Concepts of clean environment

Environment is conditions or circumstance by which one is surrounded

Surrounding includes living thing & non-living things in the state of physical, chemical,
radiation or gas in nature
Terminology
The word Environment is derived from the French word “Environ” which means “surrounding”.
Our surrounding is combination of biotic and abiotic factors
Biotic factors like human beings, Plants, animals, microbes, etc
Abiotic factors such as light, air, water, soil, etc.
Environment is a complex of many variables, which surrounds man as well as the living
organisms.

Why does it so important?

Each one of the component in the environment have constant interaction with each
other what we call it has adaptation and survival
Major stakeholders of the clean environment
Plants / Humans/ Animals/ Air/Water/Soil/Sound/Light/ Heat/ Radiation etc)
Factors that influence the changes in the environment
Human Influence – Deforestation an industrialization
Natural disaster – Acid rain/ Earthquake/ Soil erosion
Influence of contaminants - Pollution
Hydrosphere includes all water bodies such as lakes, ponds, rivers, streams

Lithosphere mainly, contains soil, earth rocks, mountain etc (layers-crusts, mantle and core
(outer and inner).
Atmosphere is a thin layer which contains gases like oxygen, carbon dioxide etc
Troposphere- Lower layer of atmosphere (8 and 14 kilometers)
the stratosphere, the mesosphere, the thermosphere and the exosphere.
Biosphere it is otherwise known as the life layer - It consists of plants, animals and micro-
organisms

Concept of Pollution
Introduction of the contaminants in to the clean environment which negatively impacts
the conventional ECO system
Pollution: It’s a process of adding considerable amount of pollutants (unwanted/
Harmful) in to the clean environment exceeding the permissible limit over a period of
time.
An undesirable change in the characteristics of air, water and land that harmfully affect the life and
also create health hazards for all living organisms on the globe

Pollutant: Agents/ Substance that causes the pollution

Mode of pollution: Air, Water, Soil, Noise, Heat, Radiation etc
Fact: Pollution is highly controllable with prompt strategy

Standard – Set of measures to indicate the quality of the clean environment

(1) Natural Pollution: This type of pollution is limited in its occurrence generally from natural
hazards like volcanic eruptions, emissions of natural gas, soil erosion, ultraviolet rays, cosmic
rays etc and
(2) Manmade Pollution: Most of the pollution is man made only. However, Pollution is usually
categorized as Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Thermal Pollution; Noise Pollution; Land & soil
Pollution; Radio Active Pollution and Marine Pollution

Regulating Body
Further detail regarding India’s regulatory bodies can be found on the India Regulatory
Background page
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF)
Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
National Ambient Air Quality Standards, as of 2009
The National Air Monitoring Programme (NAMP)