Geographical Perspective on Selected
Issues and Problems
- Water pollution
- Air pollution
- Noise pollution
- Land pollution
- Natural Erosion, landslides, decay and decomposition of plants and animals, etc are natural sources that make water polluted.
- Human Industrial, agricultural and cultural activities of human beings make water polluted.Water pollution created from human beings are major problem in modern times. Industrial activities of pollution.
Today use of various types of chemicals like inorganic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides are common in agriculture. These chemicals pollute surface water such as rivers, lakes, tanks as well as groundwater by infiltrating into the soil. These fertilizers increase the amount of nitrate content of surface waters. Besides this, cultural activities such as pilgrimage, religious fairs, tourism, etc also cause water pollution. In India, almost all surface water sources are contaminated and unfit for human consumption.
Use of polluted water can harm human health and can cause various water borne diseases, e.g. diarrhoea, intestinal worms, hepatitis, etc. World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that about one-fourth of the communicable diseases in India are water borne.
- Air pollution is responsible for many diseases related to our respiratory, nervous and circulatory systems.
- Air pollution is responsible for creating smoky fog over cities which is known as urban smog. It has negative effects on human health.
- Air pollution is also responsible for acid rain. First rain after summer in urban areas always shows high acidic nature of rain water i.e. it shows lower pH level than the subsequent rain.
These discarded materials are also known as refuses, garbage and rubbish,etc and are disposed off from two sources i.e. household or domestic establishments and industrial or commercial establishments. Public lands or private contractor’s sites are used to disposed off household or domestic wastes. Low lying public grounds (landfill areas) are used to disposed off industrial solid wastes by public (municipal) facilities. Industries, thermal power houses and building constructions and demolitions are contributing with more turn out of ashes and debris in solid wastes.
Disposal of industrial wastes has increased because of the concentration of industrial units in and around urban centres. Urban waste is a bigger problem in small towns and cities than metropolitan cities in the country. About 90% of solid waste is collected and disposed off successfully in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and other metropolitan cities. About 30-50% solid wastes in other towns and cities in country is not collected and disposed off properly. It is a major problem because it accumulates on streets, in open spaces between houses and in wastelands and can cause various health problems.
- Solid wastes are threat to human health and can cause various diseases. It creates foul smell and it harbours flies and rodents that can cause typhoid, diphtheria, diarrhoea, malaria, cholera and other diseases.
- Solid waste can create inconvenience rapidly if they are not properly handled. Wind and rain water can splitted it and cause a discomfort to people.
- Industrial solid waste can cause water pollution by dumping it into water bodies. Drains carrying untreated sewage also result into various health problems.
- Untreated waste release various poisonous biogases such as methane in air by slow fermentation process. These wastes are resources as energy can be generated from them! By compositing these wastes, problem of energy could be solved as well as its management in urban areas.
Mostly daily wage workers like, welders; carpenter, etc move to another cities for work, periodically and provide remittances to their families for daily consumption, health care, schooling of children, etc. This has improved their early abject situation into a better one. Simultaneously, due to temporary and transferable job situation, these labourers and their families hear the pain of separation of their near and dear ones.
- When high birth rate and low morality rate increase.
- Net in-migration or movement of people from other areas.
- Reclassification of urban areas to encompass formerly rural settlements.
In India there is a estimation that about 60% India’s urban population has increased after 1961. About 29% of this growth has been caused by rural-urban migration.
Problems of Slums
- Settlement geography differentiate the two concepts namely urban or urban centres and rural. They are also defined differently in different countries.
- These two are differentiated by their functions but sometimes interdependent on each other. These two concepts are also divided in terms of their separate cultural, economic and technological aspects.
- According to 2001 census, about 72% of India’s population is rural (according to 2011, rural population is 68.84%). Most of these rural areas are still in poor conditions and perform primary activities.
- According to Mahatama Gandhi, villages are ideal republics. These work as supplement to the core urban centre forming its hinterland.
- Urban areas are more developed in terms of the socio-economic, politico-cultural, etc than other areas.
- Urban areas have farm house, high income of people and their localities, wide roads, street lights, water and sanitation facilities, lawns, well developed green belts, parks, playgrounds and other facilities, provisions for individual security and right of privacy.
- Apart from these attractions urban areas also have slums, jhuggi jhopari’ clusters and colonies of shanty-structures.
- These are environmentally incompatible and degraded areas of the cities. These are occupied by the migrants who were forced to migrate from rural areas to urban areas for employment and livelihood. But because of high rent and high costs of land, they could not afford proper housing and start to live in these areas.
- Slums are least choice residential areas that have broken down house, bad hygienic conditions, poor ventilation and does not have basic facilities like drinking water, light and toilet facilities, etc.
- Slums are overcrowded with people and have many narrow street patterns prone to serious hazards from fire.
- Most of the slum dwellers works for low wages, high risk-prone and unorganised sectors of the urban economy.
- They face various health related problems such as malnutrition, illness and prone to various diseases. They are not able to send their children school to provide them education because of low level of income.
- Dwellers are vulnerable to drug abuse, alcoholism, crime, vandalism, escapism, apathy and social exclusion because of poverty.
Classification of Wastelands
- National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) It is an organisation responsible for classification of wastelands in India. It classifies wastelands by using remote sensing techniques on the basis of the processes that have created them.
- Wasteland Caused by Natural Agents Gullied/ ravinous land, desertic or coastal sand, barren rocky areas, steep sloping land, glacial areas, etc are types of wastelands caused by the natural agents. These are considered as wastelands caused by natural agents.
- Wasteland Caused by Natural as well as Human Factors Water logged and marshy areas, land affected by salinity and alkalinity and land with and without scrubs which are degraded by the natural as well as human factors are included in this category.
- Wastelands Caused by Man-made Processes Shifting cultivation area, degraded land under plantation crops, degraded forests, degraded pastures and mining and industrial wastelands are some types of wastelands that are degraded because of human action.
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History – Themes
in Indian History |
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Pol
Science – Contemporary World Politics |
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– Politics
in India since Independence |
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Geography – Indian
People and Economy |
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– Fundamental of Human Geography |
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Chapter 1: - Population: Distribution, Density, Growth
and Composition |
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Chapter 12: - Geographical Perspective on Selected
Issues and Problems |
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