Taylor Rogers

India is east of Pakistan and south of China, Nepal, and Bhutan. Due to its geography India has many natural resources to use including metals, gemstones, coal, and rivers. However due to the lack of technological advancement in the rural areas most people study and find there employment abroad. In turn this causes the rural areas to remain uneducated and use old technologies such as wood burning stoves that pollute the air. This has also lead to wide scale deforestation and the ecological problems that follow. In addition I have added the cultural issue of family planning because is not highly practiced leading to India becoming the second largest populating country behind china. This acts as a multipliers effect on the other environmental issues already present in India.
Air pollution is a rising concern in India due to the large amount of trees, cow dung, and coal burned in stoves and funeral parlors. According to the research team, funded by Poverty Action Lab, in rural Orissa, India (A state of India) ninety five percent of women and children are affected by stove pollution. This has lead an average of 7.55ppm of carbon monoxide in women and 6.48ppm in children. This is equivalent to smoking seven cigarettes a day. However in addition to the air pollution created from wood burning stoves, India also has a large Hindu population which require there bodies to be burned on funeral parlors so there spirits may be freed. According to CNN this leads to the burning of fifty to sixty million trees a year. And these are not the only major sources of carbon emissions in India. There is also coal burned to make the majority of IndiaÕs power and a large pollution of automotives. In all India is facing a huge threat to its air pollution.
In addition to air pollution, the use of wood in stoves and funeral parlors along with the large demand for palm oil has lead to wide scale deforestation in India. The wwf panda, an online news source, states that IndiaÕs demand for wood could exceed seventy million cubic meters by the end of the decade. Even attempts to conserver the forests are not completely successful as both citizens and corporations violate the protections of the forest in order to gather wood. An article titled Palm oil plantations fuel deforestation and forest rights violations highlights the rights of the forest that are infringed in order to fuel IndiaÕs increasing demand of palm oil. With the amount of forest and solid forest (forest with high density) decreases India will have to look outside its bordered to meet its wood and palm oil needs. This could lead to large-scale environmental destruction outside IndiaÕs borders.
Although not a strictly environmental issue I believe over population is and ill increasingly be a problem for the people of India and the environment. With 1.2 billion people India has the second largest population on the planet and unlike china that has a low fertility rate, IndiaÕs fertility rate is very high at 2.6 children per woman. The reason for this is a lack of womanÕs rights and family planning. Because woman do not have the say to refuse to have more children and because more children is seen as a positive attribute in India men want to have as many as possible. Though this rapid growth is slowing the affects may to late to cap the population before it reaches an even more unsuitable number. The result of this overpopulation will likely be the expansion of existing environmental issues and the creation of new ones.
In my opinion the affect of information technology in this region of the world is more critical to its continued survival then any another advance. With more information the people of India may be persuaded to fix their own air, stop polluting, place harsher bans on deforestation, and place more value in their women and family planning. Information technology could lead to the construction and doubly increase the standard of living for a large population of Indians. However there have been many challenges in implementing these changes into the country. Namely there has been little large-scale enthusiasm from the population to change the little that they have and a high resistance to cultural change.
The air pollution is a well-known fact in India and previously I expounded on the dangers of indoor stoves. In response a non-governmental organization, Gram Vikas, obtained a grant to build safer, more fuel efficient, and chimney mud stoves. With a minimal cost of twelve fifty not including labor these stoves where also cheap. Fifteen thousand stoves where made and with a support system set up locally the stoves could be repaired at a reasonable price. The stoves where then offered at lottery and the first wave seemed to get a good acceptance rate. A survey taken in the first two years showed that the improved stoves where well accepted by the population. However the organization did not account for a general lack of enthusiasm in maintaining the stoves and three years after the implementation have of the stoves more then half of the stoves where gone and those that did have them used them in conjunction with their other stove. A study done showed that their was little health improvement in the woman and children in the area because the air pollution was still terrible. This shows that the impact of some information technology does almost nothing to improve the quality of life.
The reason this technology may not have had the desired impact on the population is that the people where only given a technology that they did not fully understand. What may have made this effort have more of an impact is the implementation of education in conjunction with the technology. For example if the people had been shown a simple to understand slide show of the dangers of wood burning stoves indoors they may have embraced the technology more. An English article that could have had an impact if translated is one titled Biomass Pollution Basis by David Pennise at the University of California-Berkeley. In this slide show Pennise shows the byproducts of burning wood and more importantly what the health implications are when these byproducts are inhaled.
Education like this can have a large impact on life in India. Efforts made in womanÕs rights and family planning has been successful when woman go to seminars where guest speakers raise awareness on the issue. In addition the country is starting to embrace this as shown in an article titled ÒOne Billion Rising campaign for womenÕs rightsÓ in The Times of India. In the article Valentines Day was used to raise awareness on womenÕs rape in India. With efforts like these woman may gain more rights and in turn decrease IndiaÕs fertility rate.
Efforts made in India will not be successful unless people care about the issues. This is why information technology is so important in India. With the implementation of projectors, televisions, and books along with active environmental campaigning people will know both what the problems they are facing are and what is necessary in order to curb the continued degradation of the environment.

References
Implications of indian supreme court's innovations for environmental jurisprudence
A journal hypothesizing the impact of a new indian supreme court decision Drowning In a Sea of Garbage
A New York Times article describing the deteriorating waste condition in india
Biomass Potion Basics
A University presentation highlighting the impact of burning wood
One Billion Rising Campaign for Women's Rights
Environmental Problems in India
Development and Deforestation: India Forestry in Perspective
Palm Oil Plantations Fuel Deforestation and Forest Rights Violations
Cooking Stoves, Indoor Air Pollution, and Respiratory Health in India
India's Burning Issue with Emissions from Hindu Funeral Pyres