MA SEM 4 HISTORY PAPER EC1 UNIT IV ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS Diwakar kumar Singh Department of History CM college, LNMU The issue of environment in history writing has acquired a significant dimension and has generated a wide range of questions related to history writing. Alfred W. Crosby showed that European colonists brought with them to America veritable “biological suitcases” that permitted them to replant a sort of neo-Europe more or less everywhere in the world. After Crosby, many other authors examined the environmental impact of and changes connected to colonization, concluding that measures for the protection of the environment were more a tool of colonial domination than a real attempt to conserve or preserve natural elements of the tropical environment. Against this idea of an “ecological imperialism,” Richard Grove introduced the idea of a “green imperialism,” meaning that some people in positions of colonial authority were truly concerned with protecting the environment. He mentions Pierre Poivre, Philibert Commerson, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre for Mauritius; the superintendent of the botanical garden of Saint-Vincent in the British possessions of the Caribbean; Governor Roberts of St. Helena; John Croumbie Brown in the Cape Colony; and the Scottish surgeon-doctors of the East India Company (Alexander Gibson, Edward Balfour, and Hugh Cleghorn). As far as historiography is concerned the three distinct periods can be identified through which we can situate the distinctiveness in terms of style, scope and issues. Thus, the three periods are pre-colonial, colonial and post colonial. The three-partite periodsation though is questionable paradigm but is well perceived framework through which one can situate the issues pertaining to environmental issues. Forest destruction and irrigation are marked characteristics issues in pre colonial to medieval times. Archaeologists and Historians have given emphasis on settlement of people and deforestation in Ganga valley from first millennial BCE, in a linear fashion though the equation has generation intense debate among So far the historians have gave much emphasis on deforestation and cannal irrigation during Colonial period. Two groups of historians, First who gave emphasis on the negative impact or consequences, for example the British expansion of railway and destruction of forests (Guha) . The second who believe the positive impact of British forest policy , for example Ian stone believe cannal irrigation. Many believe that there was equilibrium and harmony in pre-colonial time in contrast of colonial time (For example, Ram guha and Gadgil ) though the rosy and ideal portrayal of people and environment in pre- colonial period has been challenged and contested as well (for example Mahesh Rangrajan , David Mosse and R Shivaramkrishnan) With the emergence of environmental movements in India and other parts of the world around the 1970s, scholarly debates were initiated during the last quarter of' the twentieth century, particularly in the 1980s. 6 Initiating the debate, Rama- chandra Guha argued that the British colonial government had presided over the unprecedented denudation of the vast forest cover to meet commercial as well as strategic needs of the empire, in utter disregard for the rights of forest-dwellers and users. 7 Indeed, the colonial forest policy had not only destroyed subsistence farming, but also made ineffective the traditional methods of managing forests.' In other words, the efforts aimed at conservation have failed to recognise the cus- tomary rights of the forest-dwellers, and it also becomes evident that the colonial administration had actively pushed forward commercialisation of forests.’ Prior to the colonial regime, commercial exploitation of forest produce was largely restricted to the collection of spices such as pepper and cardamom, as well as that of ivory, particularly in those cases where extraction did not pose a serious threat to the ecology or customary use, thereby ensurinp• renewal and sus- tainability." It was colonial larid control and commercialisation of forests that had accentuated deforestation. i ' In the words of Padel, (colonialism) works out how to create the maximum profit out of the earth and the raw materials ex- tracted from it in the shortest possible time, with complete disregard for long term consequences’.' Contending this, Grove argues that despite the use for strategic needs of the empire, conservation was given due importance through the steps initiated to pre- serve and protect the environment for agrarian prosperity and social stability.'" He further claims that deforestation and displacement of forest-dwellers and users were primarily a part of pre- colonial history, and had not occurred during the British period. His reasoning: ‘As Mughul control collapsed, the ascendancy of successor states and their attendant commercial elites caused dramatic rises in timber demand and the growing commodisation of forests for revenue and state needs long before the East India Company became a significant power in the land’. He adds: ‘These processes of forest annexation by pre-colonial states fre- quently involved the forced removal of peasant populations and the destruction of pre-existing customary forest-utilisation arrangements.”" Further, he takes into consideration the accounts of colonial medical practitioners, who have discussed the issues arising out of deforestation and its consequences on climate, rainfall decline, water supply, drought, famine, etc. In other words, ‘widespread deforest- ation could cause fundamental climatic and therefore agrarian and economic change’." Therefore, he concluded that the idea of forest conservation for envir- onmental protection was concretely shaped in Madras Presidency particularly after the 1830s, and in Bombay Presidency in the 1850s. Environmental movements in India, centering on dams, displacement and resettlement effectively articulated their agenda on the human consequences of tampering with the courses of natural resources, have initiated protest action against the forces and agencies responsible for environmental degradation. Further, the issues raised by the actors of the ecology and environment movement by the “Friends of the Earth” and by the natural and Social Science scholars in defense of the nature and the planet earth, suggests that the ecology movement is not a mere exercise in romanticism nor a movement relating to food, fodder and fuel alone. In India it is also seen that the ethnic practices of worshipping planets, trees, forest, and rivers reflects the natural and social domains and the wisdom of seeing unity in the living and the non-living world in the Indian tradition. The ecological movements in India encapsulate all categories of caste, class, race, religion, nations and also categories of species divisions and the divisions of the organic and inorganic world. Environmental movements in India have contributed in defining the models of development, shifting from a resource intensive and ecologically unstable state to an ecologically symbiotic state of functioning. A couple of environmental movements experienced in India so far include Chipko Andolan (Barthelemy, 1982), Save the Bhagirathi and stop Tehri project (Manu, 1984), Save the Narmada movement (Narmada Bachhao Andolan) in Madhya Pradesh and Gujrat; Youth organisation and Tribal people in the Gandhamardan Mines against Balco, the opposition of Baliapal Test Range, Bauxite mining in Kashipur and Niyamgiri; the Appiko movement in the Western Ghats; the campaign against the Silent Valley Project; reclaiming wastelands in Bankura district, and the opposition to the Gumti Dam in Tripura, etc., are some examples. Many local movements centering deforestation, water logging, salinization and desertification in the command areas of major rivers of Kosi, Gandak, and Tungabhadra and in canal irrigated areas of western India, like Punjab and Haryana, have established the efficient use of water as a source of natural commodity. All these movements have reflected the ill-conceived natural resource consumption by the so called development projects, which have resulted in devastations in the natural resource base of the nation. In the following section we describe couple of major environmental movements that have occurred in different parts of India across time 3.4.1The Silent Valley Movement, Kerala The silent valley is located in Palghat district of Kerala. It is surrounded by different hills of the State stretched over a total area of 8950 hectares. The flora and fauna of the valley is natural and very rich in biodiversity. The valley has contributed varieties of genes for pest and disease control of rice. The idea of a dam on river Kunthipuja in this hill system was conceived by the British in 1929, while the technical feasibility survey was carried out in 1958 and the project was sanctioned by the Planning Commission of Government of India in 1973 with a cost estimation of Rs. 25.00 crores, which enhanced to 80 crores in 1980. The project had dual purpose of generating 240 MW of power, to irrigate 10,000 hectares of additional crop land and to create jobs for 2000 to 3000 people during the construction period. Peoples Response Local people lobbied for the project under the erroneous assumption that their prospects would improve as a consequence of a big scheme being located in their area (Darryl, 1985: 19). All political wings of major political parties also favoured the process of development identical with