Human activities have never been friendly to environment. The remains of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa signify that the civilization ended due to desertification which might had been caused by large scale deforestation. Still today impacts of such human activities have started appearing. Hence it is essential that we manage our natural resources properly. Technically we can define conservation of environment as under-
Safe and judicious use of natural resources so as to manage all the components of nature appropriately is called as Conservation Management. There is a Three R formula for the conservation of environment which means- R- reduce, R- re-use, R- recycles.
Reduce means saving and judicious use of resources while checking their wastage. Re-cycle means use of old things by shaping them differently. Metal scraps should be sold to Kabariwala who sell them further for transport to factories. There these things are melted and given new shapes for further use.
Re-use means using old and discarded things differently like using one side of Xerox paper in general writings. But re-use does not mean for everything like re-use of saline sets, re-use of discarded syringes etc.
Need of Management of Natural Resources
Everything that we use or consume – food, clothes, vehicles, tools, petrol, furniture, medicines, books, toys, and the infrastructure of electricity, roads bridges, and buildings are obtained from resources on this earth. The only thing one gets from outside is the sun’s energy and even this is converted by the biotic components of the environment and by physical and chemical-based processes on the earth before one makes use of it.
The recent concerns about the environment and natural resources have arisen because of the increasing awareness of the finite nature. What appeared as to be plentiful earlier, clean water and air, fuel energy, land for food, forests and trees are becoming increasingly scarce. If one depletes them too fast, without the possibility of their regeneration, one will be creating untold misery for oneself and for the future generations.
Why have both governments and citizens not managed the environmental resources properly over the last 50 -100 years? One has not anticipated some of the impacts of industrial and technological advancement. When the industrial revolution started some 250 years ago, the world population was at 600 million – that seems like a lot of people but now the world population is now almost ten times at 6 billion and will grow to 8 billion by 2025! Better health and increased age limits have resulted in a net gain of over 200,000 people every day. Side by side, the global economy increased more than sixfold between 1960 and 2000. One has experienced the fastest pace of development and modern lifestyle requirements ever achieved by humans.
