This book is written with a view to provide readers with a comprehensive guide to the jurisprudence of forest laws in India. The book analyses, discusses and documents, every socially relevant piece of legislation governing forests in India. It traces the history of environmental jurisprudence giving a panoramic view to the existent legislations in India, their coming into being in light of the international developments. The authors discuss the right to environment as a human right, while simultaneously emphasising on the right to nature itself. Forests have assumed a significant position in India’s drive for ecological sustainability. The judges take an active part in the promotion and development of globally recognised concepts of sustainable development, outside government initiatives., a part of Indian environmental conservation framework. Moreover, giving forest sustainability its due importance, the Courts have contributed significantly by discussing the contribution of forests in the developmental process and bringing the issue of sustained use of the forest resource to the fore. Judgments have been delivered 8 highlighting the need for sustained growth practices which compensate for the forest loss and emphasize again and again on the need to conserve and maintain forests. Therefore, the book also embarks upon the judicial pronouncements and their role in exhibiting the rights of forest dwellers via judicial trajectory of these laws

Environmental law is a broad discipline covering issues such as nature conservation, the prevention or abatement of pollution, and waste management. It also encompasses concerns related to natural resources, such as forests, minerals, and fisheries, and the balance between their use and conservation. India has been at the forefront of jurisprudential developments among countries with similar environmental, geographical, socio-economic, and cultural conditions. Concurrently, the country has been receptive to ideas and principles arising from other parts of the world or from international law. The growth of environmental and natural resources law in India has been sustained in equal measure by growing environmental awareness and the increasingly dire nature of the problems associated with the environment and natural resources, ranging from local issues to the global climate crisis. At the same time, the continuous push for development has not abated, leading to recurrent pressure to weaken existing standards for environmental protection and the management and use of natural resources. The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Natural Resources Law in India offers the most comprehensive coverage of the diverse and complex discipline of environmental and natural resources law in India over the past fifty years. With forty-two contributions from law and non-law scholars, the Handbook presents diverse perspectives on several areas including biodiversity, climate change, water, forests, agriculture, health, resource extraction, and industrial development. By departing from the existing approach that examines natural resources law and environmental law separately, The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Natural Resources Law in India offers a much-needed integrated analysis of the development of domestic jurisprudence vis-à-vis the environment and natural resources.

Ecodisaster Imaginaries in India: Essays in Critical Perspectives is a volume of critical essays that discuss and debate the literary and cultural representations of ecological/environmental disaster in India from the perspectives that are integral to postcolonial disaster studies and the environmental humanities. The essays offer theoretically informed readings of environmental fiction, nonfiction, and poetry among other contemporary literary genres that open our eyes to today’s burning issues of global warming, climate change, pollution of air and water bodies, deforestation, and species extinction. The volume addresses the staunch ecological consciousness reflected in Rabindranath Tagore’s writings from the early twentieth century, indigenous responses to ecodisaster, and the portrayal of ecodisaster in selected Indian movies which raise questions of human rights violations in the face of manmade disaster and environmental crisis.

This book synthesizes the conceptual and applied aspects of rural livelihoods as a discipline, and collates the analytical frameworks and approaches that have been designed, applied, and discussed over the last five decades. These include the sustainable livelihoods approach with its vulnerability-asset construct, collective governance of common pool resources, livelihood trajectories and poverty dynamics, rights-based approach and social justice, graduation approach for the ultra-poor, and the resilience framework to address complex risks. The book is divided into three parts, namely: introduction to rural livelihoods; synthesis of the present state of knowledge; and strengthening the knowledge action pathway. At the end of each chapter, a set of class exercises is provided to bring about a deeper understanding of these approaches and their application in real-life situations. The expected outputs from penning this textbook are threefold. Firstly, it assimilates the rural livelihood works of eminent academicians under one cover. Secondly, it positions itself as a one-stop destination for educators by translating these concepts into a ready-to-teach applied format. Thirdly, it functions as a ready reckoner for young professionals by providing a step-by-step approach to apply these learnings in real-life situations. The purpose of this book is to provide a solid foundation to the teaching and learning of rural livelihoods in academia, bridge the gap between the science, policy, and practice of rural livelihoods, and finally shape a pool of better informed and equipped professionals in development. Special thanks to Himanshu Rohira for his contributions and assistance.

This book highlights various dimensions of human habitats in 21st Century India. The human habitats in the country are marked by perceptible inequality in social and economic spheres. This is occurring in tandem with rapid socio-economic transformation across both rural and urban landscapes. There is a plurality of transformative characteristics in terms of social and economic classes, gender and space. Inequality in access to natural resources such as land and water is still a big factor in socio-economic differentiation in rural habitats. This constructs a pedestal of unequal opportunities and access to basic human necessities such as healthcare, education, potable water and sanitation. Human habitats experiencing socio-spatial segregation and exclusion based on caste, community and gender are detrimental in formation of a civil society and its sustainability in long terms. The ideal situation for this would be formation of an inclusive society that celebrates age old socio-cultural diversities, reduces inequalities and reveres composite culture.

The forest discourse in India has shifted decisively from questions of management to questions of governance. The essays in this book highlight and explore how this shift is occurring and what the challenges to democratic forest governance are. It covers questions of local management, wildlife conservation and forest conversion, as well as the changing socio-economic context of forestry in India.

Zusammenfassung: The books aims to discuss and present an alternative epistemology of human rights, against the background of the globalization from below. The interdependent network of transnational networks, ranging from social movements, NGOs, and other groupings, questions the neoliberal paradigm and a particular set of human rights. This book wishes to transform this discourse on human rights and amplify the subaltern voices. The book also aims to highlight alternative practices of freedom that decenter human rights as a liberation discourse. Following Julia Suarez-Krabbe in "Race, Rights and Rebels", the authors aim to amend to practices of freedom that center different orders of knowledge on subjectivity and agency. The proposed book, first, situates the problem of representation of the marginalized voices in contemporary legal and political discourse. Second, it offers critiques in theory, and, third, followed by alternative practices that emanate from marginalized localities. In particular, this book wishes to reflect upon alternatives rooted in legal and non-legal responses to address human rights grievances. In the end, this book envisages, along the lines of Frantz Fanon, to vision the possibility of the human by a new concept, addressing the concerns in various ways: As Fanon argued for "a new start", "a new way of thinking", and for the creation of a "new man", it is pertinent to trigger a human rights project from the below