Environmental education in India

The environmental scenario of India is very wide. Ours is a country highly diverse climatically, geologically, edaphically, geographically, floristically, faunistically, ethnically, socially and economically. Therefore, environmental education has to be essentially location specific. At the first level, special attention must be paid to school going children and women (about 50% of the population). They are to be made aware of health, family planning, nutrition, rural development, sanitation, hygiene, water and food contamination, fodder, fuel wood etc.non government organisation have to play a significant role. In the directory of the department of environment,there are more than 200 non governmental organisation of which nearly 150 work in the area of environmental education and awareness. Morever, children are to be told the real meaning of wildlife. Most children think only tiger, lion or elephant as wildlife. They are to be educated for plants, smaller animals, microbes etc i.e. holistic approach to wildlife.

  Formal environmental education

Main goals of environmental education in India must be

1. To improve the quality of environment.

2. To create an awareness among the people on environmental problems and conservation, and

3. To create an atmosphere so that people participate in decision-making and develop the                     capabilities to evaluate the developmental programs.

The spectrum of environmental education has four major integrating and interrelated components

1. Awareness, that include making the individual conscious about the physical, social and aesthetic            aspect of environment. The environmental regime is linked with the life support system which in          itself has six elements: air, water, land, flora and fauna and the incoming sunlight. These have            dynamic relationship. Man, being most important species has major responsibility,

2. Real life situation, that link environment to life, these conditions are location specific, thus                    problems  and priorities of each area may be different.

3. Conservation and

4. Sustainable development, where spotlight would be on utilisation and not on exploitation. In the            former, the idea is that all the resources are finite and there is also a limit to the growth of living              systems. Thus resources are to be used in wise manner. Sustainable development aims at utilisation        of resources not only by the present but also by the future generations in a manner that utilisation is        balanced. Utilisation of resources for development is always associated with some negative impacts. So efforts are to be made to contain or minimise them.

Primary School stage

In primary school stage emphasis should be mostly (75%) on building up awareness, followed by real life situations (20%) and conservation (5%). Thus attempt should be only sensitive the child about environment. The content to be used are surroundings from home to school to outdoor situations. Teaching strategy includes audio-visual and field visits.

Lower secondary stage

From the lower secondary stage onwards, the quantum of awareness must decrease and there should be increased knowledge of real life situations, conservation and sustainable development. At lower secondary level, objectives must be real life experience, awareness and problem identification. The content to be used are those used at primary school level supplemented with general science. Teaching, practical and field visits are to be done.

Higher secondary School stage

At higher secondary School stage the emphasis must be conservation, assimilation of knowledge, problem identification and action skills. The content used may be science based and action oriented work. There should be proper teaching, practicals and field work.

Tertiary (college) stage

At this level, the picture would be almost rivers of the primary level,has maximum emphasis would be here on knowledge regarding sustainable development based on experience with conservation followed, in a descending order, by conservation, real life situations and awareness. The content must be college/ university  based on science and technology. Teaching, practical and action oriented field work is to be done.

University education

Environmental education at this level is being looked after the University Grants Commission.There is a high powered committee to suggest areas of environmental education at postgraduate level. There are about ten universities teaching course in environmental areas. Besides these,there are also research institutes and professional institutions as Indian Institute of Technology, engineering colleges, schools of planning and architecture which offer courses in environmental engineering. The University education has three major components: teaching, research and extension. At post graduate level, four major areas are recognised,

Environmental engineering

Conservation and Management

Environmental health

Social ecology.

Jhum cultivation (Shifting)

Some rural people destroy biological communities and haunt endangered species because they are poor and have no land of their own. In many countries there is extreme inequality in the distribution of wealth, with the majority of wealth (money, good farmland, timber resources etc.) Owned by a small percentage of the population. The local poor people with their traditional way of life in rural areas have often established local systems of rights to natural resources. These local people are quite distinct from settlers who have arrived more recently and not closely linked to the land. In  fact tropical areas of the world have had particularly a long association with human societies, since the tropics have been free of glaciation and are particularly amenable to human settlement.people have lived in every terrestrial ecosystem for thousands of years as hunters, fishermen, gatherers and farmers.

A common pattern in many countries of the developing world is that local farmers are forced of their Land by large landowners and business interests, often backed up by the government, the police and the army. The local farmers often have no choice except to move to remote undeveloped areas and attempt for their livelihood through shifting cultivation.This commonly practiced agricultural system is also known as Swidden agriculture, slash and burn agriculture and jhum cultivation. It greatly affects forest structure and species composition by creating a mosaic of forest touches of different ages. In Shifting cultivation,plants of natural tree vegetation are burnt away and the cleared patches are formed for two or three seasons, after which their fertility goes down to a point where adequate crop production is no longer possible. The trees are cut down, following material is burnt and crops are planted in nutrient rich ash. After two or three harvests, the nutrients are washed out of soil by the rain. The farmer then  abandons this patch and cuts down a new patch of forest trees elsewhere for crop production. 

This system, jhum cultivation in North Eastern India is practiced in these areas because the farmers are unwilling to spend the time and money required to develop more permanent forms of agriculture on land that they do not own and may not occupy for a very long time. This system works well and does not degrade environment much as long as human population density is low and there is abundant forest land available. Political instability, lawlessness and war also force farmers off their land and move to remote, undeveloped areas where they feel more safe. In such situations, rather than being called shifting cultivators, however,these newly arrived people would be more appropriately described as shifted cultivators in order to distinguish them from traditional farmers who have long in habitated rainforest areas.

The North East region of India comprises the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Various ethnic groups with different languages, practicing different forms of agriculture inhabit this region. Agriculture is the main stay of economy. Rice is major crop, though maize and millets also grown. Traditional agricultural systems of the region are Zabo or Ruza, where is construction and jhum or shifting cultivation. Zabo is an indigenous farming system of Chakhesang farmers of Nagaland, which combines agroforestry and animal husbandry. This system is common to individually owned lands of about 2.5 hectare. For terrace construction the area is cleaned by cutting and burning the forest vegetation. Jhum cultivation is the most common system practiced by roughly 5 lacs tribal farm families. In India,total land area of 4.36 million hectares is being affected by jhum cultivation out of which 2.7 million hectare is in the North East region. Due to increasing pressure on land the jhoom cycle has reduced to 4 - 5 years in Meghalaya, 5-10 years in Mizoram and Tripura, 6-15 years in Nagaland and Manipur and 5-10 years in Arunachal Pradesh.

Jhum cultivation has resulted in to soil erosion and loss of soil fertility. Due to tree cutting the loose top soil is lost and also the stones rolling down the foot hills cause soil erosion. In areas where bamboos are cut and burnt, potassium rich ash accumulates for jhum crop. This fallow land invite several weeds and it may take a very long time when the soil supports the growth of crop plants.

Intensive modern agriculture with longer cycles of 10 or more years and agroforestry system have been suggested for the control of jhum cultivation in this region.