ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN RELATION TO THEIR STREAM OF STUDY AND AREA OF RESIDENCE

Environment has influenced and shaped our lives since the time immemorial. Existence of human life is totally impossible without the existence of environment. On one hand environment influences the life of human beings and all their activities in one or other aspect, simultaneously on the other hand human beings also through their growth & development; and activities, desires & intentions for modification or adjustment influences the environment. Over the period, the greed of man, ignorance of environment and its significance for so long and the lack of respect for available natural resources across the globe resulted in over exploitation of environment in name of industrialisation, urbanisation and development and hence had put the life sustaining environment in peril. This anthropogenic impact on the environment has posed danger to man's existence on this earth and hence ‘Environment' has become the concern of all across the globe in the present era. Although a number of initiatives were made; acts and policies were framed; projects and programmes were launched; special drives, campaign and activities were organised in this direction by all nations in order to ensure sustainable development; but despite all such efforts from various governmental, non-governmental and other agencies there found some studies by the researcher that reported contradictory and contrasting results in this context. Also the report ? The Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database, released by World Health Organization (WHO) in June, 2016 showed that air pollution is mounting in India's upcoming towns and cities; and half of world's 20 most polluted cities are in India. The researcher has undertaken the present study in order to explore whether the undergraduate students of District Ambala possessed adequate level of environmental awareness or not. Researcher has also tried to explore that whether there existed any difference in level of environmental awareness of undergraduate students of District Ambala in relation to their stream of study and their area of residence, or not; as some studies in past reported contradictory and contrasting results in context of relationship of environmental awareness of students with their stream of study and area of residence. The researcher conducted the present study by drawing a true representative sample of 224 undergraduate students studying in government/ government aided colleges situated in District Ambala and employing ‘Environmental Awareness Ability Scale (EAAS)', constructed and standardized by Dr. Praveen Kumar Jha (1998) as research tool for measuring the level of environmental awareness of undergraduate students. Data gathered was analysed and interpreted by using statistical techniques like mean, S.D. and t-test.