How can we conserve natural resources?

Why conserve?

Nature’s treasures meet all our needs, but many of them are limited, and even renewable ones need time to renew. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not for every man’s greed.” If we use resources carefully, without wasting them, we can meet our needs today and still save them for the future, without harming the environment.

Saving water

Only a small part of the Earth’s water is fresh and easy to reach, and many parts of India face water shortages; in some places people walk long distances to fetch drinking water. A lot of water is wasted every day:

Activity	How water is wasted	How to save it
Brushing teeth, washing hands	Tap left running	Turn off the tap; use a mug
Bathing	Long showers	Use a bucket
Washing clothes and utensils	Washing under a running tap	Wash in a tub; reuse rinse water
Gardening	Watering too much, in the midday heat	Water in the morning or evening

Other ways to save water are fixing leaking taps, recycling water and rainwater harvesting, collecting rainwater in buildings, homes and schools for later use. This is an age-old practice in India: stepwells, called bawadi in Rajasthan and vav in Gujarat, store rainwater and water seeping in from nearby lakes, ponds and rivers.

Keeping water clean

Plastic bags, wrappers and other trash thrown into rivers, and waste from homes and industries dumped into water, make it unfit for living beings. Do not throw waste into water bodies, use dustbins, and tell others about it.

Saving forests

Forests take many years to grow or to recover. We should:

• plant trees and look after them, for example during Van Mahotsav, the forest festival celebrated for a week in July;
• protect old trees, as the women of the Chipko movement did in the 1970s by hugging trees;
• take only what we need, like Ajji’s village tradition of leaving fruits on the trees for animals and birds.

Saving fossil fuels and clean air

Fossil fuels are limited, and burning them pollutes the air. We can walk or cycle to nearby places, use public transport, choose CNG or electric vehicles, switch off lights and fans when we leave a room, and use energy from the Sun and the wind wherever possible.

Soil, rocks and minerals

Trees protect the soil: their roots hold it in place, and fallen leaves decay and enrich it. Rocks and minerals take thousands to millions of years to form, so they should be used with care and not wasted.

Saving resources at school

A school can do a lot together. An eco-club can check taps for leaks every week, collect rainwater from the roof, water the garden with leftover drinking water, and run a tree plantation drive with the teachers. Classes can switch off lights and fans when they leave, use both sides of paper, and remind everyone in the morning assembly why these habits matter.

Every small step counts, at home and at school. To see which resources are renewable, read renewable and non-renewable resources.