Some literature is available on environmental education and social awareness. This indicates that environmental awareness is on the increase and strategies for developing it are being tried.

However, the exact position about the present level of awareness is not known. The general public is not much aware of many environmental problems, because the decision making as well as the decisions about environmental education rarely spread beyond the limited circle of the so called ‘planners’ and the elite group of the society.

This problem is more acute in the developing countries, which already suffer from the effects of poverty and illiteracy. Both these factors contribute to ignorance. Environmental matters are an abstract talk for the large masses who must concentrate only on the fulfillment of their daily needs. These people are hardly able to attend to any social issue under conditions of deprivation of the basic needs.

Historical Background:

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When one refers to environment in the developing countries one is referring to something is the result of a historical process of exploitation and struggles. By and large, the natural resources got depleted as a part of colonial exploitation.

Later, in the post-colonial period, exploitation of resources continued as a result of developmental efforts of the native people. Industrialization led to encroachment of urban capital on the environmental resources all around including the remotest rural and tribal areas.

Contradictions created by the Concept of Development:

A new trend observable in developing societies is the contradiction of development for those with limited access to resources and the poor. The development process brings them closer to the market and encourages commodity production and the sale of their labor for cash. On the other hand, the native pattern of living becomes incompatible with the demands. Self-sufficiency in food or energy breaks down.

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The principal of division of labor makes people more dependent on others and on public services. Migration from villages to cities further complicates the problem. Urban slums are a result of this process. The balance that existed between man’s needs and the environmental resources breaks down and environmental degration becomes inevitable. This phenomenon can be seen around any big city anywhere in the world. Development and degradation have generally gone together.

Maintenance of Balance between Needs and Supplies:

Environmental management is basic to the natural process of human adaptation. Survival of a species depends on its ability to maintain a balance between its demands and environmental resources. Primitive societies developed ways and means so that they could achieve this. These ways became cultural patterns. The wisdom of cultures lays maintaining a balance between needs and supplies and ensuring continued adaptation.

Culture defined the ways of dealing with the environment so that negative balance could be avoided. Thus, culture and ecology were complementary partners in the development of civilization. It may be some time before historians observe that the present breakdown of ecological balance is essentially a breakdown of civilization.

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Knowledge historical processes, development and ecological balance are not common at all the levels in the society. Our educational system has largely failed to relate the curricula to real life problems. Some history or economics studied at some level or the other does not bring the student face-to-face with the above problems.

The subject of environment is yet to gain place in schools and colleges. Besides this, there are some further specific reasons for the wide spread ignorance in the filed of ecology and environment. We are giving some of these below:

i) Courses in medicine, engineering, technology, agriculture, economics or development have by and large failed to impart knowledge of environmental matters as an essential component of their curriculum.

ii) Those planning development or taking decisions are not trained or educated to foresee the environmental consequences of their decisions. This is true of administrators and politicians alike. Perhaps that is how the pesticide plant of the Union Carbide got located so near to a thickly populated area in Bhopal.

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iii) Sometimes politicians, opinion leaders or administrators purposely conceal information from the public or mislead them for their own reasons. This is seen in case of the Narmada Valley Project at present. In the past, soon after Independence, the priority was to increase production of food grains. Use of fertilizers and pesticides was encouraged disregarding the adverse consequences of their indiscriminate use.

iv) People starting their own business or industry are guided entirely by considerations of economic gain to themselves. They shun information about environmental concerns due to their callous disregard for the interests of society or environment. This is so in the case of several chemical plants that keeps pouring poisons in the nearby rivers.

Common Misconceptions and their causes

The widespread ignorance about environment is a fertile ground for misconceptions and superstitions in this filed. Some of these are:

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i) Diseases are caused by demons or Gods and are not due to infections.

ii) Famines, droughts or floods are forms of punishment given by Gods for the sins of the people.

iii) Rainfall has something to do with God’s grace.

iv) Cities are polluted whereas villages are not. In fact, burning cow dung and wood causes smoke, this is equally polluting.

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v) Cities are polluted because of industrial exhausts. In fact, the major contributor to city’s air pollution is automobile traffic.

vi) It is believed that forests are disappearing because of industrial and urban needs. The growing rural population itself burns most of the wood in the vicinity by cutting down trees and not caring to replant any.

vii) Misconceptions exist about who is responsible. For example, in the case of Union Carbide at Bhopal, was it the industrialist (the Company), was it the Government of Madhya Pradesh, was it the Bhopal Municipal Corporation or was it someone else to be blamed? Alternatively, were they all responsible? Different persons hold different opinions.

Lack of correct information leads to misconceptions. Till educational programmes at all levels do not give this subject its due importance, such misconceptions may continue.