What do you understand by population explosion? Discuss its consequences.

A rapid increase in population over a relatively short period of time is called population explosion. Its consequences are as follows:

(a) Food: Population increases geometrically, while food production increases arithmetically. Thus, the supply of food will run short if the rapid increase in population is not checked.
(b) Forests: Forests provide us timber, medicines, firewood, resins, dyes, pulps and other important things. Indiscriminate deforestation to provide more land for agricultural or housing purposes is causing serious environmental hazards like soil erosion, floods, landslides and droughts in several regions of the world.
(c) Water: In India, scarcity of drinking water is a frightening reality. This will only become worse with the increasing population.