Population, health and environment in South Asia

Jalandhar Pradhan, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The south Asia region - Afganistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri-Lanka-possesses an extra ordinary diversity of landforms and climatic regimes. Deepening nature of poverty and its impact on the process of environmental degradation is one of the major concerns in this area. In this context, the first part of this paper deals with the state of south Asian economy and environment and the second part examines a few likely scenarios of long term demographic change and their implications for regional economic relationship. Results suggested that the principal causes of environmental degradation in the sub continent are: demographic pressure, which has worsened the man-land ratio causing severe strain on the ecological support base and developmental activities. Also, a poor health profile and the low level of human resource development in all the countries with the exception of Sri Lanka will impose severe constraints.