Conservationist has been contemptuous of Indigenous peoples and their knowledge. As such, all the modern polices, acts and laws in biodiversity conservation intends to follow a “top down” approach, where decisions to be enacted upon the local people, their land, biodiversity, forest etc are done at the top level without the local peoples consent, which ultimately leads to conflict. As such, the author through this book advocates for the implementation of two pronged policy i.e....

Inspired by women’s struggles for the protection of nature as a condition for human survival, award-winning environmentalist Vandana Shiva shows how ecological destruction and the marginalization of women are not inevitable, economically or scientifically. She argues that “maldevelopment”—the violation of the integrity of organic, interconnected, and interdependent systems that sets in motion a process of exploitation, inequality, and injustice—is dragging the world down a path of self-des...

Crowded, hot, subject to violent swings in climate, with a government unable or unwilling to face the most vital challenges, the rich and poor increasingly living in worlds apart; for most of the world, this picture is of a possible future. For India, it is the very real present.In this lyrical exploration of life, loss, and survival, Meera Subramanian travels in search of the ordinary people and microenterprises determined to revive India's ravaged natural world: an engineer-turne...

Along rivers in Bali, small groups of farmers meet regularly in water temples to manage their irrigation systems. They have done so for a thousand years. Over the centuries, water temple networks have expanded to manage the ecology of rice terraces at the scale of whole watersheds. Although each group focuses on its own problems, a global solution nonetheless emerges that optimizes irrigation flows for everyone. Did someone have to design Bali's water temple networks, or could they have em...

Acclaimed author and award-winning scientist and activist Vandana Shiva lucidly details the severity of the global water shortage, calling the water crisis “the most pervasive, most severe, and most invisible dimension of the ecological devastation of the earth.” She sheds light on the activists who are fighting corporate maneuvers to convert the life-sustaining resource of water into more gold for the elites and uses her knowledge of science and society to outline the emergence of corpora...

Environmental destruction is seen a matter of worldwide concern but as a Third World problem.Ecology and Equity explores the most ecologically complex country in the world. India's peoples range from technocrats to hunter-gathers and its environments from dense forest to wasteland. The bookanalyses the use and abuse of nature on the sub-continent to reveal the interconnections of social and environmental conflict on the global scale. The authors argue that the root of this ...

Dirty, Sacred Rivers explores South Asia's increasingly urgent water crisis, taking readers on a journey through North India, Nepal and Bangladesh, from the Himalaya to the Bay of Bengal. The book shows how rivers, traditionally revered by the people of the Indian subcontinent, have in recent decades deteriorated dramatically due to economic progress and gross mismanagement. Dams and ill-advised embankments strangle the Ganges and its sacred tributaries. Rivers have become sewage ...

Rarely do Indian environmental discourses examine nature through the lens of caste. Whereas nature is considered as universal and inherent, caste is understood as a constructed historical and social entity. Mukul Sharma shows how caste and nature are intimately connected. He compares Dalit meanings of environment to ideas and practices of neo-Brahmanism and certain mainstreams of environmental thought. Showing how Dalit experiences of environment are ridden with metaphors of pollution, imp...

Physical Geography of India provides a modern analysis of the natural elements of physical phenomena operating on the geographical space of India. Geological subsystems, geological regions of India and evolution of the Indian subcontinent have been discussed at length. Other significant themes include climatic subsystem, soil landscape subsystem, forest ecology subsystem and their impact on India's physical environment. This book also explores the relationship of land with agriculture and man...

If you've been wondering how to make a difference in protecting the environment, but don't know where to start, this guide is your solution. Filled with practical tips and insightful reflections, Saving the Earth provides tools for change while showing how the Buddhist philosophies of interconnectedness and compassion are of immense use in our efforts towards preserving the Earth

Beginning in 1984, Eric Dinerstein led a team directly responsible for the recovery of the greater one-horned rhinoceros in the Royal Chitwan National Park in Nepal, where the population had once declined to as few as 100 rhinos. The Return of the Unicorns is an account of what it takes to save endangered large mammals. In its pages, Dinerstein outlines the multifaceted recovery program—structured around targeted fieldwork and scientific research, effective protective measures, ha...

This comprehensive second edition provides an up-to-date introduction to the nature of ecological degradation in a world of dramatic environmental change.