Abstract

The present study aimed to assess conservation behaviour of a group of higher education students of West Bengal in respect of sex, level of education, and discipline studied, and to ascertain the relationship of conservation behaviour with environmental attitude. 273 students comprising 125 males and 148 females, 151 pursuing graduation and 122 doing postgraduation, 90, 94 and 89 studying social science, science and humanities respectively were selected from different colleges and universities of West Bengal, following purposive sampling technique. The Pro-nature Conservation Behaviour Scale (Barbett et al., 2020) and the Shortened version of the Environmental Attitude Scale (Milfont and Duckitt, 2010) were administered on the samples, along with a general information schedule. Pearson’s product-moment correlation and Three-way Anova were applied. The findings indicated that sex made significant variation in respondents’ pro-nature conservation behaviour and all its domains, namely, organized social engagement, individual engagement, wildlife except planting. Significant variation was found regarding level of education, in all domains of conservation behaviour, except planting. However, no significant variation was noted in conservation behaviour based on discipline. The interaction effect of sex and education level was significant in overall conservation behaviour, and individual engagement and wildlife domains. The interaction effect of sex and discipline was also found to be significant in the domain of organized and social engagement. The relationship between pro-nature conservation behaviour and environmental attitude was observed to be positive, but not significant.

Keywords: Pro-nature Conservation Behaviour, Environmental Attitude, Environment, SDG