Trends in Environmental History in India Theories, Issues and Perspectives

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This anthology owes to many persons and sources. First of all we are really thankful to Mugberia Gangadhar Mahavidyalaya, Bhupatinagar, Purba Medinipur, for their generous support and financial assistance, without which this International seminar and the publication of this book would have fall in a great crisis. We would also like to thank Paschimbanga Itihas Samsad, Kolkata for their consent as a collaborator of this seminar. We are also grateful to all the contributors whose articles have been incorporated in this edited volume. We are obliged to all the eminent resource persons namely, Prof. GP Das, Utkal University, Odisha, Prof. Pradip Chattopadhayay of Burdwan University, Prof. Ujjayan Bhattacharya of Vidyasagar University, Prof. Md. Abdur Rahim and Md. Humayun Kabir of Dhaka University, Bangladesh, Prof. Rajib Nandy of Chittagong University, Bangladesh, for their invaluable help in the seminar and in the making of this monograph. We extend our grateful thanks to teachers, students and research scholars particularly those who have come from different universities and research institutes and enlightened us by paper presentation and valuable insights. At the end we would like to record our sincere gratitude to the Principal of Mugberia Gangadhar Mahavidyalaya and the department of history, as well as teaching, non teaching staff and students of this college for their guidance and assistance that makes the seminar a grand success.

Preface

From antiquity to present time, nature, to a great extent has helped to assert the identity of all living things and has constituted the essence of interdependence. However, nowadays, such a symbiotic co-existence in the natural world is facing multiple challenges because of the unbridled change in the global environment. These changes in the ecological and environmental setup have resulted in becoming one of the most potent threats to the survival of the humankind. In most countries of the world, environmental crisis had been seen as one of the major concerns which are directly linked with the uncontrolled use of fossil fuels and massive depletion of forest cover. The world's capital intensive approach to development has led to drastic changes in the natural environment. Every year, thousands of acres of forest lands are being cleared for extension of agricultural lands. Wetlands and water bodies are also commercially being used, at the expense of the ecological balance. Rapid industrialization is also to a great extent, jeopardizing the environmental stability, and is responsible for spreading harmful wastes, non-biodegradable elements in the atmosphere, which in turn contributes to the acceleration of bio- hazards in the long run. To counter the trail of environmental destruction, it is imperative that we adopt an inclusive approach.

However it is significant to note that, till date no stringent steps worth mentioning have been taken by any country to resist this menace. The awareness initiatives that have been launched by a few countries, like campaigns to save the earth, plastic free world etc, have failed to sufficiently motivate economically-backward countries. In India, massive despoliation of woodlands, uncontrolled use of ground level water, along with rapid soil erosion and rainfall shortages have precipitated an unprecedented ecological crisis. Probably the most devastating outcome of abusing nature is global warming, which is undoubtedly catastrophic for mankind. Environmental activists have unanimously accepted the fact that the situation is getting worse by the day and may soon become irreversible.

Having probed deeper into this subject, historians have concurred that environmental crisis in a region or in a country primarily depends on various policy issues and other multifaceted factors like continuous changes in the demographic structure of a region or a country, the complex parameters of sustainable development paradigm, economic and conservation policies of a country, rights of the forest dwelling communities in the forest belts and the use of its resources, forest conservation as well as wildlife protection, policies regarding uncontrolled conversion of wetland into agricultural land, rampant industrialization under the vision of development strategies and many more. Thus historical scholarship usually tends to focus upon various causes that have led to environmental crisis and scientific approaches to measure the degree of environmental crisis of a particular area. With time, fresh historical avenues have come up which has widened the understanding of man-nature relationship, extending the study of micro and macro history of interdependence between man and nature, arguing how symbiotic relationship is indispensable in restoring a tune of togetherness that has existed since time immemorial. Thus, the study of environmental history has a far- ranging influence on determining the equation between the human species and nature. Nowadays, it is believed, that if a country has to progress in all spheres of development, environmental protection strategies have to be scientifically adopted and efficiently executed through dynamic and pragmatic policies towards nature in the view of reinforcing interactions with the indigenous people in a friendly manner.

Since 1980, modern scholars and environmental historians have put tremendous efforts to trace a chronological history of the significant events that have directly or indirectly reshaped our natural world. They have outlined a well-defined historical chronology that suggests that, the colonial economic expansion associated with irresponsible attempts of converting the forest land into the arable land for commercial use has had a great impact on the environmental sustainability, particularly in the South East Asia. Scholars have also emphasized that the replacement of the mixed forests by the commercially-valuable trees have triggered off environmental conflicts between the state sponsored agencies and the 'eco-people. Following the trail of the past, research in environmental history has furnished empirical data that has helped to strengthen the utmost necessity of environmental protection strategies along specific pathways of debate and meaningful speculations. So to say, environmental history is a complex area of study that encompasses various aspects of human interactions with nature, state policies of forest reservations and the relation of the people with nature who desperately fought for reclamation of the forest land as their own and produced a cultural synthesis as the protector of forests. In addition to that, it has emerged as a very significant area of research to investigate ecology and environmental situation of India with its varied and significantly large structures of ecological diversity and topography and markedly divergent views of environmental uses. The grave situation of the environment in India, demands the broadening of the area of environmental research, in view to call forth substantive support from the concerned authorities, as a matter of highest urgency as well as to assist the concerned authorities in developing and maintaining a framework for management and restoration of ecological balance.