Q."Environment and economic development are linked in both directions." Explain this statement.

It is easy to see how growth uses up the environment, but the dependence runs the other way too — development itself relies on the environment continuing to function.

The relationship between environment and economic development runs in both directions, not just one:

Development depends on the environment: every economic sector draws on natural resources in some form — agriculture on soil and water, industry on minerals, water and energy, and even services like tourism on a clean, attractive environment. If the resource base is destroyed, the development it once supported cannot continue.

Development affects the environment: the very process of achieving development — building more factories, expanding cities, consuming more energy, farming more intensively — places direct pressure on the environment. Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation carried out without regard for their environmental consequences degrade the same resource base that made the development possible.

Recognising this two-way link is why modern economic planning increasingly tries to account for environmental impact alongside output and income targets, rather than treating environmental quality as something separate from — or automatically protected by — economic growth.

Treating the relationship as one-directional (only 'development harms environment') and missing that the environment is equally a precondition FOR development in the first place.