Environmental Education Must Compulsory For All
Environment literally means Surrounding in which we are living. Environment includes all those things on which we are directly or indirectly dependent for our survival, whether it is living component like animals, plants or non living component like soil, air water. Environmental Protection Act (1986) defined “Environment as the sum total of water, air and land, their interrelationship among themselves and with the human beings, other living beings and property.” Environmental studies are the scientific study of the environmental system and the status of its inherent or induced changes on organisms. It includes not only the study of physical and biological characters of the environment but also the social and cultural factors and the impact of man on environment.
Objectives of environmental education includes Creating the awareness about environmental problems among people, imparting basic knowledge about the environment and its allied problems, developing an attitude of concern for the environment, motivating public to participate in environment protection and environment improvement, acquiring skills to help the concerned individuals in identifying and solving environmental problems and Striving to attain harmony with Nature.
According to UNESCO, the guiding principles of environmental education including Environmental education should be compulsory, right from the primary up to the post graduate stage. Environmental education should have an interdisciplinary approach by including physical, chemical, biological as well as socio-cultural aspects of the environment. It should build a bridge between biology and technology. Environmental education should take into account the historical perspective, the current and the potential historical issues.
Environmental Science deals with the scientific study of environmental system (air, water, soil and land), the inherent or induced changes on organisms and the environmental damages incurred as a result of human interaction with the environment. On the other hand Environmental Engineering deals with the study of technical processes involved in the protection of environment from the potentially deleterious effects of human activity and improving the environmental quality for the health and well beings of humans. It is not only the duty of government but also the people to take active role for protecting the environment, so protecting our environment is economically more viable than cleaning it up once, it is damaged.The role of mass media such as newspapers, radio, television, etc is also very important to make people aware regarding environment. There are various institutions, which are playing positive role towards environment to make people aware regarding environment like BSI (Botanical Survey of India, 1890), ZSI (Zoological Survey of India, 1916), WII (Wild Life Institute of India, 1982) etc.