Roy Clapham coined the term ‘ecosystem’ in 1930 to mean the combined abiotic, physical components – air, soil, water and sunlight – and the biological components of an environment. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defines an ecosystem as a ‘dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit’.

The word ‘habitat’, like most of the English language terms, finds its origin in Latin. The Latin transliteration is ‘it inhabits’. Thus it follows that habitat refers to the natural environment or ecosystem in which an organism lives and inhabits. Ecologically though, ‘population’ is preferred to ‘organism’. This gives a community connotation to habitat, not that of an individual.

Human habitats are areas where humans live, eat, sleep, work, study, etc. along with food and clothing. Habitat forms the holy trinity of basic needs viz. ‘roti, kapda aur makaan (food, clothing and shelter).

The main purpose of habitat is to afford humans with shelter and protection from external elements. Human habitats do not just include residential buildings and homes but also the infrastructure and amenities that surround them to make it inhabitable. These include roads, sewage systems, community buildings etc.

There is a distribution of different habitat types that humans occupy at global, regional, and local levels. Human habitats are influenced by local edaphic, climatic, topographic aspects of the local ecosystem as well as with the economic, social and cultural aspects of the populations that inhabit them. Coastal regions have sloping roofs, deserts have circular mud huts, the north-eastern forest areas have bamboo huts – each suited to the local environmental conditions. Though now with the advent of industrialisation and urbanisation, cement and steel structures are overtaking traditional vernacular habitats. These habitats are controlled environments, adjusting the natural environment to suit the requirements of the resident human population.

The ecosystem comprises of goods i.e. resources and services. Human habitats draw on these goods and services provided by the ecosystem.

Resources like timber, sand, soil, stones, metal and minerals are the basic building material for human habitats. After building the habitat, humans depend on the ecosystem for their sustenance. Primary among these are resources to meet the energy and water requirements of the habitat.

Ecosystem services are fundamental life-support services, upon which the biosphere, including the human civilization, depends. Provisioning services provide the goods needed to build and sustain the habitat. An example is of limestone used to prepare cement. Regulating services manage seasons and micro-climate to provide a comfortable living environment. Habitat services support the maintenance of lifecycles of species. Cultural services provide spiritual and recreational opportunities to enhance the living experience of the habitat.

The ecological backpack indicates the resource consumption of a good over its entire lifecycle. It represents the degree of stress exerted by the goods on the environment. The ecological backpack of the habitat sector is substantial.

Building materials form a major part of the inputs into the sector. In India, the building materials commonly used today are burnt bricks, cement and steel. Production of these materials is resource and energy intensive.

Similarly, production of cement and steel also consume a huge amount of energy. Extraction of raw materials used to produce these materials like stone, lime and iron ore, besides being energy intensive, also leads to degradation of the ecosystem. Timber, another common building material, raises concerns of rapid deforestation and degradation of forest lands. While any resource extraction will have some negative impacts on the surrounding ecosystem, the concern today is the rate of extraction and the non-renewability of some resources. Besides material consumption, other resources are used to sustain human habitats. Residential and commercial sectors account for 29 per cent of the total electricity consumption and is rising at a rate of 8 per cent annually (CWF, 2010)(full form?). A significant part of this goes into heating, cooling and lighting of human habitats.

Climate change impact further aggravates these concerns of resource availability. In addition they bring risks related to natural disasters.

In a natural ecosystem, resources are the limiting factor. The population supported by a habitat increases till the carrying capacity is reached and then there is a decline due to natural feedback mechanisms.

Human habitats are managed differently from the natural environment because of the control people exert over them. However, they still depend on natural resources to provide what they need in that environment. As populations grow, the stress on these resources also increases.

In smaller communities, the resources to meet these needs are generally sourced from the immediate environment. As the community gets larger, meeting the needs within the same resource pool gets difficult requiring larger area for surviavl. In large towns and cities, large quantities of resources are transported to the town from other resource rich areas. The wastes generated in the habitat also need special mechanisms to be handled. Mismanagement can result in severe environmental issues.

The Madhya Pradesh State Government has taken a proactive role in providing sustainable habitat to the masses. The Chief Minister’s Rural Housing Mission is expected to make a significant impact on the rural housing sector in the State, by helping the State’s rural people to build and own quality houses.

Under the mission, an affordable rural housing credit cum subsidy scheme has been designed to provide pucca houses for the rural populace. It envisages providing quality and affordable housing by providing beneficiaries a basket of choice of aesthetic designs of houses prepared, taking into account the geographical and socio-cultural context of different regions of the State. Development Alternatives is working with Madhya Pradesh Rural Road Development Authority (MPRRDA), the management unit to propagate low cost, alternative, eco friendly materials and technology for construction in rural areas. They will impart skill development training to rural youth on low cost alternative technologies.

The Government has also taken several initiatives to promote energy-efficient building materials and shift the reliance from non-renewable resources to renewable resources. Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council (BMPTC) and the National Network of Building Centres were formed to promote and disseminate eco-friendly and energy-efficient building materials and construction technologies. The Bureau of Indian Standards has formulated standards, specifications and code of practice on several innovative building materials.

Several non-governmental organisations are also involved in promoting sustainable habitats. Development Alternatives (DA) has been working for the last 25 years to promote climate sensible building materials and technologies. Other organisations like Gram Vikas, Hunnarshala, Unnati, Trust for Village Self-Governance (TVSG), Society for Education, Village Action and Improvement (SEVAI), Center of Science for Villages (CSV) (I have taken full forms from the net, plz ask for author’s approval), etc. are actively working to promote the cause of sustainable habitats.

The growing pressure on the habitat sector necessitates a need for immediate action. The complexity of the sector calls for a holistic frame of action, wherein aspects related to material extraction and production, design, planning, construction, operation and policy are considered in tandem. Alternate materials and technologies available today can help in reducing the impact the habitat sector has on the ecosystem. q