per capita agricultural land:

The pressure on agricultural land is increasing with the rapid growth of population. As a result, the per capita agricultural land has fallen to 0.29 hectare. The remedy of this problem lies in checking the growing population.

(iv) Rapid exploitation of mineral wealth:

Mineral wealth is exhaustive. Large- scale mining has caused mineral wealth famine. The need of the hour is to minimize the exploitation and adopt measures to conserve these resources so that we may keep them for the generations to come.

(v) Decline in the fertility of soil:

In order to get maximum production two or three crops are grown annually. Excessive cropping has resulted in the decrease of the fertility of the soil. Chemical fertilisers are being used to check it. It is bringing about a change in the chemical structure of the soil causing several other implications. In order to solve this problem, stress is being laid on the scientific use of chemical fertilisers.

(vi) Highly polluted environment:

With the rapid growth of population, water, air, soil and even the sound is polluted. The ecological balance has been disturbed due to the decline of vegetation cover. This pollution is to be checked. We can do this by checking the rapid growth of population.