Q.Future of shifting cultivation is bleak. Discuss.

Let’s start with something you already know. Imagine your neighbourhood. You lock your doors at night, you know your neighbours, and you feel safe. That’s security in the everyday sense — protection from theft, violence, or invasion.

Now stretch that idea to the whole country. National security usually means protecting borders, having a strong army, and guarding against enemy attacks. But what if the real threat isn’t a soldier with a gun, but a river that dries up, a soil that turns to dust, or a sky that becomes too hot to grow food? That’s where environmental security comes in.

---

What is Environmental Security?

Environmental security means that a nation’s people, economy, and way of life are safe from serious harm caused by damage to the natural environment. It is the idea that a healthy environment is a necessary condition for a secure society.

The NCERT textbook (Class 12 Political Science, chapter on Security in the Contemporary World) places environmental security as a non-traditional threat to security. Unlike traditional threats (war, invasion, espionage), environmental threats are often slow, invisible, and cross borders without a passport.

---

Why does it matter? The chain of cause and effect

Think of a farmer in a drought-prone region. If rainfall becomes unpredictable year after year, crops fail. The farmer cannot feed their family, cannot pay debts, and may migrate to a city. That city now has more people competing for jobs, water, and housing. Tensions rise. Crime may increase. Political instability can follow.

This is not a hypothetical story. It is a pattern observed across the world. Environmental stress — water scarcity, soil degradation, climate change — acts as a threat multiplier. It does not always cause conflict by itself, but it makes existing problems (poverty, inequality, weak governance) much worse.

The NCERT textbook highlights several environmental threats that affect security:

• Global warming and climate change — rising sea levels can flood coastal cities, forcing millions to relocate. Entire island nations face existential threat.
• Depletion of the ozone layer — increases harmful UV radiation, affecting health and agriculture.
• Deforestation and loss of biodiversity — destroys livelihoods of forest-dependent communities and reduces the planet’s ability to regulate climate.
• Pollution of air and water — causes disease, reduces productivity, and strains healthcare systems.

Each of these can destabilise a country from within, even if no enemy army ever crosses its border.

---

Who is responsible? The problem of shared resources

A key point in the NCERT discussion is that environmental threats do not respect national boundaries. Carbon dioxide emitted in one country warms the entire planet. A river polluted upstream harms farmers downstream. A forest cut in one region can alter rainfall patterns hundreds of kilometres away.

This creates a difficult question: if everyone suffers from environmental damage, but no single country can solve it alone, how do we ensure security? The textbook points to the need for cooperation — international treaties, shared monitoring, and collective action. Environmental security, therefore, is not just a scientific or economic issue. It is a deeply political one.

---

How is it different from what you already know?

---

A final thought for your exam

The NCERT textbook does not treat environmental security as a separate subject. It places it squarely within the chapter on Security in the Contemporary World, alongside other non-traditional threats like terrorism, migration, and pandemics. The key takeaway is this: security is no longer only about protecting territory from armies. It is also about protecting the conditions that make life possible — clean air, water, soil, and a stable climate.

When you write an answer on this topic, do not just list environmental problems. Show the link between environmental damage and human insecurity. That is the conceptual core the examiner is looking for.