ASSESSING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION IN MAYURBHANJ DISTRICT: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY

Environmental pollution has emerged as one of the most urgent global challenges, with its consequences deeply affecting ecosystems, public health, and overall quality of life. Understanding young adults’ attitudes toward environmental issues is crucial, as they represent the future custodians of environmental protection and policy advocacy. This study aims to assess the attitudes of undergraduate students toward environmental pollution in Mayurbhanj District and to examine how these attitudes vary across gender, locality, and academic discipline. The study was conducted on 240 undergraduate students of Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, India. The investigator adopted the descriptive survey research design to assess the attitudes of undergraduate students toward environmental pollution in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. For the collection of samples for the study, simple random technique was adopted. The findings of the study revealed that gender does not significantly influence students’ attitudes toward environmental pollution, indicating an almost equitable level of environmental awareness among male and female undergraduate students. Also, the urban undergraduate students exhibit slightly more favourable attitudes than that of rural students, the difference remains statistically insignificant, highlighting the need to strengthen environmental awareness efforts in rural contexts. Moreover, a statistically significant difference was observed between academic disciplines, with Science students demonstrating more positive attitudes toward environmental issues than their Arts counterparts. The study underscores the importance of inclusive, context-responsive, and discipline-specific environmental education strategies to foster stronger environmental responsibility among all undergraduate learners. In addition to this, educational implications and recommendations were given on the basis of obtained findings of the study. Keywords: Environmental Pollution, Attitude, Undergraduate Students, Gender, Locality, Discipline, Mayurbhanj District.