In order to fulfill his desires, man exploits the environmental factors to a greater extent, by which the environment loses its natural capacity for self-stabilization. The impact of man’s various activities that are detrimental to the environment are:

  • Increase in population density.
  • Rapid urbanization
  • Massive industrial growth
  • Inadequate food and
  • Depletion of resources.

To meet the increasing demands of time, human beings deliberately exploit the natural environment to improve their quality of life. Unknowingly, different environmental activities such as construction of roads dams, airports, buildings, irrigation projects, power plants and industries have some negative repercussions on the environment in which man lives.

Thus, the developmental activities are unsustainable for global ecosystem. But we cannot stop these activities. For the development of the nation, these activities are essential. Industrial growth is directly related to nation’s economy. Construction of major and minor irrigation projects and development of new power plants must not be frozen.

Hence at the present context, when man has reached at twenty first century, no body would want for technological stagnation. On the other hand, excessive exploitation of the environment through these technological implications leads to disaster. Hence, there is the problem of one word “pollution.” So what is needed is the environmental management and sustainable development.

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“Sustainable development is implied to regulate the demands of man in such a manner that the ability of the same environment to sustain his development will remain un-repaired,.” — is the version of Bindu N. Lohani. Hence much emphasis is given on environmental management and sustainable development. “It is as a discipline by itself is growing rapidly and no way it proposes to halt economic growth and to stop technical development; rather it aims at achieving that sustainable rate of economic growth which is necessary to meet man’s material needs whilst conserving scarce natural resources and protecting both the external and the internal environments,” says Dr. Uma Shankar, senior faculty member of Management Development Institute, New Delhi. Hence, sustainable development and environmental management are essential for improvement both the quality of the environment and the quality of human life. For that source areas are identified to give utmost priorities. These are:

(i) Population stabilization.

(ii) Protection of forest areas and revitalization.

(iii) Conservation of bio-diversity.

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(iv) Control of pollution in water and air.

(v) Development of non-polluting renewable energy sources.

(vi) Recycle of wastes and residues.

(vii) Environmental education and public awareness.

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(viii) Implementation of environmental protection laws.

Hence conservation for sustainable development and environmental management should be given priority at the present context. We should follow what our former President Mr. R. Venkataraman has told:

The sustainable development and management perspectives should aim to:

  • Preserve what needs to be conserved;
  • Protect what needs to be protected;
  • Regulate exploitation to acceptable limits and
  • Assess the absorptive capacity of the environment to take adverse impacts.