Development and environmental policy in India : the last few decades / Kanchan Chopra.

Includes bibliographical references.

Dedication; Preface; Contents; Chapter 1: Development and Environmental Policy; 1.1 Introduction; 1.2 The Context of Development: The World View; 1.3 Responses and Policy Responses: The Conceptual Underpinnings; 1.4 Policy-Making and Linked Social-Ecological Systems; 1.5 The Backdrop in India up to the 1980s: Development, Equity and Poverty Alleviation; 1.6 The Decade of the 1980s: The Rise of Environmental Concerns Within the Government; 1.7 The Decades Since Then; 1.8 Drivers and Impacts: The Present Volume; References; Chapter 2: Land and Forest Policy: Resources for Development or Our Natural Resources?2.1 The Issue; 2.2 The Legacy: Centrally Governed Forest Land and Privileged Private Land; 2.3 India's Common Lands: An Un-understood and Neglected Category; 2.4 Taking Partial Cognisance of Field Reality: Change Through the JFM and Watershed Guidelines in the 1990s; 2.5 Forests as a Case Study: A Story of Policies, Acts, Rules and Judicial Intervention; 2.6 The Judiciary in Forest Policy; 2.7 And What of Institutional Change to Decentralised Community Management? 2.8 The Tilt Towards Growth: To€and€Fro Movement2.9 Conclusions: Stakeholders, Participation and€Complexities of€Public Policy; References; Chapter 3: Climate Change Policy in€India; 3.1 Climate Change Policy: Early Phases; 3.2 Climate Policy Within€India: The€Indian Position from€the€1980s; 3.3 India in€the€World: A€Self-Created Isolation (1997-2005); 3.4 Beginnings of€Change: Participation in€the€CDM and€Being a€Part of€the€Solution; 3.5 International Stance and€Domestic Imperatives: A€Contradiction of€Sorts; 3.6 The Changing International Scenario. 3.7 Future Directions for Climate Policy: Co-evolving InstitutionsReferences; Chapter 4: Rights-Based Approaches: Do Environmental Movements Make a Dent on Policy?; 4.1 Environmental Movements; 4.2 Successful Early Movements in India: The Silent Valley and the Chipko Movements; 4.3 Narmada Bachao Andolan: A Movement with Limited Immediate Success; 4.4 The Vedanta Case in Orissa: The Role of Political Economy; 4.5 Protests Around Water and Air Pollution; 4.6 Local Movements and the National Agenda in India: Did They Impact It?; 4.7 Expert Committees, Political Economy and Policy-­Making: The Western Ghats Case4.8 From Peoples' Movements to Elected Representatives: At Local and/or State Levels; 4.9 Conclusions; References; Chapter 5: Does a Good Knowledge Base Influence Policy-Making; 5.1 Prologue; 5.2 The Natural and Social Science Anchor; 5.3 Concepts, Theories, Models and Environmental Policy; 5.4 Conceptual Frameworks; 5.5 Concepts in Environmental Policy Formulation: Sustainable Development, Sustainability and Resilience; 5.6 More Concepts: Vulnerable People and Vulnerable Places; 5.7 More Conceptual Approaches: 'De-growth' and 'Radical Ecological Democracy Green Growth'

This book examines the nuances of the relationship between development and environmental conservation policy in India over the last three decades. While India is taken as the focal point, the study extends to an analysis of global aspects and other developing countries as and when the situation demands. Understanding that development always has to take environmental issues into consideration, the book undertakes critical reviews of the different ways in which this has been done. The review is based on a grasp of the simultaneous developments in the theoretical understanding of the environment and ecosystems and provides pointers towards directions for possible change. The motivation for the book lies in the continuing distance between theoretical knowledge of the role of the environment, in particular the underlying long-term links between human wellbeing and wise use of nature, and its application in public policy. The book also proposes that whichever theoretical cornerstone is taken as the starting point, it is the ethical undertones that drive the analysis in directions that acquire meaning in terms of the quality and legitimacy of decision-making. It explores the relevance to policy of a variety of radical conceptual development and policy directions, such as dematerialising growth, the social metabolism approach and the degrowth movement. Further, the dilemma facing environmental policy continues to be how to simultaneously borrow from developments in and across disciplines while at the same time, and at a more practical level, dealing with a diversity of stakeholders.