Four pressing environmental concerns of India are:
(i) Land degradation: Land in India suffers from varying degrees and types of degradation stemming, mainly from unsuitable use and inappropriate management practices.
(ii) Bio-diversity loss : In India, the per capital forest land is only 0.08 hectare against the requirement of 0.47 hectare to meet basic needs, resulting in an excess falling of about 15 million cubic meters forests over the permissible limits.
Similarly, soil is being eroded at a rate of 5.3 billion tonnes a year for the entire country, as a result of which, the country loses 0.8 million tonnes of nitrogen, 1.8 million tonnes of phosphorus and 26.3 million tonnes of potassium every year.
(iii) Management of fresh water : In our country management of fresh water is altogether faulty. Unplanned urbanization, loss of rain water (as it seeps into the earth), faulty systems of waste disposal are responsible for polluted water.
(iv) Air Pollution: Air pollution is very dangerous for plants, animals and human beings. It is a serious concern mainly in urban areas where the dust and smoke emitted by factories, vehicles etc. pollute the environment very badly.
In order to rectify these problems, the government has to undertake such projects which involve heavy investment. Hence, it is said that opportunity costs of correcting the imbalances created by environmental degradation is quite high.