Global society in the 21st century is facing challenges of improving the quality of air, water, soil and the environment and maintaining the ecological balance. Environmental pollution, thus, has become a major global concern. The modern growth of industrialization, urbanization, modern agricultural development and energy generation has resulted in the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources for fulfilling human desires and needs, which has contributed in disturbing the ecological balance on which the quality of our environment depends.

Human beings, in the truest sense, are the product of their environment. The man-environment relationship indicates that pollution and deterioration of the environment have a social origin. The modern technological advancements in chemical processes/operations have generated new products, resulting in new pollutants in such abundant levels that they are above the self-cleaning capacity of the environment. One of the major issues in recent times is the threat tohuman lives due to the progressive deterioration of the environment from various sources. The impact of the pollutants on the environment will be significant when the accumulated pollutants load will exceed the carrying capacity of the receiving environment.

Sustainable development envisages the use of natural resources, such as forests, land, water and fisheries, in a sustainable manner without causing changes in our natural world. The Rio de Janeiro-Earth Summit, held in Brazil in 1992, focused on sustainable development to encourage respect and concern for the use of natural resources in a sustainable manner for the protection of the environment.

This book will be beneficial as a source of educational material to post-graduate research scholars, teachers and industrial personnel for maintaining the balance in the use of natural sources for sustainable development.

Global society in the 21st century is facing challenges of improving the quality of air, water, soil and the environment and maintaining the ecological balance. Environmental pollution, thus, has become a major global concern. The modern growth of industrialization, urbanization, modern agricultural development and energy generation has resulted in the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources for fulfilling human desires and needs, which has contributed in disturbing the ecological balance on which the quality of our environment depends. Human beings, in the truest sense, are the product of their environment. The man-environment relationship indicates that pollution and deterioration of the environment have a social origin. The modern technological advancements in chemical processes/operations have generated new products, resulting in new pollutants in such abundant levels that they are above the self-cleaning capacity of the environment. One of the major issues in recent times is the threat tohuman lives due to the progressive deterioration of the environment from various sources. The impact of the pollutants on the environment will be significant when the accumulated pollutants load will exceed the carrying capacity of the receiving environment. Sustainable development envisages the use of natural resources, such as forests, land, water and fisheries, in a sustainable manner without causing changes in our natural world. The Rio de Janeiro-Earth Summit, held in Brazil in 1992, focused on sustainable development to encourage respect and concern for the use of natural resources in a sustainable manner for the protection of the environment. This book will be beneficial as a source of educational material to post-graduate research scholars, teachers and industrial personnel for maintaining the balance in the use of natural sources for sustainable development.

Life sciences research plays an important role in the R&D for appliances in the multidisciplinary areas related to living creatures. It generates new knowledge and understanding that provides the foundation for applied research and development. Research provides reliable information in biology for application in the life system; more intensive knowledge creation through research could be seen as a way to enhance innovative activities. Life sciences advances go beyond molecular base science. Improvement also advances behavioural sciences and ecology. The greatest recent advances have been in ecosystem and biodiversity, biotechnology, proteomic and genomic studies leading to metagenomics, and healthcare. The combination of multidisciplinary research in plants, animals, microorganisms and their interactions with molecular biology, genetic engineering approaches and advances in cell biology research has broadened the horizons of the life sciences. This book deals with recent trends in the life sciences and will be beneficial for postgraduate students and researchers.