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Population Explosion and Loss of Biodiversity

InnoHEALTH magazine digital team — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 06:33:02 +0000

During Independence, India was one of the most populous countries of the world with 350 million people, since then it continued to grow at a higher rate with 1.37 billion people as of 2020.

Population and Biodiversity are closely related to each other and they have direct relationship with each other. Population ecology is the study of how the population of plants, animals or other organisms change over time. Critically speaking we are mentioning the population of humans here. It was during the Independence period, India was left with many issues including population explosion along with crippled economy, poverty etc. During Independence, India was one of the most populous countries of the world with 350 million people, since then it continued to grow at a higher rate with 1.37 billion people as of 2020.

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Causes of Population Explosion in India:

Hot Climate: One of the main reasons for the population explosion is the hot climate. Due to tropical climate maturity comes at an early age in boys and girls, due to which they give birth to children at earliest.
Early Marriage and Multi Marriage: 80% of girls of the country are married between 15-20 years. Thus the effect of early marriage comes in the form of long married life (long reproductive age period) and more childbirth.
Poverty, Illiteracy, High life expectancy (from 35 years in 1947 to 69 years in 2021), low Death Rate (from 45 per Thousand in 1947 to 8 per Thousand in 2021), Refugee migration etc. are some other causes of Population Explosion in India.

Relationship between Population Explosion and Loss of Biodiversity and its Effects:

Population Explosion has a direct relationship with Loss of Biodiversity. Population growth affect biodiversity in following ways;

Deforestation: Human greed is the main enemy of biodiversity. More forest habitat is being converted into agricultural and urban land as it pollutes the habitat through production of waste which adds to the loss.
Increased Resource Consumption: Increase in resource consumption is directly proportional to overpopulation, more the population more resources are needed for existence.
Farming Impacts: Due to increase in population, demand for food has also increased. This is achieved by cutting down forests more or less with government support to convert forest land into agricultural land. As a result of this practice, forest area is shrinking day by day thereby damaging the environment and natural habitat.
Pollution: Increase in population leads to increased waste production thereby polluting the environment and habitat.
Eutrophication: A process by which water bodies are enriched with minerals or chemical substances that increase in phytoplankton production. This is through direct or indirect human activity.
Global Warming and Climate Change: Another negative impact of overpopulation is in the form of Global Warming. Global Warming is a current challenge of almost all the countries in common and Southeast Asia ( India) in particular. There have been many agreements by different countries to tackle climate change and global warming. One of them is the Paris Agreement 2015, according to which the signatory countries are expected to lower their carbon emissions. India is also a signatory of this agreement.
Increased Emergence of new Pandemics due to Overpopulation and its effect on Environment: There’s a strong correlation between emergence of new Pandemics and Overpopulation. According to Dr Peter Daszak due to the increase in population we are witnessing new variation and emergence of more diseases.

Direct Activity includes Sewage Deposition in or around water bodies.

Indirect Activity includes washing away fertilizers ( from agricultural land) or other chemicals during floods.

Global Warming and Climate Change: Another negative impact of overpopulation is in the form of Global Warming. Global Warming is a current challenge of almost all the countries in common and Southeast Asia ( India) in particular. There have been many agreements by different countries to tackle climate change and global warming. One of them is the Paris Agreement 2015, according to which the signatory countries are expected to lower their carbon emissions. India is also a signatory of this agreement.
Increased Emergence of new Pandemics due to Overpopulation and its effect on Environment: There’s a strong correlation between emergence of new Pandemics and Overpopulation. According to Dr Peter Daszak due to the increase in population we are witnessing new variation and emergence of more diseases.

Solutions and Future policies to prevent overpopulation and Loss of Biodiversity

Solutions to Overpopulation: Overpopulation is the problem that didn’t arise overnight and nor it’s solution can be made in a day. Overpopulation is a very complex process to tackle and is a long term process which needs a long term planning.

Legislation: Legislation is an important factor to tackle overpopulation. Recently the Population Control Bill was proposed in 2019 to control the population growth of India. The bill was proposed but unfortunately it is yet to become a law in the country.
Family Planning
Women Empowerment
Education (Sexual and Adult Education) about the control methods (Contraception).
Poverty Alleviation ( Equity, Opportunity, Empowerment).
Maternal Education (One of the main approaches to reduce IMR and decrease Poverty).

Solutions to Conserve Biodiversity: By reducing Overpopulation has a direct effect on biodiversity conservation. We can conserve biodiversity through different approaches viz;

Effective Legislation: Legislation to conserve natural habitat and natural resources.
Afforestation: This is an important and long term approach to tackle climate change, global warming and to conserve biodiversity.
Reduce Climate Change: Global Warming can be reduced by minimising carbon emissions and shifting to alternative energy sources as signed to Paris Agreement 2015.
Sustainable Living: Sustainable Living is something that can be done at an individual level. It helps to reduce resource depletion.
Use Of Eco Friendly Products

Overpopulation and Loss of the environment is a great challenge in front of us because it puts our existence in danger.

Overpopulation and Loss of the environment is a great challenge in front of us because it puts our existence in danger. The fact is we can’t compensate for the loss we have done to our environment but it is our responsibility to protect it from further damage by taking small steps that could surely make a big change in the environment like from closing a running tap during brushing teeth to planting a tree. Are we really doing justice to our environment?

Composed by: Dr Sameer Ul Haq is doing his Masters in Public Health from Indian Institute of Public Health, Shillong. He has many achievements to his badge in various fields like Public Health, Global Health,Epidemiology besides having clinical skills. He is currently working on a Mental Health project.

Photo from Unsplash

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Global nutrition needs swift efforts

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 11:05:15 +0000

Global nutrition crisis threatens human development, demands ‘critical step change’ in response – Report

Women’s health in India has emerged as a major nutritional challenge with the country wrestling largest number of anemic women in the world and the other having to tackle diseases related with obesity –that is on the rise, warns the latest Global Nutrition Report, 2017. It says there is malnutrition among adults globally.A total of 614 million women aged between 15–49 years were affected by anemia. India had the largest number of women impacted, followed by China, Pakistan, Nigeria and Indonesia.In India and Pakistan, more than half of all women of reproductive age have anemia.

It is a global issue that many women in high-income countries also suffer from; prevalence rates may be as high as 18% in countries such as France and Switzerland. Obesity (body mass index (BMI) ≥30) is most common among North American men (33%) and women (34%), and lowest among Asian and African men (6%) and Asian women (9%).

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Overweight and obesity are increasing in almost every country and are a real concern for many low and middle income countries, not just high-income ones.The problem affects more women than men in all the world’s regions, reflecting a wider global gender disparity.

Hypertension is most common (28%) among African women and European men, and lowest (11%) among North American women. A quarter of Asian and Latin American men suffered from raised blood pressure in 2015. While more women worldwide are affected by obesity, the case for diabetes and hypertension is mixed. There is more diabetes among men than women in Asia, Europe, Northern America and Oceania, and more hypertension among men than women in all regions except Africa.

The world now faces a serious nutrition- related challenge, whether stemming from under nutrition or obesity, states Global Nutrition Report 2017.

The report found the vast majority (88%) of countries studied face a serious burden of two or three of these forms of malnutrition. It highlights the damaging impact this burden is having on broader global development efforts.

“The world can’t afford not to act on nutrition or we risk putting the brakes on human development as a whole,” said Corinna Hawkes, Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report’s Independent Expert Group and Director of the Centre for Food Policy at City, University London. “We will not achieve any of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs) by the 2030 deadline unless there is a critical step change in our response to malnutrition in all its forms. Equally, we need action throughout the goals to tackle the many causes of malnutrition.”

The Report calls for nutrition to be placed at the heart of efforts to end poverty, fight disease, raise educational standards and tackle climate change.

“We know that a well-nourished child is one-third more likely to escape poverty,” said Jessica Fanzo, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food and Agriculture Policy Ethics at Johns Hopkins University and Global Nutrition Report CoChair.

At least 41 million children under five are overweight, with the problem affecting high and lower income countries alike
At least 10 million children in Africa are now classified as overweight
One-third of North American men (33%) and women (34%) are obese
155 million under-fives are stunted; Africa is the only region where absolute numbers are rising, due to population growth
52 million children worldwide are defined as wasted, meaning they do not weigh enough for their height

In all 140 countries studied, the report found ‘significant burdens’ of three important forms of malnutrition used as an indicator of broader trends:
1) childhood stunting-children too short for their age due to lack of nutrients, suffering irreversible damage to brain capacity,
2) anemia in women of reproductive age-a serious condition that can have long term health impacts for mother and child, and
3) overweight adult women-a rising concern as women are disproportionately affected by the global obesity epidemic.

“They will learn better in school, be healthier and grow into productive contributors to their economies. Good nutrition provides the brainpower, the ‘grey matter infrastructure’ to build the economies of the future.”

Rates of undernutrition in children are decreasing, the report said, with recent gains in some countries. But global progress is not fast enough to meet internationally agreed nutrition goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target 2.2 to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030.

EmornUdomkesmalee, Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report’s Independent Expert Group and Senior Advisor, Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, Thailand, said, “It’s not just about more money – although that is important – it’s also about breaking down silos and addressing malnutrition in a more joined-up way alongside all the other drivers of development. There’s a powerful multiplier effect here that we have to harness.”

The report found that overweight and obesity are on the rise in almost every country.With 2 billion of the world’s 7 billion people are now overweight or obese and a less than 1 per cent chance of meeting the global target of halting the rise in obesity and diabetes by 2025.

Rising rates of anemiaamong women of reproductive age are also cited as a concern with almost one in three women affected worldwide and no country on track to meet global targets. “Historically, maternal anemia and child undernutrition have been separate problems to obesity and noncommunicable diseases,” said MsFanzo. “The reality is they are intimately connected and driven by inequalities everywhere in the world. That’s why governments and their partners need to tackle them holistically, not as distinct problems.” Donor funding for nutrition rose by just two per cent in 2015, to US$867 million, representing a slight fall in the overall percentage of global aid. The report says funding needs to be ‘turbo charged’ and calls for a tripling of global investments in nutrition, to $70bn for over next 10 years to tackle childhood stunting, wasting and anemia and to increase breastfeeding rates. Crucially, donors are only spending 0.01 per cent of official development assistance on diet related Non-Communicable Diseases, a ‘disturbingly low’ level.

Pledges to invest in nutrition must be ‘concrete’ and ‘acted upon’, not ‘empty rhetoric’, the report said. Of the 203 commitments made at the Nutrition for Growth Summit in 2013 those most likely to be classified as ‘on course’ are the UN agencies’ at 86 per cent, followed by ‘other organisations’ at 75 per cent and NGO policy commitments at 73 per cent.

The report found there is a critical need for better data on nutrition – many countries don’t have enough data to track the nutrition targets they signed up to and to identify who is being left behind.

Report says the world consumes too much salt. Intake varies by region, but no region had intakes within the WHO-recommended limits of 2 g/day of sodium. Asia has the highest intake (4.3 g/day of sodium), followed by Europe (4.0 g/day of sodium). At national level, only seven countries (Burundi, Comoros, Gabon, Jamaica, Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda) have sodium intakes within desirable limit).

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Digital India Healthy India

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 06:34:46 +0000

New India, Digital India, Make India, Innovate India in making a ‘Healthy’ India

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India is a country of diversity with 1.3 billion population of which 70 per cent resides in villages and have access to 30 per cent of medical assets of the country. Poverty is a significant issue of the country, despite having one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, clocked at an economic growth of 7.6 per cent in 2015. It is estimated that 23.6 per cent of Indian population, or about 276 million people, live below $1.25 per day.

As Health is a state subject-there is lot of mismatch in states like Kerala and Punjab have best health indicators, while Uttar Pradesh is the poorest as per the NITI Aayog report. Indian government spends approx. 1.5 per cent of its GDP on health sector and mplans to make it 2.5 per cent which is much less than many developing countries while the USA has dedicated 16 per cent of its GDP. India is riddled with very basic public health issues leading to disease burden. Keeping this in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched six initiatives: Open Defecation free country by 2019, Swachh Bharat Mission, National Health Policy 2017, Digital India with e-health, medical device manufacturing and door-to-door screening of chronic diseases.

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The healthcare needs holistic approach which depends on multiple factors. The present government has taken many positive steps including launching of National Health Policy 2017 after the gap of 12 years. It has announced many initiatives like health insurance of people who cannot afford basic healthcare and upgrading of health infrastructure.

The regulation of medical devices have been brought out and is applicable w.e.f January 1, 2018 ending uncertainty of medical device manufacturers having global market of 220 billion US dollar. Challenges bring opportunities such as Indian healthcare market is around US$ 100 billion while it is expected to grow US$ 280 billion by 2020. The healthcare IT market is US$ one billion and is expected to grow 1.5 times by 2020. There is requirement of 7 lakh hospital beds which need investment opportunities of 25-30 billion US dollar. We need to bring innovations in hospital planning,devices, diagnostics, drugs and use of technology to reduce healthcare delivery cost and yet quality.

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We failed targets of Health for All by 2000, National Rural Health Mission, and Millennium Development Goals and now launched Universal Health Coverage; its success would depend on providing healthcare facilities and strict accountability. We need to focus on primary health care and customise our healthcare delivery system by learning from experiences of other countries.

The concept of Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) making financial package for group of diseases which is known to patients, providers and third party payors should be considered by improving deficiency found in its execution by the USA.

The various schemes of present government are appreciable but success would depend on strict monitoring, corporate hospitals have high cost and many unethical practices are reported every day in media. Public hospitals to National Rural Health Mission have not delivered as required because of corruption, lack of resources and application of management practices. The need is not old wine in new bottle but strict control in implementation of various schemes launched.

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