Effect of Urbanization on Basic Environmental Components

A country with a spread of only 2.4 per cent of the total land surface area of the world, India is home to 17.5 per cent of the world population. This fact is sufficient enough to delineate as well as simultaneously bring to fore the paradox which exists between land and human population.  It is evident that the relation which exists between both is an unequal one where the latter has the ability to multiply self but the former remains constant. This unequal relation that exists has very significantly contributed to the depletion in the quality of land. This is because construction of every kind and nature has been forced on the land to assimilate the ever increasing population which has altered the not only the land but the environment which existed on the land. To get behind this alteration it becomes imperative to delve into concepts like urbanization, ecology and their amalgam viz. urban ecology. The concept of urban ecology doesn’t only involve study of buildings, flora and fauna which exists in a given land space. It goes further into establishing a relation between construction on land and the consequent harm which the same is causing to the environment and environmental resources like air, water etc. This paper shall try cerebrating concepts of urbanization, ecology and urban ecology in the light of relation which exists between man and nature.