Geo ppt very useful

2. Some of the major problems of urbanization in
India are:
1. Urban Sprawl
2. Overcrowding
3. Housing
4. Unemployment
5. Slums and Squatter Settlements
6. Transport
7. Water
8. Sewerage Problems
9. Trash Disposal
10. Urban Crimes
11. Problem of Urban Pollution

3. 1. Urban Sprawl
Urban sprawl or real expansion of the cities, both
in population and geographical area, of rapidly growing
cities is the root cause of urban problems. In most cities
the economic base is incapable of dealing with the
problems created by their excessive size. Massive
immigration from rural areas as well as from small towns
into big cities has taken place almost consistently;
thereby adding to the size of cities.

4.  The first large flow of migration from rural to urban
areas was during the “depression” of late 1930s when
people migrated in search of jobs. Later, during the
decade 1941-51, another a million persons moved to
urban places in response to wartime industrialization
and partition of the country in 1947.
 During 1991-2001, well over 20 million people migrated
to cities. The greatest pressure of the immigrating
population has been felt in the central districts of the
city (the old city) where the immigrants flock to their
relatives and friends before they search for housing.

5. This is due to the fact that
such large cities act as
magnets and attract large
number of immigrants for
their employment
opportunities and modern
way of life. Such hyper-
urbanization leads to
projected cities sizes of
which defy imagination.
Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata,
Chennai, Bangalore, etc. are
examples of urban sprawl
due to large scale migration
of people from the
surrounding areas.

6. 2. Overcrowding:
Overcrowding is a situation in which too many people
live in too little space. Overcrowding is a logical
consequence of over-population in urban areas. It is
naturally expected that cities having a large size of
population squeezed in a small space must suffer from
overcrowding. This is well exhibited by almost all the big
cities of India.

7. For example, Mumbai has
one-sixth of an acre open
space per thousand
populations though four
acre is suggested standard
by the Master Plan of
Greater Mumbai. Delhi has a
population density of 9,340
persons per sq. km (Census
2001) which is the highest in
India. Population density in
central part of Delhi could
be much higher.

8. 3. Housing:
Overcrowding leads to a chronic problem of shortage of
houses in urban areas. This problem is specifically more
acute in those urban areas where there is large influx of
unemployed or underemployed immigrants who have no
place to live in when they enter cities/towns from the
surrounding areas.

9. An Indian Sample
Survey indicated that
44 percent of urban
households (as
compared to 34 per cent
of rural families)
occupied one room or
less. In larger cities the
proportion of families
occupying one room or
less was as high as 67
per cent. Moreover, the
current rate of housing
construction is very
slow which makes the
problem further
complicated.

10.  Taking India as whole, there are 179 million residential
houses, i.e., about six people to each house.
 Thirty-nine per cent of all married couples in India (about
86 million) do not have an independent room to
themselves. As many as 35 per cent (18.9 million) urban
families live in one-room houses.
 For about a third of urban Indian families, a house does
not include a kitchen, a bathroom, a toilet—and in many
cases there is no power and water supply.
 Only 79 per cent (42.6 million) urban household live in
permanent (pucca) houses. 67 per cent (36 million) of the
urban houses are owned by the households while 29 per
cent (15 million) are rented.

11. 4. Unemployment:
The problem of unemployment is no less serious than
the problem of housing mentioned. Urban
unemployment in India is estimated at 15 to 25 per cent
of the labour force. This percentage is even higher
among the educated people.

12. It is estimated that about
half of all educated urban
unemployed are
concentrated in four
metropolitan cities (Delhi,
Mumbai, Kolkata, and
Chennai). Furthermore,
although urban incomes
are higher than the rural
incomes, they are
appallingly low in view of
high cost of living in
urban areas.

13. One of the major causes of urban unemployment is the
large scale migration of people from rural to urban areas.
Rural-urban migration has been continuing for a pretty
long time but it has not always been as great a problem
as it is today. The general poverty among the rural
people pushes them out to urban areas to migrate in
search of livelihood and in the hope of a better living.

14. 5. Slums:
The rapid urbanization in conjunction with
industrialization has resulted in the growth of slums. The
proliferation of slums occurs due to many factors, such as,
the shortage of developed land for housing, the high
prices of land beyond the reach of urban poor, a large
influx of rural migrants to the cities in search of jobs etc.

15. In spite of several
efforts by the Central
and State Governments
to contain the number
of slum dwellers, their
growth has been
increasing sharply
exerting tremendous
pressure on the existing
civic amenities and
social infrastructure.

16.  Socially, slums tend to be isolated from the rest of the
urban society and exhibit pathological social symptoms
(drug abuse, alcoholism, crime, vandalism and other
deviant behaviour).
 Slums have invariably extreme unhygienic conditions.
They have impoverished lavatories made by digging
shallow pit in between three or four huts and with
sackcloth as a curtain, hanging in front. When the pit
overflows excreta gets spread over the surrounding area
and is rarely cleaned.
 Piped water is not available to slum dwellers and they
mainly depend upon shallow hand-pumps for water
supply.

17. 6. Transport:
With traffic bottleneck and traffic congestion, almost all
cities and towns of India are suffering from acute form of
transport problem. Transport problems increase and
become more complex as the town grows in size. With
its growth, the town performs varied and complex
functions and more people travel to work or shop.

18. As the town becomes
larger, even people living
within the built-up area
have to travel by car or bus
to cross the town and
outsiders naturally bring
their cars or travel by
public transport.
Wherever, trade is
important, commercial
vehicles such as vans and
trucks will make problem
of traffic more
complicated.

19.  Since most of the commercial activities of the towns are
concentrated in the Central Business District (C.B.D.), the
centres are areas of greatest congestion. However, other parts of
the town are not free from traffic congestion.
 Congestion becomes greater when the centre is built up in tall
skyscraper blocks whose offices sometimes employ thousands
of workers, because at the end of the office hours everyone
leaves the building within a short space of time to make their
way home.
 This puts tremendous pressure on public transport and causes
journeys to take much longer period than they normally would.
In most cities the rush hour or peak traffic hour lasts for about
two hours and during that period buses and trains are
crammed to capacity, roads are overcrowded with vehicles and
the movement of traffic becomes very slow.

20. 7. Water:
What is one of the most essential elements of nature to
sustain life and right from the beginning of urban
civilization, sites for settlements have always been chosen
keeping in view the availability of water to the inhabitants
of the settlement. However, supply of water started falling
short of demand as the cities grew in size and number.

21. The individual towns
require water in
larger quantities.
Many small towns
have no main water
supply at all and
depend on such
sources as individual
tubewells, household
open wells or even
rivers.

22.  Today we have reached a stage where practically no city in
India/ gets sufficient water to meet the needs of city dwellers.
In many cities people get water from the municipal sources for
less than half an hour every alternate day. In dry summer
season, taps remain dry for days together and people are
denied water supply at a time when they need it the most.
 The water requirement per head per day 204 litres for cities
with population between 5 lakh and 2 million and 272 litres
for cities with population more than 2 million. This amount of
water is supposed to be used for drinking, kitchen, bathing,
cloth washing, floor and vehicle washing and gardening.
 Sadly majority of the cities and towns do not get the
recommended quantity of water. Gap in demand and supply
of water in four metro cities, viz., Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and
Chennai varies from 10 to 20 per cent. The condition is still
worse in small cities and towns.

23. 8. Sewerage Problems:
 Urban areas in India are almost invariably plagued
with insufficient and inefficient sewage facilities. Not a
single city in India is fully sewered. Resource crunch
faced by the municipalities and unauthorized growth
of the cities are two major causes of this pathetic state
of affairs.
 According to latest estimates, only 35-40 per cent of
the urban population has the privilege of sewage
system. Most of the cities have old sewerage lines
which are not looked after properly. Often sewerage
lines break down or they are overflowing

24. Most cities do not have
proper arrangements for
treating the sewerage waste
and it is drained into a nearly
river (as in Delhi) or in sea
(as in Mumbai, Kolkata and
Chennai), thereby polluting
the water bodies.
In most Indian cities, water
pipes run in close proximity
to sewer lines. Any leakage
leads to contamination of
water which results in the
spread of several water borne
diseases.

25. 9. Trash Disposal:
As Indian cities grow in number and size the problem of
trash disposal is assuming alarming proportions. Huge
quantities of garbage produced by our cities pose a serious
health problem. Most cites do not have proper arrangements
for garbage disposal and the existing landfills are full to the
brim. These landfills are hotbeds of disease and innumerable
poisons leaking into their surroundings.

26. Wastes putrefy in the open inviting disease
carrying flies and rats and a filthy, poisonous
liquid, called leachate, which leaks out from below
and contaminates ground water. People who live
near the rotting garbage and raw sewage fall easy
victims to several diseases like dysentery, malaria,
plague, jaundice, diarrhea, typhoid, etc.

27. 10. Urban Crimes:
Like other problems, the problem of crimes increases
with the increase in urbanization. In fact the increasing
trend in urban crimes tends to disturb peace and
tranquility of the cities and make them unsafe to live in
particularly for the women.
Growing materialism, consumerism, competition in
everyday life, selfishness, lavishness, appalling socio-
economic disparities and rising unemployment and
feeling of loneliness in the crowd are some of the primary
causes responsible for alarming trends in urban crime.

28. Occasional failures in life also drag youngsters to crime. The
problem of urban crime is becoming more complicated in the
present day world because criminals often get protection
from politicians, bureaucrats and elite class of the urban
society.
Not only the poor,
deprived and slum
dwellers take to
crime; youngsters
from well-to-do
families also resort
to crime in order to
make fast buck and
for meeting
requirements of a
lavish life.

29. 11. Problem of Urban Pollution:
With rapid pace of urbanization, industries and transport systems grow
rather out of proportion. These developments are primarily responsible
for pollution of environment, particularly the urban environment.

30. National Pollution Map

32. The term human overpopulation often refers to the
relationship between the entire human population and
its environment: the Earth, or to smaller geographical
areas such as countries. Overpopulation can result from
an increase in births, a decline in mortality rates, an
increase in immigration, or an unsustainable biome and
depletion of resources. It is possible for very sparsely
populated areas to be overpopulated.

33. Countries with Population Density

34. Environmental Impacts
1.Public-health:
Unclean water, along with poor sanitation, kills over 12
million people each year, most in developing countries. Air
pollution kills nearly 3 million more. Heavy metals and other
contaminants also cause widespread health problems.
2.Food-supply:
Will there be enough food? In 64 of 105 developing countries
studied by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the
population has been growing faster than food supplies.
Population pressures have degraded some 2 billion hectares
of arable land — an area the size of Canada and the U.S.

35. Percentage of Undernourished People

36. 3. Freshwater:
The supply of freshwater is finite, but demand is soaring as
population grows and use per capita rises. By 2025, when world
population is projected to be 8 billion, 48 countries containing 3
billion people will face shortages.
4. Coastlines and oceans:
Half of all coastal ecosystems are pressured by high population
densities and urban development. A tide of pollution is rising in
the world’s seas. Ocean fisheries are being overexploited, and
fish catches are down.
5. Forests:
Nearly half of the world’s original forest cover has been lost, and
each year another 16 million hectares are cut, bulldozed, or
burned. Forests provide over US$400 billion to the world
economy annually and are vital to maintaining healthy
ecosystems. Yet, current demand for forest products may exceed
the limit of sustainable consumption by 25%.

37. 6. Biodiversity:
The earth’s biological diversity is crucial to the
continued vitality of agriculture and medicine — and
perhaps even to life on earth itself. Yet human activities
are pushing many thousands of plant and animal species
into extinction. Two of every three species is estimated
to be in decline.
7. Global climate change:
The earth’s surface is warming due to greenhouse gas
emissions, largely from burning fossil fuels. If the global
temperature rises as projected, sea levels would rise by
several meters, causing widespread flooding. Global
warming also could cause droughts and disrupt
agriculture