690 Seminar.Pdf

NATURE’S PRESENT a symposium on understanding conflicts around nature in contemporary India symposium participants 14 THE PROBLEM Posed by Mahesh Rangarajan, Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Ashoka University, Sonipat; Rinki Sarkar, independent researcher, Delhi; Ravi Agarwal, Director, Toxic Links, Delhi 20 NATURE AND ASSAM’S PRESENT Arupjyoti Saikia, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati 24 CAN A COFFEE COMPANY SAVE FORESTS? Arshiya Bose, finished her PhD on market incentives for biodiversity and founded Black Baza Coffee Co., Bengaluru 29 DISASTER BY DESIGN Nityanand Jayaraman, writer and social activist; member, Vettiver Collective, Chennai 35 MANAGING FISHERIES FROM A MIGRANT PERSPECTIVE Divya Karnad, graduate student, Rutgers University, New Jersey and Research Fellow, Foundation for Ecological Research Advocacy and Learning, Pondicherry 40 FALLOW SOIL: BRINGING POLITICAL ECONOMY INTO CONSERVATION Shashank Kela, Visiting Scholar, Wolfson College, University of Oxford, Oxford 45 RECYCLING END OF LIFE VEHICLES N.S. Mohan Ram, Captain, Indian Navy (retd.), Fellow, Indian National Academy of Engineering (FNAE), Bengaluru 50 AT NATURE’S END Rohit Negi, urban geographer, School of Human Ecology, Ambedkar University, Delhi 54 FRICTION ALONG THE FRINGE Meera Anna Oommen, Associate Director and Founder Trustee, Dakshin Foundation, Bengaluru 59 HISTORICIZING MUTINIES AGAINST NATURE Aarthi Sridhar, PhD candidate, University of Amsterdam, and Trustee, Dakshin Foundation, Bengaluru 63 URBAN COMMONS IN A GLOBALIZING CITY Hita Unnikrishnan, B. Manjunatha and Harini Nagendra, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru 68 WOH JANGAL HAMARA HAI Anand Vaidya, anthropologist, University of Bergen, Norway 72 REIMAGINING AESTHETICS OF THE WILD IN DELHI Mayank Vikas, Researcher, International Forestry Resources and Institutions; School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 78 IN MEMORIAM Dileep Padgaonkar 1944-2016 Javeed Alam 1943-2016 Sulabha Brahme 1932-2016 13 Anupam Mishra 1948-2016 90 BACKPAGE COVER Designed by www.designosis.in The problem THE theme of nature in the present is ubiquitous given In a broad sense, the Indian experience fits such the far reaching and perhaps even epochal transforma- a larger narrative, with the end of the sixties marking tions in the human environment that we are living the coming to fore of many different, diverse, often through. Nature in contemporary India can hardly be contending, shades of green concern. The depletion of viewed apart from the larger context of the planet we forest cover and water pollution, the endangerment of live in and are part of. charismatic fauna and monuments, and the livelihood Here, the long- and short-term shifts in the global struggles of a variety of underclass groups – fishers economy and environment are of importance for all. and pastoralists, artisans and cultivators, especially The term the ‘Anthropocene’ is often used to describe Adivasis – were among those which helped shape the the era since the late 18th century when fossil fuel use new environmentalism. By 1982, this pluralism was well first became prominent. Their use has only grown since represented in the first citizen’s report on India’s envi- and they now account for four-fifths of all energy con- ronment by the Centre for Science and Environment, a sumed on the planet. The global picture of the long-term landmark document. matters, and not only to historians. But of more direct In retrospect, it is clear that the clash of and con- relevance to us is the idea of the ‘great acceleration’ in versation between the popular and eminent domains economic growth and demographic expansion that took shaped the public space in the 1980s. This was evident place worldwide after the end of the Second World in well publicized and studied conflicts such as the War in 1945. The period from then till the early seven- dams in Silent Valley (on biodiversity), the Narmada ties was one of unprecedented levels of economic (on displacement and social justice) and Bhopal (on change. By then, not only did economic expansion relief and follow up). The ground level or popular move- begin to slow down on a global scale, but various currents of environmental concern had also matured modern eras as uniquely destructive of ecologies see Kathleen D. Morrison, The Human Face of the Land: Why the Past Matters to a point when they could mount a challenge to the for India’s Environmental Future. Occasional Papers in History dominant ethic of ceaseless expansion.1 and Society, no. 13, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi, 14 2013. On the importance of the uneven role in ecological impacts 1. J.R. McNeill and Peter Engelke, The Great Acceleration: An depending on socio-economic and political status see J. Guldi and Environmental History of the Anthropocene Since 1945. Belknap D. Armitage, The History Manifesto. Cambridge University Press, Press, Harvard, 2013, esp. pp. 1-5. On reasons to be critical of Cambridge, 2014, pp. 70-71. SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 ments laid much emphasis on local empowerment and if not dismantling ‘rule by fiat’ of the forest estate by people’s knowledge while rekindling Gandhian ideas the Forest Department. Similarly, there were changes of appropriate technology. These trends did not end in some legal enactments, most significantly the with the decade of the eighties. Alternatives were Environment Protection Act in 1986. India’s political exemplified in very original studies on village level leaders, both at the Union and state level, did not abide biomass (Towards Green Villages) and potable drink- by grassroots concerns but they did modify their stance ing water supply (Dying Wisdom). Such ideas of grass- to take account of them. This was true even in the roots level environmental regeneration gained support Narmada case, where the Gujarat government reached from a fresh crop of scholarly studies by social scien- out to a section of anti-dam protestors who were will- tists who often traced the collapse of such systems that ing to engage with it on issues of resettlement.2 had combined renewal of resources with participation The picture has significantly changed over the to the period of imperial rule. last quarter century or so. For one, the pace of econo- It was in this context that the regulatory appara- mic growth picked up, from 5% in the 1980s, to a high tus of forests and wildlife, air and water pollution, land of 8.3 in the years 2003-11. Even if it has dropped since, and water use took shape. Rates of economic growth the base of the economy as a whole is broader and more also declined from a heady 4% in the early years of plan- variegated than it was in the pre-1980 era. Levels of ning to 3.5% (1965-80). There were larger debates in integration with the global marketplace are also far the polity on growth and redistribution of economic greater. While issues of economic disparity and job crea- opportunity. Legislative and executive measures tion have held centre stage, the ecological consequences included a ban on tiger skin exports in 1969, to the of the change may be more important than apparent at enactments on wildlife, air and water pollution in 1972-74, all the way through to the Forest Conserva- 2. Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narian, Towards Green Villages. Cen- tre for Science and Environment, Delhi, 1992 and Dying Wisdom, tion Act of 1980, the year that the Union government The Rise Fall and Decline of India’s Water Systems. Centre for set up the Department of Environment. The ‘eminent Science and Environment, Delhi, 1997. The shifts over time are domain’ was thus not immune to ground or intermedi- examined in M. Rangarajan, Nature and Nation: Essays on Envi- 15 ronmental History. Permanent Black, Ranikhet, 2015. For the ear- ate level pressures; the adoption of Joint Forest Man- lier period, M. Gadgil and R. Guha, Ecology and Equity: The Use agement was in part a response to the calls for curbing and Abuse of Nature in Contemporary India. Penguin, Delhi, 1995. SEMINAR 690 – February 2017 first sight. Greater rates of extraction of biomass, good, the routs and reverses turned out to be more intensified demands on the biophysical environment important than the victories. A fresh sense of crisis is (mining of coal or iron ore), or more extensive use of the widely pervasive. ecological infrastructure (soil, water, air) or depletion The same period since the early nineties also of biological diversity (flora and fauna) or even whole saw new kinds of fissures arising in the environmental biomes (mangrove, wetland, scrub jungle, savannah, movement, in turn leading to shifts within what were estuary or forest): all these have become more promi- earlier largely hermetically sealed categories of state, nent than ever before. From being the prime investor, market and community. Each had limitations that have the governments at both the federal and state level have become more, not less, obvious over time. To be fair, moved to being facilitators of investment. These far- each had advocates whose practice was nuanced and reaching changes have unleashed new pressures and whose own specific attitudes shifted over time. None- pointed to a slow unravelling of the earlier systems of theless, a broad category-wise look may help to show environmental renewal and public consultation.3 why and how we came to the present impasse. There was also a stepping back after a phase of Statism had long enjoyed support, specially to instituting a flurry of rights based laws on land and for- protect forest wealth and imperilled wildlife, a legacy ests. By 2014, decision makers had come to believe that which goes back to princely and imperial initiatives in green regulations were a drag on business, growth and the early 20th century acquiring fresh currency due to development as they hampered rapid implementation a heightened sense of ecological patriotism and anxi- of projects.

Load more