Explain the strategies for sustainable development.

Or

Explain any four strategies for sustainable development.

The strategies for sustainable development are:

(i) Use of Non- Conventional Sources of Energy: India is hugely dependent on thermal and hydropower plants to meet its power needs. Both of these have adverse environmental impacts. Thermal powerplants emit large quantities of carbon dioxide which is a green -house gas. Hydroelectric projects inundate forests and interfere with the natural flow of water in catchment areas and the river basins. Wind power and solar rays are examples of conventional but cleaner and greener technologies which can be effectively used to replace thermal and hydro-power.

(ii) LPG, Gobar Gas in Rural Areas: Households in rural areas generally use wood, dung cake or other biomass as fuel. This practice has several adverse implications like deforestation reduction in green cover, wastage cattle dung and air pollution. To rectify the situation subsidised LPG is provided and gobargas plants are provided. LPG is a cleanfuel-it reduces household pollution to a large extent. Also, energy wastage is minimised. For the gobar gas plant to function collect dung is fed to the plant and gas is produced which is used as fuel while the slurry which is left over is a very good organic fertiliser and soil conditioner.

(iii) CNG in Urban Areas: In Delhi, the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as fuel in public transport system has significantly lowered air pollution and the air has become cleaner in the last few years.

(iv) Wind Power: In areas where speed of wind is usually high. Wind mills can provide electricity without any adverse impact on the environment. Wind turbines move with the wind and electricity is generated. No doubt, the initial cost is high. But the benefits are such that the high costs gets easily absorbed.

(v) Solar Power through Photovollaic Cells: India is naturally endowed with a large quantity of solar energy in the form of solar energy in the form of sunlight. We use it in different ways e.g. we use Sunlight to get the clothes grains dried to keep our body warm in winter with the help of photovollaic cells, solar energy can be converted into electricity. These cells use special kind of materials to capture solar energy and then convert the energy into electricity. This energy is extremely useful for remote areas and for places where supply of power through grid or power lines is either not possible or proves very costly.

(vi) Mini-hydel Plants: In mountainous regions, streams can be found almost every where. A large percentage of such streams are perennial. Mini-hydel plants use the energy of such streams to move small turbines. The turbines generate electricity which can be used locally. Such power plants are more or less environment friendly as they do not use pattern in areas where they are located; they generate engouh power to meet local demands. This shows that they can reduce the requirement of large scale transmission towers and cables and avoid transmission loss.

(vii) Traditional knowledge and Practices: Traditionally, Indian people have been close to their environment. They have been more a component of environment and not its controller. With the sudden on slaught of the western system of treatment we were ignoring our traditional systems such as Ayurveda, Unani, Tibetan and folk systems. These health care systems are in great demand again for treating chromic health problems. Now-a-days every cosmetic produce hair oil, toothpaste, body lotion, face cream and what not is herbal in composition. Not only are these products environment friendly, they are relatively free from side effects and do not involve large scale industrial and chemical processing.

(viii) Biocomposting: In our quest to increase agricultural production during the last five decades or so, we almost totally neglected the use of compost and completely switched over to chemical fertilisers. The result is that large tracts of productive land have been adversely affected, water bodies including ground water system have suffered due to chemical contamination and demand for irrigation has been going up year after year. In certain parts of the country, cattle are maintained only because they produce dung which is an important fertiliser and soil conditioner. Earthwarms can convert organic matter into compost faster than the normal composting process. This process is now being willdely used.

(ix) Biopest Contract: With the advent of green revolution, the entire country entered into a frenzy to use more and more chemical pesticides for higher yield. Soon, the adverse impacts began to show, food products were contaminated, soil, water bodies and even ground water were polluted with pesticides. Even milk, meat and fishes were found to be contaminated. To meet this challenge efforts are on to bring better methods of post control with the use of posticides like neem trees are proving to be quite useful. Mixed cropping and growing different crops in consective years on the same land have also helped farmers.

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