Rally sensitises people to perils of population boom

School and college students took out a rally in the city on Saturday, on the occasion of World Population Day, to sensitise people to the perils of population explosion.

The rally was taken out from the St.John’s Vestry Higher Secondary School to the K.A.P. Viswanatham Government Medical College where an awareness seminar was held.

Inaugurating the seminar, T.P. Poonatchi, Minister for Khadi and Village Industries, said the population density in the State was currently 555 inhabitants per square kilometre.

The rise in population would increase pressure on natural resources and on the environment, affecting the people’s livelihood and economy. It was essential that people were aware of the effects of unchecked population growth, he said.

District Collector Jayashree Muralidharan said the population of Tiruchi district stood at 27.13 lakhs and the birth rate in the district has come down to 9.4 per cent now from 13 per cent in 2010.

Experts were predicting that the rise in population could cause a shortage of drinking water over the next 20 years.

There was also the danger of cultivable lands being increasingly converted into habitations.