LIVING WITH INSECURITY: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS LINKED WITH SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN RURAL WEST BENGAL, INDIA
Journal Title: Revue Roumaine de Géographie/Romanian Journal of Geography - Year 2019, Vol 63, Issue 1
Abstract
Environmental insecurity is considered as one of the threats to human development, or human wellbeing. It has been noticed that rural social problems are closely related to environmental degradation, hazards, and scarcity of resources (supply-induced, demand-induced, structure-induced) of a particular region. India has been listed amongst the most vulnerable countries in terms of environmental degradation and climate change risk. The Indian state of West Bengal is the second highest densely populated state where 68.13% of the population live in rural areas and people have been facing with serious environment-driven problems. The aim of this article is to establish the link between environmental problems and rural social problems in West Bengal. The nature of social problems related to environmental depletion/ degradation/ hazards has been critically explained; for example, in the last 15 years, rural West Bengal has witnessed 18 major social problems linked to environmental issues. The study has been divided into two parts. The first part discusses the geographical pattern of environmental problems linking it with social problems according to agro-ecological zones. The second part focusses on the environmental scarcity of resources linking it with social problems. In rural West Bengal, the high population growth led to the scarcity of several resources, such as soil, water, forest, which affect the lives of the people. Out of the total geographical area of the state, fallow land increased from 0.5% in 1985–86 to 6.6% in 2010–2011. The increasing trend of fallow land leads to scarcity of land which has fueled rural farmer’s distress.
Authors and Affiliations
MANORANJAN GHOSH, SOMNATH GHOSAL
Keywords
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