Environmental degradation refers to the deterioration in the physical component of environment, mainly due to biological processes, but more specifically due to human activity, to such a great extent that it cannot be easily restored by the self regulatory mechanism or homeostatic mechanism of the environment. Environmental degradation may be due to Extreme events or hazards or due to pollution. Extreme events can be classified on the basis of causative factors. Natural hazards are caused by natural factors example volcanic eruptions, earthquakes etc are caused by endogenetic forces. Atmospheric natural hazards occur due to atmospheric processes example cyclones, forest fires, floods etc. Human induced hazards are the result of cumulative and even sudden effects of man's activities.

Changes in environment caused by man through his Agrop-pastoral activities can be divided into two types: 

a) changes brought about by traditional agriculture and 
b) changes brought about by modern agriculture. The characteristics of traditional agriculture include defacement of land, deforestation coupled with loss of soil structure, soil erosion and depletion of soil nutrients. Some of these changes are also shared by overgrazing. Overgrazing, in fact is also a byproduct of efforts to exploit the land resources for maximum livestock production regardless of ability of the ecosystem to with stand external interventions. The second type of changes are those brought about by modern agriculture. Modern agriculture and traditional agriculture share the same disruptive effects. There are certain disruptive effects which