Interaction Between Population Growth and Environmental Quality: Evidence From South, West, and Central India

Abstract

Most of the empirical studies have treated the relationship between population growth and environmental quality as a unidirectional causal relation. The focus has been on environmental degradation caused by population growth. The effect of environmental quality on population change has not been given adequate attention. This study examines the interactive relationship between population change and environmental quality for Western, Central and Southern India. A vegetation index called NDVI, has been used to denote the environmental quality. Simultaneous equation models have been used to capture the interactive relation. Evidence from this region for the decade of 1991-2001 suggests that there exists a bi-directional between population change and change in environmental quality. The evidence suggests that in the rural areas where the people are extremely dependent on natural resources, change in environmental quality negatively affects population change and population change also has a negative impact on environmental quality. On the basis of this study it can be concluded that the interactive relation between population change and change in environmental quality is stronger in rural areas of the study region.