ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN INDIA: AN OVERVIEW

Abstract

Cities are not only the place of production and consumption but also has some space of cultural
and social interaction which provides opportunity of gaining information, knowledge sharing,
cultural exchange, health and education. India’s level of urbanization keeps on accelerating at
unprecedented scale that ultimately caused threat to environment sustainability. Because of the
unplanned urban growth causes the formation of slum and increased the burden on the existing
infrastructure. Consequently, the issue of management of urbanization becomes critical because
it imposes a heavy cost on the current natural resources. Presently Indian cities are facing a lot of
environmental challenges in the form of pollution, stress on urban land, Water shortages, losses
of green cover and biodiversity etc. A few substitutes have been suggested to resolve the issues
emerged during development process in the cities are cooperation among authorities at local,
state, national and international levels, magnetize private investment and utilize natural resources
within a limited extent and consultation with different stakeholders. Besides, an integrated
approach to rural and urban development is very important in this regard but unfortunately it is
missing on the ground reality.