Environmental pollution is the contamination of the physical and biological components of the earth/atmosphere system to such an extent that

normal environmental processes are adversely affected INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENT POLLUTION Although pollution had been known to exist for a very long time (at least since people started using fire thousands of years ago), it had seen the growth of truly global proportions only since the onset of the industrial revolution during the 19th century.The industrial revolution brought with it technological progress such as discovery of oil and its virtually universal use throughout different industries.Technological progress facilitated by super efficiency of capitalist business practices (division of labour cheaper production costs overproduction overconsumption overpollution) had probably become one of the main causes of serious deterioration of natural resources.At the same time, of course, development of natural sciences led to the better understanding of negative effects produced by pollution on the environment.Environmental pollution is a problem both in developed and developing countries. Factors such as population growth and urbanization invariably place greater demands on the planet and stretch the use of natural resources to the maximum.It has been argued that the carrying capacity of Earth is significantly smaller than the demands placed on it by large numbers of human populations. And overuse of natural resources often results in natures degradation.Its interesting to note that natural resources had been stored virtually untouched in the Earth for millions of years.But since the start of the industrial revolution vast amounts of these resources had been exploited within a period of just a couple of hundred of years at unimaginable rates, with all the waste from this exploitation going straight in to the environment (air, water, land) and seriously damaging its natural processes. LITERATURE REVIEW POLLUTION: Environmental pollution is any discharge of material or energy into water, land, or air that causes or may cause acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term) detriment to the Earth's ecological balance or that lowers the quality of life. Pollutants may cause primary damage, with direct identifiable impact on the environment, or secondary damage in the form of minor perturbations in the delicate balance of the biological food web that are detectable only over long time periods.Until relatively recently in humanity's history, where pollution has existed, it has been primarily a local problem. The industrialization of society, the introduction of motorized vehicles, and the explosion of the human population, however, have caused an exponential growth in the production of goods and services. Coupled with this growth has been a tremendous increase in waste by-products. The indiscriminate discharge of untreated industrial and domestic wastes into waterways, the spewing of thousands of tons of particulates and airborne gases into the atmosphere, the "throwaway" attitude toward solid wastes, and the use of newly developed chemicals without considering potential consequences have resulted in major environmental disasters, including the formation of smog in the Los Angeles area since the late 1940s and the pollution of large areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Technology has begun to solve some pollution problems (see pollution control), and

public awareness of the extent of pollution will eventually force governments to undertake more effective environmental planning and adopt more effective antipollution measures Social And Individual Initiatives For Environmental Protection Environment protection is not the responsibility of the government alone. All sections of the society have to participate in this endeavor. The role of every individual in environmental protection is of great importance because if every individual contributes substantially the effect will be visible not only at the community, city state or national level but also at the global level. It is ultimately the society that suffers due to environmental degradation. Therefore the society has to play an important role in maintaining environmental standards. It is the responsibility of each individual to protect the earth and provide conducive environment for itself and innumerable other species which evolved on the earth. Each individual should change his or her lifestyle in such a way as to reduce environmental pollution. If air and water resources in the area are unfit and do not meet the acceptable standards, the people of the area can organize themselves and force the responsible agencies to take necessary action. If suitable action is not forthcoming they can under the laws of the land, file a public interest litigation and can get their problems solved. Society is made of individuals together. So it is the duty of each individual to see that his/her actions do not pollute the environment. Each individual must use paper or cloth bags instead of polythene. Use of eco-friendly products and CFC free refrigerators can help control pollution. Groups of individuals together can make a huge difference in maintaining environmental standards. For example, group housing societies can initiate steps for waste management by making provisions for segregating wastes, taking measures for recycling wastes like making compost pits etc. They can also take measures for reducing the use of electricity and finding alternative sources of energy. Saving electricity by not wasting it when it is not required because electricity saved is electricity generated without polluting the environment. For example, put on warm clothes rather than switching on a heater. Air pollution especially vehicular pollution can be minimized by adopting car pool method. This will also save large amounts of money spend on importing petroleum from other countries. Adopting and popularizing renewable energy sources and promoting reuse and recycling wherever possible will help reduce the production of waste. Societies can play a significant role in environmental protection by creating awareness and educating people about the need to conserve and manage natural resources. Social and individual consciousness if carefully graded is a step to transformation.

TYPES OF POLLUTION 1. WATER POLLUTION 2. LAND POLLUTION 3. AIR POLLUTION

WATER POLLUTION Water pollution is the introduction into fresh or ocean waters of chemical, physical, or biological material that degrades the quality of the water and affects the organisms living in it. This process ranges from simple addition of dissolved or suspended solids to discharge of the most insidious and persistent toxic pollutants (such as pesticides, heavy metals, and nondegradable, bioaccumulative, chemical compounds). Waste and Water Pollution Water pollution has many sources. The most polluting of them are the city sewage and industrial waste discharged into the rivers. The facilities to treat waste water are not adequate in any city in India. Presently, only about 10% of the waste water generated is treated; the rest is discharged as it is into our water bodies. Due to this, pollutants enter groundwater, rivers, and other water bodies. Such water, which ultimately ends up in our households, is often highly contaminated and carries disease-causing microbes. Agricultural run-off, or the water from the fields that drains into rivers, is another major water pollutant as it contains fertilizers and pesticides. During the last fifty years, the number of industries in India has grown rapidly. But water pollution is concentrated within a few subsectors, mainly in the form of toxic wastes and organic pollutants. Out of this a large portion can be traced to the processing of industrial chemicals and to the food products industry. In fact, a number of large- and medium-sized industries in the region covered by the Ganga Action Plan do not have adequate effluent treatment facilities. Most of these defaulting industries are sugar mills, distilleries, leather processing industries, and thermal power stations. Most major industries have treatment facilities for industrial effluents. But this is not the case with small-scale industries, which cannot afford enormous investments in pollution control equipment as their profit margin is very slender.

LAND POLLUTION Land pollution is the degradation of the Earth's land surface through misuse of the soil by poor agricultural practices, mineral exploitation, industrial waste dumping, and indiscriminate disposal of urban wastes.

Soil Misuse Soil erosion--a result of poor agricultural practices--removes rich humus topsoil developed over many years through vegetative decay and microbial degradation and thus strips the land of valuable nutrients for crop growth. Strip mining for minerals and coal lays waste thousands of acres of land each year, denuding the Earth and subjecting the mined area to widespread erosion problems. The increases in urbanization due to population pressure presents additional soil-erosion problems; sediment loads in nearby streams may increase as much as 500 to 1,000 times over that recorded in nearby undeveloped stretches of stream. Soil erosion not only despoils the Earth for farming and other uses, but also increases the suspended-solids load of the waterway. This increase interferes with the ecological habitat and poses silting problems in navigation channels, inhibiting the commercial use of these waters. Solid Waste In the United States in 1988 municipal wastes alone--that is, the solid wastes sent by households, business, and municipalities to local landfills and other waste-disposal facilities--equaled 163 million metric tons (1980 million U.S. tons), or 18 k (40lb) per person, according to figures released by the Environmental Protection Agency. Additional solid wastes accumulate from mining, industrial production, and agriculture. Although municipal wastes are the most obvious, the accumulations of other types of wastes are the most obvious, the accumulations of other types of waste are far greater, in many instances are more difficult to dispose of, and present greater environmental hazards. The most common and convenient method of disposing of municipal solid wastes is in the sanitary landfill. The open dump, once a common eyesore in towns across the United States, attracted populations of rodents and other pests and often emitted hideous odors; it is now illegal. Sanitary landfills provide better aesthetic control and should be odor-free. Often, however, industrial wastes of unknown content are commingled with domestic wastes. Groundwater infiltration and contamination of water supplies with toxic chemicals have recently led to more active control of landfills and industrial waste disposal. Careful management of sanitary landfills, such as providing for leachate and runoff treatment as well as daily coverage with topsoil, has alleviated most of the problems of open dumping. In many areas, however, space for landfills is running out and alternatives must be found. Recycling of materials is practical to some extent for much municipal and some industrial wastes, and a small but growing proportion of solid wastes is being recycled. When wastes are commingled, however, recovery becomes difficult and expensive. New processes of sorting ferrous and nonferrous metals, paper, glass, and plastics have been developed, and many communities with recycling programs now require refuse separation. Crucial issues in recycling are devising better processing methods, inventing new products for the recycled materials, and finding new markets for them. Incineration is another method for disposing of solid wastes. Advanced incinerators use solid wastes as fuel, burning quantities of refuse and utilizing the resultant heat to make steam for electricity generation. Wastes must be burned at very high temperatures, and incinerator exhausts must be equipped with sophisticated scrubbers and other devices for removing dioxins and other toxic pollutants. Problems remain, however: incinerator ash

contains high ratios of heavy metals, becoming a hazardous waste in itself, and highefficiency incinerators may discourage the use of recycling and other waste-reduction methods. Composting is increasingly used to treat some agricultural wastes, as well as such municipal wastes as leaves and brush. Composting systems can produce usable soil conditioners, or humus, within a few months (see compost). Air Pollution Industrialization and urbanization have resulted in a profound deterioration of India's air quality. Of the 3 million premature deaths in the world that occur each year due to outdoor and indoor air pollution, the highest number are assessed to occur in India. According to the World Health Organization, the capital city of New Delhi is one of the top ten most polluted cities in the world. Surveys indicate that in New Delhi the incidence of respiratory diseases due to air pollution is about 12 times the national average. According to another study, while India's gross domestic product has increased 2.5 times over the past two decades, vehicular pollution has increased eight times, while pollution from industries has quadrupled. Sources of air pollution, India's most severe environmental problem, come in several forms, including vehicular emissions and untreated industrial smoke. Apart from rapid industrialization, urbanization has resulted in the emergence of industrial centers without a corresponding growth in civic amenities and pollution control mechanisms. Regulatory reforms aimed at improving the air pollution problem in cities such as New Delhi have been quite difficult to implement, however. For example, India's Supreme Court recently lifted a ruling that it imposed two years ago which required all public transport vehicles in New Delhi to switch to compressed natural gas (CNG) engines by April 1, 2001. This ruling, however, led to the disappearance of some 15,000 taxis and 10,000 buses from the city, creating public protests, riots, and widespread "commuter chaos." The court was similarly unsuccessful in 2000, when it attempted to ban all public vehicles that were more than 15 years old and ordered the introduction of unleaded gasoline and CNG. India's high concentration of pollution is not due to a lack of effort in building a sound environmental legal regime, but rather to a lack of enforcement at the local level. Efforts are currently underway to change this as new specifications are being adopted for auto emissions, which currently account for approximately 70% of air pollution. In the absence of coordinated government efforts, including stricter enforcement, this figure is likely to rise in the coming years due to the sheer increase in vehicle ownership.

CURRENT SCENARIO OF RIVERS IN KERALA Kerala is one among the most thickly populated region in the world and the population is increasing at a rate of 14%per decades a result of the measures to satisfy the needs of the huge population ,the rivers of Kerala have been increasingly polluted from the industrial

and domestic waste and from the pesticides and fertilizer in agriculture .Industries discharge hazardous pollutants like phosphates, sulphides , ammonia, fluorides, heavy metals and insecticides into the downstream reaches of the river. The river periyar and chaliyar are very good examples for the pollution due to industrial effluents. it is estimated that nearly 260million liters of trade effluents reach the Periyar estuary daily from the Kochi industrial belt .A list of major industries situated here and the nature of their outputs indicates the type of chemicals that are likely to find their way into the river Periyar. The major water quality problem associated with rivers of Kerala is bacteriological pollution. The assessment of river such as chalakudy, Periyar, Muvattupuzha, Meenachil, Pamba and achenkovil indicate that the major quality problem is due to bacteriological pollution and falls under B or C category of CPCB classification. There are local level quality problems faced by all rivers especially due to dumping of solid waste, bathing and discharge of effluents. with regard to groundwater, water quality characteristics of wells in Kerala are found to be affected by chemical and biological contaminants. The ground water quality problems in the coastal areas are mainly because of the presence of excess chloride. The chloride concentration >250mb/l was detected in the well water samples of Azhicode, Kakkathuruthy, Edathinjil, Kadalundi, Chellanum, nallalam, Mankombu and Haripad. in Alappuzha district, flouride concentration in the pumping wells was observed to be high .In midland region, with regard to ionic concentration, the concentration of flouride iron and chloride were found to be on the higher side. The fluoride content was observed to be beyond the permissible limit of 1 mg/1.Deep well sin Chittur taluk and Knajikod areas of palakkad district are found to contain fluoride concentration greater than 1mg/l. open well of Kerala have the bacteriological contamination. In Kerala about 60% of the population relies on ground water from drinking. At the same time studies have shown that faecal contamination is present in 90% of drinking water wells. The open character of the wells and conventional maintenance habits and use of buckets and rope to draw water, kitchen wastes and pit latrines with average family load factor (5 members) at a distance of less than 5 meters from wells are some of the factors, which are found to be contributing to the bacteriological contamination. ground water contamination due to industrial pollution has been reported from places of Kochi (eastern part of aluva), Palakkad and some parts of kollam, Kozhicode and Kannur STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: Malampuzha Dam is the largest reservoir in Kerala, located near Palakkad in south India with the scenic hills of the Western Ghats in the background. It is a combination of a masonry dam with a length of 1,849 meters and an earthen dam with a length of 220 meters. The dam is 6,066 feet high and crosses the Malampuzha River, a tributary of Bharathappuzha, Kerala's second longest river. There is a network of two canal systems that serve the dam's reservoir of 42,090 hectares. One of the main canals of Malampuzha dam is 31.6 km long, and its an beautiful area for the tourists from October to January. This canal serves for various people in various uses, so many people use this for bathing and also for it is mainly using for agriculture purpose some people even uses this as a drinking water.

Uncollected garbage- pileup and stinking waste across both sides of national highways of Kerala is a normal scene today. Piling up of garbage and litter and failure to adopt state of the art methods of waste management processes has serious consequences as follows:

Environmental: pollution from poorly maintained landfill sites are prone to groundwater contamination and facilitate breeding of flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, rats, and other pests. Public health: Possibility of frequent outbreaks of communicable diseases, such as Malaria, Dengue fever, Chickungunia etc, are enhanced Economic effects: can have negative impact on tourism industry Labor productivity gets affected with frequent outbreaks of communicable diseases

We all can see dumping wastes in the road sides, nowadays it has been changed into a common procedure for everyone not only in the road side also in the canals. People are not at all caring about other people who are suffering because of this all are caring about themselves. Open dumping has been found to create environmental problems because of air pollution, bad smell, presence of insects and rodents which are injurious to health, and potential contamination of ground water. A quick recap is essential to understand Palakkad desperation. -growing city Palakkad, is a municipality and a town in the state of Kerala in southern India, spread over an area of 26.60 km. municipal solid waste is increasing each day. But the city had never had effective garbage treatment facilities. This is the case with the most of the municipalities in Kerala. Lack of proper waste treatment facilities, the solution for them was dumping them in any available locations. By looking at the photo attached in the next page we can clearly identify the impact of dumping waste, its very pathetic to see. The place is exactly in Palakkad town near Coimbatore bypass, nearby people are stating that they cant walk through that area because of the foul smell and also they fell insecure because of street dogs.

Waste from hotels, markets, unauthorized slaughter houses, piggeries, chicken corners, markets and bio-medical waste from hospitals are dumped here without any concern for the law.. All are dumping in this canal and the nearby area. People all are aware that its an major canal and so many people are depends upon this for bathing and drinking purpose not always at the time when Malampuzha dam opens the shutter, its the only source of water for irrigation and for daily use of people who is situated near this canal. When I interviewed a person who has a shop nearby, he was stating that the municipality also is closing eyes. They will only take waste once in two weeks that too few, and leaving the rest there itself. He was telling that he gave complaints to lot many people but there was no response from anyone .last month asianet news channel done a program based on this dumping of wastes but after that also there were no change in dumping, same response from municipality no action in the side of police too. If this situation continues the the municipality has to declare it as a common garbage area and the nearby people cant live there. There are multiple ways that improper disposal can result in the spread of disease. The first of these is by introducing pathogens into the environment. This is when bacteria or viruses are transported in the waste and introduced to new areas. There is a chance that perhaps a human may be exposed to the waste. More likely, though, is that another animal, such as a rat or bird, may be exposed to the pathogen and then return to a larger population infected. This can create diseased

populations that can spread the disease, possibly to other species. The other way that improper disposal of some wastes can result in the spread of disease is from waste acting as a food source or breeding ground for pathogens that might not have reached such high population otherwise. This creates a very specific risk when the waste is human biological material or other bio-waste. Bacteria and viruses are high-risk causes of disease that are found in some waste. Of particular concern are viruses that cause hepatitis and bacteria that cause tuberculosis. These are more commonly found in medical environments but may exist in common waste and can grow in bio-waste from any source and also malaria, cholera, chickengunya, bronjitous, asthma, rashes and all other communicable diseases. SUGGESTION& CONCLUSION The main problem prevailing in this current environment is lack of humanity and concern about environment, this mentality has to change. The another thing which is lacking is a proper waste disposal system there is no proper waste disposal system available, because of that people are forced into dumping the waste in open places. Individuals should come forward with new new ideas in order for an proper disposal ideas. We can see that most of the pollution is by man made or based on human activities. It is an major threat to humanity. The first and foremost thing that should have to be followed in order to have .disposal plant has to build away from the residential areas, so that it will not cause any harm to the normal life. The govt should take necessary steps to implement proper waste management technology such as build up biogas plants, waste disposal plants, etoilets for a healthy and hygienic environment. The government should take the initiative bring plans for proper sanitation policy for the state and also to enact stringent rules against dumping of wastes in public places and water bodies. Through the proper waste management disposal to some extent we can be able to reduce the contagious diseases such as plague, virul fever, fever which is caused by the mosquitoes. The proper waste management should be implemented in such a way that it must be in a systematic way to have a proper disposal from the collection of waste to the final processing of waste. Community dwellings such as schools, hospitals, apartments and hotels are generators of waste in a large quantity. In a day, they generate an average of 50-100 kg of waste every day and which is not properly disposed off. The dumping of garbage as well as non biodegradable waste poses a serious threat to the environment. If waste is efficiently managed in public areas like these, the garbage problem that is faced in Indias major cities can be reduced to a greater extent. School is one such public place where lot of biodegradable waste is generated and which can be disposed off effectively by proper enforcement alone. Moreover, schools can be made as the primary target in the drive for a garbage-free city. Installation of biogas plant in such places not only solves the problem of waste disposal but also can result in economic benefits. Biogas can be used for cooking as well as

generating electricity. Though the idea of constructing biogas plants is being implemented in some places, a widespread popularity has not been seen. It may be because of the high one time cost. But the most interesting feature of biogas is that there is only a one time capital cost and after that there is no incurring or recurring cost involved and the maintenance cost is minimal. So it means that once you install a biogas in your compound, you remain hassle-free for the rest 15-20 years. Moreover, the government is providing subsidy as well as loans for the construction of biogas plants in households as well as in institutions. Waste from hotels, markets, unauthorized slaughter houses, piggeries, chicken corners, markets and bio-medical waste are dumping there mostly , so the nearby people should protest against this or they should catch the people who are dumping the waste lively and should hand over to the police. Then only the people will realize that what they are doing is against the law. We should create a fear in the minds of the people who are doing this evil things The government should come up with new awareness programs in order make them more aware of the severe problems which may arise due to this waste dumping. The working of municipality is very pathetic they are not taking the waste properly, it has to change the municipality should take the waste properly, and has to recycle it efficiently. The municipality or the people should take initiative to place garbage bin in every locality and the main thing is that they have to ensure that the waste is being collected from there regularly and properly. People should catch those people who are dumping the waste and they should be punished either as fine or in some other way.