Population explosion | 16 Jul, 2020

July 11 is observed as the World Population Day to bring about awareness on global population issues. As on date, the world population stands at around 7.7 billion, of which 1.28 billion is in India alone, a close second to China's population of 1.37 billion. By 2025, India with its population growth rate of around 1.6 % is slated to become the most populous country in the world, surpassing China. With such a rapid growth rate, by 2050 India's population is projected to reach 1.6 billion.

By now, we all are aware that such continuous population growth results in pressure on the land, shrinking forests and ecological imbalance, global warming due to increased use of fossil fuels, depletion in groundwater level and so on and so forth.

Under the present circumstances, India being a developing country, the government must take urgent steps to tackle the catastrophe ahead. In order to address these issues, the government must lay emphasis on population control, for which an ordinance may be brought with strict guidelines to be followed. A successful implementation of such an ordinance will win half the battle. Strict adherence to the existing government policies for conservation of forest and forest wealth, including soil conservation, and more thrust for energy generation from renewable sources will be significant steps in the right direction. New policies have to be framed with strict guidelines for the construction of green buildings with provision for rain water harvesting, and rooftop solar generation, both for official and residential purposes.

India is blessed with an extensive coastline of around 7,500 km. Such a vast sea space can be utilized optimally by using new technology to reduce pressure on the country's land mass. This sea space can be used for building floating refineries, power plants, desalination and manufacturing plants, hydroponic agriculture etc.

The above measures when under taken up sincerely, will definitely help the country to tackle the pressure on its resources by the burgeoning population, and will also help in restoring environmental balance, thus bringing prosperity to the nation.

Dilip Kumar Sarma,

Chenikuthi, Guwahati