Environmental Ethics

Author(s): S M Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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leads to drying of wells and other resources of water. Water is one of the most essential components for agriculture. This nefarious foolish activity is like cutting of the same branch of tree on which the person himself is sitting.
Exodus from villages and mushroom growth of city
slums:
The continuous fragmentation of individual land holdings into smaller and smaller area is also the main cause of exodus from villages to cities, creating serious problem of mushrooming slums where people live in abominably subhuman conditions without proper sanitation, drinking water and other basic facilities. Earlier hardly 5-10% of population was in cities, now it is 30% and more and within a decade or so it will be over 50% which will further accentuate the problems of slums and with it the law and order problems also. There is much ado about human dignity and human rights but these are non-existent in slums. Slum dwellers reconcile to the conditions they are forced to live in and are even inert to disasters like frequent fires, floods, epidemics and consequent loss of life and property over and over again.
Water Famine and Floods :
The increasing need of water more and more, deeper and deeper tube wells are being dug, resulting not only in its fast depletion but also in increasing the flouride content causing debilitating fluorosis disease in many areas. As a result of shrinking forest cover and its absence over vast catchment areas of rivers and streams the infiltration rate of precipitation has decreased to almost less than 1% from over 99% on well forested areas, conversely the surface run off has increased to more than 99% against less than 1% on wooded lands. Consequently there is more and more soil erosion, silting of dams, tanks and other reservoirs and there are devastating floods during rains and then there is scarcity of water for rest of the year because of lack of recharge of underground water through infiltration of precipitation.
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