WORLD POPULATION DAY is celebrated on July 11 as the world reached 5 billion people on this day in 1987. This world event is observed to raise awareness among people about the impact of a growing population and issues, including gender equality, the importance of family planning, poverty, maternal health, human rights and environmental problems.
The current world population is 8.22 billion and India’s population is 1.46 billion as of today. Thus one in every 5 persons on the earth is an Indian. The world population will touch 14.2 billion by 2100 at the present trend and that will really be a population bomb.
The theme for World Population Day 2025 is “Safeguarding the Health and Rights of Girls and Women”. This theme emphasizes the importance of addressing maternal health, reproductive rights and women’s empowerment in the context of global population dynamics. It also highlights the interconnectedness of these issues with sustainable development and the need for informed choices and equitable opportunities for all.
India was the first country to launch the national family planning programme in 1952 with the objective of reducing birth rate to stabilize the population with the requirement of national economy. Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease. Therefore, it implies the rights of men and women to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning at their choice.
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It also gives the message that to live together equitably on a healthy planet will depend on the choices and decisions we make today. This is an opportunity to celebrate our common humanity in diversity. It is also a reminder of our responsibility to care for each other and our planet.
Human and environmental health underpins the millennium development goals which seek to eradicate poverty and hunger and ensure environmental sustainability. But to fulfill such important factorsfor8.22 billion people by mother earth is next to impossible. Thus, almost 821 million people in the world – 1 in 8 – do not have access to enough food. Around 2.2 billion people i.e. 1 in 3 do not assess safety drinking water and 1.6 billion people; i.e.20% of the world’s populations do not have adequate housing.
Population growth poses threat to the environment
The links between population growth and threats to the environment cannot be denied. Humans living on the earth tend to overlook the obvious fact that increased population leads to a significant increase of consumption that causes harm to the environment. We need a balance with increasing population to the conservation of the earth’s natural resources. People do not realise themselves with the strains that they put on their environment.
One of the reasons for the rapid population growth is technological development. Every time we make another major improvement in technology, we push environmental capacity to another limit. We mined, farmed, built power plants and so on to make the earth more suitable for us to inhabit, which in turn leads to population growth. Another reason for population growth is improvement in the health sector. People live longer these days. In 2000, the average global life expectancy was 67 years but now it has increased to 72.6. With improvement in the health sector, we reduced the death rate, which ultimately contributed to population growth.
At present, globally it is estimated that 5 persons are born and about 2 persons die every second resulting in an increase of approximately 3 persons per second. This increase is about 9.46 crores population per year. FAO estimates that a person requires about 1.57 kg. food per day. Hence in order to have the livelihood for these increased mouths, a huge tropical rainforest is cleared to the size of 27 football grounds per minute amounting to twice the size of North-East India every year. The total number of trees cut will be around 15 billion trees per annum.
Meanwhile, the overall afforestation and natural regeneration are less than 1%. A tree can sink about one ton of CO2 in its life and can also produce the oxygen requirement for 8-10 persons annually. And forests are the most bio-diverse ecosystems in the world which hold thousands of undiscovered species, potential medicines and indigenous peoples.
In India for rural communities, they often depend on natural resources for their livelihoods, forcing growing populations to use the resources unsustainably. Preservation of healthy ecosystems is essential from a conservation perspective, but also for the wellbeing of communities themselves.
Due to faster population growth in forest and tribal areas, naturally available forest resources and non-timber forest products are becoming inadequate for their basic livelihood. Many tribal people are giving up their traditional lifestyle and taking up farming and cattle ranching in the forest areas causing irreparable damage. Such people, formerly the protectors of forests, are gradually becoming threats to the forests and the wildlife. Thus, we should devise schemes to avert this harm and save the dwindling forest areas including the flora and fauna.
In Manipur, we also have population impact on our environment. Due to increase in population, the present pressures to our forests, national parks, sanctuaries and PAs are maximized. To feed the increased population, we are facing jhum cultivation in hills and turning many wetlands of the state into croplands and fish farms. Due to large scale poppy plantation, illicit felling of trees, extraction of firewood has given a big blow to our environment.
Therefore, until we control the population explosion, we would not be able to save our Environment. If we do not voluntarily accept this fact and take responsibility, then we will surely be in an environmental dilemma within the next few years.
(The author, Dr N Munal Meitei, is an Environmentalist, presently working as DFO/Chandel, Manipur. He can be reached at nmunall@yahoo.in)
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