Any part of our natural environment-such as land, water, air, mineral, forest, rangeland, wildlife, fish or even human population-that man can utilize to promote his welfare may be regarded as a natural resource.

Technology cannot bring back an extinct animal resource or a paved over wilderness area, but it can extend the supply of some resources by improving them, using them more efficiently, or recycling them. Natural resources can b divided into renewable and non-renewable.

This book encompasses varied information on natural resource conservation. Topics like-Natural resources conservation and management; Wildlife conservation in India; Floral and faunal distribution in India; Endangered species in India; Ethological studies in India; Bio-resources; Wildlife reserves and national parks in India; Concepts of energy; Alternative sources of energy; Biodiversity etc. will be highly useful and informative to all concerned.

Once noise gets established in the air, there has been almost no ways in which it can be controlled by using a power-driven device. Sound has been in fact produced by many of the devices that have been used to improve our environment, so that the world abounds with many sources of sound but with no ready means to control noise levels. How, then noise could be controlled? It could be controlled by passive means, means that do not consume energy and which therefore cannot get controlled by a switch.

Some crucial issues pertaining to noise pollution and emphatic measures to control these are covered in this book. Basic principles of noise control; Nature of noise; Sources of noise; Effects of noise on people; Noise pollution; Noise from industry and its control; Aircraft and airport noise; Legal aspects; Prediction and assessment of impacts of the noise and its control etc. are the major topics discussed.

Oceanographic ecology is concerned with environmental factors and problems of organic adjustments quite different from those in fresh water. Animals are relatively more conspicuous than plants.

Distinct self-contained community units are more difficult to recognize in the sea than on land because of the apparently greater interrelation of benthic species and the free movement with circulating currents of plankton and nekton.

Oceanographic environment in its all dimensions is thoroughly discussed in this book. The rich information contained in different chapters like-introduction; oceanographic environment; energy from the sea; marine resources; sea level rise; applied marine ecology; marine pollution; effects and control of marine pollution etc. will immensely benefit the readers.

The environmental destruction that has followed is making the lives of people humanly impossible, particularly of women who have to fetch daily household needs from the immediate environment. To survive, the poor often have no alternative but to turn upon the very environment with which they lived in full harmony in the immediate past. The key question for expert and lay person is: can lands support such a large and growing population? This is where the 'carrying capacity' comes in. It is the number of people or animals that an area of land can support on a sustainable basis.

Population growth has adverse impact on environment due to excessive encroachment on nature. Various crucial issues pertaining to topic are described in this book. The entire information is organized under nine chapter namely- introduction; environmental health; dams; world population growth; consequences of crowding; ecology and man; ecology of populations; population interaction; and energy resources etc.