After reading this article you will learn about the environmental degradation in rural areas.
Environmental degradation is a complex process involving transformation, alteration or material loss from any one of the environmental components. It may arise either by natural processes or by man-made activities. The major forms of environmental degradation and their consequences are shown in Table 23.1. Environmental pollution is also a component of degradation process.
Several types of environmental degradation can change potentially renewable resource into non-renewable, permanently extinct, or unusable resources:
1. Covering of productive land with water, silt, concrete, asphalt, or buildings to such an extent that crop growth declines and places for wildlife to live (habitats) are lost.
2. Cultivating land without proper soil management so that crop growth is reduced by soil erosion and depletion of plant nutrients. Each year the world’s farmers must feed 95 million more people with 24 billion fewer metric tons (26 billion tons) of topsoil.
3. Irrigating cropland without sufficient drainage so that excessive build-up of water (waterlogging) or salts (salinization) in the soil decreases crop growth.
4. Removing water from underground reservoirs (aquifers) and surface waters (rivers and lakes) faster than it is replaced by natural processes. Water scarcity is emerging on every continent.
5. Removing trees from large areas (deforestation) without adequate replanting so that wildlife habitats are destroyed and long-term timber growth is decreased. Every minute a piece of tropical forest of the size of 20 city blocks disappears.
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6. Depletion of grass by livestock (overgrazing) so that soil is eroded to the point where productive grasslands are converted into unproductive land and deserts (desertification).
7. Killing various forms (species) of wild plant and animal life through destruction of habitat, commercial hunting, pest control and pollution to the point where these species no longer exist (extinction).
The current status report of earth’s vital resources are depicted in Table 23.2:
The overall consequence of environmental degradation is very significant in rural areas than urban location.
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Thus there is direct poverty connection with environmental degradation (Table 23.3):
