Development is a major stress giving factor for the ecosystem. Man's cultural, material, industrial and economic growth reacts on the ecosystem more widely, more critically and more rapidly than that of any other organism. As a result the natural balance of his ecosystem is disturbed. Significant changes in the natural surroundings are taking place because of man's intervention and rapid progress in urbanisation, industrialisation, agriculture, mining, transportation and technology.

Human dependence on nature is as old as the existence of life on earth itself. From the very beginning human urge of survival, comfort and development have been fulfilled by various resources of nature. It is a very hard fact that despite our dependency on Mother Nature as much as of any other organism on planet earth, it is we who have always desired to extract more and more out of the abundance in nature. Modern societies around the world and modern ways of living have resulted in a rapid environmental degradation. The mass scale destruction of flora and fauna has disturbed the existing food chains, thereby, resulting in ecological imbalance. Against this background, the present paper makes a modest attempt to redefine the crisis of environmental degradation, understand the role of an individual and community in environmental protection, and highlight steps taken by the Government towards safeguarding environment.