WILDERNESS

WILDERNESS : Wilderness or wild land is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with roads, pipelines or other industrial infrastructure."[1] The term is usually limited to terrestrial environments, though the seas and outer space also are little developed by people. Recent maps of wilderness suggest it covers roughly one quarter of Earths terrestrial surface, but is being rapidly degraded by human activity

The word wilderness derives from the notion of "wildness"—in other words, that which is not controlled by humans. The mere presence or activity of people does not disqualify an area from being "wilderness." Many ecosystems that are, or have been, inhabited or influenced by activities of people may still be considered "wild." This way of looking at wilderness includes areas within which natural processes operate without human interference