Environmental History of Modern India: Land, Population, Technology and Development

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. This book attempts to comprehend 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 how natural resources were exploited for commercial motives by the colonial administration. It then dwells on the question of how the colonial commercial policy impacted ecology and environment for more than one and a half centuries and whether the postcolonial government policies have changed in favour of environmental protection or continued with the colonial policy. It also 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. Further, it looks at the problem of electronic waste and its adverse impact on the environment, ecology and health in a historical manner. It also engages with the complexity of the conflict between land and population in relation to the environment.