The population has crossed the optimum limit in India and needs to be tackled on a war footing to save our resources. By Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj
Population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every 25 years or increases in a geometrical ratio, said Reverend Thomas Malthus, an English clergyman born in the 18th century, who believed that humans would always reproduce faster than the Earth’s capacity to feed them.
Today, every corner of India is a naked display of an increasing throbbing sea of humanity. Whether one goes to the railway station, airport, road, bus stand, hospital, shopping mall, market, temple, or even marriages, each venue is over-crowded. It’s high time that we come out of denial and recognise that the earth cannot support many billions of people anymore. The United Nations Population Fund in its annual State of the World Population Report for 2009 said that,
“Each birth results not only in the emissions attributable to that person in his or her lifetime, but also the emissions of all his or her descendants. Hence, the emissions savings from intended or planned births multiply with time. No human is genuinely ‘carbon neutral,’ especially when all greenhouse gases are figured into the equation. Therefore, everyone is part of the problem, so everyone must be part of the solution in some way. Strong family planning programmes are in the interests of all countries for greenhouse-gas concerns as well as for broader welfare concerns.”
India, being a developing country, had to face several economic and political challenges since the time of its independence, of which one of the most important problems has been of population explosion. As per government figures, India’s population hit one billion in May 2000, increasing the urgency for the country to moderate its population growth. Some of the reasons for this population explosion are poverty, better medical facilities and immigration from neighbouring countries. Over the years several solutions to decrease the rate of population have been tried by the government, of which some were successful and some unsuccessful. Although the rate has decreased, it is far from satisfactory. There will be extreme pressures in the near future, on land, non-renewable natural resources, provisions of educational and health facilities, civic amenities, employment opportunities, standards of living and so on.
Some knowledgeable people have warned that when we reach that point, we will be like rats who are too overcrowded in a cage or trap and who suffer not only because of the absence of even minimum necessary space but also from the mental stress caused by the extreme over-crowding. However, in spite of all the warnings and caution, it seems that the enormity of the dangers, inherent in the phenomenon of population growth, is not fully and truly realised and, if at all it is realised, the realisation is soon lost because of man’s pre-occupations with other problems that require his immediate attention. As a result of this we are, unwittingly, or by negligence, moving fast towards a very major catastrophe. The time is slipping away and mankind, barring a few people, seem to be in a state of swoon.
Another important aspect of high population is its deleterious and damaging effects on the environment, directly and indirectly. The wheels of agriculture have to be geared up. This is to be done by bringing more and more land under the ploughshare or the tractor, producing more crops per year, using pesticides and insecticides to protect crops and using latest bio-technology. But it should not be difficult to understand that, as the population increases, more and more consumer goods are required for their daily use. Industrialisation and accompanying urbanisation take place. All these and other pressures on land make less and less agricultural land available for raising crops of grains and vegetables.
As per a recent study made by World Health Organisation (WHO), India’s capital city Delhi has the highest concentration of PM 2.5 — particulate matter less than 2.5 microns — form of air pollution, which is considered most serious. In one of its earlier reports on environment and related diseases in Delhi, it has mentioned that about 620 tons of pollutants are currently being released into Delhi’s atmosphere every day and, out of this, about 50 per cent of air pollution is due to emissions from the vehicles. The report also says that the pollution level in Delhi is more than the human endurance levels specified by the WHO. Thus, the growth in population at the current rates, and to a level higher than we already have, is fraught with dangers from many sides. Hence to underplay these dangers is itself a sign of negligence of duty and sloth and is due, perhaps, to living in an atmosphere over-loaded with these pollutants.
After all the discussions, caution, warnings, the common man is puzzled and confused with one question in his mind that after all, how much population is “sustainable,” keeping in mind the healthy environment, normal standard of living, provision of education, employment, health facilities, recreation, etcIJ Even a layman would say that the world population should not be more than what it was at the start of the 19th century. The less …. the better.
The world would be a better place to live in if we did not require multi-storeyed buildings, motor vehicles for individual transport, increased industrialisation and urbanisation. We need to make a transition to a sustainable world. If we don’t, nature is anyhow going to do it for us in her own ways, which will not be ours and they won’t be much fun either. So, let’s make a resolve to follow self-control and create a mass awareness among our countrymen.