Economic and infrastructural planning of an area should be done bearing in mind the environment conservation

Economic and infrastructural planning of an area should be done bearing in mind the environment conservation.

To what extent do you agree with this statement? Provide reasons for your answer.

I completely agree that economic and infrastructural planning of an area should be done bearing in mind the environment conservation. In fact, the environment of earth is in such a bad state today since it was conveniently ignored while human beings were busy constructing buildings, roads and railways.

Rightly said by M.K.Gandhi, “there is sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed”.

We know that forests are the sources of various foods we eat and various medicines we need. They help to stabilise the world’s climate, protect against floods and draughts and are also a great support for tribal people. In spite of all these benefits, every year a certain area of a forest is cut and destroyed. This is done to construct roads, buildings, railways etc in those areas. The severe repercussions of cutting the forests and the harmful effects on the environment are not taken into account.

For example, cutting down of forests bring about severe climatic changes. The soil gets loose and it is carried away by the rivers and deposited on the river or ocean beds. The water level hence rises giving rise to floods in one area and draughts in another. For example, Indonesia has experienced several severe draughts in the recent decades due to the same.
Moreover, the by-products of these construction sites are thrown into the nearby water bodies thereby contaminating them and disturbing the flora and fauna in those water bodies. Also, noise pollution is caused beyond tolerable limits, which makes the birds and animals in the nearby areas sick.

In fact, Government has realised that due to the pressures of population and technology, the bio physical environment is getting degraded and it has begun to place restraints on the activities which degrade the environment. Various laws like Environment Protection Law 1989, Law on water and soil conservation etc have been formulated and are being implemented.

It is a tragic fact that for centuries together, man has been exploiting the environment to satisfy his selfish needs. Hence, it is high time that environmental planning is also given equal importance as economic and infrastructure planning. Environment planning should be the basis of all other types of planning which have direct or indirect co-relation with the environment.