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JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXIV, No. 4 April 2000 poisoning of the atmosphere with chemicals because of the high concentration of industries and factories, the throwing out of the garbage and solid wastes anywhere at people's convenience, the high level noise specially in urban areas that harms the human nervous system, the petrol and diesel fumes from vehicles which affect even some sensitive plants like tobacco, potato and some cereal crops and certain flowers etc. are but some of the results of the pollution menace. Such pollution harm life in general.
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The problem that the environmental science faces today is the preservation of its forest assets. Deforestation is not merely an ecological problem but a problem of human beings. The human element gives meaning to ecology and the environmental question becomes relevant to society only when it is viewed in relation to the people who are affected by it.5 The environmental destruction has led to the intensification of poverty and destitution of the forest dwellers by way of non-availability of food, fuel, fodder, fertilizer and construction material, non-availability of medical herbs etc. An increase in the reserve forests that cater to the needs of industry has deprived the forest dwellers very much. And those who are displaced and uprooted from their homeland due to natural calamity and planned destruction of forests.
While the social cost in such a despicable condition is being ignored, the material side of the scene is still worse, namely, floods, droughts, sedimentation and other forms of ecological damage like soil erosion, wind and water erosion etc. Food and droughts follow as a natural consequence to soil erosion since water does not seep into the soil and the ground water level goes down. Increased salutation and rise in the level of rivers, reservoirs and dams results in the reduction both with capacity of the dam to hold back heavy flood waters and in its irrigation potential. A result of the salutation of the major dams is floods that ravage the country every year.6
2.3 Problem of fundamentalism
One of the foremost problems that India faces today is religious fundamentalism. Basically fundamentalism is a nature in attitude. We often do not know the faiths of other believes and their practices. This type of ignorance sometimes leads us to petty quarrels, fights and other harmful relationships. At times it takes the form of a tolerance
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6. Ibid., p. 66-68.
N. Seshagiri, -Pollution, National Book Trust, India, 1982, p. 6-11.
Walter Fernandez, ibid. p. 57.
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