www.theinternationaljournal.org > RJSSM: Volume: 03, Number: 11, March-2014 Page 101 People Participation and Community Movements for Environmental Protection Dr. Ambrina Sardar Khan Assistant Professor, Amity Institute of Environmental Sciences, Amity University Noida, U.P. India. & Dr. Prateek Srivastava Assistant Professor, Amity Institute of Environmental Sciences, Amity University Noida, U.P. India. ABSTRACT The concern for environment is not new; only the demonstration of that grief came late when we had lost a lot already. With the passing year the expression for conserving the nature and the resources have increased. The roots of the modern environmental movement can be traced back in 19th-century Europe and North America to expose the costs of environmental degradation, notably disease, as well as extensive air and water pollution. The ignorance towards these issues only added fuel to the fire, but only after the Second World War did a wider awareness begin to emerge. India had a rich history of social movements, protest, agitation and campaign. If we walk down to the corridor of past few decades then we would realize that all the significant changes and important revolution had born from these social movements from time to time. Also the pre and post independence era of India exhibits the impacts of such movements for social causes. The objective of the paper is to bring forward the revolutionary movements and incidents in the history of India and abroad, to develop strategies, protocol and policies today so that nature & development co-exist together. “A point has been reached in history when we must shape our actions throughout the world with a more prudent care for their environmental consequences. Through ignorance or indifference we can do massive and irreversible harm to the earthly environment on which our life and well being depend. Conversely, through fuller knowledge and wiser action, we can achieve for ourselves and our posterity a better life in an environment more in keeping with human needs and hopes …" “To defend and improve the human environment for present and future generations has become an imperative goal for mankind.” from the Declaration of the UN Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, 1972). NEED OF ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT During the past several decades, there has been an increasing concern over environmental problems throughout the world involving depletion of ozone layer, acid rain, green house effect, soil erosion, deforestation, water pollution, air pollution, etc. The severity of these problems is in large part related to each nation’s quest for development, technological advancement, industrialization and urbanization which causes unprecedented demands on the regenerative capacity of ecosystems and jeopardizes conservation of the environment. Nature has given enough to mankind to live for several thousand years till today and hundred thousand years to come but something drastically went wrong in the past with the evolution of mankind, development and industrialisation that has put a question mark on our very existence. With the rapid depleting resources, green cover, dying and dirty rivers, toxic and polluted air, increasing disasters both natural and man-made today the concern for environmental protection has increased and not only at national level but globally also. The thought of planet being extinct and so is the human races, the environmentalists, the policy makers of different countries and European Union have join hands to save NATURE. Social and Environmental movements are among those important tactics that helped to achieve such herculean tasks. To make people aware of things going wrong or vice versa it equally becomes important to make people participate in and for such causes like protection and identification of their