SHRI CHHATRAPATI

SHIVAJI MAHARAJ
COLLEGE OF
ENGINEERING, NEPTI,
AHMEDNAGAR
Subject:
Enviromental
Studies
Topic:
Group Members: Public
1. Puri Sakshi Ramesh Awareness
2. Ostwal Isha Lalit Guided By:
3. Shinde Suhani Vijay Prof. R Mhaske
 What is Public Awareness

Public awareness refers to the level of understanding,

knowledge, and consciousness that individuals possess about
social, political, environmental, and health-related issues.
Public awareness plays a crucial role in shaping public opinion,
driving collective action, and bringing about positive change in
society. This essay explores the significance of public
awareness, its key components, the role of media and
education in promoting awareness, and the challenges and
opportunities in cultivating an informed and engaged citizenry.

Public awareness encompasses various components

that contribute to a well-informed citizenry. Access to
information is fundamental to public awareness. It involves the
availability and transparency of data, research findings, and
reliable sources of information.
 Education plays a vital role in promoting public awareness.
Through formal and informal education systems, individuals gain
knowledge, critical thinking skills, and civic literacy. Education
equips individuals with the tools to navigate complex issues,
understand diverse perspectives, and actively participate in
societal affairs. Media literacy is essential in an era of information
overload.

It involves the ability to critically evaluate media

messages, discern reliable sources, and navigate digital
platforms. Media literacy empowers individuals to distinguish
between fact and misinformation, fostering a discerning and
informed public. Active engagement is a crucial component of
public awareness. It involves individuals actively seeking
information, participating in public forums, engaging with
community organizations, and contributing to public dialogue.
Active engagement allows citizens to share their perspectives,
collaborate with others, and contribute to shaping societal norms
 Importance Of Public Awareness

Depletion of the natural resources and environmental

degradation necessitates the need for action plan for
environment protection. Climate change, loss of biodiversity,
ozone layer depletion, and illegal trade of endangered species,
habitat destruction, land degradation, ground water depletion,
invasive species, environmental pollution, solid waste and
sewage disposal pose serious threat to forest, marine, freshwater
and other land ecosystems.

Ignorance and lack of concern for the environmental issues

pose hurdles in environment management. Government alone
cannot manage the entire issues single handedly without public
support. Every individual should be the integral part of campaign
for the prevention of environment degradation as we are the only
ones to reap the benefits of clean environment. Prevention is
always better than cure. Reducing wastage of natural resources
and remaining alert about the sources that lead to pollution and
degradation of our environment will enable us to prompt
 This is possible only through massive public
awareness. Newspapers, radio and television strongly
influence public opinion. Press and media add on to the public
efforts and enforce politicians to respond positively to a
strong public movement.

NGOs and small help groups are continuously working

towards sensitizing people towards environment. Various
green policies formed by the government are the fruits of
public efforts. Sensitization of the society about
environmental issues and challenges initiate skill and
expertise development in the individuals leading to
appropriate solutions to the environmental issues. Idea of
‘DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT DESTRUCTION OF THE
ENVIRONMENT’ can be accomplished by public awareness
only. Public can play important role in law making and their
enforcement.
 Educational Goals in Public Awareness

The objective of environmental education is that the public

should become conscious, attain knowledge, change outlooks,
and realize capabilities to combat real-life environmental
problems. For this, the general public should be acquainted with
integrated inter-disciplinary and holistic education. This is only
possible with a new approach to education itself—which should
be provided in schools and universities.

The goals of environmental education as pointed out by

the UNESCO is to create environmental awareness in the world
population—an awareness about the whole environment and
problems associated with it and generate commitment in people
to work individually and in union towards solving existing
problems and preventing new ones from emerging.
 The objectives of environmental education
formulated at the UNESCO’s Tbilisi Conference
(1977) were as follows:

i)Awareness: To make people sensitive towards environment and

associated problems that arises due to its misuse.

ii) Knowledge: To help people gain experiences and

basic understanding of the environment and related problems.

iii) Skills: People must gain skills for recognizing and resolving
environmental problems.

iv) Attitude: Help people acquire values and feelings of concern

for the environment and encourage their participation in keeping
our environment clean and safe.

v) Participation: Provide an opportunity to get involved at all

levels in the task of resolving environmental problems.
 The ‘Environmental Education, Awareness
and Training (EEAT)’ is a scheme of
the Ministry for improving the understanding of people
at all levels about the relationship between human beings
and the environment and to develop capabilities/skills to
improve and protect the environment.

This scheme was launched in 1983-84 with the basic

objective to promote environmental awareness among all
sections of the society and to mobilize people’s participation
for preservation and conservation of environment. EEAT
Scheme has the following objectives:

• To mobilize people’s participation for preservation and

conservation of environment. The objectives of this scheme
are being realized through implementation of the following
programmes launched over the years:
• To promote environmental awareness among all sections of
the society;

• To spread environment education, especially in the non-

formal system among different sections of the society;

• To facilitate development of education/training materials

and aids in the formal education sector;

• To promote environment education through existing

educational/scientific/research institutions;

• To ensure training and manpower development for

environment education, awareness and training;

• To encourage non-governmental organizations, mass media

and other concerned organizations for promoting awareness
about environmental issues among the people at all levels;
 National Environment Public Awareness
Campaign (NEAC)
The NEAC was launched in 1986 with the objective to
create environmental awareness at the national level. In this
campaign, nominal financial assistance is provided to schools,
universities, research institutes, colleges, women and youth
organisations, NGOs, army units, government departments
etc. from all over the country for conducting awareness
raising and action oriented activities.

NEAC activities have been supervised and monitored

by thirty four Regional Resource Agencies (RRAs) . 11754
organisations participated from across the country during
NEAC 2013- 2014.
 Need Of Public Awareness
It is very important to make public aware about the
deadly consequences of the environmental degradation as it
would lead to massive extinction of life if left unattended and
reformative measures are not undertaken. We are facing
various environmental challenges that need to be tackled
stringently for sustainable growth and development.
Eco-friendly approach needs to be followed in every
nation to acquaint for the threats posed in the name of
industrialization and development. Natural resources are
limited in the world. We are dependent on natural ecosystems
for the products obtained from forests, grasslands, oceans and
from agriculture and livestock as well as water, air, soil,
minerals, oil etc. which are indispensable part of our life
support systems
 Life would be impossible without these all
substances. Increase in population put pressure on these
limited natural resources. The earth cannot sustain the
ever growing demand for resources. Moreover misuse of
resources is the other contributing factor to environmental
deterioration.
Wastage and pollution of water resources,
generation of non-biodegradable materials like plastic, non-
recyclable electronic waste, nuclear waste are the other
serious threats. Manufacturing processes generate solid
waste, chemicals and gases that pollute the environment.
Alarming increase in waste generation cannot be
managed by natural processes as most of the synthetic
waste is non-biodegradable. These keep on accumulating in
our environment leading to a variety of diseases and other
adverse environmental effects that seriously affects our
lives.
 Various environmental challenges are as below:

1. Population explosion

Current population in India has reached nearly 1.34 billion with

population growth rate of 1.2%. Some of the reasons for rapidly growing
population are illiteracy, poverty, high fertility rate, reduced mortality
rates and infiltration from neighboring countries. It puts extensive
pressure on natural resources to meet growing demands. Hence,
population growth is the biggest challenge. Women literacy and
awareness are some of the measures that need to rigorously practice to
circumvent this challenge.

2. Poverty

Environment –poverty nexus dates back from ages. Poverty was

one of the main agenda for the achievement of Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) framed by United Nations and its eradication from the
world is the first goal for year 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.
 Although number of poor as well as the proportion of
poor below the poverty line (according to the Tendulkar
poverty line) have been declining over two decades as per
government reports, but about 270 million are still below
the poverty line. Initiatives like MGNREGA have been taken
to improve the poverty presiding in India.

Majority of poor people are directly dependent on

the natural resources for their basic needs like food, fodder
fuel and shelter. Environment degradation has adversely
affected the status of poor who depend upon natural
resources for their immediate needs. Thus, the challenge of
poverty and the challenge of environment degradation are
two sides of the same coin. The population growth and
poverty are interlinked as every child is the bread winner for
the family.
3. Agricultural Growth

The main aim of green revolution was making nation food

sufficient but the strategies adopted in achieving this aim lead to
harmful effects directly on the rural and indirectly on the urban
communities. Introduction of high yielding varieties,
indiscriminate use of fertilizers, insecticides have led to
development of resistant varieties of flora and fauna, decreased
soil fertility, disturbance of the natural ecosystems etc.
Lack of appropriate knowledge to use insecticides and
fertilizers, awareness for the banned chemicals and ignorance of
the potential ill effects has led to surfacing of serious diseases
like cancer along with harmful effects and disruption of
agricultural ecosystems. The people must therefore, be
acquainted with the eco-friendly methods to sustain and
increase agricultural growth without damaging the environment.
4. Ground water

Rational use of groundwater is necessary as

aquifers are limited, confined and ground water level is
declining day by day. Leaching chemical fertilizers and
pesticides, industrial effluents have polluted surface
water and affected the quality of the groundwater. It is
essential to maintain the water quality of rivers and
other water bodies.

Strategies for provision of safe drinking water

and keeping water bodies clean are the key challenges.
Initiatives under Corporate social responsibility (CSR) by
the industries for effluent treatment can be helpful.
Mandatory and stringent law for tackling industries not
abiding the rules for waste disposal and awareness
among public to act as whistleblower can help to open
new paths for providing fresh and pure drinking water to
the nation
5. Deforestation

Massive deforestation is the result of industrialization.

Submerging of forests due to building of dams for hydroelectric
power plants has led to displacement of local people, and damage
to flora and fauna. Dams on river Narmada, Bhagirathi etc. have
become hot topics for debate in political and scientific spheres.

Forests cover in India has been decreasing from last few

decades owing to pressures of development. Vast areas have
turned into wastelands. These areas can be rejuvenated by
increasing vegetative cover. The tribal communities respect flora
and fauna to sustain their lives. Local people should be integrated
with knowledge and skills of the forest department for restoring
and conserving forests. Well planned strategies by joint
management of forests should be evolved. We must recognize the
power of awareness and integrity of the public towards
environment issues from past.
6. Land degradation

Land is a limited resource. With the increase in

human population and economic development, demand
for land is increasing. Total land area of India is 329 million
hectares out of which only 266 million hectares have
potential productivity. 143 million hectares of land is under
cultivation and remaining land area (85 million hectares)
has suffered from soil degradation. Nearly 30% of the land
in India is degraded. From 123 million hectares, 40 million
hectare land is completely unproductive. Overgrazing,
water and soil erosion leads to further land degradation.
This degradation can be avoided by reforestation and local
public efforts to restore land usage.
7. Urbanization

Urbanization and industrialization has led to various

environmental problems like solid waste disposal, development of
slums and sewerage disposal. Clean towns and cities are
therefore major challenge which can be accomplished only by the
cumulative effort of government and people.

8. Air and water Pollution

Most of the industrial setups do not comply with the

environmental standards setup for waste disposal and treatment.
Stringent implementation of the environmental policies is
necessary to prevent environmental deterioration. Their
implementation needs resources, technical expertise, political
and social obligation. Awareness to environmental policies is
mandatory for achieving public support for their implementation.
  Benefits Of Public
Awareness
Public awareness enhances social cohesion
by fostering empathy, understanding, and dialogue
among diverse groups. It also serves as a catalyst
for behavior change, influencing attitudes and
actions related to health, the environment, and
social justice.
It can mobilize the power of public opinion in
support of an issue and thereby influence the
political will of decision makers. There are multiple
awareness-raising strategies, methods and tools
that can be used to convey and spread messages,
and to gather the support necessary to influence
public opinion
 Future Of Public Awareness

Protecting the environment is a priority for

future generations. Public awareness also gives us a
sense of responsibility to keep natural resources for
future generations. Environmental problems such as
wastewater and waste man- agement (Mukhtar et al.
2016) are among the world's most serious problems.
Public awareness is one of the basic
principles in environment management. It
involves: Developing sensitivity and awareness
towards environmental issues. Inculcating and
imbibing the stringent need for conservation of
natural resources and surrounding environment.