Multi – Disciplinary Nature

of Environmental Studies

By
Dharmesh N. Adesara
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Management
GLS University
“The Protection of Environment is
rooted in Indian Culture”
- Shri Narendra Modi
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Environmental Studies. . .
• Environmental studies deals with every issues that
affects a living organism. It is essentially a
multidisciplinary approach that brings about an
appreciation of our natural world and human impact on
its integrity. It is an applied science, as it seeks practical
answers to the increasingly important questions of how
to make human civilization sustainable on the finite
resources that are available.
• Its components include biology, geology, chemistry,
physics, engineering, sociology, health, anthropology,
economics, statistics, computers and philosophy.
 Scope of Environmental Studies…
• Both science and Social Science
• Multidisciplinary Field
• Lives are inextricably linked to our surroundings and inevitably affect
them
• Web of life
• Dependence on nature – “Mother Nature”
• Technological innovations
• Industrial development and intensive agriculture has diluted environment
• Sustainable development
 For every resource we use, we must ask
ourselves the following questions:

• What is the value of the resource and where does it originate?

• Who uses it most intensively and how?
• How is it being overused or misused?
• Who is responsible for its improper use – the resource collector,
the middleman, the end – user?
• How can we help conserve it and prevent its unsustainable use?
 Gujarat’s Initiatives In Environment
Conservation
• A Dynamic, Investor friendly, new Solar Policy with a target to set up 500 MW of
Solar Energy Plants
• A proactive Wind Power Policy to make the wind energy capacity from 1300 MW
to 8000 MW
• 39 Clean Development Mechanism (CMD). Projects identified with an estimated CER
@ 28 million / annum from Sectors like Energy and Petrochemicals, Urban
Transportation, Forest and Environment, Rural Development and Industries and
Mines
• Gujarat leads the CDM Market in the country. Almost 40% of the Certified Emission
reductions (CER) issued till 1st February 2009 in India are from Gujarat
• Gandhinagar Solar Energy Project under implementation, as a part of Energy
Conservation Program and is under CDM Projects.
Con’t…
• Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) being implemented to shift 40% of the
trips from Personal transport vehicles to Public Transport.
• 70 Plants of 96 compost Plants in the Urban local bodies of India are in
Gujarat and are operational.
• Large Urban Efficiency Program covering all Municipal Corporations and
Municipalities in the State under implementation which will lead to 30%
energy saving.
• 2200 Kms of Gas Grid under implementation. A master plan of Rs.8000
Crores to provide 20 lac domestic connections, CNG Stations for Auto fuel.
Major Industrial Estates would be provided Gas as a fuel.
• India’s first and two LNG Terminals – Dahej and Hazira are in Gujarat, with
the plants to set up two additional LNG Terminals at Mundra and Pipavav.
 Con’t…
• 3.6 Lac Auto Vehicles switched over to Clean Fuel of CNG/LPG in the last 7 years.
Ahmedabad, which was the 4th Most Polluted city in India has improved to the 66th
rank in the last four years.
• 25000 Hectares of Mangrove Forest have been added in the Postal areas of Gujarat
which will be working as strong Carbon Sink absorbing 50 tons of Carbon per Hectare.
• Social Forestry in Gujarat has achieved a benchmark of 14 Trees per Hectare.
• Ground Water dependence has been reduced by a laying a State wide Water Grid which
covers 75% of the Population with sustainable surface water resources for drinking
water.
• 3 Lac Water Harvesting Structures constructed in last 5 years has increased the ground
water level throughout the State and increased the Agriculture Income by four times.
• Drip Irrigation System (DIS) has been introduced and inter-linking of 21 rivers of the
State for Conservation of water.
Activity ! ! !
• Take any article that you use in daily life – a bucket full of
water, an item of food, a table or a book
• Trace its components through a journey backwards from
your home to its origins as natural resources in our
environment
• Are you using that resource unsustainably?
• In what ways could you reduce, reuse and recycle that
resource?
 Summary. . .
• Environmental studies involves understanding human interactions
with the environment. It requires an integrated approach to
several disciplines of science and social studies.
• We live in a world where natural resources such as land, water,
forests, minerals, oil, grasslands and wetlands are limited. We can
not continue to over-utilize these resources beyond the earth’s
assimilative capacity. Thus, the sustainable use of resources is of
utmost importance.
• Everything around us forms our environment and our lives depend
on keeping its vital systems intact. We need to individually take
responsibility towards preventing our environmental resources.