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Population Growth: Its Impact on Physical Environment and on the Qualities of Life of the Individual |
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| Paper Id :
18991 Submission Date :
10/07/2022 Acceptance Date :
21/07/2022 Publication Date :
25/07/2022
This is an open-access research paper/article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.12747683 For verification of this paper, please visit on
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| Abstract | The growth of population is an immense issue of discussion for any developing countries .It puts enormous pressure on natural resources resulting over consumption, deforestation, water scarcity and pollution. The rapid increase of human population is putting an incredible strain on our environment. This growth of population directly affect our physical environment i.e. non-living environment or the land, air, water, soil and minerals. Due to rapid growth of population more mouth to eat food which requires more agricultural production. As a result of this more cultivable land has been made available by clearing forests and by reclaiming wet lands, ponds and green belts. Application of fertilizers and pesticides to get more products makes the soil infertile. Rapid growth of population not only affects the environment but also affects individual’s quality of life. Qualities of life of population can be judged from life expectancy, the level of literacy and the level of technical training attained by the people of a country. In this paper the investigator has made an attempt to study the impact of population explosion on physical environment as well as the impact of population on quality of life of the individual. | ||||||
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| Keywords | Population Explosion, Physical Environment, Environmental Degradation, Quality of Life. | ||||||
| Introduction | Human being is destroying the environment for their own benefit by unnecessary usage of natural resources. Using natural resources up to a level do not make any harm to maintain the balance of nature. But if these resources are used extensively then it will definitely create negative impact on our physical environment. These excessive uses of resources are due to the rapid growth of human population. To meet the requirements of growing population, more natural resources are required. The problem of over population is one of the prominent causes of environmental degradation for any developing countries Problems caused by population growth: The development of any country bounds to become slower when the problems of population growth become terrible in a country. The problems of population growth have adverse effect on the socio-economic, cultural, educational, environmental and other areas of a country. Besides these rapid growth in population has negative impact on the inhabitants and cultivated lands. The area of inhabited lands is going decreasing gradually due to the pressure of increased population as most of the land is used to build houses. The problem of overpopulation also affects on employment. It also affects the supply of food negatively. People face problems of getting required food and thus they suffer from malnutrition and other relative diseases due to the imbalance between the rate of rapid population growth and production of food. The growth of population has also negative impact on developmental policies of a country. Above all the problems, the other problems that could arise out from increasing population are as given below— 1. Degrades the quality of life. 2. Hinders the socio-economic progress. 3. Creates obstacles before educational development and extension. 4. It reduces the opportunity of employment. 5. It prevents in fulfilling the special health programmes. 6. Makes the family problem greater and more complex. 7. It reduces the opportunity of entertainment. 8. It limits the per capita income and individual development. 9. It makes the environment imbalanced. 10. It creates acute pollution problem. Quality of life: Quality is a degree of excellence, relative nature of general excellence, attributes, traits, faculty etc. Quality of life of individual may be described as way of life of an individual which is good, beautiful and valuable for him and for the society. It can also say that quality is the characteristics of something which is beautiful, valuable, and excellently good, satisfies purpose and fit for use. But population growth nullifies all efforts for the improvement of quality of the people especially in the developing countries. The quality of life of a country is affected by the increase in population in relation to the natural resources and the level of technological development. The basic criteria that involved comparing the quality of life are listed below... a.The quality and quantity of the ‘basic physical needs of man such as food, fresh-water housing, clothing etc. b.The quality and quantity of the social and cultural needs of man such as emotional , educational and employment opportunities, health and medical facilities, security and conditions of work, transportation, human freedom , recreation and entertainment opportunities for creative development. Besides these, there are also two views regarding quality of life. First one supports economic development and rise in per-capita income that ensures a higher quality of life. The second one is that quality of life is a socio-cultural phenomenon and is closely associated with the economic well-being of the community. |
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| Objective of study |
1. To study the problems caused by rapid growth of population. 2. To study the impact of population on physical environment 3. To study the impact of population on quality of life of the individual. |
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| Review of Literature | Mittal Rahul
(2013) made a study on impact of population explosion on environment . From the
study it was found that the growth of population are threatening the future
sustainable life on earth. Human also continue to put a great demand on our
already limited resources and thus the earth is suffering from the growth of
global population. Anulawathie
Menika (2018) in his study "A literature review on population growth
and economic development " to see the connection between population growth
and economic development. In his study it was found that although a steadily
growing population might seem to be an obstacle to s country's economic development,
most of the countries have accepted the increase in population as blessings Alkaher, I.
and Carmi, N (2019) Made a study on " Is population Growth and
Environmental Problem? Teacher's Perceptions and Attitudes towards Including It
in Their Teaching."
The findings of the study showed how the absence of population growth
from school curricula influences teacher's motivation to address it in class.
This study stressed on the importance to encourage teacher's to address
population growth in their teaching process. Phyo, Azz,
PDI, R.F. and Ryan, J (2020) made a study on " Quality of life and
mortality in the general population: a systematic review and
meta-analysis". In their study it it was found that better qualities of
life was associated with lower mortality risk . Hogan,D.J.(1992)
made a study on"The impact of Population Growth on the Physical
Environment. "This study recognises how density of population impact
on physical environment.The findings of the study reveals that little
demography has advantages over the high density of population. |
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| Main Text | Impact of population on physical environment: Physical environment means –non living environment such as land, air, water, soil and minerals. Due to the growth of population overuse, misuses of physical resources are going increasing. More population means more mouth to eat which requires more agricultural production which demands more cultivable lands. To get more cultivable lands we have to clear forest by reclaiming wet lands, ponds and forest areas. Again to get more production we use fertilizers and pesticides which make the soil infertile. Above all, more population requires more means of transport, more consumption of fossil fuels and more which contribute to the pollution of air and water. And these pollutions are the causes of a number of problems in the physical environment that further affecting the biological environment seriously. Impact of population on quality of life of the individual: The growth of population has negative impact on quality of life of an individual. The quality of life getting lowered under the pressure of population increase has been observed in different fields of life. The major areas of population growth that affects quality of life of the individual are as follows. 1.Population growth and Per capita Income: There is direct relationship between per-capita income and population growth. The prosperity of a nation can be measured by per-capita income and levels of living of standards of its people. When population are at large scale, their engagement is in a small scale, in such situation the investment is less and it leads to low rate of per-capita income formation. 2.Age Composition and Per-Capita Income: Age composition determines the ratio of dependent and working population. More percentage of population in the non-productive age group which covers below 15 years of age to 59 years increases the burden of dependent population on future growth. In this way, the rapid growth of population increases the burden of unproductive consumers. In India the greatest impact of population growth is that burden of dependent has been continuously increasing which resulted lowering the productive capacity of the country. Thus, economic development of the country id affected badly. 3.Population and Food Supply: growth of population has adverse affect on food supply. No doubt our food production has considerably increased yet it is not sufficient to feed the growing population. About 40% of the people are still living on or below the line of poverty. As a result, one out of every four is suffering from malnutrition and two out of every four get only half of the daily required quantum of food. Due to lack of nutritious food, numbers of people are becoming physically and mentally handicapped. 4.Population and Production: India is a land of agriculture. Most of the people in India depend on agriculture. At present more than 60 crores of people are directly engaged in agricultural activities. The rate of growth in industrial sector has not proved adequate to absorb the increasing population. As a result the increasing population engaged themselves in agriculture. Thus heavy pressure on land resulted low productivity in agriculture. 5.Population and unemployment: Another impact of population is unemployment. The rate of population growth is so rapid that it becomes impossible to make arrangement for all to get employment opportunity. Unemployment is one of the obstacles in the economic development of a country. 6.Population and Migration: In developing countries migration from rural areas to urban is a common experience. As a result of this urban areas get densely populated. At present it is seen that all the towns and cities are overcrowded. The scarcity of nutritious food, hygienic dwelling houses, lower quality of food and polluted environment creates problem in the life of the people. 7.Population and education: Like any other developing countries India is striving for getting respectable literacy rate. As India is a highly populous country, it is not easy to fulfil the requirements of all people to make them literate as it requires a large number of schools, colleges, teachers and other resources. Thus excessive growth of population affects the quality of life of the individual a lot. 8.Population and Health Services: Health services are another area which is also affected by the growth of population. The facility of health services is directly related to the size of population as well as on economic development. Due to the rapid growth of population, the health services provided by different health centres will go on deteriorating instead of improving it. The chances of improving these health service centres are also very low particularly in remote areas unless the population growth is immediately controlled. 9.Population and Urbanization: Another important impact of population on quality of life is people’s intensity to move to urban areas in search of work. As a result there is shortage of housing area, growth of slums, problem of malnutrition and many other related problems occurred due to over population. 10.Population and pollution: Rapid consumption natural resources and waste disposal by the growing population put a greater stress on the environment. The pollution increases with industrialization as well as with the increase of population. The smoke and wastage of factories badly affected the air, water and land and it becomes a threat today to the whole community. Thus population growth has resulted in environmental instability and imbalance too. Conclusion: The impact of rising population acting as a drag on economic resources as well as quality of life of the individual. Uncontrolled growth of population posses before us the question of human survival. Rapid population growth has affects both physical environment as well as the quality of life of the individual. Rapid growth of population has affects public education, health and welfare and the quality of environment in which people live. It is recognised that the most critical implication of continuing population growth is the demand for food which it generates as because of non-availability of new land. There are also possibilities of loss of good land to urban areas, housing for growing population in the rural areas, industries, highways which causes the incidence of illness such as hypertension, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and asthma. |
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| Conclusion | Increase in population can affect the quality of life in terms of the availability of food, per capita income, educational and employment opportunities, health services etc. For national prosperity and happiness we must have a thorough planning of the population. To ensure health and happiness of the family, there should be a reduction in the number of unwanted children and an increase in the income of family. Therefore, to make life on earth worth living in the coming century’s population growth must be checked. | ||||||
| References | 1. Das, P. And Sahidullah F.T.: Environmental and Population Education, Shanti Prakashan, Guwahati, 2017 2. Salkar, K.R.: Population Education for Developing countries, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, 1989 3. Agarwal, j..C.: Population Education, Shipra Publications, New Delhi, 2013 4. Gupta, K.R.: Environmental Education in India, Atlantic Publishers and Distributors (p) Ltd., New Delhi, 2010 5. Goswami, S. and Devi, M.K.: Environmental and population Education, Shanti Prakshan, Guwahati, 2013 6. Sahu, B.K.: Population Education, A.P.H. Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, 2001 7. F.A.: Environmental Education, Surya Publication, Meerut, 2005 8. Akhtar, P.R. , Shahidullah, F.T. and Das, P."Environmental
and Population Education", Assam Book Depot, Guwahati,2010..
13. Sharma, F.A. " Environmental Education",
Surya Publication , Meerut, 2005. |
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