This important new study investigates the competing demand for water in the Bhavani and Noyyal River basins of south India from the early 19th century to the early 21st century from a historical perspective. In doing so, the book addresses several important questions: * Did policy-makers visualise the future demand while diverting water from distant places or other basins? * Was efficient use ensured when the water was diverted or was it diverted in a manner that resulted in pollution and serious damage to the entire river basin? * Were natural flows taken care of in order to preserve the ecology and environment? * What were the factors that aggravated the competing demand for water and what were the consequences for the future? In the context of the current discourse on the competing demands for water, this book takes the debate forward, expanding the horizon of environmental history in the process. Until now, agriculture, industry and domestic water supply and their consequences for ecology, the environment and livelihoods have been given scant attention. Velayutham Saravanan's comprehensive account of both the colonial and post-colonial periods corrects this shortcoming in the field's literature and gives a holistic understanding of the problem and its full historical roots.

This monograph presents a comprehensive account of environmental history of India and its tribals from the late eighteenth onwards, covering both the colonial and post-colonial periods. The book elaborately discusses the colonial plunder of forest resources up to the introduction of the Forest Act (1878) and focuses on how colonial policy impacted on the Indian environment, opening the floodgates of forest resources plunder, primarily for timber and to establish coffee and tea plantations. The book argues that even after the advent of conservation initiatives, commercial exploitation of forests continued unabated while stringent restrictions were imposed on the tribals, curtailing their access to the jungles. It details how post-colonial governments and populist votebank politics followed the same commercial forest policy till the 1980s without any major reform, exploiting forest resources and also encroaching upon forest lands, pushing the self-sustainable tribal economy to crumble. The book offers a comprehensive account of India’s environmental history during both colonial and post-colonial times, contributing to the current environmental policy debates in Asia.

This book delves into the history of the commercialization of wildlife in India. It examines the colonial strategies that were employed in the commodification of wildlife resources specifically for lucrative domestic and international trade during the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. It looks at how and why the colonial administration paid special emphasis on hunting and game sports which largely contributed to commodity capitalism in the form of taxidermy and wildlife exports. The author also critically analyses the wildlife laws and regulations promulgated by the colonial administration, such as the elephant protection act, birds and fisheries act, the forest acts, and studies how they have systematically brought wildlife under state control with a commercial motive. An important contribution to the environmental history of India, this book is an essential interdisciplinary resource for scholars and researchers of history, colonialism, wildlife studies, economic history, ecological studies, environmental history, Indian history, South Asian studies, and development studies.

India, over the decades, has experienced multiple changes, including population explosion, urbanisation, technological advancement, commercialisation of agriculture, change in land-use pattern, vast improvement of infrastructure facilities, etc., which have had an impact on the environment. Author Velayutham Saravanan attempts to understand the complexity of the environmental history of contemporary India from the early nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries. Environmental History of Contemporary India begins with an analysis of land-use patterns and population and their impact on the environment. Further, it discusses the exploitation of natural resources for commercial motives by the colonial administration and argues that the colonial commercial policy of over one-and-a-half centuries had impacted the ecology and environment. The book also deliberates whether the postcolonial government policies have changed in favour of environmental protection or have continued with the colonial policy, and attempts to throw light on the issues of how the land for development policies have impacted the environment from the early nineteenth century until recent years. It then looks at the problem of electronic waste and its adverse impact on the environment, ecology and health in a historical manner while engaging with the complexity of the conflict between land and population in relation to the environment. The book is the most comprehensive presentation on land, population, technology and development that India has witnessed since the early nineteenth century.

All life forms on earth are complementary to each other; the existence and survival of one depend on the existence of another, and vice versa. However, no life forms are more dependent on others than human beings. Humans’ very survival is conditioned by the existence of the natural environment and the living things within it. One aspect of this interaction is the central and inescapable role played by human culture in defining the human-nature relationship. This book emphasises that environmental conservation is a matter of moral and cultural ethics. It stresses the fact that existing environmental conservation methods need to accommodate traditional environmental knowledge and practices of different indigenous cultures in order to re-build and restore the bond between humans and nature.

A first of its kind in India, the book addresses the fundamental questions of environmental concern and enquires into the complex patterns of human-nature interaction within the discipline of environmental history in India. This book delves into history to examine a number of critical themes, such as waterbodies and water, forests, land use, wildlife and the issue of the history of climate in India. It focuses on the methodological and historiographical aspects of environmental history and raises new questions to open up new windows leading to fresh research questions. The book argues that environmental history would serve as an important gateway to the history of the human-nature relationship, for example, exploring the role of water history would help in understanding the present context of water crisis in Indian cities. Critical Themes in Environmental History of India is a powerful reminder of the fact that in the context of Indian history it is now necessary to listen to the voice of nature more carefully.