ABSTRACT
The concern for sustainable development has acquired considerable significance since 1987. There is an attempt to define this concept in absolute terms without referring to causes and a group/class of people who threaten it. At the same time no distinction is made between different patterns of development thus causing different levels of difficulties in the way of sustained development. Earliest concern to sustained development was raised by Thomas Malthus (1798) when he related population growth and growth of food supply and proved that the slow growth in food supply created a constraint on the growth of the population and also on economic growth by creating distress for lower classes of population by which they are disabled from giving proper food and attention to their children (pp. 76, 87). Malthus was labelled as a prophet of doom who ignored the potentials of technology to overcome the constraints on food supply. In the early 1970s, serious doubts were expressed about the sustainability of the present pattern of economic development based on the report of Club of Rome (1972) 1 . After making an assessment of the availability of the world’s natural resources (including renewable and non-renewable resources) and their demand, the report came to the conclusion that ‘We can thus say with some confidence that, under the assumption of no major change in the present system, population and industrial growth will certainly stop within the next century, at the latest’ (emphasis as in original, p. 126). The report examined the rates of usage of resources at the 1970 level and worked out that economic growth would stop well before the year 2100 after taking into account the new discoveries or advances in technology which could double the amount of resources economically available (Meadows, et al. 1972). In the subsequent period, research has brought out that the situation of the world’s natural resources and environment has deteriorated further, especially with relation to fossil fuel, groundwater resources, and land availability and its quality. It is also becoming very clear that due to growing levels of pollution of water and air the cover of ozone layer has become weak and global warming is threatening climate change with catastrophic consequences for world production of food and the livelihood of a large number of people.
