Issues and Challenges of natural Resource Management in India : A Case Study of Initiatives of NABARD

Abstract

“We assume that everything becoming more efficient and in an immediate sense that’s true our lives are better in many ways. But that improvement has been gained through a mas-sively insufficient use of natural resources.”Paul Hawken Natural resources provide mankind with important ecosystem services which are essential for the survival and development of mankind. But unfortunately the increasing pressure of the human population combined with the decrease of the finite resources urgently calls for a sustainable management of these resources. Such management becomes more significant for a developing country like India, the development of which lies in the optimum utilization of its natural re-sources. The imbalanced eco-system invites several natural calamities i.i, floods, droughts. Landslides etc. The recent Uttarakhand flood tragedy on June 17, 2013 in just an example of this imbalance. Being one of the most naturally endowed nations of the world, the natural resources of India has not been effectively and efficiently utilized and some of the resources have no even un-tapped. In this direction, the India Government and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is upscaling and integrating National Resource Management in India. This paper is an attempt to address various issues and challenges of natural resource management in India in the light of the initiatives provided by NABARD along with some suggestive measures.