Indus Valley Civilization

A civilization can be defined as an advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry and government has been reached. It is a group of people living in an area who share the same culture and live and work co-operatively. The formation of a civilization is something that takes place over a period of time and is not sudden. Some of the basic amenities needed for the formation of civilization are food, electricity, livelihood and water. Water comes out be as one of the key factors in the formation of the four main Bronze Age civilizations on the banks of rivers. Indus Valley developed on the banks of Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra River, Egyptian civilization on Nile, Chinese civilization on Yellow and Mesopotamian

It was a river valley civilization as mentioned earlier and one of the most widespread civilizations of that time. A lot of conjectures, by various historians, regarding its decline have evolved over the time. Some happen to suggest the cause for its decline to be natural calamities such as floods, earthquakes, deforestation or soil erosion. Another theory suggests that a group of people called Aryans moved into the area. But due to the presence of inadequate evidence to support the theory of Aryan invasion, majority of historians believe environment to be the main cause for the decline of the civilization. The declination of the Indus River valley civilization happened over a period time between 1500 BC and 1000 B.C. Though the cause for its downfall still remains uncertain but in order to understand and remove the ambiguity revolving around the collapse of such a huge and important Bronze Age civilization, we need to begin by first focusing on one aspect of looking at its decline: the impact of environmental

But in the process of catering to their needs, deforestation and overgrazing over the time caused considerable erosion increasing the volume and speed of water in Indus, in turn increasing the risk of excessive and devastating floods. This led to reduced rainfall and erosion of top soil causing an ecological imbalance. This imbalance gave birth to the recurring problems of floods, drought and famine. It seems that being compelled by the given circumstances, people were forced to move away gradually to areas, which offered better subsistence