Clean Environment

nment, where air and water are two basic things that sustain life. Without these air and water the earth would be like the other planets – no man, no animals, no plants. The biosphere in which living beings have their sustenance has oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, argon and water vapor. All these are well balanced to ensure and help a healthy growth of life in the animal world. This balance does not only help the life-cycles of animals and plants, but it also creates the perennial sources of minerals and energies without which the human civilization of to-day could not be built. It is for this balance that the human life and other forms of existence have flourished on earth for so many thousands of years. But man, as the most intelligent animal, never stopped being inquisitive, nor was he content with the bounties of nature. His quest for knowledge and search for security succeeded in exploring newer and wider avenues of mysteries that remained baffling so long. Man’s excursions into the darkest regions of mysteries laid foundations for the stupendous civilisation, for the conquests of men had ensured their domination in their world and gave them a key to control all the forces in nature. With the dawn of the age of science and technology the growth the development of human potentials were so enormous that man, as Supreme Being, was in a position even to defy his gods. And it is here that man first began losing control and became prisoner of his own creations. The incredible achievements in the field of science and technology brought many boons, but in the absence of checks and balances the curses to began multiplying threatening the very existence of man on earth. The industries all over the world that brought prosperity and affluence, made inroads in the biosphere and disturbed the ecological balances. The pall of smoke, the swirling gases, industrial effluents and the fall-out of scientific experiments became constant health hazards, polluting and contaminating both air and water. Almost of our gains in the fields of industrial progress, science and technology had so far been realized at the cost of our health. Even our flora and fauna were found to be threatened with extinction. All this really leaves us wondering if all our achievements and industrial civilisation really help us climb the peaks of prosperity or simply take us down the blind alleys of adversity. It is not only in India, but all over the world – even in Europe and U.S.A. – that the question is being raised whether all is well with our industrial growth and progress in the field of science and technology. Many crusaders against environmental pollution are vehemently protesting against the indiscriminate violations committed daily in the name of development. The environmental pollution is not caused by the fall-out from nuclear tests or industries alone. The smoke left behind the automobiles and other vehicular traffic, the increasing use of synthetic detergents, nitrogen fertilizers and insecticides contaminate both air and water. The water we drink the air we breathe and even the vegetables and fish we eat are all contaminated to-day. As a result of this contamination our world is afflicted with a quite a number of incurable diseases. Nothing in this world is immune, no life is safe and the future of this world is bleak. We can very well notice the abnormal behaviour of the seasons – the cycle developing clogs in its wheels; and the worried experts fear that the disturbed balance in the biosphere has assumed such serious proportion that very soon our world would be uninhabitable like Hiroshima of 1945. But it is heartening to find the entire world aware of the menace. Some of the advanced countries have already taken some measures to meet it, though the countries like India are still hesitant in their approach to it. If we fail to restore the ecological balance right now, it would be too late to-morrow.