Dr. R. V. Ramana Murthy

Dr. K. Muthyam Reddy 

Sustainable Development:

      The post-War optimism on unhindered economic growth was challenged by the report published by Club of Rome in 1972, written by Meadow et al, titled Limits to Growth, which held that the economic growth could be constrained by the depletion of natural resources. But the experience of next two decades proved that not only such Malthusian fears are farfetched, the economic system has demonstrated its ability to conserve the resource-use by raising its efficiency and also to adapt itself to changing conditions. However, by mid eighties, it is realised that, if not the resource depletion, it is the ability of ecological system to absorb the hazardous waste left over by the developmental activity, that is going to pose a formidable limit to the economic growth. The World commission’s report on Environment and Development, known as Brundtland Commission report (1987), titled Our common Future, thus defined the concept of sustainable development as `to ensure that development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. The ecological system is not only the source for natural resources, but a repository of wastes generated by human activity. The rate at which ecological damage is wrought by the modern development has proved that not only the benefits of development will be neutralised, but also it can inflict a lasting damage deeper enough that it may not be restored in the near future. The ozone layer depletion, global warming, and raising sea levels are the visible symptoms of the gathering crisis  [Hodge (1995)]¹. Unless a conscious and well planned sustainable development strategy is adopted, the fruits of urban industrial model of development can only be ephemeral.

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