Are Dams Political Symbols? With Its 18 October 2000 Judgment, The Supreme Court Allowed Construction To Resume On The Sardar Sarovar Dam. But Controversy Still Rages Around The Dam, And Any Chance Of Debate Between The Widely Differing Opinions On It Is Drowned In Angry Rhetoric. Where Does That Leave The Common Man In The Affected States, Or Even Elsewhere In The Country? Seeking Answers, Activist And Journalist Dilip D Souza Searches Beyond Polemics For An Understanding Of The Narmada Project. Analysing Documents Put Out By The Dam Authorities Themselves, The Author Builds His Simple Thesis--That Regardless Of Conflicting Feelings On The Dam, The Way It Has Been Conceived And Is Being Built Should Be A Matter Of Grave, General Concern. He Finds A Pervasive Haziness In The Way Key Issues Recurring In This Material Are Addressed The Statements Of Aims (The Lifeline Of Kutch And Saurashtra ), The Numbers Of People Displaced, The Benefits Claimed For The Dam. Besides, There Are Innumerable Contradictions In The Figures Presented. Further, D Souza S First-Hand Experiences Among Affected People Only Underline This Gap Between Paper And Fact, And The Inescapable Conclusion He Reaches Is That Dams Are Being Built Less For Solving The Problems Of Water, Floods And Power, And More For The Sake Of Politics. Such Findings In Themselves, Besides The Alternative Strategies Described, Constitute The Strongest Case Against Dams Like The Sardar Sarovar. Passionate And Incisive, This Book Becomes A Searing Indictment Of The Type Of Development We Have Pursued Since Independence.

Article on Sardar Sarovar (Narmada) Project.

Mega-Dams in World Literature reveals the varied effects of large dams on people and their environments as expressed in literary works, focusing on the shifting attitudes toward large dams that emerged over the course of the twentieth century. Margaret Ziolkowski covers the enthusiasm for large-dam construction that took place during the mid-twentieth-century heyday of mega-dams, the increasing number of people displaced by dams, the troubling environmental effects they incur, and the types of destruction and protest to which they may be subject. Using North American, Native American, Russian, Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese novels and poems, Ziolkowski explores the supposed progress that these structures bring. The book asks how the human urge to exploit and control waterways has affected our relationships to nature and the environment and argues that the high modernism of the twentieth century, along with its preoccupation with development, casts the hydroelectric dam as a central symbol of domination over nature and the power of the nation state. Beyond examining the exultation of large dams as symbols of progress, Mega-Dams in World Literature takes a broad international and cultural approach that humanizes and personalizes the major issues associated with large dams through nuanced analyses, paying particular attention to issues engendered by high modernism and settler colonialism. Both general and specialist readers interested in human-environment relationships will enjoy this prescient book.

The third edition retains the clear and powerful argument of previous editions, but has been updated to reflect advances in ideas and changes in international policy. Greater attention has been given to political ecology, environmental risk and the environmental impacts of development.

1. Demographic and environmental stochasticity -- 2. Extinction dynamics -- 3. Age structure -- 4. Spatial structure -- 5. Population viability analysis -- 6. Sustainable harvesting -- 7. Species diversity -- 8. Community dynamics.

This new edition has been completely re-written. Giving a valuable analysis of the theory and practice of sustainable development, it suggests that at the start of the new millennium we should think radically about the challenge of sustainability.

The Economics and Politics of Resettlement in India comprises fourteen well-researched and relevant essays by academicians, researchers and practitioners with extensive knowledge and experience of the resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) processes in India. These essays provide valuable insights into R&R practices and experiences from a variety of developmental fields, including road projects, dams, mining, forests, and farmlands. It will be a useful for policy-makers, NGOs and journalists working in the field of development-induced displacement in India, students and scholars.