Relationship Among Population, Environment, and Development

A population is the total number of people living in a particular place at a particular time. Similarly, the environment is the surrounding in which we live. All the factors of the environment affect the social and economic condition of a human. Environment denotes the sum total pf physical and biological factors that affect the survival, growth, development and reproduction of an organism. Population, environment, and development are interrelated to each other. Environment affects the life of living organisms and socio-economic development process.

Development simply means progress or positive change. It indicates the positive growth in the economy, structure, attitude, and institution from positive aspects. Development brings positive change in the existing situation. It brings progress or positive change in social, economic and cultural aspects in the society and the nation. Development brings peace and security along with it. It helps to fulfill the needs and desires of every citizen of the nation. It also increases the capability of people to be self-dependent. It helps in the proper utilization of the natural resources of the country. The satisfaction of human needs and aspirations is the ultimate objective of development. Development does not only mean economic progress but it is beyond the economic progress for freedom, equity, health, education, safe environment and much more in the nation building process.

Talking about man and environment, it is impossible for man to live without environment. There is a very strong interaction between man and environment. The interaction between man and environment are of two types. They are positive interaction and negative interaction. Positive interaction means doing activities on the environment that helps in the protection and preservation of the environment. Positive interaction with environment results clean environment, fresh air, pure drinking water, pollution free environment etc. This activity does not harm the environment. Similarly, negative interactions with environment mean doing those activities on the environment that causes pollution, energy crisis, deforestation, unprecedented natural hazard etc.
People conduct various developmental activities on the environment which affects the various resources of the environment. While conducting developmental activities, we need to balance and coordinate between population, development activities and the environment. We should carry out developmental activities in a sustainable manner. People get all the things from environment necessary for their life. Various developmental activities related to agriculture, industry, health, education, transportation, communication, security, human settlement, science, technology, and employment are conducted in the environment. If these activities are not conducted properly, it may affect the environment and may create difficulty in the life of living organisms. So, development activities should be carried out along with the preservation and protection of the environment. We should not harm the environment to fulfill our needs and desires. It is the responsibility of every people to protect and conserve the environment. Developmental activities should be carried out with proper planning and long-term vision. We should establish good coordination among population, environment and development activities.

Concept of Development

Development means the process of developing or being developed. It is also the growth, progress, positive change, and success. Development helps in the proper utilization of natural resources, skills, and technical knowledge in order to fulfill the human needs. Development helps to establish peace and security. It helps to fulfill human needs and aspiration. It brings positive change in our society and nation.
Development is the process by which the members of society increase their personal and institutional capabilities to mobilize and manage resources. Development helps to increase the quality of life of people as there is good access to education, health care, employment opportunities, safe and clean environment and so on. Development brings positive and structural change in existing physical, human and socio-cultural situation. It helps to fulfill the needs and desires of each and every citizen. It makes people self-dependent and helps to increase their living standard. Development also means planned urbanization and industrilization.
The renowed development economist Micheal Todaro has defined development as "........a multi- dimensional process involving changes in structure, attitude and institutions as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of inequality and the eradication of absolute poverty." Similarly, another scholar Chi- Yuen Wu has defined development as, "A process of societal transformation from a traditional society to a modern society is called development and such a transformation is also known as modernization."

Development means positive change. The main aim of development is to fulfill the human needs and aspiration. Some of the needs like food, shelter, clothing; education, communication, health service, drinking water, sanitation, energy and entertainment are the basic needs. If development activities are properly planned then it not only fulfills the needs and aspiration of people but also protect, preserve and promote the environment in every step of developmental activities. There are various dimensions of development like rural development, human resource development, economic development, community development, urban development, environment protection climate change, good governance, accountable and efficient administration etc.

The following aspects are incorporated in the concept of Development:

• Development of Human Skill
• Equity and liberty
• Environmental balance
• Promotion of quality of life
• Promotion in the sense of self-esteem
• Get rid of poor economic trap
• Mobilization of resources
• Orientation from traditional to modern perspective
• Economic, social, political and cultural progress
• Response to effective and goal oriented demand
• Production of necessary goods and services
• Poverty alleviation and fulfillment of needs
• Socio- economic transformation
• Development of technology

Infrastructure of Development

There are various aspects of development like a development of human capability, development of technology, economic progress, improvement in living standard, fulfillment of needs, environmental balance and social development. We can develop the economic status by the proper utilization of natural resources with the help of skilled and competent human resource.

The infrastructure of development refers to the basic requirements availed to economic and social development. The development as a whole depends on its infrastructure. It is considered as the pillar of development. Some of the examples of the infrastructure of development are roads, bridges, water supply, schools, hospitals etc. The infrastructure of development helps to achieve the development according to the plan. If there is good infrastructure, then the developmental activities can be carried out very smoothly and easily. Bu if there are no enough infrastructure, then it becomes very difficult to complete the developmental activities in the given time or developmental activities may be stopped. There are various aspects of the infrastructure of development. Some of the aspects of infrastructure of development are discussed below,

• Physical Aspect: Infrastructures like road, bridge, canal, drainage, communication, transportation, electricity etc comes under the physical aspects of infrastructure. Physical aspects help to carry out developmental activities smoothly and easily as per plan. It helps the complete the developmental activities in time.
• Social aspect: Social aspect of infrastructure are human knowledge, skill, efficiency, norms and values etc. This is also one of the important aspect necessary to carry out developmental activities. Some of the other social aspects of infrastructure are education, transportation, electricity, social security etc.
• Economic Aspect: To carry out developmental activities, we need proper economic planning and policies along with capital. We cannot conduct developmental activities without capital. Development activities can be conducted very effectively if there is strong and sustainable economic infrastructure. Some of the examples of economic aspects of infrastructure are banking systems, industrialization, capital etc.

• HumanResource: We cannot conduct developmental activities without human resource. We need skilled manpower to conduct developmental activities properly. Some of the examples of human resource are doctors, teachers, lawyers, technicians, journalist etc. We need skilled manpower in the field of education, agriculture, health, communication, science and technology.