Effects of Toxic Metals and Other Detrimental Chemicals on Environment, Biodiversity, and Public Health

Each year, industrial activities release remarkable amounts of toxic substances in the environment, including known carcinogens. Needless to say, industrial farming is also one of such industrial facilities which might employ carcinogenic pesticides for killing pests, lead-contaminated fossil fuels (for running tractors), and follow the practices leading to various kinds of environmental exploitation.

In the Indian agricultural system (50 % of total lands are used for agriculture), the ‘elongated canal’ system might lead to stagnation of waters resulting into organic matter decay and thereby generation of methane, a greenhouse gas (GHG). The generation of hydraulic electricity in India by means of spacious water dams is also carried out on the cost of forest destruction, biodiversity decline, water stagnation and GHG emission. Methane, the lightest GHG, is capable to reach—and deplete—ozone layer due to low density compared to nitrogen and oxygen. In this way, India’s share to global warming and climate change is perhaps bigger than the European countries and Japan where forests occupy more than 40 % of total land areas (and agriculture activities are performed on less than 25 % of lands). Needless to say that global warming phenomenon has resulted in making harsh environment —droughts, floods, monsoon disturbance—in India.